Honey Birdette founder Eloise Monaghan to splash cash after $200m Playboy deal

The businesswoman behind Honey Birdette is treating herself after selling the lingerie chain to Playboy in a nine-figure deal.

A vintage car and a ranch in Texas sit atop the shopping list for lingerie retailer Eloise Monaghan who continues to absorb the magnitude of a deal that pocketed the sassy Sydneysider just over $200 million.

Fifteen years after starting her Honey Birdette lingerie and sex-toy business from her living room in Brisbane, Monaghan – along with business partner Brett Blundy – made global headlines after inking a deal with underwear giant The PLBY Group, the parent company of Playboy. The deal netted the pair a combined payday of $443 million last week.

The sale rocketed Monaghan – who until recently resided in a Surry Hills penthouse with wife Natalie – into a whole ‘mega-rich’ stratosphere the likes of which has been matched by only a handful of Aussie retailers and even fewer women.

Eloise Monaghan founded Honey Birdette 15 years ago. Picture: Florian Semanaz

Ms Monaghan with Playboy Enterprises CEO Ben Kohn. Picture: Supplied

It’s a select club that includes Decjubca founder Tania Austin whose net worth rings in at about $700m, as well as Mecca boss Jo Horgan ($320m) and Culture Kings streetwear mogul Tahnee Beard ($300m).

Monaghan, chatting from her newly adopted home in the US, admits to having travelled a monumental path since starting her business hosting sex toy and lingerie parties for tipsy hen night revellers.

“Driving around in my green Ford Festiva with no power steering, no airconditioning, going from party to party with a suitcase and ending up out in Bracken Ridge at (notorious dive bar) The Rum Jungle … oh my god,” she laughs. “(But) I knew I wanted to be successful and I knew I wanted to grow the business but I was also always very mindful of taking it one day at a time.

“I used to have this clipping I ripped from a magazine taped to my window at home that said; ‘Don’t try to slay the dragon all at once’. And I would think about that every day.

“And I look back now and I think ‘Would I change anything about that journey?’ And I can honestly say ‘Abso-f...ing-lutely not’.”

Monaghan has opted to stay on at Honey Birdette as creative director as part of the PLBY sale and will now be all but permanently based in Los Angeles. However she is currently shopping around for a Texas horse stud on which to splash som cash.

“I want to be like Beth Dutton sitting out on my big old ranch,” she says, referring to the feisty cattle heiress in country melodrama Yellowstone.

As for the old green Festiva, Monaghan says she has a new replacement in mind.

“I am not really a car person and I tend to prefer Ubers but I think I might pick up a beautiful little vintage car to replace the Festiva. And yes, definitely green.”