Look who's back! OUTRAGEOUS WEST WOMEN

It was our good Fortune to reunite Antonia, Robyn and Siobhan after 15 years

- Rebekah Hebenton

How many times did I slap you?” would usually bring a Weekly photoshoot to a screeching halt. But when it’s Robyn Malcolm asking her former TV daughters while lovingly grasping their hands, there’s a collective sigh of relief.

After a pause, Robyn, Antonia Prebble and Siobhan Marshall laugh about all the different ways they hit, spit or even bottled each other, and in doing so we glimpse what a day on set of the iconic series was really like.

Gathering the busy West women together has been a near impossible mission. Indeed, it’s the first time in 15 years the trio has all been together in the same room for longer than a passing chat.

While Antonia and Siobhan have worked together, and they both still go to Robyn for a friendly ear, busy filming schedules and family life mean it’s rare their calendars align.

But over glasses of rosé and Asian-fusion delights at a bustling Auckland eatery a few days after our shoot, they open up about their memories of the show that changed their lives.

“The best days were when we were all together in the West house, driving everyone insane because we were messing around,” says Robyn. “Every day at work, you felt like you were going into your family.”

When Outrageous Fortune premiered on July 12, 2005, few could have predicted the legacy it would leave behind. Loud, lewd and hilariously unfiltered, the Wests were unlike any other family that had been shown on our screens. But the initial response from viewers and critics was lukewarm.

Robyn herself doubted the series about matriarch Cheryl’s often-failed attempts to keep her children on the right side of the law after her criminal husband is sent to prison, would last beyond one season.