Hurley’s ex splits with new wife after less than a year

ELIZABETH Hurley has never cast a great spell as an actress, but she seems to loom large when it comes to the men in her life. I hear that her ex-husband Arun Nayar’s second marriage has collapsed less than a year after he tied the knot with a model who looks uncannily like a younger Hurley.

The textiles heir, 52, wed model Kim Johnson, 31, last summer, but the marriage is said to be over already. ‘ They separated three months ago,’ confirms Kim’s friend, the modelling agent Christophe Chalvet. ‘It is very sad. Kim had wanted to marry Arun for a long time.’

Grammar school- educated Kim declines to comment on the split, but pals say the spectre of Hurley hung over their marriage.

‘Elizabeth is a big personality and Arun loved her very much,’ says one chum. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if they get back together.’

Hurley, 52, was married to Nayar for four years and their break-up was disclosed after she was discovered to be courting cricket’s Shane Warne.

When Kim married Nayar in the South of France last August, she wore a voluminous layered silk dress that bore a remarkable resemblance to the frothy confection Liz wore at her 2007 wedding.

Goodie bags handed out contained a hangover kit and eye mask, emblazoned with: ‘Ssssh! I partied all night with Kim and Arun!’

Nayar is not the only Hurley ex who has struggled to find lasting happiness after their split. Foppish actor Hugh Grant embarked on a string of doomed relationships with women including heiress Jemima Goldsmith after breaking up with Liz in 2000. So far, he has had four children with two women, marrying neither.

Kim, who has hinted at the demise of her marriage online, has spent the summer nursing her broken heart on holiday with Prince Andrew’s hardpartying pal Caroline Stanbury.