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Keith and Nicole: Home at last

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Keith Urban on Nicole, kids and The Voice

Keith Urban. Photography by Damian Bennett.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman have two beautiful daughters, but no matter how lovely his girls are, Keith will always love his wife more.

While most parents would confess to loving their children more than their partner, Keith says his Nicole is the centre of his universe, and always will be.

In pictures: Keith Urban’s exclusive shoot for The Weekly

“We’re very, very tight as a family unit and the children are our life, but I know the order of my love,” the country music star tells the April issue The Australian Women’s Weekly. “It’s my wife and then my daughters. I just think it’s really important for the kids.”

“There are too many parents who start to lose the plot a little and start to give all their love to the kids, and then the partner starts to go without. And then everybody loses. As a kid, all I needed to know was that my parents were solid. Kids shouldn’t feel like they are being favoured. It’s a dangerous place.”

Keith and Nicole, both 44, met in Los Angeles in 2005 and married in Sydney the following year. Nicole gave birth to their first daughter, Sunday Rose, in July 2008 and their second child Faith was born to a surrogate in December 2010.

Keith says Nicole is his “spiritual other half” and says it is absolutely impossible not to love her.

“I truly think there are only two kinds of people in the world,” Keith says. “There are people who love Nic and people who haven’t met her yet. I really do. People who say negative things about her, I think, well, you just can’t have met her yet. You can’t have.

“Because she’s sensitive and joyous, and wonderfully compassionate and empathetic towards people, and she has a heart that is just infinite in size. She has such a zest for life. And she’s as loyal as the day is long. And I still can’t quite believe I got to marry her, quite frankly.”

Related: Nicole Kidman on getting over Tom Cruise

Keith is a coach on new singing show The Voice, which airs on the Nine Network from Sunday, April 15, at 6.30pm. Keith’s latest album, Get Closer, is available now. For more information, visit the official Keith Urban website.

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

Your say: Do you love your partner more than your children?

Subscribe to 12 issues of AWW for only $64.95 (save 22%) for your chance to win a trip of a lifetime for two to Tahiti & Los Angeles, valued at $26,000.

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Exclusive: Gordon Wood breaks his silence

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Gordon Wood breaks his silence

Gordon Wood and his family. Photography by Damian Bennett. Styling by Vanessa Pennisi.

For Gordon Wood, going to jail was traumatic. But it was nothing compared to how he felt the night his girlfriend, Caroline Byrne, died.

He still grieves for her, and wonders whether he could have done anything to prevent her death.

“It still weighs heavily on me, whether I could have done more in the days before she died, whether I should have read some of the signals better,” he tells The Weekly, breaking down in public for the first time since Caroline’s death.

True crime: I’m haunted by my daughter’s murder

Caroline Byrne died in 1995 at notorious Sydney suicide spot The Gap. Some believed Gordon, who worked for stockbroker Rene Rivkin, had killed her because she knew too much about his business dealings.

Gordon was found guilty of her murder in 2008, but this year, the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the verdict, questioning the evidence and arguments from his original trial.

Gordon declined to give evidence in court and has never spoken publicly about Caroline’s death or their relationship.

Breaking his silence to The Weekly, Gordon was reduced to tears twice during the interview.

Once, when he spoke about the days before Caroline died; the second when he spoke about the future he hoped they would share.

“When I met Caroline, it was clear to me why I was on this planet [and that] was to be a husband and a father,” he says.

“I don’t care if I clean toilets; I knew that was it. I knew we were going to get married and have children, and whatever else I did, I was going to do that brilliantly.”

Gordon says rumours of a gay affair with his boss, Rene Rivkin, were “nonsense”, and that Rene was not a criminal.

“To call him a fraudster is unfair, he wasn’t. He might have sailed close to the wind in terms of taxes and what have you [but] in my knowledge and experience, he was a lovely guy.”

True crime: Two wives, two murders, one killer

When asked how the Wood family felt about Caroline’s father Tony’s belief that Gordon was guilty, his sister Jackie said: “We understand how difficult it would be to accept one suicide in the family [Caroline’s mother committed suicide]. We understand how impossible it would be to accept a second one. And I guess now he’s got a difficult task ahead of him of actually dealing with the fact that his daughter committed suicide.”

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

Subscribe to 12 issues of AWW for only $64.95 (save 22%) for your chance to win a trip of a lifetime for two to Tahiti & Los Angeles, valued at $26,000.

Video: Jordan Bakers talks about interviewing Gordon Wood

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Great read: The Light Between Oceans

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Great read: The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, Random House, $32.95.

There was an international bidding war for this debut novel by Australian author Margot Stedman and while the plotline is solid, it is the mesmerising quality of the writing that has caused the much deserved commotion.

Stedman’s descriptions are superb: vivid and accessible without being overblown.

Set for the most part in the 1920s, this is the story of quiet, reliable but enigmatic Tom Sherbourne who, desperate to escape the painful memories of his feted actions in World War I, happily signs up for banishment to the uninhabited island of Janus Rock, off the coast of Western Australia, to work as a lighthouse keeper and find much-needed peace.

Here, like Tom, we fall in love with the isolation, the power of nature and the rhythms of a simple and ordered life.

“It seemed his lungs could never be large enough to breathe in this much air, his eyes could never see this much space, nor could he hear the full extent of the rolling, roaring ocean. For the briefest moment, he had no edges.”

The sense of freedom is intense and invigorating, and when Tom brings his new wife, Isobel, to share his oblivion, the pair set about trying to expand their family.

Despite her attachment to Tom, Izzy — who, to be honest, is a little wet — is crippled with loneliness and aches to have a child, but she is plagued with miscarriages.

So when a baby and a dead body are washed ashore in a dingy, it seems as if God is handing them a lifeline which Izzy, engulfed with a needy mother’s love, grabs with both hands.

What follows is, at times, predictable and many of the characters are stuck in two dimensions, but the sheer passion and poetry of Stedman’s prose carries us on a wave of emotion and heartbreak, as we teeter on a tightrope between right and wrong.

Destined for book club discussions around the globe.

About the author

Margot Stedman was born and raised in Perth, and although she now lives in London, Perth is “still definitely home”.

Margot decided she wanted to write in 1997, but didn’t start until 2008.

“I never plan what I write. I usually start with a picture in my imagination, or a sentence, or the sound of a voice. The Light Between Oceans started when I closed my eyes to imagine a scene and a lighthouse turned up.

“I could see a woman and, later, a man, who I worked out was the lightkeeper, and I gradually realised it was his story.”

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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Angelina begs Pax’s birth mum: Please don’t take my boy

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Angelina begs Pax's birth mum: Please don't take my boy

The actress breaks down as Pax’s biological mother asks for his return.

Dwarfed by the two oversized teddy bears they were carrying, Zahara and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt giggled and stumbled their way through LA airport last week. But their superstar mother couldn’t even crack a smile. Angelina Jolie looked tense and exhausted after their flight from Amsterdam. Now Woman’s Day can reveal it wasn’t the long-haul journey with two young children that had the mum-of-six seemingly shattered.

We’re told Ange is battling a private nightmare over fears she could lose her adopted son Pax, with a source close to the family claiming she’s been “knocked for six” by a request from the eight-year-old’s Vietnamese biological mother, via the orphanage he came from, to meet him.

“Angelina is in a total spin about this,” the insider reveals. “She is torn about what the right thing to do is. She has always felt slightly insecure about Pax and this is just making matters worse. She’s terrified he’ll choose his birth family over her.”

Pham Thu Dung, 32 – who says she’s clean of the heroin addiction that saw Pax placed in an orphanage – has told authorities she wants Brad, 48, and Ange, 36, to bring the boy to Vietnam to spend time with her and his extended family. “Dung says it’s important Pax knows where he comes from and is aware of his heritage,” a Vietnamese source says. “She is desperate to meet her son after only seeing pictures of him in magazines.” “My dream is that one day he’ll visit me and call me mother,” Dung herself says.

Read more about Pax’s biological mum and why she wants him back in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday March 26, 2012.

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Octomum poses topless

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Octomum Nadya Suleman has posed topless for Closer magazine showing off her post-baby body after losing 64kg. The mother of 14, who had octuplets in 2009, is claiming she has “never looked this good”.

“I just pinged back into shape like a rubber band after the kids, I don’t know how I did it. I eat like a horse, don’t count calories and have never owned a set of scales,” she said.

“I gained an entire human when I was pregnant with the octuplets, going from 140 pounds [63kg] to over 266 pounds [120kg], but two months later, I was a size eight again. Now, I never weigh myself.”

With 14 children to take care of she also claims that she has been celibate for 13 years with all her children being conceived through IVF.

Nadya Suleman on the cover of *Closer* Magazine.

Nadya Suleman on the cover of Closer Magazine.

Now and then: Nadya now and when she was pregnant with octuplets in 2009.

Nadya says she eats 15 portions of fruit or veges a day and runs over 60 kilometers a week.

“I get too much male attention, but I won’t date until the octuplets are 18 – I live for them.”

“I know I’m beautiful – I don’t need a man to tell me that,” she says.

Nadya says her kids “have structure and discipline” and “don’t know what candy is”.

“I’ve done a really great job with them. I don’t get any credit,” she said.

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Is it ever okay to tell your child they’re fat?

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Vogue diet mum speaks: 'I made a million mistakes'

Dara-Lynn Weiss and her daughter Bea, who she "shamed" into losing weight. US Vogue.

One in four Australian children are overweight or obese but should their parents tell them they are fat?

US socialite Dara-Lynn Weiss has sparked worldwide controversy for doing just that.

Weiss opened up about her seven-year-old daughter’s battle with her weight in the April issue of US Vogue.

Related: Why girls are having sex at 12

Weiss details her “mission” to get Bea — who was clinically obese at 42kg and just 132cm tall — to slim down.

This included refusing to give Bea dinner, banning her from enjoying her school’s Pizza Fridays, and publicly “deriding” her daughter when she accepted calorific treats like cookies or chocolate from other adults.

In another embarrassing incident, Weiss snatched a cup of hot chocolate out of Bea’s hands and poured it into the garbage bin when the barista couldn’t tell her the exact kilojoule count of the beverage.

While most parents would agree that Weiss’s behaviour was wrong, no one seems to know what would have been right in this situation — do you tell your child they are fat or protect their feelings and say nothing?

Childhood obesity expert and paediatrician Dr Matt Sabin says children’s age determines whether parents should discuss their weight or keep quiet.

Sabin runs an obesity clinic at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and says there is no need to sit young children down to discuss their weight.

“When we see young children in the clinic, all of the intervention is delivered to the parents,” Sabin says.

“The child plays in a corner while we talk to the parents about changing the family’s lifestyle to make more time for exercise and preparing healthy meals.”

When dealing with teens, however, Sabin says you can’t avoid discussing the issue with the child head-on.

“The story is very different with adolescents because they’re a lot more autonomous,” he says.

“They have their own money, they can make their own decisions about what they eat and what activities they do.

“In those instances we have to really grapple with the adolescent to make them understand the long-term health benefits of losing weight.”

If your child is overweight, Sabin says it is crucial to tackle the issue immediately to avoid weight becoming a lifelong struggle.

“Once you’re an overweight adult, your body really defends your weight,” Sabin says.

“It’s the classic yo-yo cycle. They go on a diet, do it for a period of time and then when they give up their body basically sucks back all that weight and usually a bit more.

“But young children are a little bit more malleable. It may well be that interventions will be able to change their weight trajectory. And that’s really exciting because it means is that it’s not a preordained destiny for these children to become bigger than their parents.”

Dr Sabin’s tips for dealing with overweight children

  • How to tell if your child is overweight: Body Mass Index (BMI) is the accepted medical method but it can be very difficult for parents to work out. A more useful indicator is waist measurement. No matter what your age, your waist should measure half your height or less. If it is bigger than that, you’re overweight.

  • What to do about it if they are: If your child is overweight, make lifestyle changes as a family. Cut down on fast food, eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, reduce portion sizes and get moving.

  • Don’t expect kids to lose weight: You should be aiming to stop your child from putting on weight, not losing the puppy fat they have. Losing lots of weight is bad for children’s growth and development. If you stop the weight gain, the child will eventually fall back into a normal weight range.

  • What’s in it for you?: Improving your family’s lifestyle is not only good for your kids — it’s good for you too. We get a lot of parents saying, “My child has stopped gaining weight and I’ve lost 20kg”. So what are you waiting for?

Related: What every parent needs to know about online safety

Dr Matt Sabin is the author of Is Your Child Overweight?, Wilkinson Publishing, $9.95.

Your say: Would you tell your child if they were overweight?

Video: Is this boy obese?

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William whisks Kate away for romantic ski break

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William whisks Kate away for romantic ski break

William and Kate in Switzerland in 2008.

Prince William has surprised Kate Middleton with a romantic Swiss ski holiday to make up for missing Valentine’s Day.

The Duke of Cambridge arrived back in the UK last Wednesday after seven weeks in the Falkland Islands.

It was the longest the couple have been apart since their brief split in 2007 and an “emotional” Kate was waiting at the airfield to welcome her husband home.

Related: Queen Elizabeth the wedding crasher

The duchess thought she and William would spend a few days at their Kensington Palace cottage before returning to their farmhouse in Anglesey, Wales, but William had other plans.

The 29-year-old took Kate straight to the airport and whisked her away to a luxury chalet in Verbier, Switzerland.

“William missed Kate terribly when he was away,” a source told the UK’s Daily Mirror.

“They spent Valentine’s Day apart and he has been thinking for some time how to make it up to his wife. He wanted a reunion in the most romantic possible fashion.

“They’ve had some brilliant times skiing, and William decided a getaway in Switzerland, where they can wear goggles and hats and go around unnoticed, would be perfect.

“Kate was delighted when he eventually told her about his plans and cannot wait for the pair to spend some quality time together.”

Switzerland’s ski slopes are special to William and Kate. They shared their first public kiss in Klosters in 2006 and have enjoyed several snowy holidays since.

William and Kate weren’t the only royal couple getting cosy on the weekend — Prince Harry spent Friday night with his on/off girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

Harry and Chelsy were both invited to celebrate Princess Eugenie’s 22nd birthday at Windsor Castle.

Harry — who has recently been spotted wearing a silver “love” pendant Chelsy gave him in the early days of their relationship — and Chelsy sat next to each other at the intimate dinner party and chatted all night, leaving fellow guests wondering if their on/off romance was back on again.

“Clearly they are still close,” a palace insider told the UK’s Sunday Express. “They appeared at ease with each other and were chatting happily together.

“Whether they have rekindled their relationship is anyone’s guess but they certainly seemed very friendly.”

In pictures: Prince Harry a hit in the Caribbean

Harry and Chelsy ended their six-year relationship shortly after the royal wedding last April.

They have both dated other people, but are frequently seen out together.

Your say: Do you think Harry and Chelsy should get back together?

Video: The Duchess of Cambridge’s first speech

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Queen Elizabeth the wedding crasher

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Queen Elizabeth the wedding crasher

Queen Elizabeth congratulating bride Frances Canning.

Queen Elizabeth is usually well-versed in matters of etiquette, but she didn’t seem to mind showing up uninvited to a stranger’s wedding on Friday.

The 85-year-old monarch was visiting Manchester Town Hall when she was told that local couple John and Frances Canning had just exchanged vows inside.

Related: William and Kate’s romantic ski break

The queen was delighted to learn of the nuptials and went in to congratulate the couple and pose for wedding photos, with her husband Prince Philip in tow.

“It was very special — it was so lovely that she took the trouble to speak to us,” bride Frances told The Sun newspaper.

“She said I looked lovely and she wanted to wish us all the best for the future. We’re going to have to get a bigger wedding album now. Not many people will have pictures like that!”

Prince Philip — who is notorious for making inappropriate comments — also rose to the occasion, keeping his foot out of his mouth and impressing the newlyweds.

“He was a charming fella — for me it was the icing on the cake,” John Canning said.

In pictures: Camilla steps out in Diana’s jewellery

Queen Elizabeth was in Manchester to visit a number of sites as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour.

Your say: Do you think Queen Elizabeth’s unannounced visit to the Canning’s wedding was friendly or impolite?

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‘Beckingham Palace’ up for sale

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The Beckhams are turning their backs on Britain and making Hollywood their home permanently.

David and Victoria Beckham have put their nine-hectare English estate, dubbed ‘Beckingham Palace’, up for sale at an asking price of $29 million, the UK’s Daily Mail reported.

The couple, who moved to Los Angeles in 2007, purchased the seven-bedroom estate in Hertfordshire, London, in 1999 and have been using it as a base when they travel back to the UK.

The pair, who purchased the house for $4 million, have carried out extensive renovations on the property including a large garden pavilion with a marble floor, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, recording studio and gym.

Flick through the pictures of Beckingham Palace here.

The Beckhams and their brood have well and truly settled in to Hollywood life.

Beckingham Palace is up for sale for $29 million.

The grounds of Beckingham Palace.

An entry to Beckingham Palace.

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Kate Middleton’s joy: It’s baby time!

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Kate Middleton's joy: It's baby time!

The Queen’s given the newly reunited Kate and Wills her blessing to start a family.

It’s all systems go for a Diamond Jubilee baby for Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. The Queen has given the royal lovebirds her blessing to start a family “as soon as possible”, reveals a very close friend of the couple, who has known them since their university days in Scotland. “They are absolutely thrilled.”

With the helicopter-pilot prince now home from six weeks in the Falklands, “Kate and Wills are looking forward to spending a lot of quality time together,” confides the friend. “Kate has missed Wills a lot. It’s been difficult having her husband so far away, but she’s kept busy.” The duchess has thrown herself into her role as a royal with a string of appearances, as well as catching up with old friends.

“But more than anything she’s been bonding with the Queen while Wills has been away,” confides the friend, speaking exclusively to Woman’s Day. “They’ve really become rather close.” Kate has had frequent private meetings with the Queen at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty has been passing on the knowledge she’s gained from her 60 years as monarch.

“The topic of conversation also turned to babies,” reveals the friend. “The Queen let Kate know that her Diamond Jubilee celebrations would be even more memorable if Kate were to fall pregnant. Kate was a little embarrassed at first, but afterwards she couldn’t wait to tell Wills what his granny had said. He thought it was hysterical. They’d been prepared to put off pregnancy plans because they didn’t want to steal the spotlight.”

Read more about Kate’s baby plans and how the Queen feels in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday March 26, 2012.

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