At home with Real Housewife of Jozi’s Christall
Accessories, cars and chandeliers galore adorn the swanky home of Real Housewives’ Christall
ATHOUSAND pairs of shoes, pet bunnies called Dolce and Gabbana, a gleaming black Porsche in the driveway and a mansion rumoured to be worth R18 million.
Welcome to the world of Christall Kay, one of the six women whose over-the-top lives make even the Kardashians seem rather run-of-the-mill.
On The Real Housewives of Johannesburg – airing on 1Magic (DStv channel 103) – it’s catfights, cappuccinos and clothes, clothes, clothes – and South African viewers can’t get enough of the fiery, feisty and impossibly wealthy Jozi socialites who give us a glimpse into their how-the-other-half-lives existence.
Today Christall – all reed-slim elegance and dazzling smile – is opening the doors of her home in Kyalami to YOU, inviting us in with a click of her Jimmy Choos and a wave of a perfectly manicured hand.
There’s a lot going on when it comes to the 35-year-old queen of this castle. She owns a nail salon in Menlyn Park shopping centre, Pretoria, has a location-scouting agency for the film industry, works as an image consultant and is recording her debut album.
She’s also a devoted mom to five-yearold Luke and has been married to Eddie Greeff (40), a financial adviser for a major insurance company, for seven years.
And she manages all of this without a
single crease in her designer outfits or a hair out of place. “When I was little I wanted to be like Barbie,” she says. “I wanted the pretty hair and the pretty clothes and the beautiful house.”
Mission accomplished, it would seem.
MAKE your way past the Porsche, beyond the immaculately manicured garden and up the steps to the front door and Christall is waiting there. The décor is all white, gold and silver. Beautiful crystal chandeliers drip from the high ceilings, walls are adorned with artworks and expensive-looking furniture are focal points in the huge living space.
“Princess, will you make us some tea please?” Christall asks her domestic helper before guiding us through the living room to the dining room table where a make-up artist, who also did Christall’s hair today, awaits her.
Her full-time stylist follows close behind, elegantly dressed to fit the part.
After tea it’s up to her walk-in wardrobe where row upon row of designer shoes – 1 000 pairs, to be precise – line the racks in all their gleaming glory.
Several pairs cost as much as R20 000, she says, while others “were just R2 000 a pair”. The roll call of designer names is jaw-dropping: Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Guess, Jimmy Choo, Valentino.
“They call my name when I walk past,” Christall says of the selection of shoes awaiting her pedicured feet.
Does she have a shoe fetish? “No but I do have an eye for a pretty shoe. High heels are power. They can be used as a weapon too – you never know when a stiletto will save your life!”
It’s clear her love of shoes goes beyond mere accessorising. “There’s a heel for every occasion. Being in heels is my default position.”
She says she’s easily spent R1 million on footwear and doesn’t regret a single cent. “Think of Cinderella – shoes can take you anywhere. Shoes change pumpkins into beautiful cars.”
Then there are the handbags. Her vast selection includes a Louis Vuitton leather bag worth more than R50 000.
But shoes and bags aren’t the only things housed in her dazzling dressing room – her real-life “babies” are here too.
“Meet Dolce and Gabbana,” she says, pointing to her beloved bunnies.
Christall was raised in a middle-class home in Durban. “I grew up rough and tough on the Bluff,” she quips.
She started modelling at 15 and by the age of 16 was a professional. “I often missed school because I had a photoshoot,” she says. But there was a lot more to her than working the camera: she was a bright student and got a law degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
She moved to Joburg afterwards and met her husband 10 years ago when they were neighbours in a block of flats.
They work hard at their marriage, always make time for date nights and enjoy going to swanky restaurants. They also love overseas holidays.
There’s no such thing as a typical day for Christall. She snoozes her alarm clock “about 20 times each morning” before getting up. Then, dressed in a designer tracksuit, she drives her son in the black Porsche to his nursery school in Sandton. Afterwards she goes to gym and gets ready for the day.
She often checks in during the day at her nail salon where she might have a quick mani or pedi. When she gets home she catches up on admin and emails.
Christall says she enjoys shopping in the afternoons – when she has time, of course, between all the photoshoots and the TV show.
She practised law for a while, she says, but her love of music had too great a pull on her so she swopped her legal career for singing and is actively pursuing success in the music industry. “Music has always been important to me,” she says.
IN FACT her musical aspirations have turned into a bone of contention on the show. One episode became decidedly heated when other contestants made fun of her singing.
She’ll show them, she says. She’s recording songs for an album, which she’ll release independently later this year – and last year she won two gongs at The Akademia Music Awards in Los Angeles for her song Wonder, she tells us. The track also made it to No 1 on LA radio station KMIX’s chart.
She loves pop music and her role models are Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Madonna. Christall rehearses once a week with her guitarist and dreams of performing in front of an audience.
How does she feel when critics are nasty to her? “You face the music like a warrior princess with a blazing sword,” she says stoically. “Just face your challenges head-on and always keep going.
“Remember to use your strengths to overcome your weaknesses. You need to do what it takes to make yourself better.”
And with a flick of her glossy tresses she adds, “You need to be your own hero. I’m my own Wonder Woman.”