WHO

MARY KATE AND ASHLEY’S WORLD

THE NOTORIOUSL­Y CAMERA-SHY TWINS ARE LIVING A QUIET LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY

- By Sara Tapia

They spent the majority of their childhood and teenage years in the public eye, but since their final film, New York Minute, in 2004, MaryKate and Ashley Olsen have done a complete 180. Rather than a life in front of cameras, the 35-year-old twins now spend their days hiding from them – choosing instead to focus on their fashion line, The Row.

It’s been 15 years since the former Full House child stars first launched the luxury label in 2006 with huge success. The business quickly thrived – despite Mary-Kate and Ashley initially not wanting to put their famous name to it – and they now count celebritie­s like Gigi Hadid, Sienna Miller and Margot Robbie as fans of the brand. “We didn’t want to be in front of it, we didn’t necessaril­y even want to let people know it was us,” Ashley explained to i-D magazine, in the pair’s only interview to mark the milestone.

A decade and a half later, you still won’t find the pair shouting their successes from the rooftop. “We’re discreet people,” MaryKate added. “It’s how we were raised.”

And it’s not just publicly that the pair prefer to keep to themselves. “They are hard to get to know and don’t really have many friends,” an insider recently admitted to Life & Style magazine. “They’re very strange and quirky – but Ashley and Mary-Kate are also down to earth in their own way.”

The pair are so close that even those around them don’t understand their secret sibling bond. “They do weird twin stuff all the time – like they won’t say a word to each other during a meeting with their design team because they can communicat­e just with their eyes,” adds the source. “Everyone thinks it’s a little spooky, but they know each other that well.”

New York City has proved a haven for the stars, as they’re able to mostly go about their days incognito – although it’s rare to see them outside their design studio (unless they’re sneaking a cigarette on the sidewalk below) or each other’s homes.

Up until last year, Mary-Kate was living in an $18 million six-floor townhouse in NYC’s Turtle Bay, which she shared with now ex-husband Olivier Sarkozy. “Ashley was over there so much, alone with MaryKate, that they started joking that it was their ‘spinster mansion,’” the Life & Style source shared. “Now that they’ve been staying at Ash’s Greenwich Village place, Mary-Kate’s given it the same nickname.”

Ashley has been a rock for her sister since her messy April 2020 split from the French businessma­n. “Mary-Kate says she’ll definitely never marry again – she had way too messy a break-up to go through that another time,” the insider continued. “She doesn’t even want to date for at least a year.”

The sisters have supported each other through many a break-up, a scandal – MaryKate was rumoured to be seeing Heath Ledger at the time of his deadly prescripti­on drug overdose and was the first person called when a masseuse found his body – and also through her eating disorder battle in the early 2000s. “We have each other to lean on,” Ashley said in the recent interview.

The only thing that is as important to the twins as their bond is their business. “Running their billion-dollar business comes first, and most guys can’t deal with that,” the source explained, adding that while Mary-Kate’s ex Sarkozy “didn’t get” the star’s devotion to her business, Ashley’s latest beau Louis Eisner, 32, does. “He’s super low-key and he doesn’t crave the spotlight, so that’s a huge plus. And Mary-Kate adores him.”

“They do weird twin stuff all the time”

– SOURCE

 ??  ?? The twins have managed to stay mainly out of the spotlight in recent years.
The twins have managed to stay mainly out of the spotlight in recent years.
 ??  ?? Mary-Kate split from her hubby of five years in April 2020.
Ashley is currently dating artist Louis Eisner.
Mary-Kate split from her hubby of five years in April 2020. Ashley is currently dating artist Louis Eisner.
 ??  ?? “We’re very much perfection­ists and hard workers,” Mary-Kate has said of the pair’s drive. “We’ve always been hard workers.”
“We’re very much perfection­ists and hard workers,” Mary-Kate has said of the pair’s drive. “We’ve always been hard workers.”
 ??  ?? The pair spent their childhood acting in Full House and a number of movies.
The pair spent their childhood acting in Full House and a number of movies.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia