Rich, high-profile men push for ex-wives to give back surnames

What’s a name worth? Plenty, if the name happens to be Packer or Keating or Singleton or Pratt or Lew or Lowy, names synonymous with money and prestige that can open doors otherwise inaccessible to those named Wang, Khoury, Savva or Wilson.

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What’s a name worth? Plenty, if the name happens to be Packer or Keating or Singleton or Pratt or Lew or Lowy, names synonymous with money and prestige that can open doors otherwise inaccessible to those named Wang, Khoury, Savva or Wilson.

In years gone by, as tradition dictated, a Western woman would shed her own surname, her maiden name, when she married and take the name of her new husband, a custom begun around the ninth century that essentially stripped a woman of her legal rights as the husband and wife became “one” in the eyes of the law and their common property and children became, well, his.

Singleton with former wife Julie. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Since the 1970s progressive women have been pushing back against the custom, retaining their maiden names in increasing — though some may argue unromantic and less familial — numbers.

Now there comes a new movement, one being driven quietly by some men, prominent rich high-profile men among them, who would like the law changed to make women, post divorce, revert to their maiden names.

One who is passionate about the subject is serial divorcee and media investor John Singleton.

Without identifying which of his ex wives has motivated his move into unfamiliar waters — feminism — Singleton last week stated his views plainly.

“Women should go back to their maiden names after the marriage ends,” he said, sending a clear message to at least one of his six former wives. “Unless both agree to keeping it for the kids’ sake.”

Heloise Pratt and former husband Alex Waislitz.

Given most of Singleton’s ex-wives were independently successful women who retained their own names, Maggi Eckardt, Belinda Green and Liz Hayes among them — and a fourth was a de facto who never took Singleton’s name, Jennifer Murrant — it appears Singleton’s comment is intended for either first wife Margaret (who he adored) or sixth wife Julie Martin who dropped her maiden name when she married Singleton in 1997.

The Packer surname is like having a blank cheque for life socially and professionally

Julie later bore the multimillionaire three children before the couple divorced in 2006, with Martin receiving a lucrative divorce settlement reportedly worth somewhere between $20 and $50 million.

Another prominent rich Sydneysider, who did not wish to be identified for this column and whose ex-wife is not named here, confirmed that after negotiating a lucrative multi-million dollar divorce package through lawyers, he offered his ex-wife a $1 million incentive to revert to her maiden name.

“I was concerned she wasn’t living her life with the dignity and decorum best fitting my name and reputation,” he confided to friends.

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The woman consulted her lawyer about the offer before rejecting it.

Through her lawyer she is said to have informed her rich ex-husband she was more than happy to oblige — but for much more than $1 million.

It sounds like that’s where negotiations ended.

While James Packer’s first wife Jodhi Meares couldn’t ditch the Packer name fast enough following their 2002 divorce (Meares seeing the split as a spiritual reawakening and taking the opportunity to change the spelling of her Christian name from Jodie to Jodhi as well), Packer’s second wife Erica, mother to his three children, has kept the Packer name and with it all the prestige that it commands — a smart decision for her.

Her sister-in-law Gretel also reverted to the gold-minted Packer surname after a period as Gretel Barham during her first marriage to British financier Nick Barham.

“The Packer surname is like having a blank cheque for life socially and professionally,” said one A lister.

So too the Pratt surname with Melbourne philathropist Heloise Pratt back to using her maiden name soon after her marriage breakdown to Alex Waislitz.

Not all women enjoy being permanently annexed to their exes.

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating and ex wife Annita Keating at Gough Whitlam’s memorial service in 2014. Picture: Stephen Cooper

While former prime minister Paul Keating, a devout Catholic, may have preferred that his
ex-wife Annita had kept the Keating name following their marriage breakdown in 1998, the former flight attendant turned artist reverted to her maiden name, van Iersel, as soon as she could and years before the couple managed to formalise their divorce in 2008.

For those who grew up outside the 10km radius around Bellevue Hill and Toorak, the continued use of a rich ex-husband’s surname can help them to remain attached to a circle of friends and associates, a lifestyle, once out of reach — something some will argue they should be entitled to though it sounds like the marriage contracts of the future may soon reflect a husband’s concerns.