Model Gemma Ward gets AVO against partner

Gemma Ward has been granted an apprehended violence order against her long-time partner after he pleaded guilty to assault.

Model Gemma Ward. Picture: David Caird

Model Gemma Ward has been granted a two-year apprehended violence order against her long-time partner after he pleaded guilty to assault.

Ward, who graces the cover of the latest issue of Vogue Australia this month, was granted the AVO after David Bong Bong Letts pleaded guilty to assault following an incident in northern NSW in December.

The order, originally applied for by NSW Police, says Letts must not assault, threaten, stalk, harass or intimidate Ward.

The 35-year-old must also not intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage any property that belongs to or is in the possession of Ward.

Ward, who shares three children with Letts, is most known for gracing the catwalk for high-end brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Swarovski and Louis Vuitton.

She also played Tamara in ­Pirates of the Caribbean 4 alongside Johnny Depp and had a minor role in The Great Gatsby.

In 2007, she was ranked by Forbes as the 10th-highest paid model in the world — reportedly pulling in $20,000 a show. Two years later, she retreated from the public eye after the death of Heath Ledger, whom she was reportedly dating at the time.

Letts, a photographer, pleaded guilty to the assault charge on January 27 at Ballina Local Court, for which magistrate Karen Stafford recorded no conviction and imposed a two-year conditional release order.

A CRO means if someone is found guilty of an offence and commits any further offences, they can be brought back before the court and resentenced for the original offence.

The victim of the assault cannot be named for legal reasons, but Ward is listed as a protected person in the apprehended domestic violence order. The Australian is not suggesting she is the victim of the assault.

The couple is believed to still be living together in a Suffolk Park property they purchased for $1.6m in 2015. They have a seven-year-old Hawaiian-born girl, a four-year-old boy and nine-month-old girl.

Ward first rose to fame as a teenager when she made her debut at Australian Fashion Week in 2003.

One year later, she became the youngest model to appear on the American edition of Vogue.

In 2017, Ward sold her two-bedroom Avalon oceanfront investment property in Sydney’s northern beaches only weeks after her tenant was stabbed to death.

Ward and Letts did not respond to requests for comment.