Madeleine West on Marriage, Motherhood, and #Metoo

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

Carrie Underwood lets her hair down

Ashleigh Brewer’s soapie homecoming

Lucy ZeliĆ “How love took me by surprise” “Who knows what the future holds?”

Madeleine West on marriage, motherhood, and #MeToo

YOTAM OTTOLENGHI KEEPS IT SIMPLE WITH FIVE EASY RECIPES MATT PRESTON ON THE TAKEAWAY FOOD TRAPS BEST AVOIDED

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ehind closed doors, Madeleine West’s life is far from perfect – and she isn’t afraid to admit it. On a good day (which starts at 4.30am), West’s life is organised chaos. On a bad day, it’s bedlam. But that comes with the territory of being a working mother of six children under 13. “Life has taught me that imperfections aren’t something to be ashamed of, they are something to be celebrated,” she tells Stellar. “They are what make us interesting. BOur idiosyncrasies are what make us stand out and make us special. And they are an opportunity to learn about yourself.” That particular lesson came from the moment, 16 years ago, when West saw her reflection in a hospital mirror for the first time after being hit by a bus during a trip to Sydney. The left side of her face had borne the brunt of the accident, leaving her with three skull fractures, two cerebral haematomas, a brain haemorrhage, broken blood vessels in cover of a magazine and have people think I look sexy in a bikini, her eyes and layers of skin sheared away from her face. or is it because I want to tell people’s stories and let them live West later learnt that as she lay unconscious in the gutter, vicariously through me for a moment?’ And it was always the a pair of sex workers cradled her broken body, called an latter, and once I embraced that I healed really quickly.” ambulance and tended to her wounds. “They stayed with me It also reunited West – who spent her childhood in the small until police arrived then disappeared into the night,” she says. town of Woodend, Victoria – with her mother after years of “I did put a call out at the time, asking them to come forward estrangement. “We had been disenfranchised from the time so I could thank them, but they never did. Of all the people I was 16 to 18, so it was really lovely to be back in the nest,” she who walked past me, stepped over my body, stole my wallet says. “Because the plates in my skull were still shifting and from the gutter, it was two street walkers [who stopped to help].” healing, the pain was excruciating. I was on very strong pain West admits it was a long road to recovery from the accident. medication. It would come on in the middle of the night, and “The first time I saw my face in a mirror, I wanted to die. Had she had two very young children at the time from her second a nurse waltzed in at that moment and accidentally dropped a marriage, and she was still there for me. That just proved to me, bottle of sleeping pills, there’s every chance I would have taken for all the judgement I may have cast on her in the past, she them,” she says. “And I am now grateful for what happened. It was an exceptional individual and she loved me. And was made me ask myself, ‘Do I want to be an actor so I can be on the ready and willing to make the sacrifice and demonstrate that.” Even now, West bears the scars from her accident. She suffers frequent migraines, a section of skin on her face is a noticeably different texture in summer and she can still feel the fracture in her skull. From 2007 to 2010 West played a high-end escort in the “ Foxtel drama Satisfaction in tribute to the two good Samaritans who comforted her in the street that night. It was just one in a F L AWS string of TV and film appearances over the past 18 years since she scored a breakout role on Network Ten’s Neighbours. And now she’s back in a starring role in a new drama, Playing For ARE TO BE Keeps, which follows the lives of glamorous and powerful women behind the men of a fictional AFL club, the Southern Jets. “It’s about one of the greatest games that Australia has ever CELEBRATED produced, and that has more impact and more gravity than it ” ever has before,” she says of Playing For Keeps. With six young children and a high- “And all the characters, the people in this world, we see them on social media. We see them being interviewed. But do profile relationship making headlines, we really know them? This show creates that beautiful, there’s never a dull moment for shiny world as we have seen it from an objective position, but then we crack it open and we give the audience an opportunity Madeleine West. And with a starring to vicariously live through us and walk into that world. It’s role in a new television drama, voyeuristic in the best possible way.” A mad Collingwood fan, West sought inspiration for her role things are not about to slow down… as the coach’s wife and sexy den mother from stories her social circle of real-life WAGs had told her over the years. “I am not Photography CAMERON GRAYSON Styling KELLY HUME going to drop any names because I don’t think that would be the Interview SIOBHAN DUCK right thing to do, but I do have friends in that world,” she says.

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STR09SEP18N008 8 31/8/18 5:50 pm “Having a public profile, two high pressure careers and a multitude of children puts exponential pressures on a relationship”

MADELEINE WEARS Max Mara dress, (02) 8084 9113; Sarah & Sebastian earrings, sarahandsebastian. com; A.Emery sandals, mychameleon.com.au

STR09SEP18N009 9 3/9/18 10:13 am West’s children were front of mind when she and Bennett separated after 13 years together. The chef has been living and working in Byron Bay while West has remained in Melbourne. West has previously refused to comment on rumours about the status of their relationship, but she now reveals to Stellar: “We’re not currently together. We’re striving to reconnect as friends and parents, but who knows what the future holds? As a family we’ll continue to split our time between Melbourne and Byron Bay.” West says the breakdown of her relationship was a result of the pressures of balancing the demands of their jobs and their young family. “Having a public profile, having two high-pressure careers, having a multitude of children – and I will say they are a lot harder to train than dragons – it puts exponential pressures on a relationship,” she says. “And cracks can form, and things that we don’t necessarily plan in the beginning can happen.” She adds of the interest in the break-up: “It’s hard when people ask questions. People will always be curious no matter what you do. There will always be salacious rumours made up about you. That’s part of public life and you have to accept that.” Until recently, West has had to turn down some job offers to keep things on an even keel at home. But now her youngest MADELEINE WEARS Max Mara coat, (02) 8084 children, twins Margaux and Xalia, have turned three, she 9113; Mounser earrings, feels free to expand her horizons as a writer and actor. At 38, manningcartell.com.au; West believes she’s only just hitting her straps as an actor, (opposite) Bianca Spender jumpsuit, biancaspender.com; and is set to cut her teeth as a director on Neighbours. Jolie & Deen earring (left ear), West was studying law, with the hopes of one day assisting jolieanddeen.com.au; victims of sex crimes, when she Mounser earring (right ear), landed the role of Ramsay Street’s manningcartell.com.au LIFE HAPPENS (from top) Madeleine resident good girl, Dee Bliss. “I was West and Olympia in my third year [of a degree] when She describes Eddie McGuire’s wife Carla as Valance in Network Ten’s new I was doing both Neighbours and “a great diplomat who deserves to be put on a pedestal drama Playing For Keeps; West studying,” she recalls. “That became and celebrity chef Shannon with the wives of other great world leaders”. Bennett, here in 2016, have too taxing and I could see Neighbours And McGuire, president of Collingwood, returns the now separated; as Dee Bliss was offering me a once in a lifetime compliment. “Madeleine is a fantastic person and a in Neighbours with her former opportunity, so I made the choice tremendous artist,” he tells Stellar. “She is someone who onscreen husband, “Toadie”, that I can return to law and I still doesn’t just show up and read the script. She is passionate played by Ryan Moloney. intend to one day. In all my spare about learning more on any subject that’s put in front time…” she adds with a wry laugh. of her. She’s a keen observer of people. And she is highly She says her passion for helping intelligent… She would make a fantastic radio host or abuse victims led her to become a talk-show host because she is so interested in people.” a staunch advocate for other women on set. While supportive of the nd people are interested in her. changes ushered in by the #MeToo Despite the scrutiny, West and movement, West says she has never her partner, celebrity chef been afraid to stick up for herself Shannon Bennett, have tried when she was asked to do anything to shield their kids from the she wasn’t comfortable with. spotlight and don’t share “We have all had our experiences pictures on social media. West and I have made a point of relating has also turned down offers for my own experiences to other the family to feature in its own women in the industry,” she says. reality series. “If people want to talk to me about a “Unfortunately there has been characterA or project I’m working on, I am happy to talk such a perception that when you’re to them about it. I’ve made a point of shielding my gifted with a role you sometimes children, though. I feel I have made a choice with the have to make untenable choices career that I have because I love it. They haven’t, so until and necessary sacrifices to hold they’re of an age where they can choose to enter the onto that role, because there

public eye, then it’s my responsibility to keep them safe.” are hundreds of girls behind you ROSSIDIS HAIR: FREDA IMAGES. GETTY TEN, NETWORK PHOTOGRAPHY: OTHER ARMANI COSMETICS GREEN USING GIORGIO JULIA MAKE-UP: USING MR. SMITH.

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who are more beautiful and younger and hungrier to take it. That’s what they want you to believe. “But if you are given a role and then expected to do things which don’t sit with your principles for the sake of the role – which can sometimes bleed into after-hours, too – then maybe the role wasn’t meant to be yours. “I have had to confront people within the industry where the expectations don’t fit in with what I have clearly and explicitly expressed from the beginning. It’s also really important that women – and men, too – need to be really clear about what their limits are. What their boundaries are. You shouldn’t be ashamed of saying, ‘If this doesn’t align with what I believe in, then I will step away.’”

WITH PLANS TO complete her law degree on hold for now, West is content to dish out justice at home. “Selling their toys is always a good one,” she says of her novel approach to punishment. “I picked them all up and put them in a box. I actually didn’t sell them, I gave them to charity. They’d had warnings and I told them if they did it again I was going to sell their toys. So I followed through. I did it. Three times. And it worked.” Believe it or not, West never set out to repopulate Melbourne’s Toorak. “[Having six children] wasn’t part of the plan at all. It just kept happening. The universe just had a very strange sense of humour on that particular day or week of each month.” It’s a juggling act that draws the admiration of friend George Calombaris. Their two families holiday together, and his wife Natalie Tricarico catches up with West for pots of tea and occasional “cheeky Negronis”, Calombaris says. “She wants to act, she wants to direct, she wants to write books, she wants to be “It’s important on radio,” the chef tells Stellar. “I don’t know where she gets sleep in there.” that women, Yet West, who is the first to acknowledge “it’s exhausting making sure they eat all the right things all the time and that they are always and men too, on time and do all their homework”, readily admits to screaming in frustration some days. are really clear “What is the perfect version of motherhood? In my mind it’s a moveable feast,” she says. about their “I want my memories to be me laughing with them about the bubbles that have spilled out of boundaries” the bathtub and all over the place, and the fact we had ice-cream cake for breakfast on Mother’s Day, and that on some Sundays we just sit in our pyjamas all day and close the curtains and pretend it’s night-time and watch endless movies. They’re the memories I want to leave, not the fact that there was always a neatly pressed uniform at the end of the bed, or that their beds were always made and their rooms were kept immaculately.” Playing For Keeps premieres 8.30pm,

OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY: NETWORK TEN, GETTY IMAGES. HAIR: FREDA ROSSIDIS ROSSIDIS HAIR: FREDA IMAGES. GETTY TEN, NETWORK PHOTOGRAPHY: OTHER ARMANI COSMETICS GREEN USING GIORGIO JULIA MAKE-UP: USING MR. SMITH. Wednesday September 19, on Network Ten.

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