Vicky Freeman says she's been offered several jobs since featuring on the cover of this year's Wellbeing Budget. Photo / Getty Images
Vicky Freeman says she's been offered several jobs since featuring on the cover of this year's Wellbeing Budget. Photo / Getty Images
She left New Zealand for Australia for a new life and the move seems to have been the right one for Vicky Freeman who today features on the front page of a newspaper.
While it was a shock for the mother-of-one, it was also a shock for the Labour Party, who had no idea they had chosen the picture of a woman who had given up on her home country and moved across the ditch because she found it too expensive to live here.
After seeing the photo, Freeman messaged Ardern on social media asking why her Government had chosen to use her face to promote the Budget, and the Prime Minister replied, '"Simple reason really - happiness. You both looked really happy."
Freeman earlier told the Herald how she had lived in Auckland for a year in a quest to pursue her dream of acting and modelling.
While she'd scored some good jobs - as a bag thief on Shortland St and featuring with her daughter in a Harvey Norman advertisement - she found she was paying her 15-year-old babysitter better money than she was pulling in while on jobs of her own.
Vicky Freeman and her daughter Ruby-Jean, 9, on the cover of this year's Wellbeing Budget. They today featured on the cover of the Gold Coast Bulletin. Photo / File
One of the jobs she did do before she left was a photo shoot with Getty Images on Auckland's Long Bay Beach, one of which this year turned up on the cover of New Zealand's Budget.
So the faces of the NZ Wellbeing Budget (Vicky Freeman and daughter) are now the faces of today’s Gold Coast Bulletin... pic.twitter.com/AG3QdzDLak
So interested in her move, Freeman said the Gold Coast Bulletin got in touch and were keen to profile and photograph the Kiwi who was making waves back in New Zealand.
Again, she had no idea she would feature on today's front page but she was both shocked and pleased.
She said her daughter was so excited that she took a copy of the paper to school today.
Life since featuring on the Budget cover had been going well, she said. She had been given a few more jobs although she was unsure whether that was due to her newfound fame or just coincidence.
"I don't know if that's because of it, but you can't help but think that maybe it is? Maybe we're being recognised now, who knows."
She wouldn't mind if it was due to the publicity.
"That would be perfect. My daughter is so excited, she's so happy."
The pair have a lifestyle shoot next week while Freeman is set to feature as an extra in a "big Aussie drama" coming out in the next few months.
"I'm just an extra in the background but it could lead to more [work]. Sometimes in the background you do get noticed."
Vicky Freeman and daughter Ruby-Jean during their photo shoot on Long Bay Beach, Auckland, last year. Photo / Getty Images
However, she said when a friend from New Zealand visited her recently, all the taxi driver could talk about was her.
"She's like 'oh I think you're being recognised now'."
Freeman was living in the Gold Coast hinterland suburb of Tallai so her animal-loving daughter can be close the animals including kangaroos.
Ruby-Jean was enjoying her new school where her aunty also teaches.
Freeman said her next mission was to sign Ruby-Jean up with an agency who deals with children, as although they're happy to work together, she was keen for her daughter to get involved in her own work.
