Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall may be an Aussie golden couple now, but when they met in 2003 they had no way of knowing how far they’d come.
Jen was months away from being crowned Miss Universe when she met the property developer by chance in a Newcastle bar.
Jake bumped into the model on a night out and romance blossomed, taking them from the “ups and downs” of their first years of casual dating, to an engagement and 2013 wedding.
Together they built a home, a marriage and even started a family in six years after saying “I do”, following a heartbreaking miscarriage and fertility setbacks.
Jake and Jen welcomed baby Frankie in 2019 and their lives have been full of love and happiness ever since, but the 37-year-old model has confessed she and Jake have had their trying times.
Yet every time the couple face hardships, they seem to come out the other side even stronger and more in love.
And just a few days ago they announced their most exciting news yet; their family is about to get even bigger!
Jen took to Instagram to announce she’s pregnant with a baby boy, and her and Jake’s daughter Frankie is about to be a big sister.
In honour of the happy news, we’re looking back at the couple’s relationship through the years and all their best moments together.
Jennifer Hawkins met Jake Wall at a Newcastle bar in 2003, when she was just 20 and a few months away from winning the Miss Universe beauty pageant. They’ve been together for decades now, but their chance meeting almost didn’t happen.
“It was one of those nights I didn’t intend [on] going out, and then I went out and I met this guy and slowly, we started a relationship,” Jen told Stellar in 2017 of the night she met her now-husband.
“We think back and we can’t believe it [how we met]. It honestly feels like another lifetime. We’ve grown up so much. I guess that’s what happens; sometimes you grow apart and some people grow together, and it’s been the latter of those two because it just feels like a real union. I don’t know how else to explain it, I don’t want to sound mushy.”
The Aussie pair became something of a local power couple in the 2000s, but Jen said it was “very casual and up and down at the start.” She told Stellar: “That’s what happens when you are young and you break up a million times and then you come back together.”
It took Jake seven years to ask Jen to marry him, but when he finally popped the question in 2011 and presented the model with a custom-made $200,000 ring she said yes. Who wouldn’t?
The couple enjoyed an 18-month engagement before saying “I do” at a lavish ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, attended by 60 of their closest friends and family. Jen donned a meringue-style wedding gown designed by Toni Maticevski for their 2013 cliffside nuptials at the seven-star Semara resort in Uluwatu.
The newlyweds honeymooned in Paris and the Maldives before returning home to Australia more loved-up than ever. Jen’s since said the Maldives are one of her favourite holiday spots.
Sadly, the couple had to face some personal battles during their engagement and first years as a married couple, Jen saying it “hasn’t always been perfect”. In 2021 Jake’s mum Lesslee passed away, and in 2015 Jen’s own mother Gail was diagnosed with kidney cancer.
The couple continued to make the most of married life despite any personal hardships. Jen’s Instagram account is filled to the brim with loved-up snaps of her and Jake dating all the way back from the early 2010’s to now, including photos from overseas holidays and luxe dates like this.
Having enjoyed a hugely successful modelling career for almost two decades, Jen opened up about wanting to start a family with Jake in 2018, shortly after finishing her 12-year stint as a Myer fashion ambassador.
At her final runway show for the brand, Jen said: “I’d love to have a family, it’s taking the time to look ahead. I want to have the time to be able to do that.”
Though she didn’t speak publicly about it until the following year, Jen was facing an emotional fertility battle behind the scenes in 2018.
She and Jake had thought starting a family would be easy, but the model suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage when she first fell pregnant. It was later confirmed she had a severe form of endometriosis and she had to undergo surgery to treat the condition.
“Last year was such a tough year for Jake and me. It was the toughest year of our lives. I felt like I almost broke and, in fact, it’s still really raw,” she told Stellar in 2019. “But Jake was amazing. He let me sit with the pain, feel it and not be OK.”
Their heartache turned to joy in 2019 when Jen and Jake proudly announced that they were going to be parents. Sharing the news that they were expecting a baby girl to Instagram, the 37-year-old wrote: “Thank you to our beautiful family and friends for their love and support and, most importantly, to my hubby Jake – I can’t wait to see you as a Daddy!”
Baby Frankie Violet was born on October 17, 2019, and Jen voiced her complete joy at becoming a mum to Marie Claire. “When she came out, I was just so overwhelmed; I was crying, it was incredible. We just felt so much gratitude,” the model said.
As for Jake, he was totally smitten with their little girl. “It’s pretty amazing to see your partner just become a father and be silly with her,” Jen told 9Honey in 2020. “He’s been silly with me before, but he is next level silly with the baby. And the love he shows one, Frankie, and two, me… it’s a nice thing.”
The new parents were thrilled by their new lives with Frankie, regularly sharing parenting updates to social media as they embraced their new roles as ‘mum and dad’. A comment Jen made to Stellar in 2017 about how she and Jake met seemed to ring more true than ever as they became parents: “We’ve grown up so much.”
The Aussie golden couple really seemed to have it all as 2021 rolled around: a beautiful marriage, a perfect baby girl and just about the most genetically blessed family we’ve ever seen. Then came a huge shake up on July 3…
Jen and Jake are about to be parents again! Taking to Instagram with this gorgeous baby bump photo, the 37-year-old revealed they are expecting a baby boy.
She captioned the snap: “Round two!! Jake and I are so happy to share that we are expecting a baby BOY!!! 💙 We both feel really blessed and couldn’t be happier to grow our little family!
Can’t wait to see our Frankie girl as a big sis!!”
