Burgess boys’ mum breaks own new boyfriend rule
Many powerful men have been knocked down in their prime by her four man-mountain sons so one imagines it is only the bravest and hardiest of souls who hits on Burgess family matriarch Julie.
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Many powerful men have been knocked down in their prime by her four man-mountain sons — among them the eye-gouged Tigers star Robbie Farah (George), Cronulla’s Matt Moylan (Sam), Newcastle Knight’s Daniel Saifiti (Tom) and an Arizona security guard (Luke), not to mention a veritable who’s who of other rugby league stars including Billy Smith, Aidan Sezer, Josh Morris, Luke Bateman, Will Chambers and Andrew Fifita. So one imagines it is only the bravest and hardiest of souls who hits on Burgess family matriarch Julie.
Which might explain why Julie Burgess is currently introducing a new suitor to friends.
Julie, who was once sighted in a cosy embrace with South Sydney owner Russell Crowe at an Ed Sheeran concert prompting talk she was romantically involved with Crowe — son Sam denied it — clearly has a type.
Standing at about 190cm, the 58-year-old likes strong, tall men who look physically capable of defending themselves — as might be required if they were ever to be tapped on the shoulder by Julie at 2am and asked to drag themselves out of bed, leap in the family SUV and go round up her robust lads Luke, Sam, George and Tom after a big night of carousing on the town.
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Close sources say being Julie’s plus-one is not for the faint hearted. First you have to pass muster with Julie’s boys — whose standards are famously hit and miss.
Naturally it’s handy if you also support South Sydney.
Julie has been a resident of Sydney since late 2012 when she relocated from West Yorkshire, England, after film-star Crowe recruited all four of her sons to South Sydney Leagues Club.
Bunnies supporters quickly fell in love with the full-throated and smiling “Mrs B”, who, it was widely reported, had nursed husband Mark, the boys’ father, before his untimely death in 2007, aged 45, following a cruel diagnosis of motor neurone disease.
In reality, the couple had separated before Mark’s diagnosis and Julie taken up with a new man.
With Crowe’s help, the school teacher would make her escape from England and her roots and secure a job at prestigious Scots College in Bellevue Hill where Crowe’s own sons attend school.
The rumours of romance with Crowe — and intense media interest in her boys’ football careers — likely forced Julie to go to ground with subsequent relationships.
A four-year live-in relationship with a local policeman went all but undetected by media until the copper escorted Julie to Sam’s wedding to Phoebe Hooke in 2015 and was sighted in the background smiling in photos at Julie’s side.
Sources have told this writer that relationship ended bitterly in 2018.
Julie then met an interstate businessman who once again she managed to keep out of the prying media spotlight.
Now it turns out that relationship ended before Christmas.
She must be feeling secure in her new relationship because last week she broke her own rule by showing off her new mystery man at son Tom’s engagement party to Tahlia Giumelli, the pretty model-mother of his six-month-old baby daughter, Sophie.
From the photo, we can see Julie’s latest suitor is a man of good humour.
He must be. What straight middle-aged bloke wants to pair white with white — and white shoes?
Certainly none over 30 I know.
But then Mrs B clearly can be very persuasive and surely has a tremendous sense of humour herself, for how else does she keep wrangling her boys out of trouble and keep putting those scandal-prone headlines behind her?
With any luck, the new mystery man might survive the year and outlast the South Sydney bubble that picked up Julie’s family and carried it halfway around the world a decade ago to Australia where life, given the celebrity spotlight, has never been the same.
Annette.sharp@news.com.au
Twitter: @InSharpRelief