CANDY MAYOR
Smokes king reveals his dream for a surprising new identity
TOBACCO tycoon Travers Beynon is considering running against Tom Tate for mayor at the next council election.
The controversial playboy, better known as The Candyman, said he believed the Gold Coast was failing to reach its full potential.
“I have thought about running for council, running for mayor. I’m still thinking it through but if the timing is right ...” said Mr Beynon. “The Gold Coast has so much potential but we’re just not going down the right track.
“We could be the Miami, the South Beach, of Australia. We need to embrace our glitz and glamour ... I want to celebrate who the Gold Coast is.”
HAVING scrolled through the Candyman’s social media feeds until my brain is clogged with boobs and butts, I feel I’m ready for anything. Or nothing, as it were. Yet sitting down with Travers Beynon – the multi-millionaire Free Choice tobacco tycoon, the father of four with one wife but multiple partners, the Hugh Hefner of the Gold Coast, the Wolf of Hope Island – he’s still managed to knock my socks off. Only the socks, FYI. You see, I’ve just been told we could all soon be living in Candy land.
That’s right, the Candyman is ready to provide some stiff competition for Tom Tate with the playboy prince of the Gold Coast considering a tilt at the mayoral crown.
He may be considered more party than political animal, but Travers could well expand his arena of influence from Instagram to town hall.
While it could raise some interesting questions in regards to the position of the Mayoress — or Mayoresses — Travers says he’s a natural leader who loves his city. “I have thought about running for council, running for mayor. I’m still thinking it through but if the timing is right …” says Travers.
“The Gold Coast has so much potential but we’re just not going down the right track. We could be the Miami, the South Beach, of Australia. We need to embrace our glitz and glamour, not pretend to be something that we’re not.
“I want to celebrate who the Gold Coast is. The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games was the perfect example – we were too scared to be who we are and we were boring instead.
“That’s the worst thing you can be. I had everyone telling me I should have organised it — and you know what? I should have.”
Here’s something else shocking: I agree with him. So far, anyway.
Travers says he’s not opposed to Tom Tate, but believes he could do a better job.
“Maybe I’ll invite him to the next Candy Shop party,” he says.
“It’s nothing against Tate, I hear from a lot of people that he’s a pretty good guy. “We just need more action.” Touche.
Or, in Travers’ case, is that just touch?
To be honest, there are many questions on my mind even before I meet with the man behind the X-rated myth.
For example, what to wear?
As it happens to be my birthday, a friend suggests I should simply don my birthday suit — surely I’ll fit right in with the hordes of scantily clad women who grace the Candyman’s social media pages?
Alas, I literally lack the front for a stunt such as that.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that when it comes to the Candy Shop Mansion, the sprawling estate spread over multiple waterfront blocks in a gated neighbourhood, I’m guaranteed to be a square peg in a round hole.
Or is that what she said? Despite being a devotee of any double entendre, this visit is, uh, pricking my conscience.
I can’t even look at the Candyman’s Instagram feed without needing a shower and as a feminist his lifestyle really rubs me the wrong way. Not that I’d ever actually let it rub me at all.
But(t).
I’m fascinated by who Travers really is. Maybe it’s just the tired mum inside me but I can’t imagine anyone having the energy to be – or do – that guy 24/7.
Besides, we have a mutual friend who assures me there really is a sweet guy inside the Candyman shell.
The 46-year-old is a father of four – he is in fact the sole custodian of his two elder children, Valentino, 19, and Lucciana, 17. Anyone who is a hands-on parent deserves the time of day. Even on my birthday.
In fact, once Travers realises the personal importance of this date, he rises from his desk to treat me to a birthday kiss – on the cheek.
It is not at all what I asked for, but I appreciate the intention and respect behind it.
Not that the Candyman really cares what I or anyone else, including the mayor, think.
“When people get offended by me, I can’t help it — I just have to poke the bear,” he says, ensconced behind a
I have thought about running ... for mayor
magnificent desk in a room complete with water views and windows in the floor — yes, the floor — to provide a birds’ eye perspective of his garage full of sports cars.
“That’s why on International Women’s Day I posted a photo of the girls with vacuum cleaners.
“Is that what I really think? Of course not, but God it’s funny to get the reactions from all the do-gooders.
“The girls and I are in on the joke, it’s everyone else who isn’t.
“If people think the Candyman is all me — whether they love that or hate that — they’re very wrong. I’m not a cartoon character.”
In fact, Travers is very open to his dual personas — it’s literally written on the walls of his home.
On one side of a coin (golden, obviously) is the Candyman — the entertainer, the ladies’ man. On the other is Travers Beynon — the businessman and father.
Travers explains that exactly how the coin was originally flipped was down to fate.
“I hated school, hated it. All I wanted to do was be an AFL player,” says Travers, who grew up in Doncaster, Victoria.
“My mum and dad used to tape a footy to my hands every night when I went to sleep.”
Eventually the teen was recruited by North Melbourne at age 17 — but the dream was over almost as soon as it began when he broke his back.
He insists it was not as painful as it sounds, not physically anyway. Mentally, however, it was torture.
“The hardest thing I think I’ve ever gone through was knowing my mother literally cried herself to sleep every night for three months, she was heartbroken it was over,” he says.
Not long after, he was scouted by a modelling agency and travelled the world for years, returning home with a small fortune and a wife, Ninibeth Leal from Venezuela — winner of Miss World 1991.
In his absence, his parents had started a business, Free Choice Tobacco.
“My dad didn’t ever want to take out a loan, and those were days of extraordinary interest rates, so I lent them the money,” he says.
“I also bought a lot of property on the Gold Coast, on the beach in Miami and also in Arundel. That was in the late 90s and then the boom came. I bought well.
“Eventually my parents wanted to retire and that’s when I took over.”
Two years later, the Candyman started to emerge — from the ashes of a contentious divorce.
“This was not how I saw my life going. I was a married man with two children and it all went wrong.
“I’m not allowed to go into too much detail but it was not a healthy relationship.
“When it was all over I threw one of my big parties and that’s when I met my wife Taesha. She walked into our marriage knowing who I planned to be.
“I’ve always been different, I’ve always been full – almost too full – of energy. This is who I’m meant to be. I have to live this way – and I love it.”
Travers says he hardly expects anyone else to live his kind of lifestyle, but he does expect others to allow him to live his own.
He insists that Free Choice is not just the name of the family tobacconist, but his life ethos.
“We should all have freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom to live how we want to live,” he says.
“We can’t all be getting offended all the time. Lighten up and just live your life.
“That’s what I like about Donald Trump, he does it his way and he gets it done.”
While free choice sounds great, many do wonder how much choice the girls in the Candy Shop Mansion really have. And although political correctness is the whipping boy everybody loves to hate, it’s far easier to advocate free speech and choice when you’re a rich, white man with all of the options available.
“Everyone who is in my house and in my life is a willing participant with eyes wide open,” he says.
“I’m open about who I am. I’m not like the trolls online who hate on me but then are having their own extramarital affairs in secret.
“I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I’m not hurting anybody. So leave me alone, you know? The haters really don’t bother me, but I feel for those guys who are affected by other people’s judgments. You’ve gotta do you.
“I love women, my mother was my hero and the toughest person I ever met, but I think there are some women who have really hijacked the feminist movement. They’re using the name to disguise that they’re just man-haters. Not many, but enough to start tarnishing feminism.
“The whole pay gap? I won’t go through the figures here but it’s simply not true. It’s getting to the point where it’s reverse discrimination now.
“The fact is that men and women are never going to be equal – we are too different. Men can’t have babies for one. But we do need to treat everyone fairly, and that’s not happening on either side.
“I am not sexist. I do not degrade women. Any photo you see, those are women who have made up their own minds to be a part of it.
“I’m a champion of my girlfriends. I look after them. I talk to them, I even shop for them. If they want new boobs, yeah I’ll pay for it. But I’ll be the first one to say, don’t go too unnatural. But it’s their choice, not mine. We’re partners.
“This may be a house that’s famous for parties, but it’s also a home to a lot of people – girlfriends, staff, kids – who are all family. This is a house that’s got a lot of love.”
While it’s Free Choice in business and life, Travers says it’s No Choice at home – for the children anyway.
He says not only has he never smoked, his children are also under strict instructions to stay away from cigarettes — at least until they’re 18 and can make their own decisions.
“I’m a super strict father,” he says.
“Manners are so important to me and I make sure that my children know how to behave.
“Both my son and my oldest daughter had to get jobs at McDonald’s once they were old enough because I want them to know what it means to be a good worker.
“No, they obviously don’t need the cash, but they do need that life experience. We’re not your average family but we are a happy family, we’re a close family.
“Every Sunday night is family night. It’s compulsory. All of the kids, their boyfriends/girlfriends if they’re old enough, my dad, all my girlfriends, my wife, our staff, we all come here and eat KFC together.
“We talk and laugh – Nisha (Travers’ permanent girlfriend) is the funniest one – and then we all watch a movie in the home cinema.
“Of everything I’ve achieved in life, I’m most proud of who I am as a father. My son was the school captain at Helensvale – and that’s bigger than anything else in the world to me.”
While Travers attempts to explain to me the layout of his bedroom – three king-sized beds, a stripper pole and some other stuff that I’ve sanitary wiped from my brain — and his need to be creative in both business and bed, I’m far more interested in his relationship with kids.
Not just his own children but kids in general. To call him a role model seems contradictory but he insists it’s not only accurate, but an important part of his life.
“The kids don’t see all the boob and butt stuff — well, I hope they don’t. And if they do, that’s their parents’ fault, not mine,” he says.
“What they do see are my cars. They love it.
“I love it when the kids approach me. I let them sit in the cars, even sit on the cars, I love to see that spark ignite in their eyes.
“They look at me and they see a guy built like a superhero with a pretty girl and a fast car. And maybe they realise that if I can do this, they can too.
“I called my home the Candy Shop Mansion because I wanted it to be somewhere that represents everything sweet — to me that’s girls, cars, art, fashion. For you, it’s something else. For the kids, I just want them to see that if you never give up, you can get what you want.”
And then it dawns on me: in many ways that’s exactly who the Candyman is, a big kid at heart. A kid in a Candy Shop.
He’s not exactly my flavour, but actually … he’s not as bad a boy as he’d have you believe.
This is who I’m meant to be. I have to live this way – and I love it