LAURYN CAUGHT IN DUI SCANDAL
With a tutu and a tiara, tiara this Adelaide great- great great-grandmother charmed the world with her fun-filled 90th birthday celebration
Pro boxer Lauryn Eagle allegedly tested positive to methamphetamine in a random drug test after she was pulled over in Sydney last month, but she insists the reading is due to a prescription drug for ADHD.
“The allegations of being on illicit drugs, as you can imagine in the industry I’m in… it’s heartbreaking,” she said at the time.
But it isn’t 29-year-old Lauryn’s first run-in with the law. In 2010, the star appeared in court for driving on a suspended licence and for giving police a false name. In 2013, she was arrested for refusing to leave Northies Cronulla hotel, and in 2014 she was convicted for property damage after an altercation at her mother’s home.
They say you’re never too old to try something new and Ethel Ford is proof of that.
The great-great granny thought she was being taken to lunch when, secretly, an Adelaide photo studio had been set up with streamers, balloons, cake and French Champagne to commemorate her 90th birthday.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” muses Ethel of the moment she walked into the grand display.
Granddaughter Brigitte Godwin, a photographer, and her brother Kane had no idea how their nan would respond to their surprise photoshoot, but even they were blown away by her joie de vivre.
“She asked if she had to get naked for it and when I said no, she was like, ‘OK I’ll do it!’ ” Brigitte says, laughing.
With the energy of a woman half her age, Ethel bopped along to the retro tunes playing in the background and wooed the camera with her gorgeous smile and funny expressions.
“She gave me a little bit of alcohol,” Ethel, a teetotaller, recalls, smiling. “I didn’t like it at all! I felt drunk for a few days!”
Still she didn’t think twice about giving a “Cheers, bitches!” salute to the camera, a phrase she’d never heard before, let alone uttered. “That one caught me by surprise,” says Ethel. “It’s a female dog, after all!”
Originally taking the photos and video just for a family keepsake, Brigitte, 28, said her friends begged her to share Ethel’s infectious energy with the world, and the result is more than 1.3 million hits on Facebook, with strangers from around the globe wishing Ethel a happy birthday.
“It started out with us wanting to do something different for Nan’s birthday, so it’s a surprise it’s become viral,” says Brigitte.
“I was just enjoying being with Brigitte,” says mother-of-five Ethel, who has 15 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
“I love being with her and her brother. I never thought it would lead to this!”