Kiwi-born supermodel and actress Rachel Hunter shares how she found her big break to success, but it screams alarm bells for anyone hearing it in 2026.

Hunter has entered the Australian ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ jungle, and while sitting around with her starstruck campmates, she’s shared the unique (and kinda creepy) way she was discovered on NZ shores - literally.

“I’m from New Zealand, originally,” Rachel began. “And I left home when I was 17 to move to New York and modelled.”

“You were the IT girl. You were the model, the face,” her campmates gushed about Hunter's career.

But how she got her start isn’t a typical experience, especially for a young Kiwi girl in the ‘80s.

“I was on the beach. It was like an old school story. This guy was just on the beach, and he came up and gave me his card and was like, ‘You need to model’.”

Hunter, just 16 years old at the time, thought, “That’s weird, that’s really creepy.”

“It happened fast,” she added, saying her first big jobs were with Elle Magazine, Revlon and Cover Girl.

Some huge, well-known brands, still to this day. 

Australian comedian, Nath Valvo, later said in a confessional, “Rachel Hunter’s got that supermodel story… A man approached her on a beach. That could be the start of a true crime series, but it was REAL.”

Despite the creepy approach, it worked and launched Hunter into a fame she still can’t quite believe when talking about it.

And Kiwis remember it well.

One commenter wrote: “All the schoolgirls back then were legging it down to Milford Beach after this happened 😆 Her family lived in our local area - practically neighbours 😅.”

“Literally catapulted into stardom,” said another. “She was/is ICONIC.”

“I was there (in that era), and she really was the one everyone had to compete with,” a third wrote.

But of course, some Kiwis remember her Trumpet ad being one of her most legendary jobs.

And to think it all started with a man approaching her on a Kiwi beach… definitely not something you’d just bat your eyelids at these days.