Megan Gale has rejected claims all celebrities receive “special treatment” in lockdown, revealing she was “trolled and abused” when she travelled to Western Australia from Melbourne last year following her brother’s tragic death.
Sharing an article penned by The Project’s Steve Price titled “AFL and celebrities getting special privileges in Covid lockdown”, Megan “wholeheartedly agreed” that nobody should be above restrictions.
She added that the assumption that all celebrities have been able to bend the rules is “completely unfair”, recalling her experience travelling interstate last year.
RELATED: Megan Gale: ‘I trusted the wrong people’
“People with public profiles shouldn’t get special treatment in regards to lockdowns, quarantine or travel during this pandemic,” the 46-year-old began.
“But please keep in mind there are those who have never asked for special treatment nor been offered it. I would say special treatment is the exception, not the rule.
“Articles like this, while raising valid points, do however run the risk of leading the public to believe that ALL celebrities have special entitlements and it reinforces that perception. This results in people like myself copping hatred and abuse online because the public assume ALL celebrities are being treated differently which is completely unfair and I speak from personal experience.”
In his Herald Sun article, Price called out the AFL, as well as stars Dannii Minogue and Russell Crowe for being granted “privileges and freedoms” over average Australians amid lockdown.
“Melburnians can’t hold birthday parties for 10-year-olds and their friends, or even take a road trip to Lorne, but football players can fly around the country while their families bunker down in five-star hotels, all expenses paid,” he wrote.
“This them-and-us world of Covid privilege is starting to grate on people living through grim days of lockdowns and business collapses and holiday cancellations.”
Megan flew in to support her family in Western Australia following her brother Jason’s death in July 2020, but while she did everything by the book, she says she was “still trolled and abused” by those who assumed she was granted quarantine exemptions.
RELATED: Gale breaks silence on brother’s death
She went on to detail the process of obtaining permission to travel on “compassionate grounds” last year in the peak of widespread lockdown restrictions.
“I had great difficulty securing travel into WA last year even on compassionate grounds. When I eventually did manage to get clearance to travel, it was still made very difficult for me to board my flight to WA without showing proper documentation and proof of my circumstances.
“I followed the stipulated procedures like everybody else and completed my 14-day quarantine at the same dark, dingy, dirty hotel with no sunlight or fresh air like everybody else.
“I was however still trolled and abused online because it was simply assumed, due to my profile, that I had skipped quarantine and gotten special treatment. This was based purely on perception not fact.”
Gale went on to explain why she felt compelled to call out Steve Price’s article, writing that articles like his “reinforce the perception” that all celebrities are given queue-jumping advantages, a misconception she feels “responsible to correct”.
“Different rules shouldn’t apply to different people and in some cases it has and that’s beyond wrong. But please don’t assume there is this secret celebrity Covid Club where we play by our own rules as it’s simply not the case.
“Please don’t go online and abuse someone because you assume they have received special treatment simply because ‘you read it somewhere’.
“Also think about what that person could be going through before you choose anger and hatred over kindness, compassion and understanding.”
She ended with a direct message to Price: “All due respect to you @steveprice7571. It was a very good piece. I just wanted to balance out the view and give a more realistic take on it.”
Megan’s older brother Jason Gale, was discovered dead in Karragullen, Perth, on July 22 after being missing for more than a week.
The industrial mechanic was last seen at a petrol station on July 14, and was found dead a week later in bushland next to his 1999 Honda CR-V SUV.
Friends said Mr Gale was known to take solo trips but that the length of his latest absence was unusual.
Belinda Murray, a friend of the 49-year-old, told the Daily Mail he had never properly recovered after witnessing the death of a colleague.
“He hasn’t been the same since witnessing the death of a co-worker a few years ago, then the death of his beloved Dobermann Badge on top of that,” she said.
Megan said the decision to travel had been a difficult one, as she didn’t want to cause more media attention or be away from her young children and fiance for a month.
“I had a very short period of time to make the decision to travel over, because travelling over meant hotel quarantine for two weeks and then planning the funeral and attending the funeral, so I knew that I could be a month away from my kids and my man,” she said on Instagram.
“And I also knew that by going to Perth that I would be responsible for risking there being more media attention and more focus on it, which I didn’t want to do. I already felt bad enough, that I’d be the cause of that.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMipAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L2NlbGVicml0eS1saWZlL21lZ2FuLWdhbGUtc2xhbXMtc3RldmUtcHJpY2UtYXJ0aWNsZS1hYm91dC1jZWxlYnMtc2tpcHBpbmctbG9ja2Rvd24vbmV3cy1zdG9yeS84NTFmNzY3NzczM2I0Nzc3MjFlMzI2NDY1MjNmMzYyNdIBpAFodHRwczovL2FtcC5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L2NlbGVicml0eS1saWZlL21lZ2FuLWdhbGUtc2xhbXMtc3RldmUtcHJpY2UtYXJ0aWNsZS1hYm91dC1jZWxlYnMtc2tpcHBpbmctbG9ja2Rvd24vbmV3cy1zdG9yeS84NTFmNzY3NzczM2I0Nzc3MjFlMzI2NDY1MjNmMzYyNQ?oc=5
2021-08-16 01:25:23Z
CBMipAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L2NlbGVicml0eS1saWZlL21lZ2FuLWdhbGUtc2xhbXMtc3RldmUtcHJpY2UtYXJ0aWNsZS1hYm91dC1jZWxlYnMtc2tpcHBpbmctbG9ja2Rvd24vbmV3cy1zdG9yeS84NTFmNzY3NzczM2I0Nzc3MjFlMzI2NDY1MjNmMzYyNdIBpAFodHRwczovL2FtcC5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L2NlbGVicml0eS1saWZlL21lZ2FuLWdhbGUtc2xhbXMtc3RldmUtcHJpY2UtYXJ0aWNsZS1hYm91dC1jZWxlYnMtc2tpcHBpbmctbG9ja2Rvd24vbmV3cy1zdG9yeS84NTFmNzY3NzczM2I0Nzc3MjFlMzI2NDY1MjNmMzYyNQ
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