Content warning: This post deals with grief and miscarriage and might be triggering for some readers.

Megan Gale admits it’s fair to assume her life is glitzy, glamorous and impenetrable to the pain and struggles of ‘everyday people’.

Scroll through her Instagram and you’ll see images from the hundreds of magazine covers and fashion campaigns she’s fronted over the years, as well as her two beautiful children with her partner, 2019 Australian Survivor star and former AFL player, Shaun Hampson.

But even ‘famous people’ have to deal with real life crap. And when you’re navigating the lowest of lows, it’s done in public.

WATCH: Megan Gale speaks about her experience of miscarriage, post continues after video.

Something you might not know about Gale, who now runs lifestyle brand Mindful Life, is she miscarried in 2016 while juggling her job as a host on Australia’s Next Top Model and parenting a toddler. And when it was time to go in and have her D&C (dilation and curettage procedure to remove the lining of a woman’s womb), a woman from the clinic recognised her.

Speaking to Mia Freedman on Mamamia’s No Filter podcast, Gale said the physical aspect of miscarrying was just as hard as the emotional toll.

“At nine weeks, it’s hard and not nice. And not just going through the grieving process and how heartbreaking it is, even just as a woman, going through the physical side of it… and when you’re in the public eye, it’s another thing,” the 44-year-old from Perth said.

“I remember sitting there getting ready for the procedure and I had the lady saying to me, ‘oh you live in my area, do you know where’s a good place to go get a spray tan? I can’t wait to tell my daughter I met you today’. I thought, really? I’m about to have [a procedure].

“I couldn’t even speak, I was so vulnerable and shocked, and I wasn’t ready to talk about it publicly. It was so fresh, so for someone to acknowledge me, know who I was, where I lived and tell her daughter about me, it added to the ball of emotions swirling at the time.”

You can listen to Megan Gale’s full interview on the No Filter podcast below, post continues after audio.

In an interview with Mamamia’s This Glorious Mess Little Kids podcast in November, 2019, Gale also spoke about having to keep her miscarriage a secret while on a very demanding filming schedule for Top Model.

“I was about nine weeks pregnant [with my second child] when I miscarried. It was one of those situations when I was filming a TV show and no one knew I was pregnant,” she told the podcast.

“It was a unique situation because I was filming Australia’s Next Top Model at the time and I was scheduled to go to Italy. I went to my obstetrician and said I was going overseas and I wanted to get my scan a week early because I’d miss it when I was away. I was scheduled to jump on a plane the next day, so [after learning of the miscarriage] I had to schedule a procedure that morning. I then had a few hours to recover and then I was off.

“My options were to pretend like it never happened or tell everyone I’d literally just had a miscarriage… to call production and say ‘I can’t go’, and they would’ve wanted a legitimate reason why their show was going to fall apart.”

Having to front up to work and be ‘on’ for the cameras while hiding a deeply personal heartbreak was one of Gale’s biggest struggles, but she “accepted it as best [she] could”. Six months later, she and Hampson fell pregnant with their now-two-year-old daughter Rosie.

 

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Gale also shared on the podcast an insight into another difficult period of her life: experiencing the unique grief of mourning a parent with a newborn baby.

In the months before and after the birth of their first child River, now five, Gale and Hampson lost both of their fathers. Hampson’s to prostate cancer a month before River was born, and Gale’s to lung cancer 14 weeks after.

Gale said she was told about her dad’s diagnosis when she was 12 weeks pregnant. 12 weeks into what was meant to be the happiest time of her life.

“Pregnancy was definitely not what I’d always envisioned it to be… I found out my dad had lung cancer when I was 12 weeks pregnant with River. That was particularly hard because my family were in Perth and I wanted to be with my dad as much as I could, but it got to a point when I couldn’t fly anymore,” she said.

“That didn’t sit well with me because I thought, what if he goes and I can’t get on a plane? To add to that, Sean’s dad passed away and we had that funeral. So, when we had River in May 2014, on the one hand, it was an absolute blessing we had this new baby to bring some joy into both of our families, who weren’t in a good place.”

You can listen to Megan Gale’s full interview with This Glorious Mess: Little Kids below, post continues after audio.

Gale’s father made it to Melbourne for River’s birth, despite being “sick and frail”. 14 weeks later, Gale found herself rushing onto a plane to Perth with her newborn when her family warned her dad didn’t have much time left.

“There was a point when my mum and my brothers said, ‘look, we don’t know how long he’s got’. So I packed up 14-week-old River and we got on a plane to Perth. Two days later, he was gone. It was obviously pretty devastating.”

“It’s never easy losing a parent or a loved one, but I’m thankful I got there in time. That was my biggest fear.”

Looking back on both of these periods of grief in her life, Gale said being pregnant was the “beautiful distraction” she needed to not fall apart.

“In hindsight, the pregnancy made me manage my stress levels and manage what otherwise would have been a really chaotic, emotionally turbulent time because I was constantly thinking, I have this baby to consider. The pregnancy kept me focused and present, I used it as a coping mechanism.”

“The same thing happened when River was born, there was something to channel that attention into so you’re not off thinking about whatever that horrible situation is. It’s something you can utilise as a tool to bring you back. Babies are just so precious, they’re that beautiful reminder of life. There was a lot of death around us, but new life at the same time.”

If this post has raised issues for you, please seek professional help and contact SANDS on 1300 072 637 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Feature image: Instagram/@megankgale.

Have you had a similar experience to Megan? You can share your story in the comments below.