'The worst year I've ever had in my life.' Megan Gale opens up about the death of her brother.

Megan Gale has opened up about the death of her 49-year-old brother, Jason Gale, who passed away in July 2020.

"All of this upheaval with the business was happening at the exact same time I lost my brother," she said in an interview with the Courier Mail’s QWeekend.

"2020 was easily the worst year I’ve ever had in my life."

Jason Gale was reported missing in Perth on July 17, 2020. His body was found a few days later in bushland south-east of Perth. His death was not considered suspicious.

In the same year, Megan's skincare business, Mindful Life, had collapsed.

"I just went, 'I'm done.' I'm going to take some time out because things were a bit full on," she told QWeekend.

"At that point, I didn't have the mental capacity to think about how I was going to save the business because all I need to do now is grieve." 

In the months afterwards, Megan stepped away from work and focused on being with her family.

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A post shared by MEGAN GALE (@megankgale)

"There was nothing else I could sink my energy into except for being with family and grieving," she said.

"I said to myself I was going to take the last three to four months of 2020 off."

At the time, the Australian supermodel posted a video to her Instagram, explaining her social media absence.

"For those of you who don't know, I very sadly and very unexpectedly lost my brother back in July," she shared in the emotional video. 

"It was a huge shock - something that I'm still working through and processing." 

In the video, Megan added that those few months had been "the hardest of her life". 

"It's been a very challenging year for me," the supermodel shared.

"What I've been through in recent times certainly wasn’t the most positive of experiences to document and I most certainly couldn’t fathom the thought of turning my circumstances into content. That just seemed so very wrong."

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Well it’s been a while. I hope everyone has been keeping well. I thought I’d jump on and have a bit of a chat. It’s been probably the hardest couple of months of my life and I honestly have had no desire to post anything. Even this felt foreign to me. What I’ve been through in recent times certainly wasn’t the most positive of experiences to document and I most certainly couldn’t fathom the thought of turning my circumstances into content. That just seemed so very wrong. To everyone who has messaged me in regards to my brother and asked if I’m ok, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am fine. Not amazing but doing ok. And so thankful for so much. ♥️🙏🏼✨

A post shared by  MEGAN GALE (@megankgale) on Sep 21, 2020 at 12:53am PDT

Megan Gale lives in Victoria and made the decision to fly to Perth to be with her family and attend her older brother's funeral. Coming from Melbourne amid the pandemic, she was required to undertake two weeks of hotel quarantine upon arrival in Western Australia.

"I had a very short period of time to make the decision," she explained, adding it meant she would be away from her partner, former AFL star Shaun Hampson, and her two children.

"But I also wanted to be in Perth to support my mum and my brother and the rest of my family and play a part in sending my brother off and putting him to rest."

She continued: "The only way I could get through it was to not think about what happened with my brother to block it out, pretend it hadn’t happened."

Megan and her partner share two children, River, nine years old, and Rosie, five.

If you think you may be experiencing depression or another mental health problem, please contact your general practitioner. If you're based in Australia, 24-hour support is available through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Feature Image: Instagram.