Constance Hall is a mum, a best-selling author, a philanthropist, a fashion designer, a blogger, an adoring wife, a self-appointed Queen … and now a dancer on Dancing with the Stars.
The 35-year-old West Australian will be diving deep into a sea of sequins and feathers to shake her grove thang alongside cast mates, Samuel Johnson, Olympia Valance, Denise Scott, Michelle Bridges, Courtney Act, Jett Kenny, Miguel Maestre, Jimmy Rees, Sir Curtly Ambrose and Cassandra Thorburn.
Constance Hall has been putting in the hours with dance partner, Gustavo Viglio! (Image: Supplied)
Constance Hall and dance partner, Gustavo Viglio are getting ready to shake it. (Image: Network 10)
“I definitely think that putting yourself out of your comfort zone and anything you are scared of is worth doing,” says Hall.
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“If you just stay in your comfort zone your whole life, you sort of stagnate, you’ve got to try different things. That’s why I have a core belief that even though it’s going to hurt, it’s going to be good.”
Renowned for the raw, no-holds-barred approach she embraces when sharing her life with her adoring fans – all 1.3 million of them – Hall has been no stranger to controversy over the years.
Despite the love that pours in from those fans – lovingly referred to as ‘Queens’, Hall is a polarising presence in the digital world. Detractors and trolls alike have come at her for her thoughts, her looks, her lifestyle, her love life and her parenting, so it is perhaps no surprise that the announcement of her appearance on Dancing with the Stars brought out those detractors en masse.
That’s not stopping her from strapping on the jazz shoes though. In an epic clap-back, Hall released a lengthy video, standing proudly and facing that negativity head-on.
In the video, which has been viewed over 7 million times, Hall passionately detailed the effect that social media haters have had on her in the past, in an eloquent bid urging people to be kinder to one another and stop the normalising of bullying behaviour.
WATCH: Constance Hall’s passionate campaign to stop cyber-bullying. Continues after video …
“Anytime I’m in the media the trolling starts, whether it’s a pregnancy or a wedding or a blog that I’d written – the trolling is always there,” she says. “It’s usually the same old s— but I think people might have thought I was on my high horse,” she says.
“You know like with tall poppy syndrome, I think they might have thought that I thought that I was a big success now that I’m on Dancing With the Stars. They really wanted to knock me off that pedestal; they definitely upped the ante.”
Hall looked beyond herself and the pain that the bullying is causing and decided to focus on the good that her appearance on the show could do for the charity she so passionately supports, Rafiki Mwema.
“I’m at a point now where I do not read [the abuse] because it does hurt me and I don’t think you can ever get to a place where it doesn’t hurt at all,” she says.
“[There are] children in high school who have to deal with this. They are dealing with this and it must be terrifying. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to help them but I need to – I think it’s my responsibility to help them.”
Constance Hall’s rise to fame
Before the blog, before the books and before the dancing, Hall got the attention of Australia back in 2005 when she became the first evictee of 2005’s series of Big Brother after the then 21-year-old was accused of lying about her relationship status during the audition process.
Reflecting on that time in a blog post, Hall admits that she underestimated how her large personality would be received.
“While I thought being a loud mouth swearing binge drinking realist was exactly what every Big Brother voter wanted I was sadly mistaken,’ she penned.
“My time was brought to an end in a record breaking 10 days and interestingly while I thought I totally killed it in the house the shows publicists advice was limited to “don’t worry, they’ll all forget who you are soon, just lay low” [sic].
“Well people did forget and I went back to washing hair as an apprentice hairdresser with bad hair for a living.”
WATCH: Constance Hall talks about her time on Big Brother in 20015. Continues after video …
While most people did forget about Hall for a while, it would not be long before she was thrust back into the spotlight when a 2016 post about parent-sex went viral for the blogger.
Hall, then married to ex-husband, Bill had taken to social media to share a quirky outlook on sex after kids and it hit the mark.
In her excited post, she announced: “We had “parent sex” yesterday”.
Hall went on to describe the experience, saying: “You know what parent sex is. It’s that 3.5 minutes you get in between changing nappies and making food, where you notice that all of your kids are pretty distracted, where you realise it’s been almost a month since you banged and are starting to feel like flat mates.”
The racy post includes the moment where they take up position with ‘one foot against the door’ because kids “can be pretty quiet when they’re sneaking up on people.”
“It’s a pretty romantic scene really, listening to Iggle Piggle in the back ground,” she said, adding: “Men are amazing and impressive creatures … it’s inspiring how one can manage to “finish” under such circumstances. Us women aren’t always so easy.”
The post was shared all over the world, and Hall’s army of ‘Queens’ increased as mums the world over clamoured for more of her real, raw take on life as a mum, wife and woman.
Constance Hall’s fan, known as ‘Queens’ adore her for her body-postive messaging about the realities of motherhood. (Image: Instagram)
Constance Hall and Rafiki Mwema
Later in 2016, when Hall, who was fast becoming a household name heard about the Australian-run charity, Rafiki Mwema, who do incredible work with Kenyan children who have suffered horrific abuse, she was impressed and wanted to help.
She also knew that if she wanted to help, there was a good chance her ‘Queens’ would too, so she called out to them to see if anyone would join her in attempting to raise $75,000 to build a safe-house for the very young girls who were unsafe in their villages.
Called ‘The Queens Castle’ the safe house would mean the charity could help more young girls work towards recovery from the unthinkable trauma they had endured.
Nobody was more surprised than Hall to learn that in several hours that total had exceed $100,000 rocketing to over $200,000 by the next day as her community rallied to change the lives of these often forgotten children.
Since then Hall has generously donated $1 from each sale of her best- selling books and fashion line, meaning that the charity, which relies solely on donations, could open ‘The King’s Castle’ for the young boys of Rafiki Mwema who have faced atrocities you can not begin to imagine.
Using play therapy, and working with the communities to break the cycle of abuse, the charity looks after the children in the safe houses Hall and her community have helped fund.
Hall has visited Kenya to see the work herself and still tirelessly works to raise awareness and funds, including nominating them as her charity of choice of Dancing with the Stars.
Constance Hall made the trip to Kenya to see what really happens there. (Image: @UAVisuals)
Constance Hall’s love life
Much of Hall’s blogging was about life as a mum of four – Arlo Love and daughter Billie-Violet as well as twins Rumi and Snow – and her relationship with her husband of six years, Bill.
Fans fell in love with them as couple, which is why there was much sadness amongst her followers, when in April 2017, the pair announced their relationship had come to an end.
Hall told fans that she and Bill had decided to “go [their] own ways” after spending the past few months living separately.
“This decision wasn’t made lightly, obviously he has been the love of my life but we just weren’t making each other happy anymore and have lived separate lives for so long now that it just seemed to fall that way,” she wrote on her blog, Like A Queen.
“We still love each other so much but we stopped enjoying each other and the kids stopped seeing happiness in our love, only contempt. It’s the right decision, despite being laced with doubt we have given ourselves so much time to consider all the options and I feel strong.”
It was not long before love came knocking on Hall’s door once more, in the form of a bohemian single dad named Denim Cooke.
Constance Hall and Denim Cooke fell hard and fast for each other. (Image: Instagram)
The pair fell fast and hard, ignoring the detractors that had a problem with the timeline of their love, accusing Hall of moving on from her marriage too quickly.
Not ever one to let anyone tell her how to live her life, it was not long before the pair had merged their families, Cooke bringing his boys Zeyke and Sunny into the fold with Hall’s four children and extended members of her family and friends to form a tight unit that seems to be standing the test of time.
The pair announced their engagement in June 2017, and wed in an intimate, secret ceremony in January 2018.
In May that same year, Hall and Cooke welcomed a son, sweet baby Raja Wolf who is adored by his six older siblings, and making Hall and Cooke parents to seven!
Hall and Cooke wed in January 2018, and welcomed son, Raja Wolf in May of the same year. (Image: Instagram)
What’s next for Constance Hall?
Raja’s birth didn’t mean rest-time for entrepreneur Hall either. Her fashion line Queen the Label has been going gang-busters, she released Still A Queen, the follow-up to her best-selling book Like A Queen and her The Year of the Queen diary full of empowerment for teenage girls sold tens of thousands of copies.
Hall plans on releasing a diary for boys and one for younger kids next year too.
A long preacher of body positivity, Hall’s Queen the Label – including the mum-tum skirts and pants – is proving to be a huge hit. Image: Instagram.
Throughout all her success Hall has continued to support Rafiki Mwema, something she is hoping she is able to do more of through her exposure on Dancing with the Stars.
Having amassed a fan base of millions, the Perth blogger wants her community to know how important their support for her, and for Rafiki Mwema in turn is.
“I want them to know that they did this. They kept Rafiki’s doors open,” she says. “That the sacrifice they made and continue to make might not mean much to them but there is a pure hearted child on the other side of the world who has so much love and gratitude for what they have done.
“And I want them to understand that I believe everything happens for a reason, I met Sarah from Rafiki Mwema for a reason and they were reading my post that day in 2017 and decided to donate for a reason. They are now connected and I don’t know what reason that is but they should remain connected, this is a family.”
Dancing With The Stars airs Monday 18th of February, 7:30pm, on Network 10.
