Advertisement
Home Celebrity Celebrity News

Shortland Street star Jaxin Hall reveals: ‘I wanted to fall apart’

After personal tragedy and defying the odds, all of the actor's dreams are now coming true
Rose Loren

Having two gorgeous children, plus pet pigs, sheep and mini-horses running around an idyllic three-hectare farm is beautiful chaos to Shortland Street‘s Jaxin Hall.

Advertisement

It’s a dream that might have felt beyond reach as he and wife Natalie Hall battled the “rat race” of life in the US while facing a crushing miscarriage in 2015. But it’s just one example of how perseverance, drive and faith in things working out have carried Jaxin through as he defies odds and expectations.

Growing up poor didn’t stop him from achieving gold-record success with his US-based band Of Mice and Men. The art he hawked at an Auckland bus stop after wrapping each day at a job he hated sparked a globally successful clothing brand. And now he’s starring as Shorty’s Pastor Scott – 20 years after playing an extra and declaring he wanted a main role.

“I worked with David Wikaira-Paul [Tama Hudson], who asked if I liked being an extra,” recalls Jaxin, 36. “I said, ‘It’s fun, but I want to do what you do’, so he gave me his agent’s number.”

Advertisement

Jaxin hopes his journey shows his children Ruby, nine, and Nikau, five, they can achieve anything, noting how he came from nothing, dropped out of school and wasn’t “set up to succeed”.

Eager to break South Auckland stereotypes, he credits the area, plus his supportive parents, for breeding the creativity behind his acting, art and music – but he never imagined a six-month US adventure would turn into 12 years, after the band he formed for fun rocketed to success.

“It’s surreal thinking back,” he says. “Having someone from Connecticut sing my lyrics back was unlike anything I can explain. But I didn’t love being away, watching egos grow or partying, so I didn’t want to do it forever.”

Advertisement

Jaxin also wanted to show his California dreamgirl Natalie’s parents he could provide a stable future. The two met at a party following the band’s move from Ohio to Los Angeles.

“It was a friend of a friend’s party and I almost didn’t go,” recalls Natalie, who worked for shoe brand Vans.

“I thought, ‘She’s cute’,” Jaxin adds. “She liked The Beatles and David Bowie, rather than bands like mine, so I thought, ‘You’ll keep me grounded!’ There’s hard times, sleepless nights and anxiety starting a band, and having her to decompress with was awesome.”

Advertisement

It was Natalie, 33, who suggested marriage as Jaxin’s visa neared expiration.

“Everything I wanted, he wanted, like marriage and being young parents. That’s why I went, ‘I’m gonna marry this guy’, so quickly. He was the full package!”

Jaxin was hesitant, unwilling to turn Natalie’s dream wedding into an immigration-driven event.

“But the more we discussed it, the more it wasn’t about Natalie helping me stay in America, but about not cutting our relationship short,” he says.

Advertisement

The two had a courthouse registry, sorted Jaxin’s visa, then enjoyed a beachy California wedding with family in 2012. Their biggest challenge in 10 years of marriage? “Kids!”

Having left music to focus on his clothing label when Ruby arrived, Jaxin could enjoy weekly daddy-daughter dates. “Usually to Disneyland because I love Star Wars!”

Ruby was nine months old when Natalie became pregnant again. Having struggled with breastfeeding and post-partum depression, she didn’t feel physically or mentally prepared for another child,

Advertisement

but after seeing the baby’s heartbeat, she became excited. However, at 12 weeks, they received heart-wrenching news.

Choking up, Jaxin tells, “I remember asking the ultrasound tech, ‘Are those lines where the heartbeat should be?’ and she said, ‘Yes.’ I was in shock and wanted to fall apart, but I had to be strong for Natalie. I didn’t want her seeing me hurting and thinking it was her fault.”

“I didn’t realise how upset I’d be,” adds Natalie, through tears. “Despite miscarrying so early, you’re already making plans and loving that baby, so it was devastating. I’m fine now, but you always wonder what could’ve been.”

Jaxin says Ruby helped them heal. “We could hold her and go, ‘If this is all we’re supposed to have, that’s OK’. It was brutal, though. You want to cry to the world, but nobody knew what we were going through.”

Advertisement

The couple were ecstatic when “rainbow baby” Nikau came along. But raising kids amid America’s unsettling politics made departing New Zealand after each Christmas visit tough.

“Aotearoa was calling,” explains Jaxin. “Aotearoa’s where my spirit and our family stood strong.”

Indeed, despite the pandemic hitting so soon after their 2019 move, the family’s thriving. Creative Ruby’s acting and singing, while “wild child” Nikau has an “amazing imagination”.

Advertisement

“He can run around here pretending he’s Spider-Man and our Labrador’s his best friend,” says Jaxin. “They go on farm adventures and I know they’re safe.”

Meanwhile, Jaxin’s clothing brand Key Street is flourishing and he’s fulfilling his acting ambitions on Shorty.

“Hold onto your butts – it gets wilder!” he teases about the upcoming Christmas cliffhanger. “Pastor Scott is struggling with his morality – it’s a major part of his journey.

“I hope people see his humanity and that he’s not some psychopath. He’s just so faithful and loving, he’s been corrupted by it.”

Advertisement

Related stories


Get Woman’s Day home delivered!  

Subscribe and save up to 29% on a magazine subscription.

Advertisement
Advertisement