Rachel Hunter joins RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under as celebrity judge

New Zealand’s original Kiwi supermodel, Rachel Hunter, has been announced as a celebrity judge on the next season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

Hunter, 53, will appear alongside other famous faces on the judging panel including American singing sensation Adam Lambert to select the queens who possess the most pizzazz in the popular reality TV competition.

Not her first time on the show, Hunter was part of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars back in 2012 and is delighted to be called upon again.

She says it’s “always divine to be part of such an inspiring, electric show”.

RuPaul’s Drag Race has been thrilling audiences since 2009 with its fabulous array of drag queens competing in a series of challenges to impress RuPaul, dubbed the world’s most famous drag queen. Each season the winner takes home a cash prize and the coveted title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.

This season, Hunter, Lambert and the competing drag queens will also be joined by a slew of celebrity guests: Australian footballer Josh Cavallo, former Miss Universe Australia Maria Thattil, Australian rock band Amyl and the Sniffers frontwoman Amy Taylor and US singer Deva Mahal.

Hunter, who knows a thing or two about stage presence to bring to her judging cards, began her modelling career at the age of 16 but became a household name as the face of Tip Top Trumpet ice creams in the 1980s.

Originally from Glenfield on Auckland’s North Shore, Hunter went on to model internationally, appearing on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Vogue, Playboy and Rolling Stone among others.

For this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, she’ll be judging Kiwi competitors Rita Menu from Wellington, Tāmaki Makaurau’s Ivanna Drink and Flor.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under first aired in New Zealand in 2021 and saw three prominent Kiwi drag queens take to the screen including owner and resident queen of Auckland’s Caluzzi Cabaret, Anita Wigl’it, TVNZ’s House of Drag star, Elektra Shock and Kita Mean, co-owner of Caluzzi Cabaret, Phoenix Venue and a star on TVNZ’s House of Drag.

Season three of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under premieres Friday, July 28, 7pm on TVNZ+

This article was first published in the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.