LIZ’S HAIR APPARENT!
After his striking new mini-me shoot, why Damian Hurley’s androgynous look is set to make him a catwalk star
FROM the plump, slightly open-mouthed pout to the piercing blue eyes and tumbling mane of glossy hair, the similarities are striking. Damian Hurley, at 17, is an uncanny doppelganger for his glamorous 54-year-old mother Elizabeth.
But, unlike his photogenic mother, who didn’t get her first modelling job — a campaign for Estee Lauder — until she was 29 and an established actress, Damian is already leaping ahead.
The chisel-cheekboned teenager yesterday drew admiring, and startled, gasps for his role in a campaign for the celebrity British make-up artist Pat McGrath.
His first modelling job is a plum one: it features an extraordinarily androgynous- looking Damian, wearing a black leather jacket and white T- shirt, tossing around his luxuriant tresses, batting his eyelashes and pouting up a storm.
Quite a coup for a boy who is only halfway through his A-levels (at boarding school) and who, to date, had been better known as his mother’s red carpet ‘plus one’.
And according to modelling agent Jonathan Phang, who managed Jerry Hall and Naomi Campbell and was a judge on Britain’s Next Top Model, Damian could surpass his mother’s modelling success.
‘He’s very striking,’ says Phang. ‘And his looks will only improve with age. He’s got beautiful blue eyes and his mother’s cheekbones. He looks exactly like her. I was at a wedding where he was a guest and he is mesmerising. I saw him in the distance and thought, “My God, what a striking young man.” ’
Liz and Damian have a very close relationship. His social media is liberally splattered with images of Liz, whom he calls ‘mama’, ‘madre’ and ‘mummy’.
Take this post from two years ago: ‘Happy Mother’s Day to the person who continues to inspire me every day. I love you more than life itself and I couldn’t live without you. Thank you for always bringing a smile to my face and for always comforting me no matter what insane rant I go into. You’re so important to me, whether I’m begging you to critique my scripts or trying to beat you at Rummikub, and I just want to thank you for making me the person that I am.’
She, for her part, says: ‘I’ve simply been blessed with a child whose personality gels with mine. Given I’m a single mother and he’s an only child, we spend a lot of time together and we are utterly comfortable in each other’s company.’
DAMIAN Charles Hurley was born on April 4, 2002 after a brief relationship between Liz and the millionaire American businessman Steve Bing, whom she met after the demise of her relationship with actor Hugh Grant, in 2000.
Long before little Damian was born, weighing 7lb 1oz, Bing was already disputing paternity. It took a DNA test to resolve matters.
It is ironic that in the early stages of his childhood, Damian looked very much like his absent father, and has only grown more like his mother in his teenage years.
Damian’s own Instagram account (he has a modest 34,000 followers, compared to his mum’s 1.3 million) charts his changing image and shows how in the past year he has let his hair grow and embraced the similarities with his mother.
‘The timing is great for Damian,’ says Jonathan Phang. ‘He’s got the perfect look for now. It’s very versatile being able to be properly androgynous.’
His ‘ earning potential’, says Phang, is huge, not least because he combines striking good looks — as free from teenage acne as his mother is from wrinkles — with star-studded family connections.
Damian is signed to Tess Management, the same agency that represents his mother, but it would seem that like his mother, who has never wanted to put all her eggs in
one basket, Damian doesn ’t want to pigeon-hole himself.
He’s already had success acting , having turned a brief appearance alongside his mother in The Royals into a recurring role.
‘I took the first eight years of his life off from acting , but it transpires that being on set is where he’s happiest,’ said Liz last year . She went on to describe how Damian was already writing his own scripts and had ambitions to go to drama school.
Should Damian need any advice, he has a veritable treasure trove of close family connections to call upon. Among his numerous godparents are Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, along with Liz’s ex Hugh Grant and Henry Dent-Brocklehurst, heir to Sudeley Castle. One of his godmothers is actress Patsy Kensit.
Damian also remains very close to Indian textile heir Arun Nayar , with whom Liz began a relationship when her son was a baby , marrying in 2007 when Damian was five and divorcing four years later.
But it would seem that if there is one person on whom Damian relies the most, it’s his mum. Where some teen - age boys are tongue -tied when it comes to expressing maternal affection — or indeed any affection — Damian readily admits that when it comes to mum he ‘adores her endlessly’. Will Damian, at 17, now surpass her? ‘Remember, Liz Hurley came to modelling as an actress, quite late,’ says Jonathan Phang . ‘Damian is a young man coming into his own. He’s the perfect height (6ft) and coming on to the scene at a time when we can celebrate androgyny in a way that we couldn’t before. He has an exciting future ahead of him.’