LOVE & LIZ
HOPEFULLY, LIZ’S NEW BOYFRIEND IS NOT THE JEALOUS TYPE...
Her secret romance
There’s a new man in Elizabeth Hurley’s life, but she’s staying mum about who it is or how serious they are.
After telling an interviewer that she hasn’t had a proper boyfriend since she split from fiancé Shane Warne in 2013, the actress and model then went on to say, “I am seeing someone at the moment, but I’m fairly private about that sort of stuff.”
She also hinted that her latest love interest is yet to meet her son Damian – an indication that she is treading carefully. “I’m always slow to introduce anyone to Damian – until I know how long they’re going to stick around, there’s no point.”
Whoever this mystery man is, he is going to have to accept that not only does Liz (53) have a very close relationship with her only child, but she’s still on good terms with most of her exes – and, with one exception, they are very much a part of her life.
Liz has had some high-profile relationships since she burst into the public eye back in
1994, when she accompanied then-boyfriend Hugh Grant to the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in a now-infamous black Versace gown. She was engaged to Hugh, but they split in 2000 after 13 years together.
Her next relationship was a much shorter one, with US businessman Steve Bing, the father of her son Damian (16). Then in 2007, she married Indian textile company heir Arun Nayar. They were apparently in the process of splitting up when she met Aussie Shane in 2010.
Of all the men in her life, only Steve is no longer in the picture. Their relationship was brief and he denied he was Damian’s father until a paternity test proved otherwise.
Of the others, Liz says, “It’s pretty hard to break up from a best friend. They’re still people you want to share both good and bad things with. You can’t annihilate the past; you have to make friends with it, otherwise you’ve got those terribly dark areas. It would be pretty sad to tear up photographs and delete everything.”
Damian now has more of a father-son relationship with his former stepfather Arun. “Arun is Damian’s daddy and a very good one too – they see each other a lot,” says Liz, who holidayed with Damian, Arun and Arun’s girlfriend in Greece this year.
Liz and Shane also get on well. When she turned 53 in June, Shane wrote a touching tribute to her on social media.
“Happy birthday to my ex-fiancée and yes, still a very close and dear friend,” he posted.
Then when he turned 49 last month, Liz reciprocated by commenting on one of his Instagram photos and adding kissing emojis. Dad-of-three Shane sent the same back.
In his recently released autobiography No Spin, Shane writes that the three years he spent with Liz were the happiest of his life, and he still misses her. “I was more in love with Elizabeth than I realised I could be.”
He says part of the reason they split was because they were spending long periods of time apart after Liz landed the lead role in the TV series The Royals. Plus, there was a touch of the green-eyed monster as she was still on such good terms with movie star Hugh (58). “The more you are apart, the more you ask questions. I got jumpy about the time Elizabeth spent with Hugh Grant,” Shane admits.
Liz says she will always be close to Hugh, who is Damian’s godfather. Helpfully, she gets on well with his wife Anna Eberstein, who is the mother of three of Hugh’s five children. “He seems very, very happy,” she says. “Hugh is my oldest friend and his wife Anna is adorable.”
As well as coming to terms with the fact that Liz still maintains contact with her former loves, her new boyfriend will also have to understand and accept that he will always play second fiddle to the main man in her life – Damian.
She and her son, who is still at school but has had a recurring role in her TV series The Royals, have a very strong bond. “We’ve got each other’s backs, always,” she says. “We have never had a horrible fight and we’re never rude to each other.”
But Liz did have her parenting skills questioned when an article claimed Damian travels the world with his mother taking the revealing photos of her used to sell her swimwear collection.
“It’s complete nonsense that someone made up and everyone else ran with,” says Liz. “He took one or two shots ages ago and that’s it. He’s at boarding school for heaven’s sake. I assure you I don’t drag him to Mauritius every weekend to take my picture!
“Damian is a really great photographer and instinctively knows what younger people want to see, but that’s all.”