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Miranda Kerr's other half, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, avoids hotel quarantine
Two weeks after slipping undetected into Sydney for "family reasons", supermodel and mother of three Miranda Kerr has been joined by her billionaire husband and Snapchat founder, Evan Spiegel.
PS understands the family has made a "mercy dash" from their palatial Los Angeles home to Australia after one of Kerr's elderly relatives became gravely ill.
A sad homecoming for model Miranda Kerr and her billionaire husband Evan Spiegel who have quietly flown into Sydney.Credit: Getty
The sad homecoming has been kept under tight wraps, with COVID-19 restrictions making the trip more complicated than usual.
NSW Police confirmed that Spiegel, whose private jet touched down at Sydney Airport on Sunday night, avoided the two-week hotel quarantine. A police spokesman told PS that Spiegel was "compliant with the Public Health (COVID-19 Air Transportation Quarantine) Order (No 2) 2020, which states a person can put a proposal forward to acquire independent locations meeting the same standards as NSW Police-managed hotels to be nominated as 'Quarantine Facilities' as allowed under the Public Health Order."
Yoga enthusiast Miranda Kerr.Credit: Instagram
By law, Spiegel is required to meet the same obligations as any other returned traveller, which means that hopes for a family reunion with his extended Australian in-laws will have to wait for at least another week.
It is unclear where his wife and children spent their quarantine period, which is understood to have now passed.
Kerr and Spiegel rank as one of Los Angeles' A-league power couples, their union described recently by The Wall Street Journal as "a marriage of mindfulness".
Indeed the new-age couple's first date was at a kundalini yoga class in Los Angeles, at which an eager Spiegel – who is seven years younger than Kerr – arrived early and sat at the front. He revealed to the WSJ in July that Kerr walked in late (45 minutes late, to be precise) and took a place at the back, where she giggled "out of nervous habit".
The 37-year-old brunette has come a long way from her days as a schoolgirl in Gunnedah.
Kerr began modelling in the fashion industry when, at 13, she won the 1997 Dolly magazine model search competition.
Since 2008 she has consistently ranked on the Forbes list of highest earning models, having established her own beauty and wellness company, Kora Organics. She was already ranked as a multimillionaire in her own right by the time she met Spiegel.
Of course, her tech-savvy second husband (she was previously married to Hollywood hunk Orlando Bloom, with whom she has a son, Flynn, now aged 9) is no slouch either.
The baby-faced 30-year-old is estimated by Forbes to have a current net worth of $US7.6 billion ($10.5 billion), after becoming a billionaire at the age of 25.
He and Kerr tied the knot in 2016 and have two sons together: Hart, 2, and Myles, 1.
Boardroom deal or no deal?
On the 10th anniversary of one of corporate Australia's biggest sexual harassment scandals, which eventually saw David Jones star chief executive Mark McInnes resign amid a blaze of headlines, the woman at the centre of the firestorm has invited him into the boardroom to discuss the wider issue.
Kristy Fraser-Kirk at home in London. Credit: Vincent Dolman/Marie Claire Australia
However, McInnes, who is now a married father of two based in Melbourne where his career as CEO of Premier Investments in the retail sector has gone from strength to strength (he just pocketed a $2.5 million bonus), is unlikely to accept the invitation.
McInnes graciously declined to respond to his former subordinate Kristy Fraser-Kirk's overtures when PS called this week.
McInnes said he was unaware of a new interview Fraser-Kirk has done with Marie Claire Australia, in which she recounts her time working as a 25-year-old junior publicist with the prestige retailer and speaks for the first time about the impact of the scandal.
Mark McInnes in 2019.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Now a married working mum living in London, Fraser-Kirk's relationship with her long-term partner Chris Drewe weathered the headlines that followed when she lodged a statement of claim in her sexual harassment case.
She alleged how, during a work dinner while sitting next to McInnes, he leered that the dessert being served tasted like "a f--- in the mouth".
She also claimed he slid his hand under her jumper and touch her bra strap and then tried to coax her to his apartment in Bondi, implying, she believed, that they would have sex there.
At an event the following month, she says McInnes attempted to kiss her twice and persisted with the invitation to his apartment.
She became national news when her lawyers' ambit claim of $37 million was splashed across front pages. Fraser-Kirk eventually walked away with an $850,000 settlement, much of which went towards her legal bills.
McInnes, who initially admitted to behaving in a manner unbecoming of a CEO, later denied most of the allegations.
"At 25 years of age it was a lot to handle," Fraser-Kirk tells the magazine.
"I think I handled myself as well as can be expected considering a lot of people wanted to write me off as a bimbo golddigger. If that had happened to me today, I would have simply told him to f--- off. But it didn't happen to me when I knew who I was as a woman, who understood her worth, who felt confident professionally."
Kristy Fraser-Kirk recounts the heavy toll her ordeal took, pictured here in the middle of the firestorm a decade ago.Credit: Tamara Dean
The wounds are still somewhat raw for Fraser-Kirk, who says she was "attacked by the media and general public with my reputation slandered, while colleagues – who knew what was happening – watched on silently. It hurt – a lot."
As for her feelings towards McInnes today, Fraser-Kirk says she has accepted both his public and personal apologies.
"Truth is, I would walk into a boardroom with him and talk about what happened if I felt he wanted to be part of the solution," she says.
"That would be a pretty powerful message, one that lets the world know that one side can't do all the heavy lifting."
Relationship sparks for Marks
Five years after being appointed chief executive of the media giant Nine Entertainment, owner of this masthead, Hugh Marks remains bewildered why "anyone is actually interested in my personal life".
"Everyone wants to be happy". Nine CEO Hugh Marks.Credit: James Brickwood
But in a week when the sexual politics of Canberra became front-page news, Marks himself was reminded on Thursday during the Nine annual meeting that his own private life was making news.
Company chairman Peter Costello was asked about a report back in May published in The Sunday Telegraph involving Marks and his executive assistant, Jane Routledge.
"There's a lot of gossip and a lot of that gossip is out of control … and that sort of shocks me a bit that anyone is interested and that people can make shit up," Marks told PS, declining to be drawn further on the May story.
However, a year after his own marriage came to an end and his professional life began being buffeted by COVID-19 headwinds, Marks said he was now "getting into a good place personally".
And part of that "good place" is a relationship with former Nine managing director of commercial Alexi Baker, who reported directly to Marks.
Baker left the business in recent weeks after nine years.
She worked closely with Marks on several significant chapters for the business, including the 2018 merger with Fairfax Media, the broadcaster's decision to switch from cricket to tennis rights and the acquisition of the remaining stake in Macquarie Radio.
Marks said part of Baker's reasons for leaving the business was so they could "progress" their relationship "unimpeded" by their respective corporate responsibilities.
PS confirmed on Friday that the Nine board had been made aware of the relationship.
"The separation, we told the kids a year ago, that was a difficult period, and then we had the business challenges of COVID … which was a lonely time, for a lot of people," Marks admitted, adding that he continued to work from Nine's offices.
But in the past "couple of months" that loneliness had started to lift for Marks as his relationship with Baker became a romantic one, although exactly when that shift happened is not clear, Marks insisting it was still "early days".
"Coming out of COVID the business started to improve, people were coming back into the office. I guess I just started to think about what might be the next stage for me personally on many fronts," Marks said, adamant that he and Baker had not breached any company policies.
"Everyone wants to be happy," an emotional Marks said. "People think you should be superhuman in these roles, but you are still just a person."
Brush with fame
Slowly but surely, Sydney's social scene is coming back to life, albeit within the confines of the COVID-19 era.
Tim Olsen, Margaret Fink and Dr Meredith Burgmann at the Art Gallery of NSW.Credit: Wesley Nel
On Wednesday film producer Margaret Fink, former NSW Legislative Council president Dr Meredith Burgmann, Dinosaur Designs creator Louise Olsen, social stalwart Skye Leckie and her freshly graduated interior designer son Harry, along with Sam and stockbroker Les Owen, who have recovered from the dreaded virus, descended on the Art Gallery of NSW for the launch of Sydney gallerist Tim Olsen's book Son of the Brush.
Guests behaved, taking to their seats before being granted bubbles while individual plates of canapes were a happy alternative to the old days of hungry socialites chasing waiters.
Donna Kahlbetzer at her Vaucluse home for the launch of the Donna Forbes range of illuminated purses.
On Thursday night at the wealthy Kahlbetzer family compound – the expansive Windemere waterfront at Vaucluse – Donna Kahlbetzer, wife of polo and agricultural tycoon Johnny, launched her Donna Forbes range of glow-in-the-dark illuminated handbags, inspired by her many years in Monte Carlo with her first husband, motorcycle champion Wayne Gardner.
Once temperature checks and contact details had been sorted, and a trip through the sanitiser dip, the intimate gathering, surrounded by one of Sydney's most extraordinary art collections, got underway.