Maggie Tabberer

Maggie Tabberer AM
Maggie Tabberer in February 2012
Born	Margaret May Trigar (1936-12-11) 11 December 1936 (age 80) Parkside, Adelaide, Australia
Other names	Maggie T
Occupation	Model and television presenter
Spouse(s)	Charles Tabberer Ettore Prossimo
Partner(s)	Richard Zachariah (1985–1995)
Awards	Gold Logie Award (1970, 1971)

Maggie Tabberer AM (also known as Maggie T; born 11 December 1936) is a dual Gold Logie-winning Australian fashion, publishing and media/television personality.

She was born Margaret May Trigar on 11 December 1936 in Parkside, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide.

Maggie's first modelling job was a one-off assignment at the age of 14, after a photographer spotted her at her sister's wedding. She attended a modelling school in her early twenties, and at the age of 23 was discovered by photographer Helmut Newton, who mentored her and launched a highly successful modelling career. While living in Melbourne in 1960, she won 'Model of the Year', and moved to Sydney to take advantage of the modelling opportunities there, but she chose to end her modelling career at the age of 25 after she began to lose her slim figure.

Tabberer stayed well connected to the fashion industry, however. In 1967 she started a public relations company, Maggie Tabberer & Associates, which took on many fashion-related clients and assignments. In 1981, she launched a plus-size clothing label called Maggie T.

A portrait of her by Australian artist Paul Newton was a finalist in the 1999 Archibald Prize.

Tabberer began working in publishing when she wrote a fashion column, "Maggie Says", for Sydney's Daily Mirror newspaper in 1963. She remained with the paper for sixteen years, until billionaire Kerry Packer asked her to become fashion editor of Australian Women's Weekly magazine in 1981, and she soon became the public face of the magazine, frequently appearing on its cover and television advertising. Tabberer stayed with Women's Weekly for fifteen years until 1996.

Tabberer began appearing on television in 1964, as the "beauty" on panel talk show Beauty and the Beast (the "beast" being the show's host: Eric Baume until 1965, and then Stuart Wagstaff). Tabberer's appearances on Beauty and the Beast made her a household name, and she began hosting her own daily chat show, Maggie, for which she won two consecutive Gold Logies, in 1970 and 1971. She was the first person to win back-to-back awards, although Graham Kennedy had already won three non-consecutive Gold Logies by 1970.