It's a modern Australian fairytale: a high-flying model and budding AFL star cross paths and, naturally, it's (almost) love at first sight. Rebecca Judd (née Twigley) and her now-husband, retired AFL player Chris Judd, first met back in the early 2000s in Perth when they were both on the cusp of adulthood. Bec, then aged 19, was enjoying a boozy Sunday session at Cottesloe Pub in Perth in 2002 when she locked eyes on Chris, who had just started playing professionally.
READ MORE: How one woman changed Hugh Grant's view on marriage The model and TV presenter has a vivid memory of their first meeting – and she spoke about it in a recent Instagram Q+A with fans. "It's weird, I didn't really have lots of boyfriends growing up and I was very, very, very picky and I saw him and I was like 'Damn! I like him'," Bec told her followers. "I was a bit drunk, I'd had a load of red wine so I was quite confident because I didn't really used to be confident with guys.
" At the time, Bec was living overseas and working as a model and had flown back Down Under for a short visit. Melbourne-born Chris, meanwhile, was playing for the West Coast Eagles in WA. "It was kind of instant.
I don't know if it was for him, but it was for me," WA-born Bec told Show and Tell in 2017. READ MORE: How a tragedy reconnected Dustin Hoffman to his wife of 44 years She's referring to the fact Chris was in a relationship with another woman at the time. "I'd swear I mentioned this to Bec that first afternoon, but Bec is adamant that I did not," Chris wrote in his 2015 memoir Inside: The Autobiography.
That relationship eventually ended and Bec decided to move back home to Australia to study at university. But it wasn't full-steam ahead for the young lovebirds just yet. The couple dated on and off for around 18 months before they finally made things official.
Bec told the We Are The Real Ones podcast her future husband had a bit of a condition on their romance: they had to eventually leave Perth. "When we first started going out, he said, 'Just letting you know I'm a Melbourne boy and I will be moving back very, very soon, so if you're down with that we can be together," Bec recalled "'Otherwise, if you think you're going to live in Perth for the rest of your life, then nup.' I was like, 'Yep, OK, I really love you, I love Melbourne, that's cool!'" READ MORE: One detail Salma Hayek refuses to reveal about billionaire husband In 2004, the world was officially introduced to Bec Twigley and Chris Judd as a couple.
It's an iconic moment in Australian sporting history. Bec made her debut on the AFL scene in a plunging red Tarvydas gown to the 2004 Brownlow Medal ceremony. Just three years later, their relationship had a make-or-break moment.
It was time to move to Melbourne when Chris signed with Carlton. Chris recalled in his memoir that Bec had marriage plans firmly in mind before he'd even ventured the thought. "We'd had a pleasant meal one evening in Thailand, but Bec was cranky, so I asked, 'What's up with you?' She held up her wedding-ring finger and wiggled it at me," he wrote.
"That led to a discussion about when would be a good time to get married. I said I didn't think it should be before 30." But he knew it was on the cards one day.
And in 2009, while on a trip to Noosa, Chris got down on one knee in their hotel room. Chris says his future wife "threw [a] book across the apartment and said yes". READ MORE: Judd Apatow's shock wedding day move 'really scared' Leslie Mann They married on New Year's Eve in 2010, a beautiful ceremony at Carousel in Albert Park.
Bec was 10 weeks pregnant with their first child at the time – but nobody knew. "I found out the day before my hens night," Bec told her radio show in 2017. Welcoming a child into the world was also a little daunting for the newly-married couple.
"While I was happy to be pregnant, I was also quite overwhelmed," the now mother-of-four wrote in her new book The Baby Bible. "We lived a pretty self-absorbed lifestyle in Prahran – shopping, eating, heading out to bars and clubs. How the hell would a baby fit into that lifestyle?!?" Their eldest son Oscar was born in 2011 and three years later, the couple welcomed their daughter Billie.
The Judd family was complete with their two boys Tom and Darcey were born in 2016. Bec says it's 'hard work', and she couldn't do it without her former AFL-player husband by her side, whom she told 9honey in 2020 is her "biggest supporter" when it comes to parenting. In December 2024, the Judds will celebrate their 14-year wedding anniversary.
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