Bond
The former Bond star has a hidden Aussie daughter
007’s secret daughter
She was born 11 years before the first of her known siblings, but it’s like Jennifer Lazenby doesn’t exist! Her famous dad, Aussie actor George Lazenby – who followed Sean Connery as the second person to star as James Bond in the famed film series – has only ever referenced her existence by saying, “I have family in Perth.”
Even when the 77-year-old cinema spy spent time in WA in May this year to launch his documentary Becoming Bond, not once did he mention his eldest daughter.
Jennifer, a 55-year-old dance school owner, was proudly by her father’s side as the cameras flashed on opening night, but nobody guessed who she was.
“They just don’t like to talk about their relationship publicly,” explains a friend of the father and daughter duo. “It took 28 years for them to find each other and they catch up annually.” Jennifer was the result of George’s short relationship with Maureen Powell, a fitness instructor at the Royal Military College Duntroon, Canberra, before he starred in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969.
Her mum was young, so she was raised by her granddad and his wife. “When I was 13, I was shown a picture of ‘The Marlboro Man’ on the back cover of a magazine and told, ‘That’s your dad’,” says Jennifer, who took years to muster the courage to make contact. “I tried ringing his agent, but he asked questions I didn’t want to answer. Then, at 28, I sent a letter to Dad’s home in Hawaii. I’d probably laboured over writing it for 13 years.”
The letter started, “Dear sir,” and asked for love, respect and a little of George’s time – and he responded with a phone call immediately.
Jennifer hasn’t been embraced by all of George’s kids, but the Perth mum-of-three and grandma-of-one adores her half-siblings George Jnr, 13, and 11-year-old twins Kaitlin and Samuel, whose mother is tennis ace Pam Shriver.
She’s incredibly proud of her La-based movie-star dad, but feels there’s no need to talk about their relationship with the world.
To her, he’s simply The Spy Who Loves Me.
‘They just don’t like to talk about their relationship’