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Bec’s heartache: ‘Why I stand by Lleyton’

Bec's heartache: 'Why I stand by Lleyton'

The tennis star declares his family his first priority, but Bec’s lonely life on the circuit may continue for a little while yet.

Bec and Lleyton Hewitt will celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary in London next month – but the real celebration for Bec, 28, will happen when they return home to Australia to start the next stage of their lives. The gorgeous mum-of-three has stood by her man, travelling the globe and raising the kids in hotel rooms and rented houses, so former Wimbledon champion Lleyton can chase his dreams of tennis glory.

In a rare interview, Lleyton has admitted the pressure his career has put on his family – and how desperately he needs his wife and children – Mia, 6, Cruz, 3, and 18-month-old Ava – by his side. “Tennis is such a lonely sport,” he says on Foxtel show Eddie McGuire Tonight. “It’s a one-on-one sport and travelling throughout the year, it’s a very lonely time. “But I’m very fortunate. Bec and the three kids are the priority – there’s no doubt about that. “There’s nothing better than coming off the tennis court and seeing the three kids run up to you. It’s an awesome feeling.”

But despite the difficulties of keeping the family on the road, he still refuses to consider retirement just yet. “I do love competing and everyone says you are retired for a long time once you’re done,” he says. “There are certain places and tournaments that you get a thrill and a buzz from being around…”

It’s a sentiment which will come as a blow to homemaker Bec, who was pinning her hopes on Lleyton retiring after the Olympics, particularly after he received so much praise for his commentary at the Australian Open, opening up a new career path for the driven athlete.Now Bec is putting her long awaited homecoming on hold yet again as she stands by her husband in his relentless pursuit of glory despite a series of injuries and humiliating losses, including his first round loss in the French Open.

Read more about Bec and Lleyton in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday June 25, 2012.

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Mum tries to sell baby in classifieds for $4000

Mum tries to sell baby in classifieds for $4000

Brittany Hill's mugshot.

A US mother has been arrested for trying to sell her four-month-old baby in her local newspaper for $4000.

Brittany Hill, 26, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested on Friday after a potential buyer of the infant got cold feet and contacted police.

Hill’s landlords contacted police on the same day after they entered her apartment to collect unpaid rent and found the baby alone in its cot.

Hill was arrested when she returned home and charged with child abandonment.

Her neighbours were horrified to learn she had been leaving the baby alone.

“I just think it’s a very sad situation, and I’m glad that the baby is safe and away from those people,” neighbour Latonia Smith told US TV station NBC5.

“I saw her when she was pregnant, and she just seemed to be very depressed, always alone sitting on the stairway.”

The baby is now in the care of Child Protective Services.

Video: Extreme celebrity parenting.

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Queen’s property boosts income to $56 million

Queen Elizabeth II has another reason to smile this year – her annual income will increase 20 percent to $56 million thanks to her property portfolio.

The Crown Estate posted a record profit of $377 million in the past 12 months, largely due to increased demand for its premium retail properties on London’s Regent Street.

The portfolio also includes royal palaces, residential buildings throughout central London, a race course and even offshore wind farms.

The Queen’s allowance was frozen in 2010 but new laws allow it to be bolstered by a percentage of the profits of her property portfolio.

The royal family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland in 1960.

Buckingham Palace during the 2012 Trooping of the Colour.

Buckingham Palace.

Frogmore House near Windsor.

Sandringham House in Norfolk, North East England.

The Queen, Prince Philip and a corgi outside Sandringham House in 1982.

London’s Kensington Palace.

Princess Diana and her sons William and Harry in Kensington Palace in 1985.

Diana lived at Kensington Palace after her divorce from Prince Charles.

London’s Clarence House, home to Prince Charles.

The Queen Mother outside Clarence House in 1990.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton outside Holyroodhouse in 1963.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Windsor Castle.

Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret outside Windsor Castle in 1941.

St James’ Palace in London.

The Crown Estate owns all the freeholds in Kensington Palace Gardens.

The monarch also owns all retail and residential property in London’s Regent Street.

The income from Regent Street each year is substantial.

The crown also owns Royal Ascot racecourse.

The Queen and Prince Philip arriving at Royal Ascot this week.

The Crown Estate owns large parts of residential development Paddington Basin.

One of the crown’s lucrative offshore wind farms.

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The monarch owns Winsdor Great Park, shown here in 1980.

Prestigious golf club The Berkshire is built on land owned by the crown.

Swinley Forest is another golf club built on Crown Land.

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Sea otter covers eyes with paws while swimming

Sea otter covers eyes with paws while swimming

Watch this super-cute sea otter pup taking a leisurely swim and covering its eyes with its paws.

According to the otter-loving YouTuber who uploaded the vid (KatieOtter501), otters spend a lot of time chilling and often cover their eyes.

“Wild sea otters spend between 50 to 60 percent of their time resting, taking breaks between feeding, grooming and socialising throughout the day and night. Often otters rest with their paws over their eyes, perhaps because it is a comfortable position in which to keep their short paws out of the cold water,” she wrote.

Cute overload!

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Designer sells high heels to six-year-olds

Designer sells high heels to six-year-olds

Michael Kors heels for six-year-olds.

Suri Cruise has been wearing high heels since her fourth birthday and thanks to fashion designer Michael Kors, other little girls can now follow in her tiny footsteps.

Kors has unveiled a new range of heels, marketed at six- to 10-year-olds.

The sparkly gold style feature a two-inch heel and sell for $66, while the three-inch blue denim espadrille wedges sell for $74.

Related: Why girls are having sex at 12

Kors isn’t the only designer making heels for children. Kenneth Cole and Jessica Simpson’s children’s lines sell heeled shoes, but keep theirs below two inches high.

Podiatrists and physiotherapists have repeatedly warned against the dangers of letting kids wear heels.

Even a slight inclination can cause irreversible shortening of calf muscles and damage the soft bones in the feet.

Children’s high heels have also been criticised for sexualising young girls, making them appear more mature than they are.

Related: Are our girls growing up too fast?

Suri regularly wears heels, makeup and adult-style clothing, but her mother Katie has defended her style, saying her daughter is just a girly-girl.

“She’s just like every little girl, she loves my high heels,” Katie said.

Your say: Do you think kids should be wearing high heels?

Video: Sexualising our kids

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Fifty Shades of Grey outsells Harry Potter

So-called 'mummy porn' novel 50 Shades of Grey has overtaken Harry Potter to become the fastest-selling paperback of all time.
Fans reading the erotic novels (left) and the author EL James.

So-called ‘mummy porn’ novel 50 Shades of Grey has overtaken Harry Potter to become the fastest-selling paperback of all time.

The erotic book is the first in British author EL James’ X-rated trilogy and this week beat previous records set by JK Rowling and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown.

Related: Why our kids need to know more about sex

James — a 49-year-old mother of two whose real name is Erika Mitchell — says she wrote the book to offer women a “holiday from their husbands”.

The novel is about Ana Steele, a young female virgin who begins a depraved sexual relationship with a much older billionaire, Christian Grey.

Readers are given every filthy detail of the couple’s numerous romps, complete with explicit language. Many of their encounters involve sado-masochism and scenes that wouldn’t be out of place in a hard-core porn film.

Initially, sales of the story were limited to the discreet e-book variety but hard copies are now flying off the shelves.

Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels 50 Shades Darker and 50 Shades Freed are the top three books on the Dymocks Bestseller list and it’s hard to find a bus, plane or train in the country that doesn’t have someone reading a copy on board.

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Wife beater not brave after all: Humane Society rescinds award

Wife beater not brave after all: Humane Society rescinds award

Governor General Quentin Bryce.

The Humane Society has stripped a man of his bravery award after The Australian Women’s Weekly revealed he had been jailed for beating his wife.

During a series of attacks, Paul Francis McCuskey kicked his partner Jeannie Blackburn in the head so hard he snapped her optic nerve and left her blinded in one eye.

Related: Quentin Bryce wants wife beater stripped of bravery award

He also kicked her in the stomach while she was pregnant. She later miscarried.

Earlier this year The Weekly revealed that despite his conviction for domestic violence, McCuskey, had been given a merit award for his bravery by the Humane Society after he and his cohort of fire-fighters helped save an elderly woman and her pets during Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires.

The society initially decided to let the award stand. However, the story prompted Governor General Quentin Bryce — a patron of the society — to write to the award’s organisers, saying: “Violence against women should not be tolerated or condoned whenever it occurs, not least in a situation that is an affront to the very principles for which the Royal Humane Society stands … if the society is to banish violence against women, I suggest a zero tolerance is the only way forward.”

It also prompted Jeannie’s supporters to begin a petition to have McCuskey stripped of the award. It gathered 18,000 signatures.

Earlier this week, the society unanimously voted to reverse its position and strip McCuskey of the award.

Related: Has Australia gone soft on domestic violence?

“I am completely overwhelmed by the support the public has given me on this issue,” said Jeannie.

“It’s an incredible victory for the huge community of people who have come together to take a stand against domestic violence.”

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Oprah Winfrey loses 11kg in six weeks

Oprah Winfrey is one of the world's most famous yo-yo dieters and it appears she's at it again, losing 11kg in just six weeks.
Oprah weight loss

Oprah Winfrey is one of the world’s most famous yo-yo dieters and it appears she’s at it again, losing 11kg in just six weeks.

The 58-year-old talk show host has dropped two dress sizes thanks to a special low-kilojoule diet prepared for her by a Hollywood chef.

“Oprah has absolutely flipped for the new chef,” an insider told The National Enquirer.

“The personalised diet Oprah’s been following uses a combination of fruits and vegetables, fish, chicken and lean meat. It’s low in fat and kilojoules but still leaves her feeling full.”

Oprah is now eating three portion-controlled meals a day and completing gruelling treadmill workouts with her trainer Bob Greene.

She is said to be keen to lose the weight she put on due to the stress of launching her OWN TV network last year.

The TV mogul has repeatedly spoken about how challenging her new project has been, but friends say she now feels ready to lose weight again.

“Deep down Oprah knew she had the willpower to lose it again if she took the right approach and she’s finally found a plan she really likes,” the source said.

“This program is a lifestyle change and it stresses eating the right kind of foods to sustain energy and good health and Oprah just loves it.”

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Big is beautiful: 110kg woman wins pageant

A woman weighing 110kg has taken out the title of Miss Large Israel in the country’s annual ‘Fat and Beautiful’ contest – proving that big really is beautiful.

Vered Fisher, 22, who served in an Israeli Army intelligence unit before vying for tiaras in beauty pageants, beat 15 other plus-sized contenders for the title last weekend.

“Nobody said only thin girls are beautiful,” modelling agent and pageant sponsor Esterica Nagid told Reuters. “I am not encouraging fat, but if it exists, then this is the place for it.”

The Fat and Beautiful pageant, now in its 20th year, requires all entrants to be a minimum weight of 80kg.

Israel’s new Miss Large Beauty, Vered Fisher, centre.

http://cdn.assets.cougar.bauer-media.net.au/s3/digital-cougar-assets/AWW/2013/09/13/26784/princeharry8.jpg

Vered Fisher accepts her prize.

http://cdn.assets.cougar.bauer-media.net.au/s3/digital-cougar-assets/AWW/2013/09/13/26785/princeharry9.jpg

Backstage at Miss Large Beauty.

Miss Large Beauty contenders getting ready backstage.

Pre-show nerves kicking in.

Awaiting the big announcement.

The girls await their turns onstage.

The models gather backstage.

Final touch-ups before the grand entrance.

Four models proudly display their curves.

All the contestants appearing on stage.

A contestant prepares for her appearance on stage.

Waiting nervously for the judges to make their decision.

“You are pretty as you are and you can succeed,” said the pageant’s sponsor.

Relief backstage after the pageant ended.

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Adele song wakes girl from coma

Adele song wakes girl from coma

Charlotte Neve (left) and British singer Adele (right).

A seven-year-old girl has woken from a coma after listening to her favourite Adele song on the radio, just minutes after doctors told her parents to say goodbye to their daughter.

Charlotte Neve suffered a brain haemorrhage in her sleep in April. She was taken to Leeds Hospital in the UK where she underwent surgery to stop the bleeding on her brain.

Doctors stopped the haemorrhaging, but Charlotte was left in a coma. Two days later she suffered a series of strokes and doctors told her mother Leila, 31, that there was little hope of her surviving.

Related: My four-year-old son had a heart attack

But as Leila climbed into her daughter’s hospital bed to say goodbye, Charlotte’s favourite song — Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ — came on the radio. Leila started sing to her as they had done together previously and her daughter smiled for the first time since the haemorrhage.

Within minutes she had regained consciousness and two days later she was speaking and moving, stunning her doctors.

Two months have passed since Charlotte woke from her coma and she is learning to walk again and has even gone back to school and dance classes.

“It’s a complete miracle. Doctors told me to say goodbye and I thought I was going to lose my little girl,” Leila told the UK’s Telegraph.

“I climbed into her hospital bed to give her a cuddle — she was wired up to machines and unresponsive — and Adele came on the radio.

“I started singing it to her because she loves her and we used to sing that song together.

Related: The day I dropped my baby on his head

“Charlotte started smiling and I couldn’t believe it. It was the first time she had reacted to anything since the haemorrhage. The nurses were astounded and told me to keep singing, and she smiled again.”

Your say: Do you have an amazing medical story? Share with us below.

Video: Toddler sings Adele

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