Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his model wife Kaia have built a seemingly idyllic life in the Top End on the back of their hit show’s success.
Their social media feeds, which command a combined audience of almost a million people, are chock-full of pictures of their adventurous – and often glamorous – outback lifestyle with their two young children.
In a recent photo, for example, 45-year-old Wright grins while holding an enormous Spanish Mackerel with his adoring wife by his side on a recent family fishing trip.
Meanwhile, her own social media page is flooded with similar happy family shots, boat excursions and sponsored posts for protein powder or skin products.
The casual observer would have absolutely no idea that both of them have been charged over an airboat crash that left a woman with a fractured skull and seven others seriously injured.
The boat crashed near Sweets Lagoon in the Bynoe region of the Northern Territory, about 118km south-west of Darwin, on May 10, 2023.
Wright and his influencer wife, 35, are listed as directors of Top End Safari Camp adventure company which could be fined more than $5million in total over the incident, after being charged by NT WorkSafe.
Mr and Mrs Wright have been charged with three breaches of the Act and face combined penalties of up to $700,000 each.
Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his model wife Kaia have built an idyllic life in the Top End on the back of the hit show’s success – but it all now hangs in the balance
Kaia Wright is the glamorous mother-of-two social media influencer who combines croc wrestling with beauty tips – and has her own 5.5-metre pet crocodile called Tripod
Kaia and Matt Wright (pictured with son Banjo, 4) first met when the TV star suddenly landed his helicopter near her while she was with friends on a boat off Rottnest Island in 2014
It leaves yet another potentially costly legal case hanging over their heads.
The airboat crash is not related to a helicopter crash in February 2022 in which Mr Wright’s Outback Wrangler co-star Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson died and pilot Sebastian Robinson was also seriously injured.
Wilson, 34, was dangling from a helicopter to retrieve crocodile eggs in West Arnhem Land when the aircraft collided with trees and crashed to the ground, killing him.
In 2023, Mr Wilson’s widow, Danielle, commenced proceedings in the Federal Court seeking damages for personal injury as well as for the loss of her husband’s income.
Wright will face trial on charges related to the helicopter accident investigation, from July 7 next year, which expected to last eight weeks.
The Netflix celebrity pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice following the crash that killed Wilson.
The single charge relates to alleged behaviour in the aftermath of the crash where Mr Wright was allegedly one of the first on the scene.
Not that you would be aware of any of this if you were to look at Ms Wright’s Instagram feed.
On Friday, the day after it was revealed she could face a $700,000 personal fine for alleged safety failures, Ms Wright shared a series of shots of herself and her family enjoying a stay at Brisbane’s five-star Calile Hotel.
They lounged by the pool during the day before enjoying drinks and oysters in a glamorous rooftop bar.
It is understood the keen sportswoman and her family are travelling on to Noosa where she will take part in the region’s world-famous triathlon on Sunday.
Ms Wright, who is a towering 183-cm-tall, has never her husband’s side throughout their many ordeals after they first met in fairytale fashion eight years ago.
Kaia was sipping champagne on a boat off Western Australia’s Rottnest Island in 2014 as she rued her shocking love life to some close friends.
‘I’ll just hope an angel will fall from the sky,’ she told them.
And then fate stepped in.
‘Randomly, this chopper just flew in and landed in front of us,’ she later told Stellar magazine about that first meeting with her future husband.
‘He was all booted up. He changed into some shorts and jumped out.’
Kaia Wright’s followers on social media are constantly updated on her thrilling and glamorous life in the outback
Kaia Wright’s Instagram is a unique combination of outback wildlife and beauty products
They exchanged numbers on the first date – she put his next to ‘Big Kid’, he put hers next to ‘Legend’ – and a whirlwind romance followed.
They got engaged in 2016 and married in 2017.
The couple now have a sprawling home in the remote NT outback which they share with their two children, 15 rescue crocs, three pigs – Pepsi, Truffle and Cola – two dingoes, Ernie and Albie, seven snakes and a collection of green tree frogs.
Kaia had grown up in WA’s Kimberley region where her parents worked in community development in Broome and Derby before she attended high school in Perth.
She studied journalism at university in Sydney – and later wrote her husband’s best-selling life story – before moving into advertising.
She now combines her family role with TV demands and a burgeoning social media following which is closing in on 100,000 people who are kept updated on her thrilling and glamorous life in the outback.
Her Instagram account is a unique combination of outback wildlife and beauty products, leaping from one subject to the other in every other picture.
It details her outback life, wrestling crocs one moment, then extolling the latest hair care product the next as a brand ambassador.
Its popularity has soared on the back of Wright’s National Geographic adventure show which has been running for 10 years.
The series is shown in 100 countries where Wright’s daredevil exploits have made him a household name for many.
Its success has now sparked a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix for the first 10-episode season of his new show, Wild Croc Territory, with a second season planned.
The new production sees Wright combine his onscreen adventures with a lucrative off-screen executive producer role, alongside his wife’s agent Nick Fordham, brother of 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
They also run Top End Safari Camp, 120km south of Darwin, a luxury $895 a night glamping experience in ritzy tents to give tourists a taste of Wright’s outback life.
Wright’s Outback Wrangler show on National Geographic has been running for 10 years and is shown in 100 countries
The Wrights also run Top End Safari Camp, 120km south of Darwin, a luxury $895 a night glamping experience in ritzy tents to give tourists a taste of Wright’s outback life
The couple are also building a lavish new luxury designer-home in Darwin which was revealed in an artist’s impression (pictured) posted on social media by their architect
The couple are also building a lavish new luxury designer-home in Darwin.
‘For us it’s pretty interesting living between so many different worlds,’ she told Escape magazine.
‘We’ll have to go to events and do the whole city thing, but it makes you appreciate so much more what you have up here.’
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