‘A real shift’: Buddy and Jesinta Franklin’s new life
The couple open up about their ‘shock’ third pregnancy and new business venture, as they sit down for a rare joint interview.
Lance and Jesinta Franklin open up about going into business together, the tree change they needed to make ahead of baby number three – and the conversation they’re always reluctant to have.
Stellar: Jesinta and Lance, you left Sydney three years ago and moved to the Gold Coast with your children – daughter Tullulah, now 5, and son Rocky, 4. And now, as you await the birth of your third child, you’re in the midst of another move; this time further inland to a hobby farm on acreage. Why have you decided it’s time for a tree change?
Lance: I absolutely loved my time living in Sydney. But when we had kids, things changed – it felt a little bit too chaotic there. I love being on country and seeing the kids run around. For the last four or five years, I didn’t enjoy the other stuff that came with living in Sydney in terms of always looking over your shoulder for paparazzi. I just hated that part of it and I was ready for something different.
Jesinta: When I first found out I was pregnant, Bud took us back to where he grew up in the wheat belt of Western Australia. I honestly don’t think people understand that when Bud says he was born in the bush, he was literally born in the bush. I don’t think there was another house within a 20-minute drive from where he lived. It’s just these beautiful long, open, red-earth roads and big beautiful ghost gums.
Listen to Buddy and Jesinta on a new episode of Something To Talk About:
Jesinta (continued): It’s funny, when we first moved up here [to the Gold Coast, in late 2022], we thought we wanted to be in the suburbs and close to our local shopping centre and the beach. And then after a year of being here, we’re like, no, we want to be out. We want to be far away. We don’t want to worry about neighbours. We want to have horses and chickens and bees, and grow our own fruit and veg.
Lance: The kids absolutely love being on the land and country, so that’s why we’ve done it, so they can have a childhood like we had – climbing trees, going down to the creek, collecting eggs from the chicken pen.
Stellar: And you’re moving just weeks before your third child arrives.
Lance: We are – so everything is pretty much happening within the next couple of weeks before this third one comes. We’re trying to get everything sorted, get set up in the new place … and then number three pops out.
Jesinta: I’m literally crossing my legs and trying to get through this move before the baby is born.
Stellar: Today you’re revealing for the first time your new business venture together, as co-owners of Honey For Life: a raw, organic manuka honey brand based in Western Australia. Of all the businesses you could invest in, why did you decide this was the right one for you?
Jesinta: We’ve always taken on work that aligns with us. That’s just how it has to sit with me; it has to be authentic. When Honey For Life came up, there was this beautiful ecology to the brand. Most of the time, when a brand becomes successful, the more landfill you create and the more of the world’s resources you use. But the more we do with Honey For Life, the more we have to give back to the earth. We have to regenerate the land, we have to take care of the bees … And bees are so important to our survival – that’s something I didn’t understand before taking this on.
Lance: I’m officially a beekeeper by the way. I did my beekeeping course, which I’ve told a few friends about and they couldn’t believe it. They said, who would have thought after football that’s the path you’re gonna go down? I’m learning so much on the run, which has been really good. And without bees, humans couldn’t survive, which I find fascinating. It’s been pretty cool to be a part of.
Jesinta: I sweated through the course. I was nearly three months pregnant with severe morning sickness, in those bee suits standing in the sun. But it was the best thing we’ve ever done. I reckon everyone in their life should do a beekeeping course, because it just gives you so much respect for nature and these little creatures. It would blow people’s minds if they actually knew how important bees were to our own survival. It’s just such a beautiful, healthy product to promote. We went to Perth a couple of weeks ago for a photo shoot and we got to see some of the beautiful trees and the hives and meet all the beekeepers.
Lance: The kids love it. We’ve got these little honey snaps and Rocky has about 50 a day. I’m like, “Mate, that’s too many.”
Jesinta: We’ll be vacuuming and we’ll find all these little sticky honey snaps under the couch. We’re like, “What is going on?”
Listen to Buddy and Jesinta on a new episode of Something To Talk About:
Stellar: You’re working together in a business capacity for the first time – how have you decided who does what?
Jesinta: We have a CEO, and a whole team, which is wonderful. And then we’re basically across a lot of the comms at the moment. I’ve now been introduced to something called Slack. I was like, OK … this is a lot of information at once. Once I have the baby, I’ve been invited to join the board, which is exciting. But we’re definitely finding our feet.
Bud was very good at being the model on set, he definitely outshone me in the campaign. I was like, this is so unfair. You’re the fittest and trimmest you’ve ever been in your life. And I’m 33 weeks pregnant in a beekeeping suit, trying to shoot in this 38-degree heat in Perth.
Lance, you’re just back from the US, where you ran the New York Marathon with former NRL player Johnathan Thurston as part of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. Can you tell us about that?
Lance: Coming on-board as an ambassador for the foundation with JT has been incredible. It was a pretty taxing six to seven months to get as fit as possible to get over to New York and finish it, but what an incredible journey for myself, JT, and the 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants from throughout Australia.
At the 21km mark, both of my ankles blew up, and I was struggling to get through it. But I ended up finishing it, which was an amazing achievement.
And when I was there and the gun was about to go off to race, one of the girls goes, “Oh Buddy, there’s a bee on your shirt.” In the middle of New York, a bee just sitting there. I thought, you know what, that’s a sign. That’s incredible. Out of the whole of New York, a bee decides to land on me. I was blown away. I was like, wow. It was just weird.
Listen to Buddy and Jesinta on a new episode of Something To Talk About:
Did the experience ignite a love for marathons in you?
Lance: No, as soon as I finished it, I said, “I’ll never do that to myself ever again.” Literally, at the halfway mark, I said, “Why am I doing this?” For me, it has always been about the foundation and giving back to my people and my community. To see the smile on their faces and see all of them finish the New York Marathon was really special.
The marathon was the smallest part of what the actual foundation is doing. And I think for our people, it’s all about leadership, and them taking that back to their communities, and being leaders within that community.
That’s how people grow. Even within the six months from when I first met these guys, you could see the change. They were comfortable in their own skin, they were able to communicate, they became leaders.
Jesinta, in 2020 you wrote a column for Stellar about why we should change the date on which we celebrate Australia Day, calling it an “issue close to your heart”. Five years on, do you think the conversation has shifted at all?
Jesinta: I definitely feel like more and more people are coming to understand it, and the conversation is getting louder and stronger. I’d just say to anyone who is grappling with it or who doesn’t understand it, just try to listen. I’ve listened, I’ve learnt. There was a time when I did celebrate Australia Day because I didn’t understand why you wouldn’t celebrate it. I think when you really dig deep and you educate yourself on the history of that day, and what it means to a lot of people in this country, and the hurt and pain that it causes – then for me it just doesn’t make sense why we wouldn’t celebrate it on another day, if someone is hurting on that day.
Lance: Personally, I don’t really like to get too involved with it. For me, it’s all about education and Australia being open and accepting of the Indigenous culture, of our great culture, the longest living culture in the world. You see so much sadness within our people. Racism plays a huge part in our country and until that changes, I think for me it comes back to education. What are we teaching kids in school?
You both worked really hard from a young age. What does work/life balance look like for you these days?
Jesinta: We worked really hard from when we were both 17 and now we’re in a position where we get to do every school pick-up and drop-off, every concert, every holiday with the kids — and that, to me, feels like success. Those first six years after winning Miss Universe, there was almost not a day where I didn’t work. I would say yes to every opportunity, whether it was paid or unpaid. We spend way more time with the kids than we do working now, and since Bud’s retired, it’s given even more balance to our life.
Lance: I’ve loved it. I love being a dad and being able to be there for them. I think as a parent, you have your moments where you get frustrated or whatever, but you know, I wouldn’t change it for the world. To be able to get the opportunity to spend every day with your kids, and watch them grow, has been something I’ve absolutely loved.
Jesinta: There’s just been a real shift in the pace of our life. We’re going to look back on our life and be really grateful that we put those hard twenty years of work in when we were young. Yes, we missed out on concerts and trips away and the European summers with friends and all of those things when we were younger, but we now get to do that with our kids, which feels even more fulfilling.
You’re rounding out the year with a busy couple of weeks, moving house, launching a business, and a new baby. How are Tullulah and Rocky feeling about welcoming a sibling? And for the two of you, what are your biggest hopes and expectations as your family is about to change again?
Lance: I’m excited, I really am. Obviously to get into the new place, and then obviously the third on its way is gonna be awesome. Both the kids are really excited. It’s a big gap, nearly six and five years between them. But what a time to be alive, really. It’s gonna be the time of our lives. We can’t wait. My parents are coming over for Christmas this year, so we’ll be set up in the new place. It will be awesome for my parents and Jesinta’s to be there for the arrival of the third baby, and spend a pretty low-key Christmas at home.
Jesinta: Bud always has this thing, the more the merrier for him. So if I could keep going, we’d keep having kids. But I’m drawing the line. For me there is so much excitement and happiness around welcoming a new baby, but there is also this feeling – I don’t know if it’s something that just a mother has – but also kind of grieving the time that I’m gonna have with just Tullulah and Rocky. I remember having that same feeling when we were welcoming Rocky – thinking, have I spent enough time with Tullulah? Am I going to have enough love to give? Is my heart going to expand in the same ways that it did when I had the other two?
But really struggling to get pregnant with Tullulah, and then Rocky and this one to just come along very unexpectedly is a true blessing. So I do feel very excited. I’ve just got to get through some of this heat, and the move, and then I’ll be able to relax.
For more information on Jesinta and Lance’s new venture, visit honeyforlife.com.au.
See the full cover shoot in Stellar via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar and the podcast Something To Talk About, click here.
Originally published as ‘A real shift’: Buddy and Jesinta Franklin’s new life
