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THEY say timing is everything. And that could not be more true for New York-based Sydney model Ethan Turnbull.
Turnbull, 24, moved to the Big Apple to further his modelling career ... and gained global exposure for saving drowning teenagers from the pond in Central Park.
Buff and tanned Turnbull has been given the sort of instantaneous celebrity anyone launching a modelling career could only dream of.
He was labelled a “hero” after he and his mate, Los Angeles-raised model Bennett Jonas, 23, pulled the group of teens — including one who was unconscious — to safety after they fell into the ice-covered lake.
“The fame is new and I’m not 100 per cent sure how to deal with it,” Turnbull told News Corp Australia.
“I definitely don’t think I’m a hero ... I was in the right place, at the right time.”
Turnbull and Jonas saw the seven teens taking selfies on the ice before they fell through it, and became submerged in the freezing water around 6pm Monday, local time.
“We were going over there to tell them to get off ... and ended up going in there to get them out,” Turnbull said.
“I got in (to the water) and my fingertips went numb and I got an ache in my hips ... because it was so cold. It was absolutely freezing.”
The DIY rescue lasted around 20 minutes, Turnbull said, “from seeing them fall in to being ushered up to the ambulance”.
“But in the actual water, I was probably in for a minute.”
Since news broke of the dramatic rescue, Turnbull — who has only been living in New York for two-and-a-half months — has become hot property online. He now has 120,000 followers on Instagram — a figure that is climbing.
But he said the attention he’s received since the incident has been “confronting”.
“I’ve been contacted from every angle, from friends and family, and randoms from my Instagram, with love and support for what I did,” Turnbull said.
Turnbull, who describes himself as a “go-getter”, moved to the East Village after travelling back and forth between Sydney and New York for the last two years. He’s spent recent weeks attending castings for commercial shoots and his social media feed suggests his specialty is posing shirtless.
“I’m just here to try and see what works and see what happens,” Turnbull said of his ambitions.
“I’d love to go on The Ellen Show and meet the children. That would be an honour.
“There’s two kinds of models — there’s the commercial and high fashion.
“The commercial tend to do the body stuff, like Bonds, for example, then the high fashion guys might walk for Prada.
“Hopefully, I might be able to do both. We’ll wait and see.”
Turnbull has already gained a celebrity following, including Today co-host Lisa Wilkinson, who was clearly impressed by his looks.
“He is quite the dish,” Today newsreader Deborah Knight said, to which Wilkinson agreed, “he certainly is”. Wilkinson then said she had been “sidetracked” by Turnbull’s buff Instagram photos on Today.
“If you’re a hot-blooded woman under the age of 25, I’d suggest following him on Instagram,” Wilkinson said.
So what did Turnbull make of it? “I found that quite funny, actually,” Turnbull said.
“I’d love to see her face-to-face and actually have a chat to her rather than let her sit there ‘gushing’ ... over my Instagram.”
Originally published as ‘Hero’ model hot property after rescue
