How Andy Lee and his model partner Rebecca Harding plan to restore derelict mansion

The funnyman and his influencer partner opened the doors to their crumbling $8.5m mansion — but won’t be living in it any time soon.

Ever since TV and radio personality Andy Lee and model Rebecca Harding’s first official appearance as a couple more than seven years ago, the public (and their families) have been eager for them to marry, raise a family, get a dog and buy a house. Well, they’ve taken care of the last two. Sort of. At a photo shoot – their first as a couple – on the grounds of the historic Melbourne mansion they bought last year, Lee and Harding tell Stellar about being the non-marrieds in their friendship group, the one prank he’s no longer allowed to pull, and the ambitious home renovation they’re about to tackle.

On an icy Melbourne morning, production crew in puffer jackets are clutching hot drinks and shivering.

Rebecca Harding, wearing a stunning (albeit skimpy) ensemble, has no such fortifications against the biting chill for her first major photo shoot with partner Andy Lee.

Yet there isn’t a word of complaint as the model smiles, poses and playfully banters with Lee about whether or not her towering heels have finally given her the height advantage.

Harding, in fact, is in her element, and Lee is more than happy to let her take the lead.

“Bec was loving [the shoot] sick and I was just making sure we were going to be finishing on time,” Lee quips to Stellar soon after they finish, adding that he’s the timekeeper in the relationship as he laments that Harding is forever running late.

Of course, without the uber-stylish Harding, Lee would still be slouching about in a T-shirt and thongs, he insists.

She has urged him to embrace a more sophisticated wardrobe, even wrangling him into a suit jacket that was white – “off white”, Lee quickly corrects, with a knowing glance at Harding – at this year’s Logies ceremony.

“Again, somebody else told me what to wear. She gives me advice with everything I put on, really. And she will say things like, ‘Oh, that could go soon,’ and I’ll be like, ‘That’s my favourite shirt… piss off!’”

“And then it mysteriously disappears,” Harding replies with a smile. “I was glad we had some good stylists today because normally he’d be like, ‘I am not wearing that.’”

Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding have purchased a derelict mansion in Melbourne’s Hawthorn. Picture: Cameron Grayson

Lee, 41, may have made his living onscreen for close to 20 years, but he tells Stellar it is Harding who is more at home in front of the camera.

That marks a distinct shift from the early days of their relationship, when she admittedly struggled to adjust to life in the spotlight.

Back then, in 2014, Harding was a university student who became an overnight celebrity when she and Lee attended the 2015 Australian Open together.

Finding the pressure of dating one of the nation’s most eligible bachelors too much, she briefly called it quits in 2016 but they got back together six months later.

“I’m 32 now,” she reflects. “So I feel like I’ve matured a bit. I think just being in [the spotlight] for a while, you get better at things the longer you’re doing them. I feel pretty comfortable now. I’m comfortable in my own skin.”

That surely has a lot to do with the fact that Harding, who has a master’s degree in media and communications, has since carved out a niche for herself as a model, brand ambassador and influencer.

“I wanted to make sure I had my own thing going on and that I wasn’t just the plus one,” she says. As for following in her partner’s footsteps? “I studied media comms, so I did dabble in a bit of that. But if the opportunity ever poked its head out, I’d give it a whirl.”

Lee, on the other hand, has always been a presenter at heart, she says, citing as evidence the video footage she recently unearthed of him as a boy presenting daily “news reports” on a family holiday.

“He’d start each one from a leather armchair and say something like, ‘Good morning, everyone, today is Thursday, December 26, and we’re going to be doing this…’,” Harding says.

“And I just thought you were born to do this, and I wondered how your parents could have ever thought you were going to be anything else.”

Yet it wasn’t until Lee met Hamish Blake in 2000 that he considered a media career. Before that – and although he had a love of what he calls “hijinks” – he had plans to become an accountant.

“You would have made accounting fun,” says Harding, noting that he adores a spreadsheet. “Logistics, I really like,” he agrees. “And I love infrastructure. If there’s a new road being built, I’ll be like, ‘Bec, check out this road...’

“When I met Hamish and realised how much we made each other laugh, I remember having the feeling that more people should see this,” he says of his long-time collaborator. “There was just this instant chemistry. I’ve said this before, but I feel like I won the lottery the day we crossed paths.”

It was a similarly instant attraction for Lee when he first met Harding at a Melbourne cafe where she was a waitress. Struck by her beauty and personable manner with customers, Lee left her a note including his email address on a napkin.

Andy Lee met Rebecca Harding at a Melbourne cafe in 2014. Picture: Cameron Grayson

Harding was initially hesitant but eventually they connected and now, eight years on, they have watched those around them get married and start families – all of which leads to inevitable speculation about when they might tie the knot.

The couple were even rumoured to have got married on the sly after an eagle-eyed fan spotted a wedding photo on a hall table in the background of an Instagram post.

“Yeah, that was my sister and my brother-in-law, and I was just really disappointed that people thought I looked like him,” Lee jokes. While the pair understand people’s interest, Lee is in no hurry to make anything official.

“Some people find those milestones [like marriage] super important in their lives,” he says. “But they’re not for everyone.”

It’s harder, of course, for women in these situations. Think of Kate Middleton, who was cruelly dubbed “Waity Katie” by the British press before marrying Prince William.

Harding nods in thoughtful agreement at this, and says, “It is really unfair and there is also other pressure to have kids, as well. And unfortunately for women, we do have a little bit of a clock that’s ticking.”

At one stage, Lee grew so sick of the gossip about when he would pop the question that whenever he spotted the paparazzi, he would get down on bended knee in front of an embarrassed Harding.

“I did it at the luggage carousel at Melbourne airport once,” he says, before breaking into laughter as Harding rolls her eyes in mock disgust. “But I’ve now been told that the joke has to be shelved.”

Earlier this month, Harding finally got her chance to turn the tables when she called Lee during a live radio appearance with The Kyle & Jackie O Show and told him she had agreed on his behalf to let him be put up for auction at a charity event.

When he refused, the pair got into a heated argument before she revealed it was all a ruse.

“Yes, I finally got him,” Harding tells Stellar. “I think that takes the tally to 783 for Andy, one for me.”

Lee, on the other hand, thinks his score is much higher. He admits, “It was impossible for me to be angry with Bec, because Hamish and I have pranked her several thousand times on our shows.”

Lee’s enduring bromance with Blake may have put him on the map with Australian audiences, but it is his romantic life that has made constant headlines – from being named Cleo Bachelor of the Year in 2006 to his four-year relationship with model Megan Gale.

But beyond the media, even his family has kept up the pressure when it comes to matters of the heart. He remembers being grilled about his love life while he was sitting by his grandmother Marnie’s deathbed.

“My auntie asked me if I was seeing anyone special because I had been single for a long time,” Lee recalls. “And before I could answer, Marnie answered, ‘He’s too busy’ – without even opening her eyes.”

Harding quickly adds: “And I feel like that’s our answer, too, at the moment. We’re loving where we’re at, really. We’ve bought a house. We’ve got a dog [the couple adopted a Welsh terrier named Henrietta last June], and we have a few other projects, too.”

Rebecca Harding: “We’re loving where we’re at” Picture: Cameron Grayson.

Those projects include restoring a derelict 1876 mansion overlooking the Yarra River in Melbourne’s leafy Hawthorn, which they purchased last year for a reported $8.5 million.

While the current occupants of the two-storey property, where Lee and Harding posed for their shoot with Stellar, are various pigeons and rodents, the couple recognised its potential the minute they set foot inside its crumbling walls.

“My mum saw it on [the news] and sent it to me as a joke saying, ‘I think I found your house,’” Lee recalls.

“Then we were driving past it one day and there was an inspection on, so we went in… and a week later it was ours. I’m not sure what sold it for Bec, but for me, while the house is stunning, it was those last few steps down to the Yarra, right on the bend. And it’s so peaceful.”

Lee had long dreamed of owning a house on the riverfront, and hopes to eventually have a private jetty from which they can go kayaking.

“We’re so excited to have this house in what I believe is the best city in the world,” he says.

“Hamish knows that [Melbourne is the best], too. And he’ll be back. I’ve always wanted a place on the Yarra, and Bec has, too. I talked to Hamish about this [dream] probably 12 years ago now.”

While they began their careers as a double act, Lee and Blake have since branched out into solo projects, Lee on his celebrity survey series The Hundred With Andy Lee, which is in its third season (airing Tuesdays at 8.45pm on the Nine Network and 9Now), and Blake as the host of Lego Masters.

But recording their podcast Hamish & Andy still gives them time together following Blake’s relocation to Sydney last year with his wife, author and skincare entrepreneur Zoë Foster Blake, and their young children, Sonny and Rudy.

Naturally, the long-time friends were two of the first to be introduced to Harding when they began dating, and the couples recently met up during separate holidays in Greece.

“It was great catching up with them but, you know, people go through different stages of life,” Lee says.

“They’ve got two little kids and generally eat dinner at 6pm, whereas Bec and I eat about 10.30pm, so even agreeing on a time to eat can be hard.

“Not just with Hamish and Zoë, but with a lot of friends who are deep in that family time. So we find ourselves gravitating towards our younger friends or our gay friends.”

And any hopes of hosting a late-night dinner party at their new house will have to be put on the backburner for a while.

While Harding says she would like to move into the house within the next 12 months, a more conservative Lee anticipates it could take years to complete the sizeable project; he has already begun pulling together a budget to tackle the fact the property doesn’t have a bathroom or kitchen, and is covered with scrawls of graffiti and peeling wallpaper.

Oh, and there are weeds growing out of the walls.

Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding star on the cover of this Sunday’s Stellar. Picture: Cameron Grayson

That hasn’t stopped them getting to know the neighbours, though.

Lee was recently filming in the property’s backyard with a drone when a nearby resident started squirting the drone with a hose, thinking he was saving the TV star from the prying eyes of the paparazzi.

“I had to say, ‘Thanks for the help, mate, but you can stop now because that’s about $6000 of equipment you’re squirting,’” he says, giggling.

“But they’re lovely – and it’s a special spot to be.”