DAMIAN’S FAMILY DRAMA
LIZ HURLEY ONCE HAD TO BATTLE TO PROVE HER SON’S PATERNITY. TWO DECADES ON, HE’S BEEN ‘CALLOUSLY’ CUT OUT OF A $330 MILLION FORTUNE
On June 23, upcoming model and actor Damian Hurley memorialised his late father Steve Bing, who died by suicide at the age of 55. “A year ago today, my mother and I received some devastating news. I didn’t realise at the time quite how much it would affect me,” the 19-year-old son of Elizabeth Hurley posted on Instagram next to a photo of a sunset over the ocean. “We all like to show ‘perfect’ versions of our lives – for me, the idea of publicly discussing something as personal as grief is terrifying … but sometimes it’s necessary.”
Damian’s personal story has been played out in public since before he was even born. When his actress mother fell pregnant, American billionaire Steve Bing denied paternity and a scandalous mudslinging match in the media ensued. In this latest chapter, news emerged on July 3 that following a court appeal made by his paternal grandfather, Damian will be denied his $330 million share of his late father’s inheritance.
“When Stephen took his own life, he died thinking his children were going to be taken care of,” Liz said in a statement to the Daily Mail website. “What Stephen wanted has now been callously reversed. I know Stephen would have been devastated.”
The saga winds back to 2001 when Bing released a statement after Liz fell pregnant. “Ms Hurley and I were not in an exclusive relationship,” said the well-connected producer, screenwriter and real estate heir who had previously dated the likes of Sharon Stone, Uma Thurman and model Naomi Campbell. “It is her choice to be a single mother.”
Liz was quick to hit back. “I loved Stephen enormously during the 18 months we were together,” she contended. “Contrary to erroneous reports, we were still very much happy together when I discovered I was pregnant. I was completely loyal and faithful to Stephen throughout this time as, indeed, he assured me he was to me.”
After Damian was born in April 2002, a court-ordered DNA test proved that Bing was indeed the father, and Liz rejected his overtures of assistance. “I have always made it perfectly clear to Stephen Bing, the father of my son Damian, that I don’t want any financial help from him whatsoever,” she said. “It appears that one cannot stop someone trying to give you money. Fortunately, one can refuse to accept it. This I have done.”
Liz has gone on to live a happy – and glamorous – life with her son (see box) and she had recently softened her stance towards her ex. “In the past year we had become close again,” Liz revealed in a post after Bing’s death. “We last spoke on our son’s 18th birthday. This is devastating news.” A year earlier, she had reportedly aligned with Bing after his father, Dr Peter Bing, made his first attempt to cut Damian and his older half-sister Kira Bonder, 21, out of a trust he had set up for his heirs.
According to the court papers, a trustee for Peter’s estate argued that he had a specific definition of the word “grandchild”, which required the parents to be married when the child was born. The motion was shot down by the courts in July 2019, but this latest appeal means that the decision is overturned. The Bing family’s real estate fortune will now be divided between the two children of Steve’s sister, Mary. “This is their grandfather saying: ‘You don’t count, and I don’t want you to be a part of our lives because your mum was not married to my son,’” said Kira’s mother, former tennis star Lisa Bonder-Kreiss. “There’s no recourse, they can’t go back. They lost. It’s been very painful for them.”
Hours after the news broke, Damian seemed intent on keeping things positive, sharing a post of himself smiling along with his mother, maternal grandmother Angela, and cousins. “Grateful for my beautiful family,” he wrote. “Today and every day.”
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