Former Adelaide real estate queen Cathy Jayne Pearce goes from BRW rich-lister to suburban mum

THE A-list parties, designer clothes and glamorous lifestyle have all vanished for one-time hotshot Adelaide property developer Cathy Jayne Pearce — now she’s a mum to eight in a modest suburban home.

Cathy Jayne Hogben (formerly Pearce) with husband Daniel and children Jacob, 1, and Levi, 4, at their modest suburban home. Picture: Matt Turner.

THE A-list parties, designer clothes and glamorous lifestyle have all vanished for one-time hotshot Adelaide property developer Cathy Jayne Pearce.

Instead, the former BRW rich-lister is mother to eight in a modest suburban home and helping run a Richmond pawn shop.

Now 43, she split from former real estate tycoon Myles Pearce in 2011 and last week ended a decade of legal wrangles when fraud charges against her were dropped in the Brisbane District Court.

Having taken her partner Daniel Hogben’s surname, she was wrangling their boys Jacob and Levi, aged one and three, when The Advertiser yesterday visited their self-described “Brady Bunch” house in the southwestern suburbs.

Former property developer Cathy Jayne Pearce in front of her old home, ‘The Myrtles’ in Medindie.

Ms Hogben apologises for the soft toys and games strewn over the floor — like any home to young children. It’s a far cry from the $5.2 million Medindie mansion she shared with Mr Pearce, The Myrtles.

“Life is very, very different, gone are all the gala parties, all those sort of things, all the Moet, all the trappings of financial success and wealth have gone,” she told The Advertiser in an exclusive interview.

“I’m just happy these days. Life is simple but life is good. I’m very appreciative of what I’ve got.”

Cathy Jayne Pearce inside the luxurious home she used to live in.

In Ms Hogben’s heyday, BRW listed her worth at $19 million.

Her development company specialised in buying blocks of units, for renovation and sale.

Ms Hogben was at the centre of a number of court battles spanning almost 10 years after her Adelaide company, Metamorphosis, was placed in liquidation with debts of $400,000.

She moved to the Gold Coast in 2006, and three years later declared bankruptcy and moved back to Adelaide.

Cathy Jayne on the day of her wedding to real estate agent Myles Pearce.

Cathy Jayne pictured outside the Adelaide Magistrates Court.

Ms Hogben says all the “very draining” court actions against her were all either “stayed, dismissed or thrown out”.

Her marriage to Mr Pearce — now a Brighton-based real estate agent who declined to comment — collapsed in 2011 after, she says, several years of high stress.

Cathy Jayne pictured at Glenelg before the launch of her book, titled ‘Riches to Rags’.

“The sheer pressure of all of the court matters meant that our marriage crumbled and I found this the saddest part,” she said.

Ms Hogben discharged bankruptcy in 2012 and, since, has been raising her and Daniel’s two young boys.

Cathy Jayne in 2000.

She also mothers her and Mr Pearce’s two adult children and a boy, 12. She is stepmother to Daniel’s three boys, aged 12, 10 and eight.

The couple have owned a Victor Harbor motel and now are running a pawnbroker business at South Rd, Richmond.

Asked where she is now in life, Ms Hogben has a simple response: “I now have a Brady Bunch home and am loving being a mother without all of the same pressures”.