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Aussie dad tells: I snatched my son from a kidnapper

By Jo Knowsley

Pictures: Oscar Kornyei

Last week Qld dad Matt Munt was working in his yard when he looked up and saw a man running down the driveway with his petrified little boy.

An ordinary weekend turned into something out of a sick horror film for Ipswich father Matthew Munt. It was Saturday afternoon, and Matt was chopping wood out the front of the family home with the help of his son Hayden, 2.

The boy’s mother, Dearne, was away visiting her own mother, and little Hayden was delighted to help his dad with such an important job.

Moments later, all hell broke loose when Matt saw his son, screaming in helpless panic, in the grip of a rough-looking stranger and being bundled towards a waiting car.

“I only looked up because our dog Harvey tore past, barking like mad,” says Matt. “What I saw made me feel sick. There was a man at the bottom of our driveway who had Hayden by the waist and was heading to a parked car.

“I was about 20 metres away and just ran. I don’t think I’ve ever run so fast. By the time I got there, the man had put Hayden in the driver’s seat. There were two other people in the car, but I didn’t look at them. I just wanted my son. I would have thrown myself through the windscreen if I’d had to. The driver was still standing by the car and I barged him and punched him twice, hard, in the face. I might have been screaming, but I really can’t remember.

“Then I grabbed Hayden from the seat by his little blue jumper and sort of flung him back onto our property before hitting the guy some more.

“My little boy was screaming in terror. He was calling out, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ and sobbing. I felt absolutely sick. I ran to my son and the car sped off.”

Calling the police and then Dearne, to tell her what happened and assure her that Hayden was safe, Matt carried Hayden back into the house as his little boy shook with terror.

For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day ?on sale May 25, 2009.

Have you got an amazing tale of bravery to share? Have your say below…

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Tom and Katie’s new Aussie home

Hollywood’s hottest couple are looking to set up house in Melbourne.

Katie Holmes’ upcoming trip to Australia will now be a family affair, with her husband Tom Cruise and daughter Suri, 3, confirmed to be joining her as she relocates Down Under.

The actress — who recently sparked rumours of a pregnancy when she stepped out with what looked like a baby bump — will be in Australia for three months, filming the supernatural thriller Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark.

Sources reveal Tom has decided to follow his wife to our shores after a tug-of-love over Suri. “I think Katie thought that Tom would agree she could take Suri with her, and she was very upset when he said no,” an insider told Woman’s Day. “Tom initially ruled out the family going because he had projects of his own for the [northern] summer.

“It came down to a verbal tug of war over Suri. Tom was never going to let her go 10,000 miles away from home without him.”

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Sharon Stone’s public tears

Fears grow for the once red-hot actress after a public outpouring of emotion.

Sharon Stone has friends concerned for her emotional wellbeing following a disturbing public meltdown at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

The actress stunned fellow diners when she burst into tears during a lunch date at celebrity eatery Joan’s on Third, sobbing uncontrollably while her pals tried to console her.

She eventually stopped weeping, but continued to gesticulate wildly as she poured her heart out to her friends, gesturing at her chest one minute, and waving her arms about the next.

There were signs that all was not well in the 51-year-old divorcee’s life when she drew stares from onlookers at a recent charity event with her startlingly skinny appearance.

Close friends are now wondering if the string of career and personal problems that have plagued Sharon of late have pushed the famous star too far. Her last headline-grabbing role was in the multimillion-dollar bomb Basic Instinct II, but these days she seems better known for her legal battles than for her acting work.

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Catriona: The baby I thought I’d never have

By Leigh Reinhold

Pictures: Cameron Bloom

Catriona Rowntree is excited about her looming arrival, but worries she may give birth on the side of the road!

Radiant, seven-months-pregnant Catriona Rowntree lets out an excited squeal as she sweeps into the lavish baby shower being held in her honour.

“It’s absolutely perfect,” the happy TV star tells her guests — including Woman’s Day — as she sees the gorgeous mumsy spread of pink and blue lollies, and cupcakes piled high on a silver salver, put on for her by friends and family.

The shower, at a stunning house overlooking Sydney’s Bungan Beach, was made even more poignant by Catriona’s admission that for a long time she feared she might never experience this moment. “There was certainly a time when I didn’t think motherhood was going to be on the cards for me,” she says. “When I broke up with [now husband] James for a year, I thought, OK, if it’s not in my destiny, then so be it.”

But then her luck changed: she and James reunited, married and are now starting the next chapter of their lives.

“All I know is that good things do come to those who wait, and I’ve sure had to wait for this one,” she says. “There must be a grand plan for each of us.”

Catriona, 37, says this is exactly the right time for her and her grazier husband James Pettit to take their next step. After 15 years criss-crossing the globe, TV’s favourite travel reporter has now been “overwhelmed” by a desire to nest.

With just under two months until her baby is due, Catriona is hoping a smooth delivery in a country hospital is also part of the plan. The rural Victorian property she and husband James share is an hour’s drive from the nearest hospital, and Catriona is filled with worry that she may deliver on the side of the road! Combine this with the fact she was a premature baby herself, and she seems to have some reason for concern.

“We’re an hour’s drive from the hospital and I am a bit worried about that. What if the baby wants to come quickly?” Catriona asks her guests.

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Debra Byrne: I’m a mother again at 52

By Glen Williams

Pictures: David Hahn

Emerging from the shadows of abuse, the singer is relishing her role as full-time guardian to her grandsons.

Something transfiguring, something dramatically life-changing, has happened to Debra Byrne.

You can see it, plain as day, as the iconic entertainer bursts forth with a carefree chorus of Baa Baa Black Sheep, before lovingly scooping up two blond little rascals and tickling them, as they all fall down amid a flurry of cuddles and giggles.

The two little boys, Oliver, 4, and Aaron, 2, are actually Deb’s grandsons, who she now formally cares for full-time.

The little girl we watched grow up on Young Talent Time in the 1970s, the woman we marvelled at as the leading lady in Cats, Les Misérables and Sunset Boulevard, is now 52 and a grandmother!

For much of her career she was the celebrity we despaired of as she self destructed into a mire of depression, heroin addiction, alcohol, damaging relationships and suicide attempts — all a result of a violent alcoholic father, and the grandfather who started abusing her as a toddler. Deb first revealed her dark childhood in her 2006 autobiography, Not Quite Ripe.

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Bud Tingwell’s final bow

**By Lucy Chesterton and Jacqui Lang

The Aussie acting legend departed this life as he lived it… in a blaze of warmth, humour and love.**

Leaving a well thumbed script by his bedside, beloved actor Charles “Bud” Tingwell ended his final day the same way he did so many before — with his lines fully learned.

“I’ll be acting until I die; I’ve got no intention of stopping!” he told Woman’s Day in an interview before succumbing to prostate cancer aged 86.

But last week, the affable Aussie bloke took his final bow as he was laid to rest at a state funeral in Melbourne. Among the hundreds of mourners who packed St Paul’s Cathedral were his children Christopher and Virginia, as well as Bert, Patti and Matthew Newton, Michael Caton, Jack Thompson, Rachel Griffiths, Jimeoin, Kerry Armstrong, Rob Sitch, Jane Kennedy, Victoria’s Premier John Brumby and federal MPs Peter Garrett and Julie Bishop.

“Bud was a gentleman, an actor of the highest calibre, a courageous World War II pilot, a devoted family man and invaluable mentor to many, including me,” actor Sam Neill told Woman’s Day.

“I loved him, along with so many others, and I feel lucky indeed to have known and worked with him.”

With an illustrious career spanning more than 60 years and 140 appearances on the stage and screen, Bud never hesitated to help the younger generation of actors.

Colleague Bert Newton remembers Bud as being “the full deal”, while Bud’s passion for encouraging young talent saw him also befriend Bert’s actor son Matthew, whom he eventually worked with on the film Three Blind Mice.

“There was no outer skin that you had to get through to find Bud; if he walked into a room people would be drawn to him,” Bert remembers. Matt adds, “His legacy wasn’t only about his great work, but how he helped people.”

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Are you relationship ready?

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Are you relationship ready?

Drop the baggage

If you want to start something new with somebody, it’s unlikely to happen or be successful if you’ve got a ton of emotional baggage hanging around. Signs that you still need to let go are…

You still think about your ex a lot – more than three or four times a week/day/minute.

When you hear about your ex, you feel mad or very sad.

You feel scared that you are going to be hurt again.

Your ex is still in your life in a way that’s not quite healthy. For example, they come around every night for dinner or are still sleeping on your couch!

You can’t bear to throw out their old toothbrush and other personal momentos they left behind.

The thought of them being with someone else makes you want to turn inside out.

You are occasionally still seeing or having sleep-overs with your ex.

If this sounds like you, then start to cut old ties. Get therapy, talk it out with a friend, write a goodbye letter where you say everything you want then burn it or have a throw out session of old possessions and memories. If necessary draw a boundary and move on with your life.

Sort out your life

If you totally love your life – skip to the next question because there’s nothing more attractive than someone who is living their passion. If you wish your day-to-day was different then you are going to have to do some sorting out before you start to date because negativity is a huge turn-off. Signs you need to take control of your life are being…

Seriously in debt and not taking charge of the situation

Unfit or unhappily overweight

Unemployed and doing nothing to change it

In a job you hate

In continuing conflict with a family member or a previous partner

Regularly indulging in sabotaging behaviours such as overspending, drinking too many glasses of wine in front of the TV or anything else you know isn’t good for you

Continually pessimistic

If this sound like you, start immediately to create a life you love. Take control of your finances, plan a dream trip, start saving for your own place, go on that weight loss program, start visiting the gym, find a new job, volunteer with a charity and look for what’s great about your circumstances.

Decide what you want

If you don’t know what you want in relationship, it’s really likely you will settle for something you don’t. Make a list of non-negotiable values that you couldn’t compromise on and then add on your wish list. So get clear on if you want to date someone who…

Wants kids or who already has them or not

Has money, status and assets or not

Has cultural, religious, political or social backgrounds that you share or not

Is a smoker or not

Wants to get married or live with you or not

Shares a particular interest that you are passionate about or not

Wants to be based in the same place as you or not

If you find it hard to make a list of what you want, start with what you know you definitely don’t. Have fun with it and risk writing down what you most wish for. If you need help ask a good friend who you trust what they think you need in a partner.

Julie Hamilton is a therapist who does one-on-one love and relationship sessions. You can contact her at www.juliehamilton.com.au

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*Samson and Delilah*

Warwick Thornton's 'Samson and Delilah'

'Samson and Delilah' - a film review

Samson and Delilah

If it’s possible to pack a wallop at the same time as being quiet and unassuming, Warwick Thornton’s first full-length feature does it.

“Samson and Delilah” has been selected for this year’s Cannes International Film Festival and I expect it will wow audiences there, as it should and hopefully will here in Oz.

It is at heart a simple love story. Samson and Delilah are Aboriginal teenagers living in a community outside Alice Springs. Both have been damaged by neglect and other unspecified tragedies; Delilah ekes out an existence caring for her grandmother and helping the old woman with the paintings she sells to a white gallery owner from town. Needless to say, he is making all the profit. Samson, utterly alone, spends his days sniffing petrol and aimlessly kicking about in an abandoned wheelchair.

I know all this sounds very depressing but here’s the odd thing – this film is not a downer. Thornton, an Aboriginal filmmaker who himself grew up around Alice Springs, shows us life for these people from the inside. So there is wit, charm, simple beauty and quite a few laugh-out-loud moments as well as the inevitable violence and misery. And all of it is held together with the complete integrity only a member of such a community can have.

The leads are played by two untrained actors, Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, children from the community depicted in the film, who give wondrous performances. Both of them are beautiful and Thornton photographs them to show that beauty despite the grimness of their lives.

In its own way, this delicate film echoes “Once Were Warriors’, the New Zealand film made some years ago that told it like it is for many Maori today. It deserves the same level of recognition not because it’s the sort of film we “should” see but because it’s a brilliant piece of work in its own right. Go see it, and take your kids too.

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I dumped my wife when she became a frumpy mummy… twice

Sometimes I think that I’ve got no right to feel bitter, but mostly I just feel angry.

Denise and I met at university and had a great connection. We’re accountants, which doesn’t sound exciting, but I’m in corporate venture transactions, where the financial rewards are very thrilling indeed and Denise is a partner in a large firm.

I’d never been faithful to Denise, even when first married, but I was always discreet. We had a major row when she decided she wanted a child and I didn’t, but she talked me into it. Just four weeks later she was pregnant, which was when I first met Jane.

Jane was a high-flyer who was joining our division of the bank. Jane was absolutely stunning and within days we plunged into an affair which consumed us both. It started › what a cliché › after working late one night, while we were trying to grab taxis in the rain. We were both under her umbrella, laughing because I was so much taller than her that the rain was pouring straight down her neck, and then I kissed her.

Her response to my kiss was to pull me into an alleyway. It was dark and smelly but we tore at each other’s clothes up against the grimy bricks, in a frenzy I’d never experienced before.

In the taxi afterwards we frantically sorted our clothes and parted at the station, where I tried to smarten myself up before getting the train home to Denise.

Denise was in bed and I sat up for hours. If Denise hadn’t been pregnant I would have left then. Instead, that was the beginning of three years of ecstasy and agony, to use another cliché. Jane and I were totally professional in front of colleagues, but we took risks in other ways I still cannot believe.

Jane would make an appointment with me through my secretary, come in with a file, lock the door and take her skirt off. We frequently ate in a restaurant downstairs from our office which many of our colleagues used, but I doubt any of them also regularly had passionate encounters in the alleyway behind the restaurant. I lived in fear of getting caught as I would have been instantly sacked, but nothing could have stopped me.

The riskiest time was at a conference, when I went into a stationery cupboard off the main room and Jane followed me — despite knowing that if anyone opened the door we would be seen by nearly 200 people.

It wasn’t just a physical thing, mind-blowing and addictive though that was. Jane was a challenge in every way, good at her job, fascinating to talk to and great fun, though always ready to stand her ground and fight.

I finally told her about Denise’s pregnancy three months before the baby was born and she was furious › not just about the baby but because I had lied to her. She even punched me, but I almost enjoyed that, so besotted by her that any physical contact at all was exciting.

When Tom was born, I was in turmoil. Jane was obviously very hurt by my instant love for him, and Denise was starting to question the distance between us, so I felt very torn. Life was a constant juggle between my son, my work, and Jane — until she said she was no longer happy with just an affair, so she was applying for a transfer.

I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, so I promised I would leave Denise. The next few months were utter hell, as I left Denise, bought a flat and tried to organise seeing Tom as much as possible. Denise simply couldn’t believe it. Although I said I’d only recently got together with Jane, she didn’t believe me, finally asking if we’d started our affair while she was pregnant. I denied it, but I don’t think she ever believed or forgave me and the next few years were punctuated with broken arrangements, cancellations and rows about access.

I was surprised when Jane said she wanted to get married as she’d always said marriage and children weren’t on her agenda. I wasn’t keen, but eventually agreed. The following year I was genuinely taken aback when Jane said she wanted a baby.

This time I was adamant that a baby wasn’t part of our agreement but the arguments raged for months › alongside our still wild attraction to each other › until she eventually said she would leave me and have a child with someone else. So I agreed, and Sally was born three years ago. I love her as much as Tom and the two of them adore each other.

But Jane only has time and energy for everything else apart from us, which has reduced our love making to a desultory once or twice a week in bed with the lights out. No sexy underwear, no flirty games, no interest in being whisked away for a weekend and never, ever anything different or vaguely naughty. We still enjoy the children, work together, meet for lunch, have lovely holidays, but I look at this beautiful woman who has caused me as much pain as pleasure and I don’t know her.

Life isn’t all about attraction but it was a really big thing for us and now she just shrugs and vaguely says: “Oh I know it’s me › I should give you more attention.” So I seem really pathetic, begging for affection.

I feel so short-changed and full of fury that at times I hate Jane, but I can’t bring myself to admit it or do anything about it. All that passion and excitement should be the only thing that could justify the pain we caused to Denise and Tom but in the end I’ve ended up back exactly where I started — in a mediocre marriage.

All names have been changed. Picture posed by models.

Your say: Have your say about this true confession below…

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Julia Roberts — a role model for ‘real women’?

Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts has been branded one of the bravest ladies in Hollywood after brandishing her ‘mummy midriff’ in a skimpy bikini in Hawaii recently.

View our picture gallery featuring our favourite heroines of real women

On holiday with her husband, cinematographer Daniel Moder, 40, and their children, the 41-year-old Pretty Woman (1990) star showed her confidence to cut a gorgeous figure on the beach in a flattering polka dot bikini after having given birth to twins Hazel and Phinnaeus four years ago and Henry, just 22 months ago. Complete with post-natal stretch marks, Roberts proved to the public she hadn’t been anywhere near a surgeon’s knife to get a ‘perfect’ bod back — and indeed, why should she?

There’s a worrying trend with Hollywood mums to get back to their pre-baby weight in record time, with celebrities such as Nicole Richie and Jessica Alba going to extremes to return to their tiny frames after giving birth. While Julia Roberts is admittedly still sporting a figure most women would die for, stretch marks and all, she’s not afraid to let those tell-tale signs of pregnancy show. Roberts represents a much healthier role-model for real women and the type of self-esteem society should be cultivating for women of all ages.

Roberts recently told a UK newspaper that she feels gorgeous because her children think she’s gorgeous and that’s down to their father. She said, “I realise that’s all down to my husband. They’re seeing the things he does and the way we share our feelings.”

It was a rare public appearance for Roberts who, despite her enviable physique, insists she has no desire to flaunt her body in front of the camera. At the height of her career, Roberts could command £17million per film and famously hired a body double for her love scenes in Pretty Woman. She said, ‘I won’t do nudity in films. To act with my clothes on is a performance. To act with my clothes off is a documentary.’

Like many women, Roberts’ priorities changed when she had children and since then she has scaled down her career to concentrate on raising her family. ‘You have a baby and you just want to stay home and stay in your elasticated waist pants,’ she said recently.

Do you think Julia Roberts is a good role-model for ‘real women’? Tell us your thoughts below…

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