Rebecca Gibney “I'm very much for the sisterhood”

In 1994, a role came around that changed Rebecca Gibney’s life. And as she steps back into Jane Halifax’s shoes, she tells Tiffany Dunk how the project that saw her plunge into a spiralling breakdown also brought a lifelong love.

- Tiffany Dunk

It’s a bracingly cold, blustery day as The Weekly arrives for our shoot on the foreshore of Queenstown’s Lake Wakatipu. Ominous dark clouds loom, rain threatens and the wind whips bitingly through the thickest of coats and jumpers. To be fair, we shouldn’t be surprised.

The entire week’s weather has been similarly grim – we are in the depths of a New Zealand winter, after all. As the photographer scurries off in search of a more protected spot, our cover star appears on the horizon, hair and make-up picture perfect, dressed and ready to go.

It’s then that the miracle occurs: the clouds part, revealing a stunning blue sky. The sun – matched only by the brightness of Rebecca Gibney’s beaming smile – emerges and the day, it seems, is saved. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by this either. Rebecca is a determinedly glass-half-full kind of woman; a firm believer that putting out positive energy will attract the same in return.

And even if the sun hadn’t come out, says her good friend, actress and radio presenter Jane Kennedy, “Rebecca would have made lemonade out of it anyway.”

This is a key part of the 55-yearold’s personality, as we’ll learn both on set today and also later from several of Rebecca’s loved ones, who offer a deeper insight into just what makes the popular star tick. And it’s certainly not hard to find people willing to talk.