A decade after Andy Lee and Megan Gale had parted ways, Gale has opened up about the fallout from the end of her relationship with the radio star.
Gale has said that it was “demeaning” and felt like she had done something wrong.
She was candid on Mamamia’s No Filter podcast and explained that she felt the public perception of her shift after the breakup.
“It was very demeaning … It was really challenging to navigate for a while,” the former model told host Mia Freedman.
“It wasn’t a good time. It almost felt like I had done something wrong and I had been tarnished like I’d done something wrong. When I was with (Andy), everyone loved us together,” she said.
As Gale appeared to move on quickly with her new partner Shaun Hampson after parting ways with Lee, the breakup between the pair was confirmed long before it became public knowledge.
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“We were going through what we were going through very privately for quite a while, so when people found out we were broken up, I think it came as a bit of a shock and I did appear to have moved on relatively quickly.
“It was new for other people, but it was old for us.”
As Gale, 44, and Hampson, 32, began dating in January 2011, she felt that their age gap was given unnecessary focus after her breakup with Lee.
“If he was 12 years older than me, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But because I was the woman and I was older, and it made it a bit salacious,” she said, revealing she was “aggravated” by the harsh double-standard.
She also spoke to Anh Do on Anh’s Brush With Fame in 2017 about the age difference.