Brit Pack Interviews
ZENA GIBBS
Name: Zena Gibbs
Profession: Real Estate Investor, Photographer
Current Residence: Chicago & Miami
Previous residence: Canary Wharf, London
Left UK in: 2008
Zena Gibbs must sometimes feel like she’s morphed into a completely different person. One minute she’s recording tracks with the likes of Beenie Man and Swizz Beats and interviewing A-List celebrities, the next she’s cooking dinner for her husband’s mates and inspecting properties in Miami.
The media spotlight that was a daily part of Zena’s former life might sound like bliss for some but for the Birmingham-born ex-singer it isn’t what has brought her ultimate happiness.
She began her showbiz career as one-third of British female group Mis-teeq. After embarking on a solo career in 2002 and several presenting gigs (including a successful stint in 2007 as co-host of BBC 1xtra’s Breakfast show, alongside Trevor Nelson) she decided to pack it all in and follow her heart.
“My husband’s from Miami, but I met him in England, he was playing for Charlton Athletic,” she tells me. “We were engaged in March 2008, married in July and in August that year he was traded to an American soccer league and had to move to Denver. I’d never even considered leaving England. I was really enjoying doing the breakfast show but there was no question about whether I’d join him or not.”
And so began one of the biggest and most fulfilling chapters in Zena’s life. Nervous but excited to be starting a new adventure with her husband, international soccer player Cory Gibbs, Zena took the leap and hasn’t looked back.
Since then, she’s moved several times and is now a successful real estate investor and photographer, splitting her time between businesses in Miami and Chicago. But she wasn’t always so busy.
“The worst part, when I first moved to Denver, was not having anything to do,” she reveals. “To come to the States and just be a wife was hard. Cory was travelling a lot and I didn’t have a social security number so I couldn’t work. Denver is a beautiful city but there’s not really much to do and to come from the hustle and bustle of London, it drove me crazy for a bit.”
She admits she found it hard to find female friends at first too and didn’t have much in common with the girlfriends of her husband’s Denver teammates. But with a supportive partner and regular visits from her British family she began to settle into American life. And that meant realizing she needed to change her career goals.
“I would have to start from scratch over here as an unknown artist and age isn’t on my side either,” she acknowledges. “All I’d known was entertainment so it was hard to let that go, but to be honest I don’t miss the constant competition of that business, the need to try and stay on top all the time.”
Profession: Real Estate Investor, Photographer
Current Residence: Chicago & Miami
Previous residence: Canary Wharf, London
Left UK in: 2008
Zena Gibbs must sometimes feel like she’s morphed into a completely different person. One minute she’s recording tracks with the likes of Beenie Man and Swizz Beats and interviewing A-List celebrities, the next she’s cooking dinner for her husband’s mates and inspecting properties in Miami.
The media spotlight that was a daily part of Zena’s former life might sound like bliss for some but for the Birmingham-born ex-singer it isn’t what has brought her ultimate happiness.
She began her showbiz career as one-third of British female group Mis-teeq. After embarking on a solo career in 2002 and several presenting gigs (including a successful stint in 2007 as co-host of BBC 1xtra’s Breakfast show, alongside Trevor Nelson) she decided to pack it all in and follow her heart.
“My husband’s from Miami, but I met him in England, he was playing for Charlton Athletic,” she tells me. “We were engaged in March 2008, married in July and in August that year he was traded to an American soccer league and had to move to Denver. I’d never even considered leaving England. I was really enjoying doing the breakfast show but there was no question about whether I’d join him or not.”
And so began one of the biggest and most fulfilling chapters in Zena’s life. Nervous but excited to be starting a new adventure with her husband, international soccer player Cory Gibbs, Zena took the leap and hasn’t looked back.
Since then, she’s moved several times and is now a successful real estate investor and photographer, splitting her time between businesses in Miami and Chicago. But she wasn’t always so busy.
“The worst part, when I first moved to Denver, was not having anything to do,” she reveals. “To come to the States and just be a wife was hard. Cory was travelling a lot and I didn’t have a social security number so I couldn’t work. Denver is a beautiful city but there’s not really much to do and to come from the hustle and bustle of London, it drove me crazy for a bit.”
She admits she found it hard to find female friends at first too and didn’t have much in common with the girlfriends of her husband’s Denver teammates. But with a supportive partner and regular visits from her British family she began to settle into American life. And that meant realizing she needed to change her career goals.
“I would have to start from scratch over here as an unknown artist and age isn’t on my side either,” she acknowledges. “All I’d known was entertainment so it was hard to let that go, but to be honest I don’t miss the constant competition of that business, the need to try and stay on top all the time.”
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After a year and a half in Denver, Zena and her husband moved to Boston. A year later, Cory was traded to the Chicago Fire soccer team.
It’s not a life everyone could handle. The constant upheaval; staying in hotels for weeks; being miles away from family and friends, but its obvious Zena has the perfect character for it. “You have to be a certain type of person. I’m a very spontaneous person, someone who takes chances,” she asserts. “I make it look easy but it’s not easy.” Especially when the waves of home-sickness hit. But despite those moments she doesn’t ever see herself going back to live in England. It’s been a couple of years since she last visited. |
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“I was just thinking about how happy I am now,” she says reflectively. “It’s really only in the last year or so that I feel I’ve come into my own. Back then I thought I was happy but I was no way near as happy then as I am now, not even half way. I’ve done a lot of growing since I’ve moved to America.”
Zena won’t know until the end of the year if she’ll have to move again but, unlike 4 years ago, transporting her life to another city has become like second nature to her. And if she does start feeling like a drifter Zena can always return to Florida, where the couple keep all their personal belongings in a house in West Palm Beach and a condo in Miami.
Right now though, she loves what she does and has established a close group of friends in Chi-town.
“Chicago is amazing, it reminds me of London, it’s very diverse. We’ve got a really good social circle here. I’m hoping we’re here for another couple of years. It just feels like home now.”
Zena Gibbs is the director of GibbsWorldRealty, a property investment and real estate company; www.gibbsworldrealty.com.
She also runs a fashion and glamour photo agency GibbsWorld Photography; www.zenagibbsphotography.com.
Zena won’t know until the end of the year if she’ll have to move again but, unlike 4 years ago, transporting her life to another city has become like second nature to her. And if she does start feeling like a drifter Zena can always return to Florida, where the couple keep all their personal belongings in a house in West Palm Beach and a condo in Miami.
Right now though, she loves what she does and has established a close group of friends in Chi-town.
“Chicago is amazing, it reminds me of London, it’s very diverse. We’ve got a really good social circle here. I’m hoping we’re here for another couple of years. It just feels like home now.”
Zena Gibbs is the director of GibbsWorldRealty, a property investment and real estate company; www.gibbsworldrealty.com.
She also runs a fashion and glamour photo agency GibbsWorld Photography; www.zenagibbsphotography.com.
