Georgie Copeland lost her fiancé in a crash before meeting Zach Bray. Now she opens up on the pain of losing love again after he died in the horrific Hunter Valley bus rollover

When Georgie Copeland's fiancé Lachlan Proctor died just before Christmas 2020, she didn't think she would find love again but she did - with Zach Bray.

Tragically, however, Mr Bray was one of 10 people who died in the NSW Hunter Valley bus crash in June 2023, and her world was ripped apart all over again.

On a new Darling, Shine! podcast hosted by her friend Ellidy Pullin, who has also known the pain of a beloved partner dying, Ms Copeland opened up about the moment she found out about Mr Bray's tragic death.

As she and Zach had only just got back together after some time apart, she was not at the wedding at Wandin Estate in Lovedale, but found out in an awful way that he was one of the victims.

On the podcast, Ms Copeland said her mum asked her on a phone call if she'd heard about the wedding bus that had crashed in the Hunter Valley.

Her response was that she just knew: 'Zach was on that bus.'

When Georgie Copeland's fiancé died aged 30 just before Christmas 2020, she didn't think she would find love again but she did, with Zach Bray

Zach Bray (pictured) was one of 10 people who died in the NSW Hunter Valley bus crash in June 2023, and Georgie Copeland's world was ripped apart again

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Ms Copeland had her wedding to her fiance Mr Proctor planned, and they were discussing how many children they hoped to have.

But he died from complications after a major crash on December 4, 2020, aged just 30.

She became suicidal and tried to take her own life, but after spending time at a private health facility in Byron Bay in northern NSW, she met Mr Bray.

The couple had some ups and downs, but in June 2023, they were back together.

'We had this beautiful date organised, it was going to be a big romantic reunion ... it was going to be this big thing and we were so excited,' she said.

'He had a wedding that he was going to the weekend before, in the Hunter Valley, so our date was the following weekend.'

She told Ms Pullin's podcast that she helped Mr Bray get ready for the wedding. 'He was Facetiming me ... and I was literally dressing him for the wedding,' she said

He sent her videos of himself on the dance floor and they were texting throughout the night, and then she went to bed.

The next morning, a Monday, there was no message from Zach.

'That was really weird because he is like one of those guys that does send you the "Good morning" text and lets you know they're thinking about you. It's nice.'

By midday, she still had not heard from him and thought he must have been hungover after a big night out.

She called her mum to explain how happy she was with her life. Her mother replied: 'You're absolutely right, you're absolutely right ... there's so many bad things that happen in this world.

'Did you hear about that awful accident in the Hunter Valley?'

Police inspect a bus on its side near the town of Greta following a crash in the Hunter Valley in which 10 people died

Ellidy Pullin (pictured) interviewed Georgie Copeland about grief on her Darling, Shine! podcast

Georgie replied: 'I went 'What?" And she went "Oh, there was a bus from a wedding", and I just stopped. I said "Mum, what are you talking about?"'

Ms Copeland said she realied the awful news straight away and told her mum: 'Zach was on that bus.'

'I just knew it. I just f***ing knew it.'

When she got home she started calling Mr Bray's phone, which rang, but was not answered.

'I didn't know if his family knew that we were back together, that we were starting again. I didn't know what they knew, but I just knew something was wrong and so I rang his mum.

'And Jackie answered and she was in tears and her and her brother were driving down to Singleton (in the Hunter Valley) and she was so shocked that I was calling because she didn't know whether to call me or not,' she said.

Ms Copeland said Zach's mother had known the couple was back together, 'But she knows what's happened to me in the past as well.'

She said she was thrown back into the same feelings she'd had after Mr Proctor died.

'I'll never understand the senselessness of how people's lives can be just ripped away like that. Beautiful, good people,' she said.

'I felt so lost and I went back to a very dark place. I thought, "I'm cursed." I also thought, excuse my language, "Who the f*** is going to want to date this girl?"

'I don't come with baggage, I come with a proper griefcase. I have got a whole lot of s***,' she told the podcast.

She went travelling overseas to help deal with the tragedy. 'I just started saying yes to everything. Life is short, tomorrow is not damn promised.

'You go to bed one moment, you wake up and anything could happen.'

Georgie Copeland is pictured with her fiancé Lachlan Proctor, who died in December 2020

Zach Bray (right), who was one of the 10 people who died in the 2023 Hunter Valley bus crash, is pictured with his father, Adam

Despite everything she has been through, Ms Copeland is happy.

'If I did die tomorrow, I know that I'm happy, because I actually take everything in a way of gratitude. I'm just so lucky.

'I am lucky to have been loved by Lachie Proctor. I am lucky to have known Zach Bray. I am so f***ing lucky. I'm not cursed. I'm the luckiest human alive,' she said.

'I want people to know how low someone can get. I'm not special, I'm like every other person. I've just had some terrible things happen to me, as do other people.'

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