Annette Sharp: John Singleton and Kim Dennis join Jack Cowin’s birthday cruise

Is John Singleton about to make Kim Dennis the seventh Mrs Singo? The pair have joined Hungry Jack’s billionaire Jack Cowin and his wife Sharon for a spin in their $70 million superyacht, writes Annette Sharp.

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea is a story of one man’s symbolic quest to land the catch of a lifetime against all odds.

In a turbulent sea, the frail and ageing hunter puts his life on the line to conquer his prize and greatest desire, a marlin fish that eventually succumbs.

And so this week we travel across the oceans to the North Sea off Norway where Australian advertising legend John Singleton is engaged in a similarly visceral duel with the woman who aspires to become the next and seventh Mrs Singo, former Macquarie Media radio sales rep Kim Dennis.

Of course just who the hunter is, and who the prey, in this battle is a question for the ages.

Singo and Dennis are the guests of Hungry Jack’s founder and self-made billionaire Jack Cowin, one of Singleton’s closest friends and a man he never “glassed” despite an opportunistic paparazzo attempting to suggest otherwise after the two men were photographed lunching together at Sydney’s Finger Wharf in 2015, a broken glass in evidence.

Jack Cowin outside the Slipstream, where he is celebrating his 80th birthday with 50 nearest and dearest. Picture: Jack Cowin/BoatInternational.com

Cowin and his wife Sharon are celebrating joint birthdays on board Cowin’s beautiful $70 million superyacht, Slipstream.

Cowin, who turned 80 last week, has charted a course through the northern seas from Edinburgh to Denmark and invited 50 friends and family members, including four children and 12 grandchildren, to join the couple on their splendid 60m pleasure craft, just one of two luxury yachts Cowin owns.

The businessman recently said that in two decades of boating he and wife Sharon have only spent a couple of nights by themselves on either yacht.

“Some people probably like the peace and quiet of their own company,” he said. “But I get off on being around people that I like.”

The festival of Jack began a week ago with dinner on board the Queen’s royal yacht Britannia, now a tourist attraction in Edinburgh.

With Slipstream sleeping 14 guests in seven cabins (plus 15 crew), guests have been staggering their stays on board the vessel, which features all manner of toys, including a cinema, jacuzzi, barbecue area (where Cowin presumably grills hamburgers), bar, gymnasium, karaoke, smoke and bubble machines, water slide and sailboat.

(Clockwise from top left): John Singleton, Kim Dennis, Robert Whyte and Alessandra Eddy.

But back to the great collision of natural forces that continues to pitch older rich males into a dance with younger, more vigorous less wealthy woman.

Singleton and Dennis have been keeping company for over a year, with some commenting on how quickly this relationship started after her previous relationship with Singo’s employee, radio commentator Steve Price, ended.

While Singleton, 80, and divorced 50-ish mother-of-two Dennis are engaged in a courting ritual in the North Sea, in the Mediterranean last week property developer and investor Robert Whyte, Singleton’s former business partner, was seemingly engaged in a similar ritual on board James Packer’s IJE with fashion marketer Alessandra Eddy.

Eddy is believed to be half the age of 79-year-old Whyte.

Word was sketchy last week on how noted ladies’ man Whyte, a great friend of Packer’s late father, was going with his conquering quest.

One thing is certain, like Hemingway’s old fisherman Santiago, while there is breath
in both men, the hunt is bound to continue.

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