There are break-ups, and then there are break-ups that lead one partner to pen a searing, tell-all memoir about the other’s infidelity.
Such is that fate that’s befallen former Fairfax media chief executive Greg Hywood, whose ex wife, writer and journalist Kate Legge, has written a searing, tell-all memoir about his infidelity. And not in the wishy-washy, thinly-veiled autofictional stand-ins for real life characters kind of way. The book, out later this month, is quite literally called Infidelity and Other Affairs.
Former Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood.Credit: James Alcock
And while Hywood isn’t directly named, it’s pretty obvious who Legge is talking about. Not least because the promo for a discussion event with the author in Balmain next month writes that Legge “confronts with clear head and inspiring tenacity the infidelity of her [Legge’s] former high-profile partner, Greg Hywood, the CEO of Fairfax Media from 2010 to 2018.”
It isn’t just the former Fairfax boss, but four generations of Hywoods who are subject to Legge’s gaze. “Discovering that betrayal has been a recurring pattern in his family going back generations, she wonders: is unfaithfulness a predisposition or a learned behaviour?” the event description reads.
The book is already racking up the kind of hype that makes a spot on the bestseller lists, the writers’ festival circuit, and Radio National daytime shows unavoidable.
ABC fave Annabel Crabb described it as “so gripping I crashed into a bin while reading it,” while author Trent Dalton praised the book for “unflinchingly investigating the value of monogamy and the true cost of betrayal”.
But, despite what you might be thinking, it’s far from a hit job. CBD hears Hywood and Legge, who separated on the eve of their 30th wedding anniversary, are now best of friends – he even read over old manuscripts and helped come up with a title.
WELCOME TO PARISLAND
Staying with the subject of romance, budding or soured, it’s the time of year when corporates fight to deliver the most unsettling Valentine’s Day content.
The Hallmark holiday hasn’t even dawned yet, but we’re ready to declare Hong Kong-based crypto-ish gaming and software company Animoca Brands the winner for its offering – a fake tropical island where players can enlist virtual Paris Hilton, to help find “true love in the metaverse”.
A gaming and software company has signed up Paris Hilton to promote it on Valentine’s Day.Credit: Steve Lunam
“Parisland,” as the absurd, rather dark gimmick is known, allows players to take part in a virtual reality dating show, hosted by Hilton’s virtual avatar, and if lucky, enjoy a fabulous (virtual) wedding DJ’d by the has-been heiress herself.
It is, according to the company, “a mission to help people find love.”
The only thing weirder is that Animoca is valued at a staggering $USD5.9 billion. And that’s despite the Aussie unicorn getting delisted from the ASX in 2020 over regulatory and governance failings – although founder Yat Siu recently told the Financial Times he thought it was actually all because the regulator “just didn’t like crypto”.
PAULINE FOOTS THE BILL
Like dinner, when it comes to high-stakes litigation, there’s always an argument about who picks up the bill.
And no two foes would battle harder over that bill than former colleagues turned now mortal enemies Pauline Hanson and Brian Burston.
Pauline Hanson and Brian Burston.Credit: Benke
Readers might recall that Burston, the former One Nation senator and later leader of Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party in the Senate, launched defamation proceedings against Hanson in June 2020 over comments she made in a 2019 Facebook post, a television interview and a text to his wife.
Hanson then counter-sued, claiming his defamation suit against her was retaliation, and victimisation, for alleging that he sexually harassed his staffers.
Hanson sought declarations that, under the Sex Discrimination Act, Burston’s million-dollar defamation lawsuit over the harassment allegations, his own sexual harassment allegations against her, and his smearing of blood on her door were unlawful.
While it appeared that at first that Federal Court justice Robert Bromwich would tell them to split the bill, due to “the success he achieved on the most important issue”, Hanson has been ordered to pay 75 per cent of the costs of the interlocutory application.
It’s a small win, though.
The court previously found that Burston sexually harassed two female staff members but Hanson was still forced pay him $250,000 in damages for wrongly accusing him of sexual abuse and an unprovoked assault.
Hanson declined to comment through a spokesman.
FILM FRIENDS GET BEHIND TEALS
There’s never been a more exciting political moment for boomers who own inner Sydney terraces. With a state election looming, there are now too many teal independent candidates for Climate 200 to even finance.
Husband and wife Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward have held a fundraiser for teal candidates at the state election.Credit: Fairfax
And for those bourgeois bohemians in places like the inner west where there are no Liberals to turf out, there’s the upper house campaign of architect and former Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly. No prizes for guessing which colour they’re using.
Farrelly and co have landed some pretty high-profile support of late, with actors Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown hosting a campaign fundraiser at their Birchgrove cottage this week.
Might even help overcome the lack of Simon Holmes a Court cash.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.