Katie forced to live under 24-7 surveillance in her super-secure new mansion.
As Tom Cruise proudly showed off his new $45 million home to friends at an extravagant A-list Hollywood housewarming party, Katie Holmes cut a fragile-looking figure as she contemplated life in the fortress-like compound, in which few of her movements will go unnoticed, and where no-one can come or go without passing through massive security.
While the couple appeared tense and uncomfortable with each other when caught off-guard by a photographer on the set of Will Smith’s new film Seven Pounds, they were all smiles as they greeted the who’s who of Hollywood to celebrate the completion of their new showpiece home.
Hidden cameras
But insiders say Katie has privately expressed her disquiet about her future life in the new house, which Tom says he built for her and their daughter Suri.
It’s swarming with video surveillance equipment, including tiny cameras hidden in lights and wall switches aimed at keeping the family safe from stalkers and anti-Scientology fanatics, and Katie’s every move will be watched. Her sheltered life in the house is being compared to that of a bird in a gilded cage.
“Katie is living the life of a queen, but that of a queen trapped in a castle,” a Cruise source told top-selling US magazine Star. “She doesn’t even get to drive herself around town, since Tom wants her to be chauffeured everywhere and followed by bodyguards.”
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
The actress opens up about her new TV show, her kids and how her ex Charlie Sheen is broken and can’t be fixed.**
Denise Richards reveals her private world in her new TV reality show, but she goes one step further in this interview with Woman’s Day — her most sensational in the three years since she filed for divorce from her husband Charlie Sheen.
Speaking on the eve of the launch of her new E! Channel show Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, her eyes brim with tears as she talks about the adversity she’s faced since separating from Charlie in 2005.
Striving as a single mum to raise her two young girls, Denise, 37, watched helplessly as her beloved mother Joni died last November after an 18-month battle with cancer. Today, Denise asks Woman’s Day readers to be her judge …
**You’re 37 years old. Do you worry about your age where actresses are considered past their ‘sell by date’ after 40?
** I don’t feel 37 but I’m also very realistic. I am 37! And I’m not ashamed of it. I mean, I’m sure no-one wants to get old. Who the hell wants to have their face and ass drop to the floor?! But I’m not 22; new to Hollywood and trying to be a big, big movie star. I’m 37; I have girls to raise, and that’s my first priority over anything.
**Reflecting on your early days in Hollywood, would you have done anything differently?
** I had no idea that my life would turn out like this. I did very well so young, doing movies like Starship Troopers and Wild Things, and all the stuff that came with doing Bond was amazing. So, as far as my career, I’m very happy. And then, right after I got married, and had the girls, I took time off, and wanted to. I think that when I was younger, my career was my priority. I wasn’t married; I didn’t have children so it was nothing for me to just go on location for however long it was. I didn’t have any responsibilities. There’s a sense of freedom when you’re that age but I would never trade what I have now to go back. I love being responsible and being a mum and having a home and that’s what I want in my life now.
**As your girls get older, do you look forward to getting involved in traditional things like joining the school PTA?
** I don’t know about the PTA but I’m involved in Sam’s nursery school and Lola and I go to Mummy-and-Me. I do everything that my own mum did when I was a kid; baking cookies and we have play-dates — and I play with them too, without other kids!
**You have such a sexy image, I don’t think people think of you in the kitchen, baking cookies…
**That’s the other thing I think people will be surprised at watching the show. I’m from Illinois, and I was raised very differently than living in Los Angeles. Family is very important to me and, now that my dad’s moved in, he does all the cooking and we have dinner together every single night at the same time. I get up with the girls every morning and I put them to bed every night.
**So you don’t have an army of nannies and housekeepers to help out?
** My ex says I have caretakers and 20 nannies and this and that, but that’s not true. I only have help when I’m working. I don’t want someone else raising my kids. I enjoy it. I’m up at five every day. I’m a morning person and I like to get up before the girls so I can have my first cup of coffee, check my e-mails and have that time to myself before the girls wake up.
**Charlie tried to prevent your daughters from appearing on your TV show. How do you answer the criticism that you’re exploiting them?
** We’re not on a set. I’m not driving them to a set of a TV show. We’re at home and, you know, if they’re eating their breakfast we would film it, and they don’t notice that.
**Will you encourage your girls to pursue Hollywood careers if they ask?
** I think I would wait until they’re older. I’ll cross that bridge when it comes. Right now they want to be veterinarians. They’ve never mentioned that they want to be in TV or movies. Right now it’s all about animals.
**It seems like you’ve always been attracted to the bad boys. Is this something you’re looking to change?
** You know, honestly, when I met Charlie he was not a bad boy. And Richie’s definitely not a bad boy. He’s a great dad and a good guy. It’s everyone else who says I’m attracted to those kind of guys. They were both great, otherwise I wouldn’t have married Charlie if he wasn’t nice, and Richie was a great guy.
**What do you hope for in the future?
** I honestly take one day at a time. I hope to just continue to live in the moment. I never in a million years thought I’d be 37 years old, divorced with two kids. I never thought my mother would pass away at 54 years of age. I never thought I’d be talking about the perception of me in the press three years later. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. I enjoy life. I have two beautiful healthy daughters, and I just take each day as it comes.
**And you obviously relish being a mother?
** I love them so much and I just want to be there for the girls. They’re so young and I’ll never get these years back with them.
**On your TV show we see you going on a disastrous blind date. Is it difficult to meet guys?
** It’s not hard to meet someone but its hard to date when you’re a celebrity because if you’re out to dinner with someone and someone takes your picture, you’re automatically in a ‘relationship’, and being a single mum if I have private dates at home, you know, and I don’t want to bring someone home to my girls. So it’s very hard. It’s hard being a single mum dating but let alone when people know who you are and people can take your picture and put a label on it. It’s hard.
**As a single mum, do you now look for different qualities in a man?
** Absolutely. I definitely want a man who’s good with kids because we’re a package deal.
**And it’s always sad when a father isn’t there to share all those special moments with their children— like their first word or their first step…
** In the beginning, when I was first separated, it was sad to me that I didn’t have their dad there to see them walk for the first time or go to different things but I would never have gotten that with their dad. So to me now it’s normal, and I’m glad that I’m there. But they also had my mum and my dad who were very close to them so they had them instead. And they have a lot of love within my family.
**What’s your favourite times with your daughters?
** I love when they first wake up in the morning. Usually they’re in a very good mood. I love when they first get up, I love swimming with them, I love playing with their dolls with them. They love to go shopping, and they’re fun and they get all dressed up with their purses. They’re very girly — they love coming to photo shoots and playing with the make-up. They’re very girly girls. I love doing anything with them. They’re a lot of fun.
**You’re in great shape. What’s your fitness routine?
** I do Pilates. For my body type, I’ve found that’s the best work-out. And also the elliptical for cardio. I have an elliptical machine at home, and also I have a Pilates instructor and a Pilates machine. When I’m really consistent, I do Pilates four or five times a week. I found that after having two babies, that was the best exercise for getting back into shape.
**You got back into shape instantly after both your girls.
** Look at my dad — he’s so thin! It runs in my family.
**What’s your beauty routine?
** I use Dr Lancer’s skin-care products. And I use sunscreen every day. I find that really helps.
**Being a single mum leaves little time for a good night’s sleep. How do you cope?
** I’ve learned to function on very little sleep. When you have two kids its hit or miss. Every day is different. I used to need eight hours sleep but I’ve learned to function on less. I have George, the Chihuahua, on my bed sometimes — but we can’t have all of them on the bed. There’s too many.
**What kind of feedback have you had from your show?
** I think everyone is surprised and most people say they had no idea how normal I am. And they all love my dad.
For more of this interview, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
Filled with a desire to help childless couples, Jackie has borne an amazing 11 babies.
As soon as you walk into Jackie Smith’s house, it’s clear you’re in a family home. Toys and children’s DVDs are stacked in a corner, and smiling faces beam out from pictures on the mantelpiece and walls.
But while you might only count six children in the family photos, Jackie has actually given birth to 11 babies — the remaining five were surrogate births, with another two still in the planning. She’s also donated her eggs to childless couples and, at just 39, says she’s spent much of the past 20 years pregnant.
“I know I won’t be able to be a surrogate for much longer,” she says. “But I’ve had my own wonderful family and am determined to keep helping those who need me as long as I can.”
Married at 19 to husband Kevin, Jackie had her first child — also named Kevin — soon after. Caroline followed a year later.
“About three months after Caroline was born, I started longing for another baby. I managed to persuade Kevin that we should have a third child and Michael was born three years later. When I held him in my arms I was so thrilled. But only weeks later I fell pregnant again and miscarried, so that started me wanting another baby.
“Lorraine was born two years later and it was then that I threw out all the cots, baby clothes and prams, thinking I wouldn’t need them any more. I was happy with my little family.”
An egg donor
When Lorraine was just four months old, Jackie read about an urgent need for egg donation.
“The thought of being childless was terrible to me,” says Jackie. “I had my four beautiful children and couldn’t imagine life without them.
“Over the next few years I donated more than 50 eggs … I even got an anonymous card from one couple thanking me for making it possible for their baby to be born.”
In 1996, Jackie read a story about a woman who acted as a surrogate and she decided she wanted to help more couples.
“The first woman I acted as a surrogate for had had a hysterectomy for medical reasons,” she says.
“I felt an overwhelming need to help her and her husband have their own baby.”
Using sperm from the husband, which was artificially inseminated, Jackie became pregnant and nine months later gave birth to a boy.
“The joy on their faces when I handed over the baby was unbelievable,” smiles Jackie. “It was a roller-coaster ride of emotion for me. Carrying a child for all that time, then giving it away … but their happiness made it all worthwhile.”
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
Your say:
Would you ever consider being a surrogate mother? Have your say below…
A relaxed Mary and her family welcome an Aussie friend — and the northern summer — to Denmark.
Two-year-old Prince Christian tried desperately to keep his ice-cream away from the prying nose of the family collie Ziggy, during a sunny Sunday outing with his mum Princess Mary and her friends — including Amber Petty and Countess Marina of Rosenborg.
Dressed in a checked shirt, shorts and floppy hat, skin-cancer-awareness crusader Mary looked much more like a down-to-earth Tasmanian girl than the Crown Princess of Denmark as she wandered about the grounds of Fredensborg Palace. No doubt Mary and Amber — who’d flown to Copenhagen for Prince Frederik’s 40th birthday party last month —were kept busy reminiscing about their days together in Australia.
Baby rumours
The 37-year-old Adelaide radio host, who was Mary’s bridesmaid, has sparked pregnancy gossip since being spotted with a rounder-than-usual tummy — though it’s not been confirmed if there’s a little playmate for Princess Isabella on the way.
It is likely Mary and Amber will do more catching up later this year, when the 36-year-old princess visits Tasmania in August, along with Fred, Christian and one-year-old Isabella.
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
Brian McFadden still remembers how, as a young boy in Ireland, he yearned to one day become a professional footballer. Instead — and to the delight of millions of female fans — his other wish of becoming a pop star was granted. After success with boy band Westlife, the 28-year-old father of two has a burgeoning solo career and new life in Australia with fiancée Delta Goodrem, 23. Now he’s hosting Football Superstar, a reality show that sees 15 soccer hot shots vying for an A-League contract.
Congratulations on your new role with Football Superstar. Are you a fan of the sport?
Soccer’s always been my number one sport.
As a boy, did you want to be a professional player?
Every Irish boy wants to play for Manchester United or Liverpool or Arsenal.
Do you have a football idol?
My favourite footballer of all time is Roy Keane. He’s an Irish player.
Have you become a fan of Aussie football — AFL or rugby league?
I’m not really a rugby fan, but I love AFL, I’m a Collingwood fan. What I like about AFL is that there are different teams that are in the running to win it every year, not like football where you have two or three teams who are in contention every single year. It makes it a bit more competitive.
Do people assume you are a romantic because of the ballad you wrote about Delta, Like Only A Woman Can?
Not at all. Maybe before, but not now. I’m a songwriter and that’s just one song I’ve written. When they hear the rest of my songs they’ll realise there’s more to the album than just love songs. I was growing up with bands like Guns’ n’ Roses, Nirvana and Metallica, that’s what pop music was to me.
What are your girls like?
They love Duffy. When they came over here they are big fans of The Veronicas.
Do you they like your new album?
Yeah, they love it. They love Delta’s stuff, even more than my songs. They just love hearing her voice I think.
You’ve been able to share Australia with them this year. Did they enjoy being in Sydney?
They love it, they can’t wait to come back. They think it’s great.
Football Superstar screens Thursdays at 7.30pm on Foxtel’s Fox8 channel.
For more of this interview, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
Pictures: Luke White (shot on location at the Oakley Court Hotel in Windsor, UK).
Aussie living legend Rolf Harris talks candidly to Woman’s Day.
He’s a much-loved national treasure. With his trademark wobble-board and quirky songs like Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Rolf Harris has been bringing his unique brand of entertainment to the world since the early 1960s and is now ingrained in all our hearts.
On the eve of his induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame and a nostalgic concert series at the Sydney Opera House, Rolf sat down for a reflective chat with Woman’s Day. He talks of love, art, family and why, possibly, this might be his last working visit to his beloved homeland.
You’re performing at the Opera House soon.
Yes, I’m at the Playhouse Theatre there. The dates are December 9-21. The show is basically a journey through my life.
It only seems like yesterday you were here for the very first Opera House concert back in 1973.
It’s hard to credit. Time sure flies.
Will this be quite an emotional time, knowing this might be your last tour in Australia?
Yes, it really will be a big one. The nice thing is I’ll have all the guys around me, the band I’ve worked with on all the tours that I did before in Australia. They’ll all be there, except for one of the men who has since died. But all the rest of the marvellous musicians will be there.
Your paintings have brought so much joy. Remember those shows on TV where you painted those massive paintings?
They were huge. I’m thrilled with the joy my paintings have brought. It’s nice to have gotten to the stage where I’m doing an annual exhibition of my own paintings now, which is really good. When I was a little kid and I was asked, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” I’d say, “I’m going to be an artist.” My mother told me I’d always leave a little pause, then say, “And a good one.”
Is it fair to say you paint from the heart?
[Laughs] Yes, definitely.
Is that when you’re most content — painting?
It’s hard to decide. I love that, but I also get a terrific buzz from entertaining people. The actual feeling of looking people in the eye and performing to them and with them and getting their response and feedback… I get a great charge out of that.
When you painted the Queen, it was almost as if you were two old mates having a yarn at the pub.
It was very good and a lot of that was down to her reaction as well. Her friendship, her warmth. We were just chatting away amongst ourselves.
She obviously likes you. Did you feel an affinity with her straight away?
I certainly did. She was at pains to put us all at ease very rapidly, so that was so good.
You loved her hands?
Yes. I was very pleased with the way I captured them. I was certainly aware by her hands that she was an 80-year-old person. The hands had a terrific amount of character in them, I felt. And that reflects her.
Is it true you want to paint our Crown Princess Mary of Denmark?
I thought she would be wonderful. I was trying to get the BBC interested in that, but at the moment they seem to be completely involved in reality shows and seem to doing all those reality things, and anything with a creative element in it you’re hard pressed to sell. That’s the way the world is going.
You said last time we chatted you’d love to paint Michael Parkinson, “with his expressive, craggy face”. Have you?
[Laughs.] He’s got wrinkles on wrinkles. He would be just wonderful, he would a cracking subject. He just lives about a hundred yards up the road from me. But I haven’t managed to snare him yet.
What happens to you when you’re performing? It’s as if you have an overwhelming love for your audience.
Yes, you try and see the nice things about everything around you. You try and get the reality and the emotion and the warmth. I like songs to have a story and I like to get that story across. I particularly like involving the audience in songs. When I did the Glastonbury shows, that was magic. I’ve been to the Glastonbury Festival four times now and they voted me as the best entertainer they’ve ever had there. The joy of those shows was the fact that everybody in the audience sang along at the tops of their voices. I couldn’t believe it. At one stage they were singing the words to Sun Arise so loudly I couldn’t distinguish the sound of my own voice. And when we finished the song I was in the wrong key. I was about a tone too high. It was wonderful, though, to hear them singing every word of every song.
That means they love you?
They all remembered the songs from their childhood, which was great.
You must have been on cloud nine, feeling so loved?
Yep, it was amazing.
For you, performing has always been about bringing joy, hasn’t it?
Yes, trying to have some fun and get people involved in that same sense of fun and enjoyment.
Do you have a favourite wobble board moment?
The scariest one was just before I did my first show in Sydney at the Rushcutters Bay stadium and the Everly Brothers were there and “Crash” Craddock, and I was on — this weird guy from Western Australia who just had a number-one hit with this weird song. I went into the Gents to have a quick nervous one and I propped the wobble board against the wall. And this fellow came in and said, “Oh, this is a wobble board, is it? How does it work?” And he picked it up and snapped off one of the corners of the thing. I stood there, my mouth dropped open and I thought, “Oh my God, I’m just about to go on and he’s destroyed the instrument.” He was highly embarrassed and got the hell out of there. But I went across and tried it out and it still worked, much to my relief.
Are we going to get a new song from you? Any more amazing covers like Stairway To Heaven?
[Laughs.] If you can think of one, tell me and I’ll do it. Think of one which I could make my own!
For more of this interview, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale June 16).
Your say:
What’s your favourite Rolf moment? Have your say below…
Arguments with your partner — sometimes they end in tears, sometimes they end in door slamming. But if you’re sick of the drama (sigh of relief) there is another way.
Having always been close to my older brother Sean, the day I looked forward to the most in my life was the day he was due to arrive home from his long working holiday in the UK.
I’d only been 17 when he’d left, so now I was almost 20 we would get to do everything we’d talked about growing up: going out to pubs, travelling together, and I even wanted him to set me up with some of his friends!
But I was even more excited when Sean arrived home a surprise fiancée. None of us had even imagined! And now, not only would I have my beloved brother back, but the sister I’d always wanted as well. I thought it could well be the most memorable day of my life.
As it turned out, I was right — but for all the wrong reasons.
It quickly became obvious to me that Anne might not be the girl Sean thought she was — she was bossy, sullen, and nothing that Sean ever did was good enough. And he did everything she wanted!
He changed industries because she wasn’t happy with the money he made, moved suburbs because she didn’t want to live near us, and bought a new car because his old one was too old. She was so conceited. Sean was her slave, never doing anything without her approval.
So much for awaiting his return! Within three months of his being back in Australia, I spoke to him less than when he’d been overseas. I never, ever saw him — she made sure of that.
English Anne wanted to stay in Australia so, for the time being at least, there was little chance that he would actually leave for good. But as the months went by, I realised that he could be on another planet and I’d probably feel closer to him.
As the wedding drew near, with Sean barely having even a say in his own special day, I knew it was time to take action. Sean was head-over-heels, so he just didn’t see what was happening. I had to save him from himself and find a way to get rid of Anne!
As it happened, not long after that, one of my best friends had a hen’s party. It was one of those boozy affairs with lots of nightclubs and flirting with lots of different men, and it gave me an idea.
I quickly suggested to Anne that, as her future sister-in-law, I should throw her a hen’s party of her own. Anne was quite enthusiastic about the idea, and I promised to organise the whole thing. I just didn’t tell her what I was organising.
Through my network of friends, I found out where the sleaziest nightclubs were and planned our night. I also invited as many single male friends as I could trust, telling them of my secret plan: I was going to get them all to seduce Anne! Considering how conceited she was, with a little bit of alcohol I was hoping she wouldn’t be able to resist all of the attention.
On the night of the party, I was buying Anne drinks constantly. Anne loved being the centre of so much male attention that she didn’t even seem to care how drunk she was getting.
By the time we arrived at the pub where all the boys were supposed to be, she was really drunk. She was also quite attractive, and the men really did go for her. A swarm of handsome young men crowded around Anne as soon as we reached the dance floor, and I quickly got out my phone and made the call — Sean needed to come and pick his fiancée up; she was behaving disgracefully. Sean said he would be right down.
Anne was so drunk by this stage she wasn’t even choosy: the first guy who tried to pick her up quickly found himself in a passionate embrace, and then she moved onto another one, and Sean walked through the door only a few seconds later.
Needless to say, he was crushed, and it was a bad break up. I almost felt bad for what I had done, until I remembered what I had actually saved Sean from. 18 months later, Anne is now back in the UK and Sean is seeing someone he met at work. He’s truly happier with her than he ever was with Anne.
He’s never suspected my involvement in his break-up. I still hope he never finds out that I deliberately set up his fiancée.
Picture: Getty Images. Posed by models.
Your say: Have your say about this true confession below…
Chef Gordon Ramsay may breathe fire in his restaurants’ kitchens and have a new book and TV show, and a restaurant planned for Melbourne, but, as he tells Celia Dodd, he swears by the simple life and a faith that has sustained him.
It’s no accident that Gordon Ramsay’s latest cookbook, Healthy Appetite, kicks off with porridge. It’s a reminder of his tough Glaswegian roots and his father’s view that “only poofs” add sugar rather than salt.
Gordon learned about healthy living the hard way, from his father, who died of a heart attack at 53, while his mother, who cooked healthily but smoked heavily, had a quadruple bypass two years ago. “I get so frustrated today when everyone blames children for eating badly,” he says. “It’s not kids, it’s parents. They should be fined for letting their children get out of control because it’s our discipline, our standards that they follow.”
Intriguingly, Gordon, 41, as famous for his foul language as for his 12 Michelin stars, doesn’t emphasise this point by swearing. Indeed, he uses only a smattering of F-words in our two-hour conversation, which ranges from his battle with his weight and his old-fashioned views on parenting, to addiction — his brother’s to heroin and his own to perfection — and the religious faith that has seen him through his struggle with infertility and the premature birth of his twins, now aged eight.
Gordon’s language gets a tad fruity only when he has a pop at fellow British foodie Delia Smith. One look at Delia’s How to Cheat at Cooking was enough. “I was horrified,” he says. “I’m embarrassed for her. I don’t expect cooking from tins and frozen food from one of the nation’s most precious individuals, who gave so much hope and security to domestic cooks. I’m bitterly disappointed, but more importantly, concerned that, as a nation, we’re going backwards and people will continue being lazy.”
It could be that Gordon’s language is tempered because we’re talking in the front room of his home in Wandsworth, South London, with giant fur-covered beanbags and a cosy domestic hum in the background. Words fly out of his mouth in a breathtaking stream of consciousness, but there is no hint of the martinet who makes mincemeat of American chefs in the Nine Network’s Kitchen Nightmares USA or the UK’s provincial ones in Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, also on Nine. Another TV show, Hell’s Kitchen, hit our screens in April.
For the full story on Gordon Ramsay, pick up a copy of the June issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly — out now!
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