Annette Sharp: Paul Keating dating a Polish waitress young enough to be his daughter
Paul Keating has stunned friends by introducing them to a pretty new girlfriend — a Polish 30-something waitress young enough to be his daughter, writes Annette Sharp.
NSW
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Paul Keating has stunned friends by introducing them to a pretty new girlfriend young enough to be his daughter.
Sources close to the ex-prime minister refused to furnish this column with the woman’s name last week, but we hear Keating’s established love for refined European enhancements remains undiminished.
The woman now enjoying taking Mahler and cheese with PK in the evenings is described as a 30-something Polish waitress.
Sources have no idea how the couple met but Keating and the woman have been keeping company for some months, with Keating and his attractive new companion spotted together in January at his birthday celebrations.
Keating’s daughters to estranged wife Annita — Caroline, 45, Katherine, 42, and Alexandra, 39 — are said to be in full support of their 80-year-old father’s reinvigorating new love affair.
Also said to be in favour is Keating’s estranged wife, who today goes by her maiden name van Iersel.
Indeed, insiders claim the new love has prompted the Catholic Keating to weigh up what many once believed was unthinkable — obtaining a divorce from van Iersel, who he married in 1975.
The couple have been separated since 1998, but with divorce broadly still considered a sin by traditional Catholics, the devout Keating apparently never saw a need for it.
Possibly the passage of years has now prompted a rethink.
Conversely, van Iersel, so we hear, has for some time been a proponent of divorce.
Another who approves of Keating’s new love match is his former — and possibly only — other girlfriend, one-time actor Julieanne Newbould.
Newbould and Keating’s on-again off-again relationship has been over for some time.
His romance with Newbould is a subject about which Keating has long been touchy.
Back in 1999, the year after he and Annita formally separated, this columnist reported Keating had attended a performance at the Opera House with The Restless Years actor, Newbould, a former love of TV star George Negus.
Filling out the party of three at the Opera House was Keating’s sister Anne.
The couple left separately after the irascible Keating told off our social photographer at the door, barking at them to “get a real job”.
The following week Keating demanded a grovelling apology, which he received.
Apparently he didn’t much like Newbould being described as his “new lady companion”.
It would be another seven years before the next sighting of Keating and Newbould made the papers — that was in 2006 when the couple were spied looking at jewellery in the QVB, weeks after they were spotted dining together at Potts Point noshery Lotus.
It gave rise to speculation Keating might finally be planning on divorcing Annita, who he occasionally, and perhaps bitterly, has dubbed “the bride”.
By then, the single-again Annita was bravely giving interviews confirming her former husband had an “actor girlfriend”.
Keating and Newbould are believed to have finally separated — after a 17-year on-off relationship — in 2016, although their friendship lingered.
The age gap, just 13 years, is believed to have contributed to the pair calling it a day.
Upon reflection, perhaps he agrees and is of the view the age gap may have been too close and that a 40-year gap might be aces.
HOUSEWIFE’S CULINARY FARE MAY BECOME A THEATRE STAR
The Sydney Theatre Company could soon serve as a home away from home for Real Housewives of Melbourne star Chyka Keebaugh.
Keebaugh and her husband Bruce run successful catering company The Big Group down south and, according to theatre sources, the STC has been in talks with them to take on the lease at the company’s restaurant and bar.
The Keebaughs’ Bar Moubray at Melbourne’s Ormond House is a woody, masculine space that it’s believed would enhance the atmosphere at the STC, which is in need of a boost following the exodus of directors, donors and the coming departure of artistic director Kip Williams.
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Originally published as Annette Sharp: Paul Keating dating a Polish waitress young enough to be his daughter
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