Rebecca Gibney’s secret to marriage success

Rebecca Gibney sat down exclusively with Be to chat about how she keeps the romance alive after being with husband and producer Richard Bell for 17 years.

“We are quite lucky because we work together a lot so we are on the road a lot, and quite often we’ll find ourselves in beautiful hotels or amazing places for dinner so it’s easy to keep the romance alive,” she told Be.

The 52-year-old actress shared that out of anything else in a relationship there must be respect for one another.

“You must respect each other, it’s having complete and utter respect above all else and obviously love and being willing to compromise which is what we’ve always done.”

She continued, “He’s my rock, he’s my everything.”

But life wasn’t always so easy breezy for the Dressmaker actress, admitting that growing up as a teen had its difficult times.

“I had a nervous breakdown and emotional collapse in my early 30s so I just let it build up and build up,” she told Be.

“I used to just run away or hide them instead of facing the cause of the panic attacks, and it was ultimately a self-loathing that I developed from quite a young age.”

Rebecca dealt with the constant battle with depression and feels that it was partly due to a pressure to conform to the pressure of society and the industry she was in.

The image she was presenting was vastly different to the one that she felt on the inside.

“I didn’t love myself, in fact I hated myself, I was crumbling on the inside,” she confessed.

“Now I can admit I was a mess, you look at all these people taking their lives and people in the public eye that are killing themselves, desperately unhappy but not being able to ask for help.”

The Kiwi actress also shared that she’s got a very spiritual side that she believes has assisted her growth in being a happier person now.

“I’m lucky to have a very strong face, I have a very strong spiritual side, and because I also believe something other than this and I think as long as you believe in stuff like that it helps.”

She shared her advice for anyone suffering from depression or anxiety.

“I think there’s an immense amount of pressure on people, that they are growing up with these unrealistic expectations, and my advice to anyone is to love yourself first before anybody else, learn to love and accept who you are and cherish and really celebrate that.”

Season 2 of Wanted is now on available on DVD.

For confidential help, call Lifeline at 13 11 14 or visit [[[https://www.lifeline.org.au/]]](https://www.lifeline.org.au/)

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