Back To The Rafters star Rebecca Gibney won’t let menopause hold her back

Gold Logie winning actor Rebecca Gibney chats about the return of her Packed To The Rafters character and how - despite what she thought would happen at 56 - work is busier than ever.

It has been eight years since Rebecca Gibney popped on a sensible linen shirt to play a suburban mum on one of the best-loved Australian TV shows of the past several years. And as the family from Packed To The Rafters returns to our screens once more, she believes we will relate to her character more than ever.

“It’s going to be confronting,” Gibney says with a chuckle. “Previously the show was largely about happy families, but life isn’t like that and, particularly for womenof my and Julie Rafter’s age, there are those big mid-life crisis questions: who am I? And what do I want to do?”

While she says her screen counterpart Julie may start looking for answers in “all the wrong places”, a post-menopausal Gibney now knows exactly who she is and what she wants to do. She is getting ready to celebrate 20 years of marriage to husband Richard Bell in November, and their son Zac, 17, is approaching the end of his schooling.

“I’m playing characters who are vibrant and interesting and sexy and fun.” (Picture: Peter Brew-Bevan)

So Gibney is understandably primed for the personal and professional opportunities ahead. And as she throws open the door of her Sydney hotel room for a pre-lockdown interview with Stellar, Gibney certainly looks it. She radiates an effervescence and confidence that make 56 look like a pretty good age to be and her figure is svelte in skinny black pants – she has lost 6kg for a post-Rafters project.

“I’m bouncing from one job to the next, and I love throwing myself into these roles. I’m playing characters who are vibrant and interesting and sexy and fun – and I love that people still want to see that,” she says.

A few years ago, in the throes of menopause, Gibney feared her life might suddenly narrow. “The word ‘menopause’ hangs over so many women’s heads and you think, right, that’s it, my life is going to drift off to reading books and doing gardening.”

Instead, she tells Stellar, she maintained an exercise regimen and focused on keeping a positive attitude. In the end, she came through feeling more dynamic than ever.

“My memory may not be as sharp as it used to be…” she cracks. “But that’s OK. Because I’ve got my energy back again.”

It has certainly been put to good use over the past year. While Gibney is now enjoying living back in rural New Zealand, she has flitted back and forth to Australia thanks to the reprisal of Rafters, and most recently filmed a series with The Crown’s Charles Edwards, about a pair who take over a vineyard in the Central Otago region of her home country.

Her character has a facelift and is obsessed with fashion and clothes; Gibney laughingly points out, “I haven’t played anyone like her before.”

“Being in your mid-50s, you know mortality can come around quickly.” (Picture: Peter Brew-Bevan)

Returning to the Rafters fold, on the other hand, provided Gibney not just a chance to resurrect her role as the family matriarch – which won her the Gold Logie and the Silver for Most Popular Actress in 2009 – but also to reconnect with old castmates such as Erik Thomson and Hugh Sheridan. Jessica Marais was initially set to once again play Rachel, but called time on her return early last year, although Gibney says they have been in touch.

“She’s doing as well as can be expected. It’s been a really tough time for her for a variety of reasons.”

Gibney believes the timing is perfect for a reprisal of the family drama. “There’s something comforting and reassuring about going back to a place and time when life was very simple.”

That familiarity was also what drew the cast back for this seventh season. As she tells Stellar, “It came along when we all had a window and thought, why not go back and revisit these people who we love so much?”

Gibney says she and Sheridan used their time together in quarantine before filming to bond again as mother and son.

“We got on Zoom and Hugh told me they’d sent me a present. There was a knock at the door and there was a bottle of margarita mix and a bag of ice. We poured ourselves a drink and had a chat, and then we started doing silly dance videos together.”

Once they were out of quarantine, she says they spent a few nights staying up and talking about life’s challenges, and confirms they still text each other regularly.

Rebecca Gibney with her husband Richard Bell and their son Zac in March 2020. (Picture: Supplied)

Gibney has barely been off our screens or without another role on the horizon since the ’80s, when her career gained traction with a regular stint on The Flying Doctors.

“Work is busier than it’s ever been,” she tells Stellar. Indeed, and particularly across the past two decades, she has worked at a regular clip across a variety of projects, including on the TV series she co-created with her husband, Wanted.

“There are a lot more women in positions of power in our industry, so there are a lot more roles being created [for women of my age]. There’s so much great material and as we are ageing, the industry is ageing [too],” she explains. However, she says she is concerned that society is becoming less inclusive of men.

“I worry we’ve become too politically correct,” she says emphatically.

“Sometimes there’s a bit of a witch-hunt, but there are a lot of men who do want to change and do want to learn, so let’s keep those doors open for them. We can still run the world – look at Jacinda Ardern. But she wouldn’t be there without Clarke [Gayford, her partner]. She talks very much about how they’re a team.”

It’s the same for Gibney and Bell: “He’s my best friend and I couldn’t imagine life without him.”

While they had plans to return to Port Douglas to renew their wedding vows, Covid is making that look less likely. Instead, they’ll probably celebrate “somewhere lovely” with Zac, who, she tells Stellar, is already a keen young actor.

Rebecca Gibney stars on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar.

“I’m very proud watching him on stage,” she says, adding, “The thing I’m most proud of is that he’s a really kind boy. He’s a really lovely human and anyone who has spent any time with him says what a beautiful human he is.”’

In the meantime, she’s enjoying balancing work and relaxing at their remote home, where she says she enjoys getting out into nature and starting each day with something she laughingly calls “yoga electronica”.

“I’ve always lived in the now, but what I’ve learnt from Covid is to make the decision to have a good day. Being in your mid-50s, you know mortality can come around quickly. I’ve lost a few friends in the past couple of years.”

She then smiles. “You only have this minute. And I want to make the most of every single second.”

Back To The Rafters premieres on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, September 17.

Originally published as Back To The Rafters star Rebecca Gibney won’t let menopause hold her back