Dicky knees run in the Kershaw family

vogue china via TFS

Some celeb family members like to keep out of the spotlight, but not the Kershaws, it seems. When Abbey Lee Kershaw was recently asked by Vogue China if any of her kin would oblige for a family-inspired editorial spread, baby brother Tim flew to New York to help out. The result is this month’s 10-page ‘Modern Family’ spread shot by Daniel Jackson, which features two of the three highly photogenic Kershaw siblings (there is another older sister, Courtney, who did not participate). Another budding Kershaw supermod in the making perhaps? Not according to dad Kim Kershaw, who provided a few insights into the close-knit clan.

vogue china via TFS

Kershaw, a retired AFL/VFA player who works as a finance broker in Melbourne, tells frockwriter that 22 year-old Tim was, up until February this year, working as an apprentice mechanic. Those hopes were dashed, however, by a knee injury incurred playing football and Tim has now embarked on a personal training course with the Australian Institute of Fitness. As far as his father is aware, Tim has no modelling aspirations. 

Regular readers may recall that Abbey Lee herself has been plagued by knee problems for several years and in February, coincidentally, finally underwent knee surgery in New York.

Turns out, theirs are not the only problem knees in the family.

“I think I cursed my kids” quipped Kershaw. “I played AFL and had three or four operations on my knees and wound up 18 months ago having a knee replaced. It was inconvenient at the time, but wonderful afterwards”.

And knee rehab isn’t the only area on which Kershaw senior can advise - he also works as Abbey Lee’s financial counsellor. Ranked as the world number #5 on models.com’s "Top 50 Women" list and number #21 in its "Money Girls" list, Abbey Lee is now one of the industry's top earners. For the moment, of course, she is taking a short break to shoot Mad Max 4: Fury Road on location in Namibia.

“I don’t make the decisions for her, I just make recommendations and she makes up her own mind” said Kershaw. “Abbey has mentioned on a few occasions some of the things done by the other girls she has known and they’re things I wouldn’t do. You would hate to think they would get to the end of their careers and not have something to show for it. So I’m hopefully helping Abbey in the right direction. I hope so. She is multitalented and who knows what the next thing will be".