Kaia Wright: Meet the woman behind the Outback Wrangler – who has now been caught up herself in legal dramas

Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his model wife Kaia have built a seemingly idyllic life in the Top End thanks to the success of their hit show.

Their social media feeds, which have a combined audience of almost a million people, are packed with photos of their adventurous – and often glamorous – lifestyle in the outback with their two young children.

For example, in a recent photo, Wright, 45, grins as he holds a huge Spanish mackerel with his adoring wife by his side during a recent family fishing trip.

Meanwhile, her own social media page is flooded with similarly happy family photos, boat excursions and sponsored posts about protein powder or skin products.

The casual observer would have absolutely no idea that they were both charged in connection with an airboat crash that left one woman with a fractured skull and seriously injured seven others.

The boat crashed on May 10, 2023 near Sweets Lagoon in the Bynoe region of the Northern Territory, about 118km south-west of Darwin.

Wright and his influencer wife, 35, are listed as directors of Top End Safari Camp adventure company that could be fined a total of more than $5 million over the incident after being charged by NT WorkSafe.

Mr and Mrs Wright have been charged with three breaches of the law and face a combined fine of up to $700,000 each.

It leaves another potentially costly lawsuit hanging over their heads.

The airboat crash is not related to a February 2022 helicopter crash that killed Wright’s Outback Wrangler co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson and also seriously injured pilot Sebastian Robinson.

Wilson, 34, was dangling from a helicopter to collect crocodile eggs in western Arnhem Land when the plane crashed into trees and crashed to the ground, killing him.

In 2023, Mr. Wilson’s widow, Danielle, initiated proceedings in federal court seeking damages for personal injuries and for the loss of her husband’s income.

Wright will stand trial from July 7 next year on charges relating to the helicopter crash investigation, which is expected to last eight weeks.

The Netflix celebrity pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice following the crash that killed Wilson.

The sole charge relates to alleged conduct in the aftermath of the crash in which Mr Wright was reportedly one of the first on the scene.

Not that you would be aware of this if you looked at Ms. Wright’s Instagram feed.

On Friday, the day after it emerged she could face a personal fine of $700,000 for alleged safety failures, Ms Wright shared a series of photos of herself and her family enjoying a stay at the five-star Calile Hotel in Brisbane.

They lounged by the pool all day before enjoying drinks and oysters at a glamorous rooftop bar.

It is understood the keen sportswoman and her family will travel on to Noosa where she will take part in the region’s world-famous triathlon on Sunday.

Mrs Wright, who stands a whopping 183cm tall, has never been by her husband’s side through the many trials since they first met in fairytale fashion eight years ago.

Kaia drank champagne on a boat off the coast of Rottnest Island in Western Australia in 2014, while criticizing her shocking love life with some close friends.

“I just hope an angel will fall from the sky,” she told them.

And then fate intervened.

“It just so happened that this helicopter just flew towards us and landed in front of us,” she later told Stellar Magazine about that first meeting with her future husband.

‘He was completely started. He put on some shorts and jumped out.”

They exchanged numbers on the first date – she put his next to ‘Big Kid’, he put hers next to ‘Legend’ – and a whirlwind romance ensued.

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, fifteen rescue crocodiles, 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 the Kimberley region of WA, where her parents worked in community development in Broome and Derby before attending high school in Perth.

She studied journalism at Sydney University – and later wrote her husband’s best-selling life story – before entering advertising.

She now juggles her family role with TV demands and a growing social media following that reaches almost 100,000 people who are kept up to date with her exciting and glamorous life in the outback.

Her Instagram account is a unique combination of nature and outback beauty, with each photo jumping from one subject to another.

It chronicles her life in the outback, one minute wrestling crocodiles and the next praising the latest hair care product as a brand ambassador.

Its popularity has soared thanks to Wright’s National Geographic adventure show, which has been running for a decade.

The series is shown in 100 countries where Wright has become a household name for many through his daring exploits.

The success has now led to a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix for the ten-episode first season of his new show, Wild Croc Territory, with a second season planned.

In the new production, Wright combines his on-screen adventures with a lucrative role as off-screen executive producer, alongside his wife’s agent Nick Fordham, brother of 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

They also run Top End Safari Camp, 120km south of Darwin, an $895-a-night luxury glamping experience in chic tents to give tourists a taste of Wright’s outback life.

The couple are also building a lavish new luxury designer home in Darwin.

“For us it’s quite interesting to live 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 what you have here a lot more.”