‘My whole world just stopped’: Miranda Kerr’s rare comments about her first love’s death

Miranda Kerr has spoken about the moment she found out her first boyfriend Christopher Middlebrook had died in a car accident when they were teens.

The Australian model revealed she’d planned to surprise him by returning to Gunnedah, NSW a few months after her family had moved to Queensland.

During an appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the businesswoman told host Amanda Hirsch she got to Middlebrook’s brother’s party about 10 minutes after her boyfriend had left to go home and freshen up after work.

“It was on his way back that the accident happened because there was a plough on the side of the road and it was a full moon and he had gotten his car taken off the road like the week before because something with the headlight and so he didn’t have his headlights on,” Kerr said.

“So by the time he saw the plough, it killed him instantly.”

Kerr said she and her cousin drove around for hours looking for her boyfriend, who called her “Rand”, after he failed to return to the party, but the crash happened on a back road and they couldn’t find him.

Her uncle delivered the news to her the next morning after she stayed at a friend’s place.

“When he told me the news, I just remember like my whole world just stopped,” Kerr said.

“And I remember seeing the guy outside mowing the lawn and I’m thinking, ‘This is so weird. My world has stopped, but other people’s worlds are still going’.

“Then I just remember going to my grandma’s house and she put me, in this room that we would stay in and she’s like, ‘Don’t worry, love. Just relax, I’m going to get you a cup of tea’, and I just needed to go through the process of trying to understand what happened.

“At that point, part of that grieving process, I was writing a letter to him to put in with him when he was buried. And in part of that letter, I had said my firstborn son will carry your name, which is why Flynn is Flynn Christopher.”

Kerr said it was important to keep her promise and it feels like her first love is “really watching over” her 15-year-old and “really protecting him”.

“And Flynn actually wears a pendant [of] St Christopher as well, so it’s kind of a thing,” she added.

Kerr also said part of the healing process for her was staying in touch with Middlebrook’s parents, with both families close from the time she was a child.

“[I] speak to them at least once a month,” she said.

“We grew up together, he was my first love and throughout it all I think it’s been very healing for both his family and I to remain close.”

Kerr described Middlebrook as a lot like her father John Kerr and said subconsciously after his death, she’s only dated men with a personality more like her mum, Therese Kerr.

This includes her husband of nine years, Snapchat chief executive Evan Spiegel.

“So my husband now feels very similar to my mother’s personality because my mum was extremely dedicated, a hard worker (some would say workaholic) and my husband is too,” Kerr said.

“They’re just really passionate about being active and working really hard and that feels really comfortable to me.”

Kerr and Spiegel began dating in 2015, before getting engaged in 2016 and marrying in 2017. They have three sons together Hart, 8, Myles, 6, and Pierre, 2.

The former Victoria’s Secret model was previously married to British actor Orlando Bloom, Flynn’s dad, for three years before they split in 2013.