Former Neighbours star Nicola Charles exposes secret real lives of glam Toorak wives
Former Neighbours star Nicola Charles has her claws out for the heartless housewives of Toorak in a scandalous new book about the gold diggers prowling the 3142 heartland. Here are their secrets.
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Former Neighbours star Nicola Charles has her claws out for the heartless housewives of Toorak in a scandalous new book about the gold diggers prowling 3142 heartland.
The UK-born mother-of-three will release her second novel, The Witches of Toorak, later this month.
It’s reality turned fiction.
“I’ve lived in three continents and I’ve never seen women seek out what I call sponsor husbands as fervently as they do here in Australia.
“Particularly in Melbourne,” Charles told Page 13. “It’s a real Melbourne issue.”
Charles says many of the women in her book are based on real-life Toorak identities she has met. And just like her predatory, scheming claws-out-characters, Charles draws blood.
These women have allowed themselves to become pets, living sham, loveless, career marriages via their sponsor husbands.
“They are prepared to live in a way where they are essentially turned into a pet,” Charles said.
“Everything they eat is paid for by someone else. Everything they wear is paid for by someone else. The car they drive is paid for by someone else.
“These career marriages are not based on love. They are running a business and they are hunting for these men.”
Charles played the role of femme fatale Sarah Beaumont in Australia’s longest running soap.
Her Ramsay St affair with Alan Fletcher’s Dr Karl became one of the biggest storylines in Neighbours history.
Her name and fame meant she was a hot-ticket invite at charity functions and Toorak Village dinner parties. Scandalous tales were shared over French champagne.
“Some of the stories they would tell me about their own husbands, they felt no shame,” Charles gasped.
She said women would reason why they were with their older, unattractive cashed-up husbands.
“These Toorak wives would say things like, ‘It doesn’t worry me too much. He only needs it twice a day and it only lasts two minutes’.”
Is Charles worried about retribution or being accused of letting down women? Predatory women give other women a bad name the actor-turned-author said.
“A lot of people have asked if I’m concerned about the subject matter,” she said.
“Essentially I see it as a feminist book because I’m outing the dehumanising behaviours of these women.
“Women looking for career marriages do exist. I’ve met them. I know them and I’ve seen how they operate. I don’t think they’re very good for the rest of us.”
Charles said she also wanted to explore how “bored, idle, gold-digging housewives” can turn on each other.
“I also explore how their attitudes change once they marry money,” she said.
“You would think there would be some sort of camaraderie between these women in Toorak. But what they do is spend large amounts of time plotting how to destroy each other.
“That is their primary hobby, to find ways to demean other women in their same situation.”
Charles will publish the novel under her publishing label, Shield Maiden, named after an old Norse expression meaning to protect women.
Last year, she wrote her first novel, Click Monkey, based on her own experiences of child sex abuse when she was living in the UK.
She said The Witches of Toorak was a fun romp. “It’s an analysis of the people I met in Toorak, but I’ve turned it into satire.”
She is not worried about potential defamation cases.
“I know there will be a few sphincters clenching. The main character, Skeleton Stella, has an incurable STD and is based on someone I know. “They will read it and go ‘f--k, that’s me’. It’s all based on reality, but I can’t see anyone wanting to own up to it.”
Pounding sex scenes and hard truths are uncovered in what Charles says she has written as a warning.
“I would hate my son to be sought out by one of these women in Toorak,” she mused.
“A lot of their men do think it’s love. The women who go after these guys give Oscar-worthy performances.
“They can act their arse off for a lifetime. These men don’t really know who they are married to.”
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