Beauty and the geek
THE A-LIST DATING GAME So long bad-boy rockers, the billionaire tech genius is the new beau of choice for glamorous A-listers
ONCE upon a time, the celebrity dating scene was a parade of models draping themselves over rock stars – think Helena Christensen with Michael Hutchence, Eva Herzigova with Tico Torres and Naomi Campbell with U2’s Adam Clayton.
A rocker boyfriend might come with bad habits, from chain-smoking to eyeing up other women, but bagging a bad boy was universally accepted as the fastest way to boost your profile.
How times have changed. Because in these internet-obsessed days, you are nobody unless you have a tech genius – preferably a billionaire tech genius – on your arm.
So, why have they fallen for these distinctly unglamorous billionaires? 2013 film Machete Kills and wrote to the director Robert Rodriguez many times asking him to set up a meeting. They started dating last summer.
HOW THEY LIVE:
Last year, he bought a $34 million ultra-modern mansion in Los Angeles. He has a Gulfstream G6 jet and numerous cars, including the amphibious Lotus Esprit car from James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me.
ROMANCE RATING:
The pair are head over heels – and went ziplining together at Currumbin over the weekend. Heard’s father David has said: “She would love to get married. One of the things they want to do is settle down and have a family.”
9/10
It’s a whopping $20.5 million, seven-bedroom home in Los Angeles. He also flies helicopters, goes snowboarding and loves tennis.
ROMANCE RATING:
She said last year: “He is 25 but acts 50 and likes early nights.” At least he seems to have grown up a bit ...
5/10
dated tennis bad boy Grigor Dimitrov, who broke her heart when he dumped her for rival Maria Sharapova. Shy, bearded and 6ft 5in, Ohanian set up social network site Reddit, which allows users to debate news stories online, when he was 22. A year later, he sold it for $25 million but stayed on as chairman.
His campaigns for free speech online have won him the nickname “Mayor of the Internet”.
HOW THEY MET:
It was by chance at a restaurant in Rome in July 2015. They then had a whirlwind romance and became engaged after a visit to the same eatery that December. He has travelled the world to cheer her on and calls the woman expecting his child his “queen”. Ohanian’s home is a loft apartment in Brooklyn, New York, with a cat called Karma and a human-sized version of Reddit’s mascot, the alien Snoo. His bride-to-be, meanwhile, is fullon bling. She has a “purse room” in her Florida mansion for her immense handbag collection, drives a Bentley and wears diamond rings so large they have given her blisters. Her enormous house, part of a gated golf community, is worth $5 million.
ROMANCE RATING:
The love affair has made Williams dizzy enough to compose poetry. She posted of his proposal: “Down on one knee/ He said 4 words/And I said yes.”
9/10 HOW THEY LIVE:
As Belle in Beauty And The Beast and a UN ambassador, Watson has parlayed her child stardom in Harry Potter into an impressive career and $94 million fortune. These days, she divides her time between campaigning for women’s issues and sharing worthy Instagram shots of her eco-conscious outfits. A Princeton graduate from a wealthy New York family, he works with his identical twin brother at Medallia, a Silicon Valley start-up that helps businesses manage customer feedback.
He calls himself a “tech/ entrepreneurship enthusiast, business school grad, writer, artist, photographer, adventurer, naturalist, etc” – meaning he has nearly as many job titles as she does. But with a reported salary of just $205,000, he has a long way to go to match her riches.
Apparently introduced by friends on the charity circuit, they were seen watching the musical Hamilton together in 2015.
Between them, they have homes across the globe. Nonetheless, she is said to adore his down-toearth nature, while his family are keen, too.
HOW THEY HOW THEY LIVE: ROMANCE RATING:
Private, but passionate. She said this year: “I’ve noticed, in Hollywood, who you’re dating gets tied up into your film promotion and becomes part of the performance and the circus. I would hate anyone that I were with to feel like they were in any way part of a show or an act.” American supermodel Kloss has been a Victoria’s Secret Angel for three years. She started modelling at 14 and now has her own YouTube channel, Klossy – and a net worth of $20.5 million. Harvard graduate Kushner, on the other hand, is worth more than $170 million. His venture capital company, Thrive Capital, has invested in a series of successful phone apps, including Instagram, and he recently set up a health insurance company, too, Oscar Health.
His family are real estate moguls and his brother Jared is married to Ivanka Trump and a senior adviser to fatherin-law Donald.
HOW THEY MET:
A mystery – but they’ve been dating for five years.
HOW THEY LIVE:
She owns a $4.2 million apartment in New York’s West Village. He is a relative Luddite who doesn’t have a blog but he does go with her on holidays to St Barths.
ROMANCE RATING:
She has posted a series of gushing online tributes but so far he has offered no public reciprocation. Reports last month that he had proposed were quickly denied by Kloss’s team.
7/10 MET: 8/10