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Exclusive! Miley Cyrus: ‘I’ll give our marriage 130 percent’

Miley Cyrus: 'I'll give our marriage 130 percent'

Since announcing their engagement earlier this month, Miley Cyrus and Aussie actor Liam Hemsworth have been battered by claims that they’re too young to wed.

But if our exclusive interview with former tween idol Miley Cyrus is anything to go by, it seems the couple knows just what they’re in for when it comes to married life — and they can’t wait!

Speaking exclusively to Woman’s Day last night at the Australians in Film Awards in Hollywood, where Liam, 22, picked up the prestigious Breakthrough Award, Miley revealed, “We just both love our lives together — and that’s what makes us both really happy right now.”

The 19-year-old couldn’t stop gushing about her future husband, adding, “He really cares about what he does and he doesn’t really care about the fame part which is exactly what I feel too.”

She admits she knew from a young age exactly what she was looking for in a man — mainly thanks to the values instilled in her by her father, ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ singer Billy Ray Cyrus.

“My dad’s always been a really hard worker so I like men who work hard,” she says. “I think it is really important to me because I always work really hard so it’s good to be with someone who is equally passionate. We don’t just want things to be OK — we both give everything 130 percent.”

Of course, Miley, who beamed that she’s “super stoked” about her beau’s award, is the first to admit that it helps that her fiancé is easy on the eyes.

“Aussie guys are way hotter than American guys — there’s no competition!” Miley says with a cheeky grin. “There’s a masculinity about him — it’s probably like growing up in the south like I did. He’s very respectful and you know — he’s not bad looking either!”

Discussing her beau’s Aussie award, she couldn’t hide her pride. Clad in a revealing black cut out dress by Australian designer Zimmerman, she told Woman’s Day: “I love something with a built in corset — every girl does! Liam was there when I picked it out and he loved it.”

Of course the dress we really wanted to talk about was her wedding gown — and get the answer to the all-important question of where they’ll wed — down under or in Miley’s native Tennessee.

But Miley dodged the question, telling us, “I’m not ever saying anything about where the wedding will be!”

And when we asked Liam he was giving nothing away either, saying only, “We’ll have to wait and see on that one.”

But later in the night, Liam shared juicy tidbits about their life while mingling with guests– drawing a collective “Aww!” when he revealed how much he loves Miley’s 3.5 carat, custom-made Neil Lane engagement ring.

“I was with her when she chose it,” he explained. “I never thought I would care about jewellery but we went outside and the way it sparkled on her finger in the sunlight — I knew that was the one.”

He also revealed in his award acceptance speech that four years ago, when he first came to LA, he suffered a string of setbacks over a three-month period and was due to return home to Australia in just one week. But that’s when he landed the chance to audition for his first big film called The Last Song. He scored the male lead in the tear-jerker, which not only provided the springboard for his career but also introduced him to his co-star and future fiancée Miley.

“That audition changed my life because I got the part and fell in love and now we’re going to get married.

“People told me to just keep things professional but we didn’t,” he says. “And I’m so happy we didn’t!”

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Anti-cheating wedding ring goes on sale

Anti-cheating wedding ring goes on sale

The $550 titanium ring brands the wearer with the words 'I'm married'.

A US company has released an anti-cheating wedding ring that brands wearers with the words “I’m married” even after they take it off.

The titanium band — on sale for $550 at TheCheeky.com — is reverse-engraved so that when the ring is removed, the words are impressed onto the skin … for a short time at least.

The ring was inspired by the philandering of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods and disgraced former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

“With Arnold, Tiger and two timing IMF guy in mind, we have created this wedding ring for people intent on cheating,” the item description reads.

“The negative engraving on the inside means that when you are in the ‘club’ and an attractive woman … or man comes along to chat, slipping your wedding ring off is not an option.”

While the sales pitch is convincing, buying one of these rings for your husband or wife is unlikely to achieve anything but a fight about your obvious lack of trust.

Your say: Would you buy an anti-cheating wedding ring? Tell us at [email protected]

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Great Read : Albert of Adelaide

Great Read : Albert of Adelaide

Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson, Allen & Unwin, $26.99.

Animal Farm meets The Magic Pudding with a little bit of Ned Kelly charisma in this delightful and surprising adult tale set in the Australian desert. Our protagonist is a duck-billed platypus who has escaped from the Adelaide zoo to try to discover the “Old Australia” he has heard so much about, where animals roam free and all is natural harmony.

Albert is naive, charming and impossibly engaging, and soon becomes the most unlikely action hero you’ll encounter. On his seemingly foolhardy pilgrimage, he first meets Jack, a wombat with a kind heart, a dangerous addiction and a dark past, who introduces Albert to drinking and gambling in the pioneer town of Ponsby Station. What happens next sparks an action-packed outback western, complete with guns and bushranging, as Albert comes up against brutish, racist kangaroos and wallabies, alcoholic smart-arse bandicoots, a fame-loving wrestling Tasmanian devil and dingoes at first menacing and vicious, who later turn strangely spiritual.

This is a debut novel from Vietnam veteran Howard L. Anderson and it bristles with thrilling imagination as well as taking on serious issues, from prejudice and fear to true mateship and the nature of pure evil.

On his journey, Albert also discovers what drives him, a desperately sad early memory of his own mother’s death and the first time he was overcome by an emotional force and moved to serious violence.

Be prepared for a few tears in the final chapters and the sense that Albert is just beginning on his journey of self-discovery. This has to be the start of a series. At least, I hope so.

About the Author: Howard L. Anderson

Born in Denver, Colorado, 69-year-old Howard L. Anderson flew with a helicopter battalion during the Vietnam War, worked as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and as legal counsel for the New Mexico Organised Crime Commission before he wrote this novel.

Having spent time here, he says his tale was inspired by “Australian folk music and, of course, the platypus, who is very different than any other animal.” And the other animal characters? “They combine the traits of a lot of people I know, including myself,” he says.

JOIN THE AWW BOOK CLUB

In 30 words or less, tell us what is great about a book you are reading at the moment. The best critique will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95, and be printed in the July issue of The Weekly. Simply visit aww.com.au/bookclub, or email [email protected], or write to The Great Read, GPO Box 4178, Sydney, NSW 2001.

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Thailand getaway: a relationship rehab

Bryce Corbett discovers there's nothing like a Thai island getaway with the wife (and no kids) to reinvigorate a relationship.
Six Senses resort and spa on Koh Yao Noi.

The scene couldn’t have been more idyllic. From my vantage point — a sun lounge on the wooden deck of a villa perched halfway up a jungle-festooned hill — I stared out across the water.

Huge limestone formations bobbed on the horizon, a flotilla of stunning yellow and brown cliff-faces topped with a mop of green. I marvelled at the silence — the wonderful, all-encompassing silence — broken only by the occasional bumblebee buzz of a long-boat as it sluiced through the still waters of the bay far below.

And then I looked across the villa’s private plunge pool and saw a woman reclining on a sun lounge, engrossed in her book. She looked utterly familiar to me, and yet so strange.

Where once I could have told you exactly what she might be thinking, what worries, concerns, fads and interests were uppermost in her mind, it occurred to me now that I only had the vaguest of ideas what was going on inside that head.

Certainly, apart from her views vis-a-vis the daily challenges of raising of our two small children — whether to continue our son’s soccer classes and when he was next due for a haircut or how to juggle our daughter’s day-care and whether we could afford two or three days a week — I had long ago lost track of what made her tick.

This getaway was long overdue. The time had come to start dating my wife.

When your every waking moment is dominated by your children and their needs, it’s all too easy to take your eyes off your relationship and the importance of the nurturing it also requires.

And so, my wife and I had booked a trip to Thailand. Leaving the children with their grandparents (an arrangement, it transpired, that the children were far less stressed about than either of us), we jetted off to the glorious surrounds of the Six Senses Resort and Spa on Koh Yao Noi, an island in the sun-dappled stretch of water between Phuket and Krabi.

It was an extravagance, to be sure. Seven nights in the lap of luxury where the biggest decision on any given day was whether to leave the villa for a spa treatment, spend the day ambling about the island on a rented motorbike or while away the hours poolside, reading, sleeping and ordering room service.

And while we should have taken to it like a duck to water, we both found the first couple of days disconcerting. It’s strange to go from having barely enough time to take a shower on any given day, to having all the time in the world. We had forgotten how many hours there are in a day — and found ourselves wondering what we had done with all the free time we had pre-children.

We hadn’t so much drifted apart since the kids had arrived, as stood back helplessly as the needs of two little humans drove a wedge between us. There was no question about the certainty of our relationship, but seven days on an idyllic tropical island together served to remind us how much we missed the one-on-one time we previously had as adults. Here, finally, was a chance to recharge and reconnect.

Encouragingly, all it took was a couple of romantic dinners, a bottle of wine or two, an island-hopping day trip and a spot of kayaking for us to re-find one another — and happily, be pleased with our discovery.

We felt like a young couple again. It was liberating to be able to go to beach with only a towel and a book. No heaving great bags of stuff. No need to be constantly on alert to avert life-threatening kiddie accidents. It was life pared back, as it once used to be.

We realised how important it was to see one another in a different context. Even just to see her next to me in the gym exercising (a sight our tag-team child minding had previously rendered impossible) was massively important. And the evenings spent dining together without having to worry about getting home for the babysitter reminded me of our courting days and the reasons we fell in love in the first place.

To see my wife as an independent human being, not just as a child-minding associate, rekindled the passion. We laughed, a lot. And then there was the sleep.

By the time our week together came to a close, I had mixed feelings. I was missing the kids, and longed to see them, but I knew within hours of being reunited I would be pining again for this time in our bubble in splendid isolation.

Where to stay:

Eco-tourism at its most luxurious, the beauty of the Six Senses Resort & Spa, Yao Noi in Thailand is that it is 5-star luxury in casual attire. The emphasis here is on ‘slowing down’ — a feat made all-too-easy with a staff who anticipate your every need, facilities that are state-of-the-art yet rustic, a mind-altering spa with a vast menu of treatments and a breakfast buffet you could easily live in.

The relatively under-developed island of Yao Noi is dotted with other, less flash resorts and lots of local shopfronts offering every massage imaginable at dirt cheap prices.

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Baden-Clay: The murder that rocked Australia

Allison Baden-Clay: The murder that rocked Australia

Allison and Gerard Baden-Clay on their wedding day.

The beauty queen wife. The successful husband. And the three sweet little girls, whose lives will never be the same after their father was accused of murdering their mother.

Queensland is gripped by the case of Allison Baden-Clay, the young mother whose body was found on the side of a creek 10 days after her husband reported she failed to return after a walk.

Allison’s disappearance devastated the tight Brisbane community that had held the Baden-Clays in such high esteem. They were further shocked when police searched Baden-Clay’s home, his office, and seized his laptop.

The police investigation revealed hints that the couple’s family life was not as rosy as it looked from the outside.

Gerard had been having an affair with a colleague, and had not made much effort to hide it from mutual friends. His business was also struggling.

On June 13, Baden-Clay was arrested and charged with murder. Through his lawyers, he protested his innocence. His guilt or innocence will now be determined by the Queensland courts.

At a bail hearing last week, prosecutors alleged Baden-Clay was more than $1 million in debt and stood to gain $967,000 from his wife’s insurance policies and superannuation fund.

The court heard that he had told his mistress, a fellow real estate agent, that he would be separated from July 1; he was committed to her, but had to sort out his financial situation first.

Police also alleged he’d had three affairs since 2008.

In the days before Allison went missing, the court heard he made inquiries about her life insurance and Googled ‘taking the fifth’ (in the United States, the fifth amendment provides that no person be required to bear witness against themselves).

On the morning he reported Allison’s disappearance, prosecutors allege, Gerald Googled “self-incrimination” before he called police.

But in an affidavit Baden-Clay tendered to the court, he said he sent two early-morning text messages to his wife soon after he woke on the day she disappeared, asking where she was.

The first read: “Good morning! Hope you slept well? Where are you? None of the girls are up yet! Love G.” The second read; “All, getting concerned. Where are you? The app doesn’t say either. (two children) are up now. I’m dressed and about to make lunches. Please just text me or call! Love G”.

Lawyers for Baden-Clay have described the case against him as weak. They said there was no cause of death determined by the post mortem and no evidence Gerard left the house on the night she died.

Baden-Clay was refused bail. His trial could be another two years away due to delays in the Queensland legal system.

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Our advice for Julia Gillard

Our advice for Julia Gillard

Photography by Steven Chee. Styling by Judith Cook and Mattie Cronan.

Six of Australia’s most admired women give their advice for Prime Minister Julia Gillard and reveal their stance on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s policies on women’s issues.

Carrie Bickmore, 31

Carrie is a co-host of The Project on Network Ten. She lost her husband Greg to cancer in 2010 and has a son, Oliver.

Advice for Julia Gillard: “I wouldn’t profess to know how hard it would be run the country, so I am not sure I should be giving any advice. If I had to say anything, I would say to Julia to try and stay as positive as possible and to stand by the things she believes in — not easy in the world of politics.”

Tony Abbott’s women’s policies: “It’s hard to know what the true views of our leaders are when they so often just follow the party line, but it would be fair to say that Tony Abbott needs to do a bit of work to get the girls back on side.”

Kirstie Clements, 50

The former editor of Vogue Australia started working at the magazine 25 years ago as a receptionist. After losing her job in May, Kirstie is now working on a book about her time in magazines.

Advice for Julia Gillard: “As far as her style is concerned, as long as she looks professional and conservative, then the style of her dress or jacket is irrelevant. She’s the prime minister — it’s not for us to dress her like a doll. I witnessed her stand up to a group of male News Limited editors who were anti-Gillard and she was incredibly impressive. She more than held her own.”

Tony Abbott’s women’s policies: “One of my core beliefs is in a woman’s right to choose [an abortion]. Abbott has an entirely opposing view. I can’t move past this. His ideas about chastity and him being threatened by homosexuality are so out of touch with current society, it’s astounding. What does this have to do with politics?”

Jana Wendt, 56

Jana was a television presenter and reporter on the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes and Sunday, and Dateline on SBS. She now writes books and is working on her first novel.

Advice for Julia Gillard: “I try not to offer prime ministers advice! In the case of Julia Gillard, she seems to have received enough advice already — most of it bad.”

Tony Abbott’s women’s policies: “Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme is, on the face of it, extremely generous — six months leave for the stay-at-home parent on the mother’s full wage. The businesses that will be required to pay for it might say it’s a little too generous.”

Leila McKinnon, 39

Leila is co-host of Weekend Today on the Nine Network and will help co-host the network’s Olympic coverage in London next month. She is pregnant with her first child.

Advice for Julia Gillard: “Oh, dear. I have to say I admire her fortitude and persistence, but what a precarious position. I don’t think anyone could advise anybody out of that mess.”

Tony Abbott’s women’s policies: “I found his description of a woman’s virginity as a “gift” very odd. When it comes to policy, I am pro-choice, but I think he’s right in saying he would like to see fewer abortions. I do question whether the possible use of RU486 [the medical abortion pill] was properly investigated.”

Kate Waterhouse, 28

Kate is a member of the Waterhouse racing dynasty and style and fashion editor at The Sun-Herald. She married her long-time partner, former NRL footballer Luke Ricketson, in June.

Advice for Julia Gillard: “If anything, I think she listens to bad advice, so I would advise her to stand on her own two feet and let the public see the strong, true leader she can be for the most fortunate country in the world.”

Tony Abbott’s women’s policies: “I think Tony Abbott is old-fashioned in his views. To publicly say that he urges women to save their virginity for marriage disconnects him from today’s youth.”

Bianca Spender, 35

Bianca is a fashion designer and the daughter of designer Carla Zampatti and barrister and former politician John Spender.

Advice for Julia Gillard: After having watched my father, I recognise politics is extremely complicated and being prime minister is a difficult role.

Tony Abbott’s policies: I support the government’s position on the environment — it is important for our future.

Read more of this story in the July issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Subscribe to The Australian Women’s Weekly and receive a FREE Nude by Nature Gift pack, valued at over $80.

Video: Behind-the-scenes on the Australian Women’s Weekly’s shoot with Julia Gillard

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Paul Howes: My gut-wrenching adoption secret

Union boss Paul Howes is tipped to be a future Labor leader, but just 16 years ago he was living on the streets after his adoption "happy ending" soured. Here, he shares his story.
Paul Howes: My gut-wrenching adoption secret

Paul Howes. Photography by Nick Scott. Styling by Mattie Cronan.

I’ve known union boss Paul Howes for a few years, but it wasn’t until last year, talking to him and his wife Lucy about The Weekly’s campaign to make adoption easier for Australian couples, that I learned his story.

Paul was adopted. He was born Benjamin Patrick on August 23, 1981, to a 21-year-old woman who surrendered him reluctantly.

But Paul’s adopted family didn’t bring the happiness the young woman would have hoped for.

Related: Adoption laws must change

His adoptive parents divorced when he was young, and when his mother re-married, he didn’t get along with his step-father. When he was 14, he was living on the streets.

His is one of the great success stories — from living rough, he rose to the head of the Australian Workers Union, and a potential future Labor leader.

When he became an adult, and could afford it, Paul set out to look for his birth mother. It took him five years and thousands of dollars.

After much searching, he found her; she was living in the next suburb, with children of her own. Meeting her, he says, was one of the most “gut-wrenching” moments of his life.

He learned she had kept baby photos for years. She would cry for a week around his birthday. The relationship between mother and son is new, but strong.

Related: An adoption success story

Paul told me his story last year, but he and Lucy thought for many months before they decided to share it. Their decision was prompted, in part, by Paul’s strong feelings about the state of adoption in Australia.

He believes, like The Weekly, that it should be easier for couples to adopt: that there should be one body to handle all queries, rather than many in every state, and that it should be free.

Read more of this story in the July issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Your say: Do you have an adoption story? Share with us below

Video: Deborah Lee Furness’s adoption battle

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Why you can’t find plus-size clothes

Why you can't find plus-size clothes

Australian designer Leona Edmiston has a plus-size range. Photography by Liz Ham. Styling by Mattie Cronan.

The average Australian woman is a size 16, but if you head on to the high street you’ll be lucky to find anything bigger than a 14.

So what’s going on? Why isn’t someone plugging this gaping hole in the market?

“There’s this bizarre mindset among some of the designers that says catering for anyone beyond a 12 is somehow damaging their brand. I cannot get my head around it,” says Georgina Safe, fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

“I don’t know whether the term ‘plus-size’ is even applicable anymore because the average body shape and size for women is teetering on what would be classified as plus-size now.

“There are some designers who do delve beyond a 12 or 14, but they might sell it online, they sell it quietly, almost in the outlet store. They won’t put it in their flagship designer boutiques. It’s as if it’s something that’s not to be talked about.”

Related: Dressing Chrissie Swan

Leona Edmiston is one of the few designers who does cater for bigger ladies. She creates pretty retro-inspired pieces for “all women who love to wear gorgeous frocks” and last year introduced her own plus-size range.

“We had noticed that, in our boutiques, our size 4 [Australian size 16] was quite often the first size to sell out,” says general manager, Melissa Macalyk.

“We trialled the plus sizes online, where they had great success, and now continue to supply these in our main range boutiques.”

And while much of the designer world seems obsessed with creating sexy outfits for girls, there are Australian designers — such as Carla Zampatti and New Zealander Kate Sylvester — who are making great pieces for older women.

“My ideal customer is a woman who is 30s to 40s, creative, intelligent and not obsessed with fashion. She’s more concerned with looking beautiful and stylish,” says Sylvester, whose range of individual dresses and separates is both wearable and unique, and actually appeals to all ages.

Despite this, Sylvester’s sizing stops at 14, but she says she simply doesn’t have the demand for larger sizes and would increase her range if customers asked her to.

Carla Zampatti’s beautifully tailored classic lines in eveningwear, pant suits, shirts and jackets are renowned for flattering women’s bodies. Her sizing goes up to 18 in some styles and 16 in others, and like Sylvester she says she hasn’t had the demand for a bigger size range.

As for size ranges, bigger women are clearly not a priority for a lot of the high street brands, even though they make up the majority of the marketplace.

A Country Road size XL (its largest) is a 16, Marcs, Witchery and Cue stop at 14, Jigsaw and Big W’s Emerson brand at 16, David Lawrence, Jacqui-E and Sussan run to 18.

And while there are a clutch of specific plus-size brands, such as Autograph, TS14+, Big W’s Avella and Myer’s rather conservative Big Is Beautiful range, Sportscraft does push to a size 22 with some of its range and Target runs to size 26 in some lines.

For Bridget Veals, Merchandising Director at Webster Holdings, who own Marcs, David Lawrence and Jigsaw, plus size is “a speciality field”, which, at the moment, they’re not embarking upon.

In pictures: What’s wrong with plus-size bodies anyway?

Here at The Weekly, we fight to get larger sizes of upcoming collections to feature on models that reflect normal women’s shapes, but they are rarely available.

It’s true designing for curvy larger bodies does demand a different aesthetic and you can’t just convert size 10 to size 22 without considering the cut and the style, but surely the smart move for a designer who wants longevity would be to start cutting their cloth a bit differently and shouting it from the rooftops.

Read more of this story in the July issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Your say: Do you have trouble finding plus-size clothing? Do you think it’s time the Australian fashion started catering for larger ladies?

Subscribe to The Australian Women’s Weekly and receive a FREE Nude by Nature Gift pack, valued at over $80.

Video: Plus-size style

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Julia Morris: My amazing house-husband

Julia Morris: My amazing house-husband

Julia Morris and her husband Dan Thomas. Photography by Michelle Holden. Styling by Nell Simpson.

Those who argue women can’t have it all should take a look at Julia Morris. She is a touring comedian, stars in a new television drama, and has two adorable young daughters.

The secret to her success? Dan Thomas, her house-husband.

He gave up a career in advertising to stay at home with their girls while Julia pursues her career dreams.

Related: Is Facebook ruining your relationship?

“I’m the dad,” she tells The Weekly, laughing. “It’s fantastic. I get to live this insane double life.”

Dan loves it too. “There are a few dads who drop off [at school] every day and I think we all agree this is awesome.”

A report last year found in 84 percent of families in which there was a working and stay-at-home parent, the father was the breadwinner. The mother was the money-earner in only seven percent of cases.

When researcher Deborah Wilmore from the University of Western Sydney said studied 65 stay-at-home dads, she found that the most stinging critics of their decision were their own fathers.

She found stay-at-home dads had strong relationships with their partners and accepted housework was their job, although they sometimes missed the camaraderie of their workplace.

Related: I breast-fed my son until he was three

We’ll be hearing more about house husbands; Julia Morris stars in a Nine Network drama of the same name, premiere later this year.

Read more of this story in the July issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Your say: Would you like a house husband? Do you think younger men are changing their attitude towards staying home with the kids?

Subscribe to The Australian Women’s Weekly and receive a FREE Nude by Nature Gift pack, valued at over $80.

Video: Julia Morris’s best moments on The Apprentice

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Maxwell Drew’s twitter debut

Jessica Simpson couldn’t resist tweeting this adorable picture of her two-month-old baby girl, Maxwell Drew.

The cute-as-a-button bub seems to have inherited her mum’s love for the camera, pouting for the picture which was accompanied by the caption: ‘Howdy friends!’

Apart from being a new mum, 31-year-old Jessica, who welcomed her first child with fiancé NFL star Eric Johnson on May 1, is focused on losing her baby weight.

She has signed a $4 million deal with Weight Watchers in the US to lose 22 kilos in five months. By the end of the year she hopes to be a slim 59 kilos.

Proud mum Jessica Simpson posted this pic of Maxwell Drew on Twitter.

She also recently posted this busty pic of herself as she walked Maxwell Drew in her pram.

Jessica plans to lose her baby weight and maintain a healthy body instead of yoyo dieting.

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