Annette Sharp: Are James Packer and human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson dating?
She’s a high-flying human rights barrister whose clients include Julian Assange and Amber Heard — and her growing closeness to James Packer is sparking romance rumours, writes Annette Sharp.
NSW
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James Packer’s growing friendship with Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, associate of Amal Clooney and Geoffrey Robertson, has sparked rumours of a potential love match.
The billionaire is said to have taken more than a passing interest in the Oxford-educated barrister who counts Julian Assange and Amber Heard among high profile clients and Amal Clooney and her husband George Clooney among her dearest friends.
Robinson, aged about 41, divides her time between London and Australia where she grew up at Berry on the south coast, and maintains a keen interest in horseracing thanks to her brother, father and grandfather’s horse training careers.
The one-time ANU student was recently in Australia catching up with family, promoting her new book How Many More Women?, and championing local causes including Assange and alleged Australian war crimes whistleblower David McBride.
Coincidentally Packer made a rare visit to Sydney last month, albeit with his ex-wife Erica and the couple’s children.
Sources were unable to confirm whether Packer, who managed to evade photographers for the entirety of his 10-day Sydney sojourn, caught up with Robinson during his visit home.
Packer has been single since splitting from Canadian/American model Kylie Lim two years ago. Robinson, meanwhile, keeps her romantic status on the down-low but is believed also to be currently single.
Given Packer’s history of dating fashion models almost exclusively — one rare and disastrous exception being showgirl Mariah Carey — his friendship with Rhodes scholar Robinson, champion of political prisoners, freedom fighters and embattled journos, is said to have set some in his close circle on edge.
If the investor were to embrace the noble causes close to someone like Robinson’s heart, what would it potentially mean to the Packer-funded party lifestyle to which his friends are accustomed?
Given Packer’s close attachment to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Robinson’s representation of Palestine-based journalists targeted by Israeli snipers, any road to romance is likely to be a bumpy one.
Sources for Packer have maintained the pair are just friends, though the billionaire is understood to deeply admire her.
Following his bruising loss of Crown Casino and exit from the Hollywood film industry, Packer, 55, has said he is now embarking on the uncharted “third chapter” of his life.
LEO CAN’T STOP LOVING DONATELLA
After 39 years of happily unwedded bliss, seventies pop star Leo Sayer has married his partner and manager Donatella Piccinetti in the Southern Highlands.
It is the second time the diminutive singer who has called Australia home since 2005 — has ventured down the aisle.
He was previously married, from 1973 to 1984 to Englishwoman Janice Lisseter, the woman credited with dubbing the singer, baptised Gerald, Leo.
It was in ’84 that Sayer met and fell for Italian-born restaurant manager Piccinetti, some 15 years his junior and with whom he would later migrate to Australia.
Best known for his seventies hits When I Need You, More Than I Can Say, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Sayer and Piccinetti were married in the garden of their family home at Berrima.
Celebrity celebrant Glen Marie Frost officiated and retired Double Bay cafe owner Graeme Goldberg served as best man, MC and co-organiser — “a veritable one-man band” he said later, referencing another of Sayer’s hit singles.
A party of 40 close friends celebrated with the couple, enjoying the short stroll through Berrima village to the nearby Magpie Restaurant for lunch after the morning ceremony.
Piccinetti, 59, is credited with helping to save Sayer from bankruptcy in the late eighties after he discovered he was missing out on royalties due to him.
Sayer has said Australia revived his career and the 74-year-old is currently preparing for a forthcoming east coast tour which kicks off next month.
Following the marriage, Donatella has taken her new husband’s surname.
KARL MISSING FROM GOLD COMMITTE
Notably absent from the organising committee of one of Sydney’s most glittering social events, the upcoming 2023 Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation Gold Dinner, is former committee member and serial showpony Karl Stefanovic.
Stefanovic was appointed to the committee in 2019 in an attempt by organisers to create some positive spin for the fundraising event, which, since its inception, has raised $39m.
The Today anchor remained on the committee until 2021 — the year Chris and Liam Hemsworth attended, but were reportedly embarrassed when photographs were dropped to media without approval.
Given the negative press Stefanovic has had — owing to his involvement in a park fracas with Michael Clarke and confirmation he’d been given a formal warning by Queensland police after allegedly “touching” a male bartender at a charity event — it’s probably not surprising. The ball is on May 4.
Got a news tip? Email annette.sharp@news.com.au
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