Celebrity agent Robyn Gardiner’s world has collapsed — she is bankrupt and her husband jailed as a paedophile

CELEBRITY agent’s private life has fallen apart having been declared bankrupt after one of her companies crashed owing more than $28m and husband Robert Hughes is jailed as a paedophile.

SHE IS part of Australian theatre royalty, with A-list Hollywood stars like Cate Blanchett, Anthony LaPaglia and Rose Byrne as clients and friends.

But even as Blanchett was thanking her agent in front of an international audience just two months ago as she won her latest Oscar, Robyn Gardiner’s private life had fallen apart.

She has been declared bankrupt in Singapore, one of her companies crashed owing more than $28 million, she had to sell the talent company that bears her name — RGM Artists — and her husband Robert Hughes is behind bars as a convicted paedophile.

“She and Robert are ruined, they don’t have any assets. They have nothing, they are broke,” Hughes’ ­solicitor Greg Walsh said yesterday.

Robert Hughes' wife Robyn Gardiner arrives at the Downing Centre during his trial

After four years of standing by his side after her husband’s vile behaviour on the set of Hey Dad! became public in 2010, Gardiner was noticeably ­absent in a packed courtroom when he was sentenced earlier this month.

Hughes, 65, was jailed for a maximum of 10 years and nine months with a non-parole period of six years for sexually abusing four young girls over a 20-year period.

While Gardiner maintains her ­silence, Walsh said that, far from ­deserting Hughes, it was something the couple had discussed at length with each other and with him.

Gardiner felt it was better to be in London with her daughter Jessica and grandchildren. Both Gardiner, 63, and Jessica, 36, gave evidence in ­Hughes’ defence.

Actress Cate Blanchett celebrates her Academy Award at Loews Hollywood Hotel on March 2, 2014

“We knew it was going to be a difficult day and we didn’t want her to be under any more stress,” Walsh said.

“We appreciated members of the media would perceive it as being a lack of support for Robert but that was not the case.’’

Hughes has indicated he will ­appeal his convictions and sentence. Gardiner’s continuing support for her husband of 40 years, despite his conviction on 10 counts of sexually abusing young girls, has split the Australian theatre world.

Her friendship with former casting agent Liz Mullinar was one casualty.

Mullinar was called in by the Seven Network in 1994 to recast Hughes’ character in the top-rating TV show after allegations emerged he had been sexually abusing young cast members.

“She (Gardiner) didn’t believe me then and obviously she’s sticking by her husband now,” Mullinar said after Hughes’ convictions.

Newcastle-born Gardiner founded Robyn Gardiner Management in 1982 and built it into the country’s go-to agency as its stable of Aussie actors made it big in the US.

Aussie actor Anthony LaPaglia

Aussie actress Rose Byrne

Her instinct for talent spotting led her to snap up Cate Blanchett in 1992 as the actor graduated from the ­National Institute of Dramatic Art.

By the late 1990s, Gardiner represented the cream of Australian talent with 300 actors, directors, writers and voice artists on her books.

In 2005 Gardiner moved her RGM Group to Singapore with backing from the Singapore Government’s Media Development Authority, which wanted to develop Singapore as a “vibrant global media city”.

Hughes moved to the Asian city-state with her, making an income from voiceovers as the couple lived quietly in a Singapore townhouse.

The fledgling conglomerate, in partnership with Indian producer Devesh Chetty, made three straight-to-DVD movies which received mixed reviews — The Girl in the Park with Sigourney Weaver, Just Buried, a black comedy, and Winged Creatures.

It also owned the rights for a Point Break remake, the movie starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze.

The MDA poured over $21 million into Gardiner’s companies between 2005 and 2010, including joint ventures with Fox and Sony, according to Singapore Supreme Court documents.

It was March 2010 when the claims about Hughes became public after actor Sarah Monaghan, a Hey Dad! regular, spoke out. As police set up a strike force to investigate the claims, RGM Media was about to list on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Celebrity agent Robyn Gardiner

It later changed its name to One North Entertainment and, despite being kept alive by a bond issue in 2011, went into voluntary administration in July 2012. It was delisted from the ASX on August 30, 2012, with a paid-up capital of $28,336,510, which was lost to investors, according to its ­administrators PKF Lawler. Negotiations are continuing with creditors and One North is hoping to relist on the ASX. Legal action continues in Singapore.

That same month Hughes was ­arrested in London, where the couple had an apartment in trendy Bryanston Square, and extradited to Australia.

In October, RGM Media was wound up in Singapore but not before it sold its only money-making asset, RGM Artist Group. It was bought by former Network Ten chief executive Grant Blackley and Nine Entertainment Group director Hugh Marks.

Gardiner remains as a salaried consultant, for which it is believed she is paid $120,000 a year. The rights to Point Break 2 have been sold.

Third from the bottom of the bankruptcy list from the Singapore Government Gazette for October 18, 2012, is the name Robyn Lynette Gardiner. She was bankrupt no 878 of 2012.

It is a story few who watched the March Oscars ceremony, when Blanchett won Best Actor for Blue Jasmine, would have known.

In her speech Blanchett said: “To my agent in Australia, Robyn Gardiner, I love you so very much.”