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April 2022 Contents PG 24 PG 16 Miriama Kamo on miscarriage, menopause and making a difference. PG 36 On the cover 54 True crime: 30 The actor & the spy: 60 Parents and teens: 16 Miriama Kamo: Unravelling a 25-year-old The men at the centre of the How to foster meaningful murder-mystery war in Ukraine connections with the young The private heartbreak behind adults in your life her public smile 80 Health hack: 48 The daring duchess: 64 Pat McDermott: What’s 22 New-age monarchy: Get fitter and stronger in The sex scandal that shocked just 12 minutes London society in the 1960s the matter with a little mutter? What the future holds Up front Keep in touch 24 Jane Seymour: 6 Editor’s letter SEND YOUR LETTERS to Passion, positivity and her 8 In brief: A farewell to THE AU STR A L IAN WO M E N ’ S WE E K LY, painful past PO BOX 52122, KINGSLAND, AUCKLAND 1352 Shane Warne, plus highlights or EMAIL [email protected] 36 National pride: from the past 30 days SUBSCRIPTIONS & DELIVERY Nicola Willis on popularity, 22 Royal Insider: Behind W W W. M A G S H O P. C O . N Z , parenting and Parliament palace gates with Juliet Rieden [email protected] o r 0800 624 746 42 Career or cult: Are you caught up in a toxic trap? 4 The Australian Women’s Weekly
PG 100 PG 68 PG 114 PG 123 PG 91 The good life Regulars An apricot-strewn almond 68 Fashion: Autumn 120 Homes: Embrace cake is a delicious, syrupy ending to any autumn feast. dressing in soft, luxurious layers colour, details and texture 76 Brow down: Frame your 122 Books: This month’s face with perfect eyebrows best reads 78 Beauty news 124 The write stuff: How 84 Support act: How to to write a bestseller in 10 steps help a friend when they need it 126 Fiction: A heart- 86 Maggie Beer: Share warming, hilarious new story an alfresco seasonal feast from Toni Jordan 94 Modern bakes: A 129 Puzzles 136 Horoscopes scrummy new take on pies 138 5 minute and pastries philosopher: With podcaster 100 Sweet spot: Delicious Petra Bagust recipes for chocolate lovers 114 DIY fun: Cute Easter craft projects to delight the kids The Australian Women’s Weekly 5
Editor’s Letter There are few certainties in life. EDITOR GIVEAWAY In fact, there’s a famous quote that states the only two sure Win things are death and taxes. I’d argue there are a few others, Win the ultimate Elizabeth Arden like it will always rain when you leave the Advanced Ceramide Lift and Firm Day and Night Creams. With five times the hairdresser, the item you just bought at full ceramides, they contain powerful price will be on sale the next time you visit moisturising agents to seal in hydration that lasts all day, as well as ingredients the store, and the one ingredient you need to strengthen your skin’s barrier and to complete your entertaining dish won’t reduce the key signs of ageing, such as fine lines and wrinkles. We have three be available at the supermarket the day Advanced Ceramide Day Cream and you need it – or perhaps that stuff just Night Cream packs, valued at $320 each, to give away! To enter, email happens to me?! [email protected] with the words “Elizabeth Arden” in the subject line. I’d also like to think that the sun will Entries close 11.59pm Wednesday always rise and the tide will continue to 20 April 2022. turn. The flipside of this is, of course, that each time it happens, we find ourselves a day older. Ageing is surely another certainty in life. It’s a funny old thing, ageing. There are those who embrace the inevitable with guts and grace, and others who shy away from it. The world of celebrity is especially influenced by the supposedly dreaded “A word”. For almost 25 years, I’ve been writing or publishing features on the famous and, without a doubt, the subject of age is always the thing that creates the most issues. In fact, there are certain stars who would rather tell you about their weird and wacky habits or scandalous love lives than admit they’ve turned 50. Whenever you see a story about someone famous and notice that there is no mention of their age, know that it is not a slack journalist but a touchy star who refuses to admit to the digits. Which is why I’m so grateful when we get celebrities, like this month’s cover girl Miriama Kamo, who loudly and proudly share their life experiences – the good, the bad and the ugly – for others to relate to and learn from. It takes courage to put yourself out there in a world that isn’t particularly kind to the more experienced woman. Where do I sit on the age fence? I’m on the cusp of 45 and more than happy to own it. I’ve worked hard for those years! As they say, ageing is just another word for living. SARAH HENRY Happy reading. EDITOR-AT-L A RGE NEW ZEALAND We are... AUSTRALIA Editor-at-Large Sarah Henry Editor Sebastian van der Zwan Editor-in-Chief Nicole Byers Editor-at-Large Art Director Mirella Monteiro Designers Demelza Callesen, This publication has been printed by Webstar, a Toitū Juliet Rieden Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk Béla Trussell-Cullen, Alice Bush Chief Sub-Editor Denise enviromark diamond certified JOURNALISTS News and Features Editor Bowden Beauty Editor Hélène Ravlich Photo & Editorial company and a winner of the Samantha Trenoweth Senior Journalist Genevieve Gannon DESIGN Creative Director Joshua Beggs Coordinator Chad McCartney ADVERTISING Sales Green Ribbon Award. Senior Designers Jennifer Mullins, Liz Elton, Director Claire Chisholm Commercial Sales Manager Madeline Wright Photo and Shoot Editor Jane Mae Kelly Sales Manager Chloe Thomsen Campaign Vincent COPY EDITORS Senior Copy and Travel Manager Angela Wei Directory Sales Manager Kim Editor Bernard O’Shea Copy Editors Nicole Chapman EXECUTIVE Chief Executive Officer Jane Huxley Hickson, Bronwyn Phillips, Peter Griffiths LIFESTYLE Lifestyle Director Brooke Le Poer Trench Fashion General Manager Publishing Stuart Dick Director Mattie Cronan Market Editor Sarah Stern FOOD Food Director Frances Abdallaoui General enquiries to: The Australian Women’s Weekly, PO Box 52122, Kingsland, Auckland, 1352. Email: [email protected]. Published by Are Media © 2022. All rights reserved. Printed by Webstar, Auckland. FOLLOW US on FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/awwmagazine FOLLOW US o n INSTAGRAM @awwmagazine SUBSCRIPTIONS www.magshop.co.nz or 0800 624 746 6 The Australian Women’s Weekly
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In briefApril 2022 Flood of courage The loss has been devastating, but hope can be found in the hearts of community members in Australia’s flood-hit regions. “Everyone’s just got their heads down – we’ve had teams of volunteers, neighbours and friends helping each other,” says Lismore councillor Vanessa Ekins. She’s speaking from the heart of the destruction, amid gutted buildings in her town’s centre. Stories have emerged of retailers sleeping in their businesses so they can be there for their communities. A butcher put on a barbecue for anyone in need. Resilience and grit are on show across New South Wales and Queensland. “There are some people who have been so traumatised by this, they won’t be living back down on the flood plains,” says Vanessa. “There are others who will say, ‘This is my house – I’m not leaving.’ We’re all strong and we’re focused on rebuilding. We love this place.” From top: A Queensland Fire and Rescue crew move through the floodwaters in the inner-Brisbane suburb of Paddington; residents of Lismore draw strength from each other as rescues continue in the rain – the flooding in Lismore has been the worst in history for the northern New South Wales town; a family disembark a rescue boat in Queensland. 8 The Australian Women’s Weekly
AAP. GETTY IMAGES. MEDIA MODE. Clockwise from left: NEWSPIX. GORDON MCWILLIAM. A young child wades through floodwaters in Queensland; the local Rural Fire Brigade helps clean up a flood-affected primary school; residents and pets evacuate; families return to inspect the damage after the deluge; the contents of homes now lie on the streets as residents begin the clean-up; a kayak becomes the perfect transport for chickens through floodwaters. The Australian Women’s Weekly 9
In brief Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith Venus and Serena Williams Lady Gaga Mandy Moore Rita Ora and Taika Waititi Left: Jane and Glitz is back Melanie continue to make Kiwis The stars came out to play at the Critics’ Choice proud. Awards, including New Zealand’s own Melanie Lynskey, who took out Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Yellowjackets, and Dame Jane Campion, who was honoured with Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Power of the Dog. The same day, Jane won both Best Film and Best Director at the BAFTAs. A Model BABY Diana’s hidden side She was one of history’s most Naomi’s new role photographed women, but a never-before-seen portrait by David Bailey shows Princess Diana in a new and different light. Supermodel Naomi Campbell, 51, is giddily in love with her 10 The Australian Women’s Weekly nine-month-old daughter, sharing some intimate moments with British Vogue. “She’s a good girl – she sleeps very well,” Naomi gushed. “She laughs a lot. She is the biggest blessing I could ever imagine. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Ru s s i a n I N VAS I O N Above: An elderly woman is assisted by the military. Below: Newly married members The world of Ukraine’s defence forces. Bottom: A child unites for joins a protest against the war. Ukraine From top to bottom: Auckland’s Sky Tower lights up in support of Stunned by the horrific events Ukraine; supporters around the in Eastern Europe, people all world united in their peace message. over the world have marched, chanted and given money in a show of solidarity with the besieged citizens of Ukraine. In the face of images of fleeing refugees, bombed buildings and blackened streetscapes, ordinary citizens are doing what they can. A touching photo of a woman in Moscow wearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag (below) is a quiet but courageous show of resistance and allegiance that has been pledged by people across the globe. The Australian Women’s Weekly 11
In brief Left: Shane made his test cricket debut in 1992. Above: The young cricketer with his mum Brigitte. Right: Joy after taking a wicket against New Zealand. Below: In the changing rooms during the 2001 Ashes series. 12 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Farewell to a legend Playing his last test in 2007 at the Sydney Since the news broke that Australian cricket legend Shane “Warnie” Cricket Ground. Warne died of a heart attack at age 52, the headlines have been dominated by colourful tales and tributes to a sportsman like no other. Described as being born for the big occasion, he didn’t just inspire a cricketing generation, he defined it, introducing people to a new rock’n’roll era of the game. During his 15 years in the Aussie squad, he took more than 1000 international wickets and scored over 3000 test runs, and he still holds the record for the most runs without ever having scored a century. One of the greatest cricketing minds around, Warnie went to form a successful commentating career through his genuine love for the game. But it was his antics off the field that intrigued the public almost as much as his sporting achievements. From star-studded romances and famous friends to glamorous parties and globe-trotting shenanigans, he lived a life that was the envy of many. Honoured with a state funeral in front of 50,000 people at Australia’s famous Melbourne Cricket Ground, the father-of-three will live on in more than just the history books, and will be forever remembered for his talent, passion and larger-than-life personality. Above: Celebrating Cricket World Cup victory in 1999 with Michael Hutchence. Right: With his adored kids Summer, Brooke and Jackson. Far right: With Elizabeth Hurley. The Australian Women’s Weekly 13
In brief Around the world UNITED KINGDOM Mystery mosaic A 2000-year-old Roman mosaic has been uncovered during an excavation in London at the site of a new skyscraper. It is the largest mosaic to be uncovered in the past 50 years and is believed to have once been a part of a Roman dining room. Jewel justice UNITED STATES Six men are about to The future is bright stand trial after making One hundred and twenty of the most incredible female off with £95 million minds are being honoured in the form of bright orange ($183 million) worth statues. The collection, #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit, will of 18th-century jewels. be displayed at the Smithsonian, and features experts The heist took place back from all areas of science, technology and engineering. in 2019 at the Dresden Green Vault in Germany. USA Israel Switzerland Italy Mouse house Berry heavy Woman’s watch Most wanted Disney has announced plans An Israeli farmer has earned Cassandre Berdoz has finally The mountain town to create “Storyliving”, a himself a Guinness World achieved her childhood dream of Roccaraso has finally residential community in Record after growing the captured its most-wanted after being appointed Night criminal, a brown bear California’s Rancho Mirage. world’s heaviest strawberry. Watch in Lausanne, Switzerland, known as Juan Carrito. It will be staffed by “characters”, The whopping fruit tipped the He was in trouble for a the first woman in the role. late-night bakery break-in. and offer Disney-themed scales at 289g – five times The position has been around entertainment and activities. heavier than the local variety. for 600 years. 14 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Cover story Miriama’s message of hope ‘THERE’S A REAL MAGIC TO AGEING’ The Sunday presenter opens up to Emma Clifton about miscarriage, menopause and busting down the taboos surrounding women’s health. 16 The Australian Women’s Weekly
here are certain strongest side effects was a rise in no problem. I can talk about it with topics that are anxiety that was so challenging, it no shame, no embarrassment. But the so shrouded in kept her from newsreading for a while. complicated thing is, I still haven’t secrecy that even told my boss.’ in the closest When you consider how full-on of friendships, those experiences with endometriosis “I was afraid to talk about and miscarriage have been, it says menopause in my workplace because T a level of “don’t a lot when Miriama tells us that her I thought, ‘Well, they’ll think that I’m ask, don’t tell” can menopause journey has been the over the hill, and that it’s time for me exist. And then there is broadcaster trickiest one to talk about because to be retired and put out to pasture!’” Miriama Kamo, the host of TVNZ’s people are so ill-equipped to tackle current affairs show Sunday, who is it as a topic. This speaks, Miriama says, to so determined to break this taboo, the battle that a lot of women she’s literally written a keynote “I often joke that if you talk about have, where menopause can have address about it. it publicly, it’s akin to announcing huge physical and emotional the end of your sexuality or lobbing symptoms, but there’s still a level It’s what she calls “The Four Ms” a grenade at your career,” she smiles. of embarrassment – or even fear and it’s a speech she’s been giving “But I choose to openly talk about it. – in terms of talking about it. to various groups over the past few The funny thing is, I had this line years, says Miriama, 48, explaining in my ‘Four Ms’ talk where I say, But as the journalist discovered, that it covers the steps along the ‘I can talk to 300, 400, 500 people her angst was misplaced. Towards reproductive journey that she has in a room about being in menopause, the end of last year, as her confidence walked alongside so many other was returning, she did end up telling women – menstruation, miscarriage, motherhood and menopause. Each an entire odyssey in its own right, they are experiences shared by many but discussed by few. And as part of her role as one of our leading news people, Miriama sees it as a responsibility to open up these conversations because she’s learned first-hand how lonely silence can be. As she lists off “The Four Ms” while on a Zoom call from her Auckland home, the facts that make up the backbone of this speech don’t make for easy listening. Miriama suffered from endometriosis, a reproductive condition where uterine tissue grows outside of the uterus, which can lead to crippling pain and infertility issues. She and husband Michael Dreaver went through six miscarriages on their way to growing a family. Her experiences with motherhood are as high and low as anybody’s, she says. “Any mother can roll out a million stories, I’m sure, of the judgement you feel as mothers – the failures but also the great triumphs.” And then there’s menopause – Miriama’s endometriosis saw her reach the milestone earlier than most. It’s the latest and greatest emotional Everest to climb, a stage of life that comes with an absolute plethora of symptoms. For Miriama, one of the 18 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Cover story her boss… and he was absolutely Miriama and husband Mike feel of womanhood. But for me, they brilliant about it, she says. “He was blessed to have daughter Te Rerehua. shouldn’t be treated as taboo – they’re so supportive.” sacred. They’re such wonderfully simple and yet profound aspects Earlier in 2021, Miriama also of life, and there shouldn’t be any discovered she had very low blood sense of shame or embarrassment pressure, which added to the mix around them.” of symptoms she’d been managing. “I realised that when you start to feel A mother’s grief faint or off-balance and the hormones are also off, then the anxiety comes This sense of sacredness also extends into play and everything can start to to how Miriama views the six feel worse,” she tells. miscarriages she went through over the past 15 years. “I had a miscarriage “I started to have those catastrophic before I became a mother,” she says thoughts of, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ matter-of-factly. “So miscarriage was I didn’t know what was going on, so my first taste of motherhood. And, it just became worse and worse. No again, it was this sense of shame one knew what was going on with that I had failed to grow a baby. That me apart from my husband because my biological right to have a child I kept it under wraps.” was something I couldn’t fulfil. Miriama says she kept coming up “I couldn’t talk about grief. I felt with excuses as to why she couldn’t so embarrassed, like, ‘I don’t have fill into newsreader roles, blaming her anything to show for this. It was schedule when she needed to. It was just a whisper of something that only after realising what was actually was never going to happen and going on in her body and seeking help how embarrassing that I’m making that the symptoms improved. such a big deal out of it.’” In the Sunday presenter’s case, Again, she felt like she should just medication like HRT and blood “get over it” – until a friend said pressure meds has made a world something that changed her entire of difference, meaning she’ll be “Miscarriage was my first taste of motherhood.” back doing some newsreading. She’s walk from the ages of 13 to 31. perspective: “Miriama, of course also following a plant-based diet and “My pain was viewed as being ‘part you’re grieving. You are a mother and takes a gentler approach to exercise you carried that child for two months nowadays, with occasional walking of a woman’s lot’ and I was complicit before it was lost. You nurtured it, you and swimming, both of which she in that too because I thought, ‘If this nourished it and you loved it. So you says has made a profound difference is considered normal, then every are a mother, whether you have that to her body and mind. woman has pain and I’m just one of baby in your arms or not.” the wussy ones who can’t handle it.’” “What I came to realise is that The broadcaster recalls, “That was I have to accept the changes that It was only when, as a reporter, so powerful for me because it meant my body is undergoing as I age and she was sent to cover a buzzy new that with every further loss, I could not to be frightened of them or push condition called “endometriosis”, regard them as my children and not them away – to not go out running to sitting in a school hall alongside just figments of my imagination.” chase the fountain of youth. Actually, secondary students, that she realised there’s real magic to being the age she could tick off every one of the After Miriama’s first miscarriage, that you are.” symptoms that came with the she then carried her daughter Te disorder. Naming what was going on Rerehua, now 10, to full-term. She That idea that “everyone else is just – and realising there was something and her husband Mike also have handling life better than me” can be going on – was powerful. a 21-year-old son, Sam, who they have a pervasive one when it comes to the co-parented with Sam’s mum Sarah. female experience. It was a feature of For Miriama, there has always Miriama’s battle with endometriosis, been tremendous collective power Miriama and Mike went on to try for where she endured periods so in reducing the stigma of something. more children but experienced five debilitating that she could barely miscarriages, the last of which was “For far too long, these topics further along. have been considered taboo aspects The Australian Women’s Weekly 19
Cover story “We found out that he was a Milestone year: Miriama and the will take place over the next boy. We named him and then Sunday team (from left), Mava year – the first on Matariki, we buried him. That was the Moayyed, Mark Crysell, Tāmati when “according to our first miscarriage where we had Rimene-Sproat and Tania Page. customs, Dad will ascend into something to show for the time the heavens and take his place that we’d spent nurturing Miriama, who is of Ngāi Tahu and amongst the stars”. They’re this child.” Ngāti Mutunga descent. When those also working on a headstone precious rituals are disrupted, it has unveiling, alongside other Smiling when she thinks a spiritual cost. tikanga aspects that they of her unborn son Rakatau, weren’t able to complete Miriama adds, “He was just And there has been no greater last year. beautiful. It was the most disruption to this than the harsh but wonderful pregnancy. He necessary restrictions of Covid-19. “Dad still feels very much brought such peace and love.” Like so many families, the Kamo around – I keep getting a surprise whānau felt the effect of this keenly when I realise that he’s not,” says Rakatau came along at a time when when Miriama’s beloved father Miriama, adding that this is probably his mother’s anxiety was hitting its Raynol died on the first day of partly due to the fact that they peak. She recalls, “I hadn’t realised the level 4 lockdown last year. weren’t able to do the full tangi, I was pregnant with him because I was but also because she’s still having so lost in my anxiety, but the second The family waited and waited in the such vivid dreams about him. I saw the pregnancy positive come up, hope that they would be able to gather the anxiety lifted and I was full of joy. “I have quite potent dreams,” she He was a real gift to us.” grins. “My lost children have been in my dreams, I’ve seen my grandparents It made a huge difference, she says, and Dad’s been in them a fair bit of to be able to bury him. “The rituals of late, so that’s really wonderful – to grieving are important – all the things not just think, ‘Oh, that was a nice we do to acknowledge losing someone dream,’ but to really say, ‘I’ve seen are so vital to moving through grief. Dad. We’ve talked.’ Those dreams are so precious to me. I take them “I was able to acknowledge his life quite seriously. It’s a real privilege and feel joy around that, and then to have them.” really grieve his loss with an actual body to bury. But just the fact that his “We found out that he was a boy. We named him and then we buried him.” wairua [soul] was so strong, so loving in Christchurch together to farewell On both sides of her family – the and so kind… He was such a beautiful Raynol, but as the lockdown dragged Māori and the Pākehā – there’s an little spirit to carry and I still feel that on and Auckland remained a hotspot, element of matakite or supernatural with him. I still feel his presence.” Miriama ended up joining her family insight, explains Miriama. “On the members via Zoom, to lessen the risk Māori side, as a people, we’re very After all her experience, Miriama’s of spreading Covid-19 down there. comfortable to walk alongside things advice to others who suffer a we don’t understand.” miscarriage is this: “If you’ve lost a It wasn’t the tangi they had child in early pregnancy and you’re wanted to give Raynol, but Miriama That ability to sit in life’s greyer struggling, and maybe you don’t says there were still plenty of areas has also proved its worth when have anything physical to show for beautiful moments, including the it comes to her role as a journalist. it, then follow some sort of ritual. funeral procession through their No matter how she feels about who Do something to honour the life that family’s marae and up to the family she’s interviewing, Miriama always was and to acknowledge the death urupā, where he was buried. seeks to understand their full story that has occurred, so that you can and how they’ve arrived at the place move on from it.” Miriama and her family were also they have. able to join her mother Mary down Those rituals of grief are important in Christchurch for Christmas, and “Whether it’s a challenging issue or for anyone enduring loss, but are some whānau members were able a lovely light story, it’s always playing particularly meaningful for Māori to attend a ceremony alongside her in the back of my mind that I’m not when it comes to the funeral father’s grave. just sitting down with an individual – traditions of tangihanga, says I’m sitting down with everything that There are two more traditions that 20 The Australian Women’s Weekly
has made them them, including their whānau and their ancestors. “I always come to every single person I interview with respect, whether or not I like what they have to say. And actually, whether or not I like it is irrelevant. I’m a journalist. Whether they’re a popular person or an unpopular one, everybody deserves to be respected.” This year is a big one for Miriama, she reveals, and she’s approaching it with optimism and positivity. “I’m feeling so good about life. I’m back to feeling like myself – although a better, wiser version! I’ve navigated some really big challenges, and I’m proud of what I’ve learned and how I’m looking after myself.” It’s a milestone year in more ways than one as Sunday is celebrating its 20-year anniversary in 2022. In a world full of opinion pieces, clickbait and tabloid headlines, the show’s investigative journalism offers an in-depth, big-picture look at the most pressing issues of today and Miriama feels so lucky to have been with it since its inception. “We are the last long-form TV current affairs show in mainstream media,” she says. “On the one hand, it’s wonderful to be here, but on the other hand, it speaks to the lack of choice and existence of other similar media.” She points out that Māori news media has a long-standing tradition of long-form journalism – TVNZ’s Marae celebrates its 30-year anniversary this year, and then there’s Newshub’s The Hui and Te Ao With Moana on Māori Television. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have the same range in the mainstream media, but we feel very privileged as a team on Sunday that we are holding this space and it’s not something we take lightly. “It’s really thrilling to have been here for 20 years and to still be trusted to do that. That’s what gives me confidence that news is still trusted and we can’t buy too much into the noise that’s trying to convince people that it’s not.” AWW
Column Royal Insider Behind palace gates with Juliet Rieden It was the first time in almost a and India’s partition, a body that the world, a sort of giant group hug decade that Her Majesty had brought nations together was sorely of mutual support that also serves missed the Commonwealth needed. The King passed that mantle as a melting pot for ideas, information, Day Service at Westminster to his daughter, which she in turn will education and shared solutions Abbey, but even though she pass on to her eldest son, who was between nations, and an affirmation wasn’t there, the monarch’s presence chosen by member states to be her of basic values of peace, justice and was deeply felt. In the morning, she successor when the time comes. humanity. All this was celebrated and released a powerful message: “It underlined in Westminster Abbey. has given me pleasure to renew the The point of the Commonwealth is promise I made in 1947, that my life to join people together from around Yet, as the flag bearers walked will always be devoted in service.” down the abbey aisle, the Union With her heir, Prince Charles, as her The Queen meets with Jack leading, there was more than a representative at the joyous and Canadian PM Justin whiff of empire about the display, a rather moving ceremony, the Queen Trudeau. The colours in the harkening back to Britain’s colonial was honoured as a role model, which bouquet in the background past when Britannia ruled the waves. included a spontaneous, unscripted signalled a subtle solidarity But as conflict again grips the world, “hip-hip hooray!” from Lord Sentamu, with Ukraine. a Commonwealth that seeks to unite former Archbishop of York, as rather than divide is surely worth Elizabeth II was widely lauded as preserving and its 2022 theme of the ultimate servant to the people. “Delivering a Common Future” held a telling relevance as bombs rained The Prince of Wales, the Duchess down in Ukraine even as the voices of of Cornwall, Prince William and the the Westminster choristers soared. Duchess of Cambridge shared hugs and kisses on arrival at Westminster The Queen’s no-show was a last- Abbey. This is the tight-knit heart minute decision announced by of tomorrow’s monarchy, and they looked deliberately united and in tune. Another pertinent message! The Queen was just 26 years old when she became Head of the Commonwealth in 1952. Throughout her reign, this hopeful body has proved something of a success story for Her Majesty, growing from just seven nations to 54 members, including Australia and New Zealand. Elizabeth’s passion for this peaceful union of creeds and cultures is a deeply personal one, and many have noted that, aside from her role as monarch, it is this position that the Queen most cherishes. Her father, King George VI, was the first head of the modern Commonwealth and profoundly believed that, following World War II 22 The Australian Women’s Weekly
AAP. GETTY IMAGES. Buckingham Palace three days earlier. grateful to the Duke and Duchess of Clockwise from left: Charles and Camilla arrive I understand that it wasn’t that Her Cambridge that at this crucial time, at Westminster Abbey; the senior royals are at Majesty was unwell, but that the when Ukraine is courageously the heart of tomorrow’s monarchy; William discomfort of the journey from opposing Russia’s invasion, they stand and Catherine enjoyed the ceremony. Windsor to London and sitting by our country and support our brave through the service was a serious citizens … Good will triumph.” Barbados by pursuing independence consideration for the almost-96- and while the official line from royal year-old. “The Queen will continue As we go to press, the William and quarters is always that such decisions with other planned engagements, Kate are embarking on their first are entirely a matter for the nation’s including in-person audiences, in the official tour of the Caribbean, people, sending the very popular week ahead,” the palace reassured. following in the Queen’s footsteps, duke and duchess to the island and even travelling in the same jeep will certainly give Jamaicans food But in the future, there’s no doubt she and Prince Philip first used there for thought. that we will see a great deal less of the 60 years ago. The tour comes amid monarch at public engagements and mounting discussions about the royal Meanwhile, Clarence House has while this comes as no role in the Caribbean realms, where announced that, later in the year, surprise considering her the Queen is still head of state. Charles and Camilla will head to age, there is a feeling of the Jamaica is expected to follow Rwanda to represent the Queen dawning of the new age of at the Commonwealth Heads of the House of Windsor being Government Meeting. eased in gently. So, yes, a changing of the guard is That new age will be slowly and subtly evolving. All with different in many ways. Her Majesty’s blessing. AWW Earlier in the month, Princes William and Charles expressed their support for Ukraine, and disdain for Vladimir Putin, while Her Majesty opted for more subtle shows of solidarity with the Ukrainian colours of blue and yellow in a bouquet of flowers in the background of her meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It was surprising and notable to see the royal family, who usually stay out of politics, condemn Russia’s invasion, but no one was criticising the move. It was actually Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who were first out of the blocks with a statement on their Archewell website declaring that they “stand with the people of Ukraine against this breach of international and humanitarian law, and encourage the global community and its leaders to do the same”. But since they’re not working royals, it proved far less significant than Harry’s brother’s and father’s comments. Indeed, Ukraine’s President Zelensky personally thanked Will and Catherine, tweeting, “Olena and I are The Australian Women’s Weekly 23
24 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Hollywood interview Passion, positivity and facing life’s challenges with an open heart. The diversity of Jane Seymour’s career is encounter with a producer that nearly sank her and a mind-boggling – from Bond girl to brush with death, going into anaphylactic shock while mini-series icon, theatrical leading lady, playing opera diva Maria Callas. Along the way there Hollywood star and most recently, crime- have also been shocking discoveries about her parents’ busting granny. She scored her first movie wartime years that had a profound effect on her. role at 17 and at 71 seems to be in her glorious prime, busier than ever. Since she flew into Australia the day before we meet she hasn’t paused for breath, which I quickly realise is That Jane has managed to stay at the forefront of how Jane rolls. At The Weekly’s exclusive photo shoot to an increasingly fickle profession is no mean feat. Her promote her quasi-modern day Miss Marple in a fun new secret? A dynamic combination of what many directors TV series called Harry Wild, which we’ll come to, she picked as innate talent, intense hard work, courageous can’t wait to dive into the wardrobe of gowns hand- resilience and … well, yes … singular good looks. picked by our Style Director. Jane is in dress-up heaven, emerging an irrepressible ball of energy, eager to try But it hasn’t been easy. Behind each triumph every angle to secure the perfect shot. have been notable challenges and playing out in the background a personal life spanning four husbands (and Afterwards, in a free-wheeling interview, she settles divorces) plus her current beau, David Green, a #MeToo back for a candid chat about what really makes her tick. Jane Seymour At 71 I’m coming into my own WORDS by JULIET RIEDEN · PHOTOGRAPHY by CORRIE BOND · STYLING by MAT TIE CRONAN The Australian Women’s Weekly 25
She admits she probably married too done it my whole life and it irritates “I was HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY VICTORIA WOODROW. young – the first time and the second the living daylights out of my children turned – but is proud that she has been in [Katherine and Sean from her third down by Playboy magazine three times with marriage to David Flynn and twins The Royal her clothes on – most recently aged Johnny and Kris from her fourth Ballet 67! She says she feels her late marriage to James Keach] … That’s because I mother’s energy with her all the time very much a Jane thing! didn’t have and has loved being a mother and Harry seems to represent what is, the legs.” grandmother herself. Mostly it’s clear that Jane Seymour is a survivor, driven I think, a refreshing depiction of literature, solving crime, and getting by a positive attitude to everything this young man [Fergus, who mugs that comes her way. women of a certain age that pokes her and then unwittingly becomes her partner in crime-busting] educated. Let’s start with Harry Wild. You have a stick at granny stereotypes. You first wanted to be a dancer. starred in more than 30 TV series to Jane: This is the kind of woman a lot Jane: I was turned down by The Royal date including the cult Dr. Quinn, of women would secretly like to be Ballet because I didn’t have the legs. Medicine Woman. This show feels and many are. Harry doesn’t care I got much further than I ever should like a new departure, a light-hearted about what she wears or what she have. I danced with The Kirov at murder mystery in which you play looks like. She’s much more interested Covent Garden in Prokofiev’s Harriet “Harry” Wild, a feisty in intellectual things, English Cinderella … I was en pointe, the professor who retires from academic whole thing. But then I injured myself life in the first episode and morphs and became an actress. into an amateur sleuth with troubled Just like that? teen Fergus as her sidekick. What Jane: Well, at my performing arts attracted you to the role? school I did dance but also drama. Jane: I love the character. She’s so I was living at home in Middlesex irreverent, a woman who takes her own life in her own hands. She does love her red wine, has quirky friends and is very serious about English literature, which she teaches. But after doing it for a number of years she realises that most of her students are there letting Mummy and Daddy pay for them to go to uni while they party. So, one day she decides, “I’ve had enough, I’m off to do something else.” Without giving too much away, Harry is mugged and that leads to her staying with her police detective son and sneakily looking at the files he has for a serial killer on the loose. Jane: She’s bored so she looks into the case. But will her son listen? No. And is she always right? Yes … that’s what’s great about Harry. Is there any of you in Harry? Jane: I would think so. When I first met the show’s writer, Dave Logan, we spent four hours together in a hotel bar talking. He loved my energy and I loved what he was doing with Harry and it all came together. So there’s definitely elements of me in there. Apparently, I’m always correcting my children and people around me, I’ve 26 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Hollywood interview From top: Jane as Harry Wild with co-star Dame Maggie Smith? relationship lasted a long time, and Rohan Nedd; Dr Quinn and Byron Sully. Below: Jane: I was in awe. I had one line continues to this day. When I’m in As Bond girl Solitaire with 007 Roger Moore. with her and I will always remember England I usually have lunch with Left: Jane wears Voellk top and skirt and Ole Maggie turned to me one day and said, ‘Geep’ [Geoffrey Planer] and Michael. Lynggaard ring. Previous page: Jane wears “Darling, I don’t think you’re going The three of us are very close. Christian Dior dress from Fashion Alta Moda to be very good in the chorus in the Did the Bond film launch your career? luxury dress hire, fashionaltamoda.com.au future”. I said, “Why not?” She replied, Jane: It was immediate. I was a Bond “You stick out!” I saw her years later girl and everyone knew me and still [England] and would commute to and said, “Maggie, because of you it’s what people always talk about. auditions. I did pantomime and they I became an actress.” The famous photographer Terry asked me to be the understudy to the What did your parents think? O’Neill was assigned to write a story leading lady. Then the choreographer Jane: Oh, the worst. They said, “No, about how they found the Bond girl said, “Would you like to be in a film?”. you’re going to become a ballet to run with his amazing photographs. There were 400 trying out. I got into teacher.” They didn’t believe I could We spent three days together and he the last 12 and director Richard do it. When I did, they couldn’t have said,“Don’t let anybody else take your Attenborough picked me to be a been prouder. picture, I’m going to turn you into chorus girl – six or eight of us behind It was through Oh! What A Lovely ‘Rackle’.” I said, “Rackle?” He said, Maggie Smith in Oh! What a Lovely “Raquel Welch” [who famously War. It was Attenborough’s first days War that you met Attenborough’s appeared on-screen in a fur bikini as a director; his agent was watching in One Million Years B.C.]. “I made the rushes and he said, “Who’s that son, Michael – your first husband. Raquel Welch, and I’m going to third from the left?” and signed me up. Jane: It was, but I’d already met him. make you a big star.” He’d come to my house when we had teenage parties, and he would always I said, “Terry, it’s very kind of you spend the whole time changing the but I don’t really see myself as music. I never really spoke to him, ‘Rackle’.” Of course, he had to write but then he was watching me when something, other than that I was we were rehearsing with his father. a boring girl from Middlesex who He said, “Hello, do you like the theatre wanted to do ballet, so he said that and do you have your diary?” We I loved to run naked through tall started dating. I was 17 and still at grass! Well, my father read this in the school and he gave me a tiny citrine paper and, being a doctor, he said, pre-engagement ring. He basically “Darling, I don’t recommend you wooed me, and his father became my do that, because you could get mentor. We’d go on family holidays cut very badly by the grass.” From together, he with his family and me then on, I had to live down all this with mine and there was no question ridiculous stuff that Terry O’Neill that at some point we’d marry. I’d had written about me, which was never been with anybody else so he absolute nonsense. was it. To this day he’s one of my Your career soared after that. Do closest friends. But the marriage only lasted a year. you have a favourite role? Jane: We got married when I was 20 Jane: East of Eden – I played from and then immediately after that I got age 13 to 50 in that, and everything the Bond film and then we like to in between. I won a Golden Globe say we got dialectically opposed, but for Best Actress. But I think War actually he found someone else while and Remembrance, a mini-series I was gone playing Solitaire in Live set in Hitler’s Europe, was the most and Let Die. I was devastated when meaningful to me. he told me he’d been unfaithful. Because it was about the Holocaust? I remember going to his father who Jane: Because of my family. I was said, “Darling, not everyone’s perfect”. shooting in Auschwitz. Branko Lustig, So, I started going out with another who went on to produce Schindler’s man. He was actually one of Michael’s List, was the first assistant director. best friends. We fell madly in love and He’d survived Bergen-Belsen and then we got married. It also didn’t last Auschwitz with his mother and was very long – I was definitely too young adamant that he wanted it to be the for marriage in both cases – but the way it really had been. He had sent The Australian Women’s Weekly 27
Hollywood interview out an invitation to all the synagogues she’d been in the camps but she has his house on the pretence of in Europe saying, “If you or anyone this amazing book, which we still you know survived the camps and have, which she’d somehow hidden in discussing a screen test, expecting you want to make sure, because her mattress. It has the most beautiful you’ve had the blessing, as I have, paintings and drawings by artists in to have sex with you. of surviving, that this never happens the camp. They are of her and her Jane: I haven’t named him and he’s again, please come be in the movie.” friends in the camp. It’s the most dead now. For me the point wasn’t valuable thing in our family. that I’d point a finger, it was to say that I was surrounded by people with I’d made a choice – to leave – and that their camp tattoos, their yellow stars, We went to Bandung [West Java] and choice had impacted my life emotionally and with their haunting. It was the incredibly we found the house where so much so that I gave up acting for most unbelievable experience. For me my mother used to live with its tennis a whole year. I was terrified. He it was a sense of ‘there by the grace of court. Then we drove and we found threatened me. He said that if I ever God …’ because although my mother two of the three camps. We saw her told anyone he’d destroy my career wasn’t Jewish, my father was the son processing it right in front of us as we anywhere in the world. My agent and of Polish Jews even though he never visited the places where her friends another producer knew I was going practised. He was stationed in South had died and where she had tried to to his house to watch this screen test. Africa with the British Royal Air Force catch flying ants for protein to stay I had to lie to them and say that I had during the war, as a doctor, and then alive. She was weeping. chosen not to go at the last minute. after the war he brought penicillin to Both of them independently said to Belgium. Then he was asked to go and She always told my sisters and I that me, “Thank goodness you didn’t go, help open the gates of Bergen-Belsen, in life everyone has challenges and she he’s got a bit of a reputation.” where he had lost a number of his didn’t want to feel sorry for herself or cousins and relatives. tell anyone about what she’d endured. What did your parents think? But it haunted her. She taught us Jane: They wanted to come on set to about acceptance. There’s nothing Auschwitz. I’ll never forget it. We were harder to do, but if you can open your filming the selection process. It was heart and reach out to help someone horrendous. We had people dressed as else, it gives you purpose and when kapos and Nazis with dogs and it was you have purpose you can survive the middle of the night at the real and move on in your life. Auschwitz train station. At 3am my How did that affect you? mother said, “I’m ready to go back.” Jane: It’s become my mantra and I said, “Of course, you don’t want to the source for my Open Hearts be here.” She said, “No, I want to go Foundation, which engages volunteers back to Indonesia.” She had never all over the world. I am also a painter said this before. My mother – Mieke and painted hearts for the Women’s Frankenberg – was a Dutch protestant Heart Health initiative. I came up and after she married, aged 20, moved with this image of two hearts that to Indonesia, then a Dutch colony, to connected. My hope and dream is live on a tea plantation. She lived in that it becomes a universal symbol a jungle and her husband was very of giving and receiving love. abusive. She confided in a friend who Recently, you talked about an historic advised her to run. Then, when the traumatic experience with a powerful war broke out soon after, she stayed Hollywood to support her girlfriend who was very producer who pregnant and they were both captured invited you to and imprisoned in internment camps. How much did you know about her Clockwise from top: Jane with partner wartime trauma? David Green; as Jane: My father said that my mother Kate in East of used to wake up in the middle of the Eden; Jane found night screaming, terrified that she War and was being attacked by the Japanese. Remembrance But she never really talked about it. meaningful. Did you take her back to Indonesia? Opposite page: Jane: Yes. We didn’t know where Jane wears Paolo Sebastian Couture. 28 The Australian Women’s Weekly
“I am finally getting to be the teenager that I wanted to be.” PHOTOGRAPHY BY CORRIE BOND. GETTY IMAGES. Tell me about Playboy magazine. Jane: Never. I think what’s happened come into my own and now I can HARRY WILD PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ACORN TV. Jane: I was never naked. And I wasn’t is I’ve inadvertently been reimagined. do whatever I want. paid. You know, the first time I had no I’ve never played just one thing. You’ve been married four times. Is choice. Playboy printed photographs I think that’s the trick. I remember another wedding on the horizon? from James Bond. The second time when I did Amadeus on Broadway Jane: No. I don’t think my partner, I thought it would be fun to show with Sir Peter Hall and I said, “Maybe David, deserves to have the number that you could be sensual without I should go get some US acting lessons.” five written next to his name. He’s a having to reveal. Then four years ago He said, “No, you must promise me wonderful man and he was married I was asked to do it again. you won’t do that.” I said, “Why?” He for as long as I was to a woman called You were 67. said, “I hired you because you’re a Jane! He has children similar ages as Jane: The photos are great. Everyone dangerous actress. You make choices mine. We all get along very well. got so excited about it! But you can that no one in their right mind would Is he the one? Is there such a thing? see a lot more of me if you just see me think of, but you do them with such Jane: I don’t know if there is. This is on the beach than you ever would in confidence and authenticity that they definitely the right one for now. Does any of the Playboys. work. You look like a leading lady but he want me tomorrow is another You’re 71, working more than ever. you’re actually a character actress.” question because I’m spiky. He’s calm And I think what’s happened is I’ve and I’m a bit more of a racehorse. Did you imagine it would be like this? At 71 do you feel different from your younger self? Jane: Totally. I am finally getting to be the teenager that I wanted to be. I was always very serious and focused on trying to do what I thought other people wanted me to do. Now, I dare to just let it happen. Your mum died in 2007, but I sense she is still with you. Jane: She manifests herself in feathers. It’s so weird. When she died, age 93, she’d had a stroke. My sisters would sit next to her each day in this care home. One day they went to get a coffee and when they returned she’d gone. Where they’d been sitting was one single white feather. You weren’t allowed to have feathers in that home! Then they called the cleaning lady who was at my mother’s house and she said, “Half an hour ago, when your mum passed, I was hoovering and underneath the portrait Jane did of her mum is a single white feather!” Since she died every time something major happens or there’s a decision to be made, there’s a feather. I believe it’s my mother trying to talk to me, to tell me everything’s okay. AWW Harry Wild is on Acorn TV on April 4. The Australian Women’s Weekly 29
World events THE ACTOR 30 The Australian Women’s Weekly
WORDS by NICK BRYANT and THE SPY As missiles fall on Ukraine and Russia makes nuclear threats, the world seems closer to global peril than it has at any time since the Cold War. And at the centre of it all are two unlikely adversaries: Putin, a dictator billionaire and former spy, and Zelensky, a one- time actor, comic and anti-corruption crusader whose courage has earned him a place in his people’s hearts and the history books.
World events ONDecember Right, from top: Zelensky he starred as the diminutive French 31, 1999, with wife Olena and kids Emperor who, ironically, mounted a as fireworks Oleksandra, 17, and Kyrylo, disastrous invasion of Russia. In the went off nine; millions of people Ukrainian version of the Paddington around the have become refugees; Bear movie, Zelensky even became the world to usher in a new millennium, the Ukrainian President voice of the marmalade-loving hero. word came through from the Kremlin posts a message four days in Moscow of a change in leadership after the Russian invasion. Next came a show that further that would dramatically alter the endeared him to the Ukrainian people, course of the 21st century. A former another rousing and which offered a glimpse of his KGB spymaster by the name of address to his people. future. In Servant of the People, which Vladimir Putin would become the “We are all here. he created, produced and starred in, acting President of Russia. Back then, Our soldiers are here. Zelensky played a thirty-something the most immediate risk to the world The citizens of our high school history teacher who, seemed to come from what was called country are here. We miraculously, managed to get elected the Y2K bug, a flaw in computer are all here protecting operating systems that threatened to our independence, wreak global havoc. Little did we know our country, and it that Putin posed a far greater threat will continue to be to the international order, and would this way. Glory to go on to become the mastermind our defenders. behind so much misery and murder. Glory to our heroes. Glory to Ukraine.” From Chechnya to Crimea, from Syria to the cathedral town of In a matter of days, Salisbury in England, Putin has Zelensky had become a Churchillian deployed his assassins and war colossus. What made that all the machine. On February 24, 2022, a dark more remarkable was that prior day that instantly drew comparisons to becoming President in 2019, with Adolf Hitler’s Blitzkrieg assault he had been one of the Ukraine’s on Poland in 1939, he mounted his most famous comedians. most brazen attack yet by ordering the invasion of Ukraine. It was the Zelensky was just 21 years old biggest assault on a European country when Putin became the President since the end of World War II. of Russia, and seemed destined for a life in comedy clubs rather than In this David and Goliath battle, on the international stage. The son Putin has come up against an unlikely of a mathematics professor and adversary. Volodymyr Zelensky, the engineer, he was born in what was President of Ukraine, has personified then the communist Soviet Union, the resistance of his people. Offered but was more interested in the British an escape route by America when comedy troupe Monty Python than Putin’s tanks crossed the border, the Trotsky or Lenin. 44-year-old told US officials he did not want to be airlifted out of the After years on the comedy club country. “I need ammunition, not a circuit, Zelensky first became a ride,” he told them, a statement that household name in 2005, when he was immediately became a meme. given his own satirical television show called Evening Quarter. The following Then, amid rumours that he’d fled year, he sealed his fame by waltzing the country to avoid Russian hit men, and tangoing his way to victory on he started delivering inspirational Ukraine’s version of Dancing with speeches to camera. “Listen, I am the Stars. So impressive were his here,” he said, as he played a deadly moves, as he strutted and gyrated cat-and-mouse game with the to Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes Russians – a post on Twitter that now and the theme tune from the Pink has almost 20 million views. Later, in Panther movie, that he looked like front of the Presidential Administration a professional dancer rather than Building in central Kyiv, he delivered a plucky amateur. Movie roles followed. In a 2012 film called Corporal vs. Napoleon, 32 The Australian Women’s Weekly
President. In a strange instance of Comic turned HERO of communism, reverted to its original art foreshadowing life, Zelensky’s name, Saint Petersburg) where he character becomes an overnight Zelensky’s past lived with his parents in a soulless sensation when a student posts housing development. Putin, who is to YouTube a video of him railing The comedian was able to parlay his only 170cm (5ft 7in) tall, often found against government corruption. huge success on popular shows such himself in brawls with bigger boys in as Dancing With the Stars and as a the neighbourhood, and learnt judo in The show first aired in 2015. comic and actor (including voicing order to fight back. Four years later, leading a new Paddington Bear for the 2014 film’s political party named after his hit Ukraine release) into elected office. “Fifty years ago the Leningrad street show, Servant of the People, Zelensky taught me a rule,” he later reflected. launched his campaign to move kids’ photos instead, and look at them “If a fight is inevitable, you have to from being a fictional pretender to each time you are making a decision.” throw the first punch.” the real-life President of his country. Benefitting from his star power, These kinds of humble words would Even as a child, Putin wanted to popular touch and status as a political never come from the lips of Vladimir be a spy, so he could join in the Cold outsider – attributes that had helped Putin. The Russian President views War struggle against the United Donald Trump reach the White House himself both as a modern-day tsar States. “One man’s effort could – Zelensky won in a landslide. More bent on reclaiming Russian greatness, achieve what whole armies could not,” than 70 per cent of the Ukrainian and a Cold War warrior who believes he came to believe, having immersed electorate voted for him. In his his country was humiliated after himself in books about the adventures inaugural address, Zelensky told the fall of the Berlin Wall led to the of secret agents. After studying law lawmakers: “I do not want my picture dismantling of the Soviet Union. at university, he joined the KGB, in your offices: the President is not an Moscow’s feared intelligence agency, icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your Born in 1952, he grew up in and learnt much of his spy craft in Leningrad (a city which, after the fall communist Eastern Germany. His years spent working in Dresden were thought to be formative, especially an episode that unfolded in the weeks following the fall of the Berlin Wall. After an angry crowd had stormed the offices of the Stasi, the much-hated East German secret police, their attention turned to the KGB headquarters on the same street. Putin emerged from the building to warn the demonstrators that they risked being shot if they ransacked his offices. But the defining moment evidently came when Putin made a phone call to a Red Army unit asking for military help. “We cannot do anything without orders from Moscow,” Putin was told. “And Moscow is silent.” Not only was he disturbed by the powerlessness of Mother Russia, Putin got a sense of how easily regimes could be toppled. The experience fuelled his paranoia and made him crack down on any internal dissent in later years. After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 – a collapse that enabled Ukraine to finally achieve independence – Putin eventually became the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, which had replaced the KGB. But even though that made The Australian Women’s Weekly 33
Clockwise from right: Putin’s hyper-masculine photo ops have earned international derision; the would-be dicator in 1970; Boris Yeltsin hands over the reins of power on the last day of the 20th century. him one of Russia’s most powerful Chechnya, he waged a brutal war Russia’s most prominent protest leaders, and feared men, he was to rise further against separatist rebels, reducing the was shot three times in the back as in the Kremlin. In August 1999, he country’s capital, Grozny, to rubble, he walked across a bridge in Moscow, was appointed Prime Minister of and leaving 25,000 civilians dead. In within sight of Red Square and the Russia by its vodka-swilling President, Syria, he has aided and abetted the walls of the Kremlin. More recently, Boris Yeltsin. By the end of that year, country’s barbaric dictator, Bashar Putin’s agents were thought to be as Yeltsin descended further into al-Assad, who used chemical weapons behind the poisoning of Alexei alcoholism, Putin had been installed on his own people and mounted Navalny, another crusading protest in the Presidential office, with the medieval sieges of cities like Aleppo, leader who has now been put in jail launch codes to Russia’s nuclear forcing starving women and children on trumped-up charges. arsenal in his grasp. to eat grass in order to survive. Putin has also hunted down his At the time I was in Washington, In 2014, Putin shocked the enemies beyond Russia’s borders. where US officials mistakenly believed international community by invading In 2006, in what the UK government that Putin could be prodded further Crimea and arming pro-Russian called a state-sponsored murder, down the path of democracy. There militias in Eastern Ukraine. It was Alexander Litvinenko, another was so much confidence that freedom Putin’s allies that shot down Malaysia prominent Putin critic, was poisoned and democracy had triumphed, that Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 passengers in London with Polonium-210, a Russia would side more closely with and crew, including 27 Australians. deadly radioactive substance. The the West and that even a former KGB The surface-to-air missile that was photograph of Litvinenko on his spy could become a reformer. used to bring down the aircraft had hospital death bed, with his bald head been supplied by the Kremlin. and emaciated face, is one of the most When George W. Bush came face- searing images of the Putin years. to-face with Putin for the first time, at At home, he has stamped out dissent a summit in Slovenia in 2001, he by imprisoning journalists and political Twelve years later, Russian assassins delivered what turned out to be a opponents. He is also suspected of were dispatched to Salisbury to poison spectacularly bad character assessment. ordering the assassination of democracy Sergei Skripal, a former Russian “I looked the man in the eye,” Bush campaigners who have sought to military official who had defected to famously said. “I found him to be very mobilise the Russian people. the British, and his daughter Yulia. straightforward and trustworthy … Despite use of the Novichok nerve I was able to get a sense of his soul.” In 2015, Boris Nemtsov, one of In his tenure as Prime Minister and President, Putin has made a mockery of that wildly optimistic assessment, and been responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity. In 34 The Australian Women’s Weekly
World events agent, a deadly chemical weapon What Putin him. Even Switzerland, which usually developed in the Soviet Union, the has tried to maintains strict neutrality in global murder attempt failed. Scenes that crises, has made it harder for Russia to use its secretive banking system. feel like they belong in a John le Carré hide from his thriller have played out in real life. compatriots is But there are limits to what the Putin has been their author. the mammoth United States and its allies will do. President Joe Biden will not send Throughout, he has tried to project troops to defend Ukrainian cities, nor the image of a Russian strongman, will he send warplanes to patrol its skies, as that would risk a nuclear and dramatised himself as the heroic wealth he has confrontation. Putin has ordered his figure in a glorious national story. accumulated. nuclear forces onto a higher state of Putin loves being photographed alert, which is unprecedented during bare-chested in manly pursuits – the post-Cold War era. And while it would seem unthinkable for Putin riding horses, fishing to press the nuclear button, to him, alarmingly, it might seem thinkable. in Siberian rivers, Putin’s invasion has hiking through the not been the swift For a leader who has always had a woods, submerging success he expected. giant chip on his shoulder about being his body in freezing Below: His Black disrespected internationally, it must rankle Putin that his young adversary cold lakes, cradling Sea palace. Zelensky is being lauded and lionised. The Ukrainian is being cast as the a sniper’s rifle in his great defender of democracy in its hands. Photo ops hour of peril, while Putin is being where he appears likened to Hitler. fully clothed have At the time of writing, the Ukrainian also been bizarre, people are still resisting the invasion, showing him cuddling and their charismatic President remains the leopards and stroking face of their defiance. But there is a real tranquillised tigers. possibility that by the time you read this, he To the outside world, will have been killed or arrested by the Russians, and we they have turned him will be composing his obituaries. The hope is that Putin has into a self-satirising figure – a James overreached and that the invasion of Ukraine will cause as much personal Bond villain on steroids. But to his harm to him as the occupation of Afghanistan did to his predecessors. supporters, they have sealed his War there led to the collapse of the Soviet empire. Though his forces will reputation as the father of the nation. likely overpower the Ukrainian army, occupying a country with a population What Putin has tried to hide from of more than 40 million people may ultimately be unsustainable. his compatriots is the mammoth Putin may well claim victory. But he will never be the winner. Volodymyr wealth he has accumulated during his Zelensky and the embattled Ukrainian people have already won the battle two decades in office. Officially, the for hearts and minds. AWW Kremlin says he earns less than an Australian Prime Minister and owns a modest apartment in Saint Petersburg, he met in the early 1980s. But he along with a couple of Soviet-era cars has tried to keep secret the details of and a truck. But his true riches, which his love life. When a Russian tabloid GETTY IMAGES. INSTAGRAM @OLENAZELENSKA_OFFICIAL. have been concealed through a web of published details of an alleged financial schemes, are estimated to be relationship with Olympic gymnast more than $275 billion, making him Alina Kabaeva, it was shut down. The one of the richest people on the planet. same secrecy surrounds his family Among his treasures is a $135 million life. Rarely does Putin speak publicly dollar super-yacht called Graceful and about his two daughters who are a palace overlooking the Black Sea. now in their 30s, one of whom is a Thought to have cost 100 billion Russian geneticist, the other a mathematician. rubles, the latter includes a casino, On the world stage, the Russian wine tasting room, theatre, helipad, President has never been more isolated. Turkish baths and even a hookah bar. The West has provided military aid to Putin’s personal life is also shrouded Ukraine and imposed intense financial in mystery. We know that in 2013 he sanctions, which for the first time have separated from his wife, Lyudmila targeted Putin personally. Countries Putina, a former flight attendant whom have lined up at the UN to condemn The Australian Women’s Weekly 35
The Judy Bailey Interview 36 The Australian Women’s Weekly
NICOLA’S SECRET TO SUCCESS ‘Attitude is everything’ Get to know the It’s Nicola Willis’ 41st She speaks deliberately and National Party’s new birthday when we talk confidently, telling me, “He makes finance spokesperson, and she’s surprised when people around him feel they who speaks frankly I mention it. She genuinely have an immense contribution about her privileged hasn’t given it much to make. He takes advice, but he thought, the politician retains his own sense of purpose. childhood, the laughs. “I’m not as excited He has a sense of humour. We have challenges of being about birthdays as I once a laugh.” a feminist and her was.” She has more pressing things ‘messy’ family life. on her mind. Like Chris, Nicola says she Four months into her role as has come to politics out of a sense WORDS by JUDY BAILEY deputy leader of the National of service. “I’m an optimist. I’m Party, the Wellington-based list resolute in my belief we can do MP is in Auckland to support better. I have a sense that I had her boss Christopher Luxon more opportunities than a lot as he delivers his “State of the of kids growing up and now Nation” speech. I have an obligation to give After the party’s recent back. I have a desire to make an shenanigans, she says the impact. Politics is an enormous businessman, 51, has reset the lever for positive change.” party and won the confidence of the New Zealanders he’s met. Hers was a privileged childhood. The eldest of three, she grew up in Wellington’s seaside suburb of The Australian Women’s Weekly 37
The Judy Bailey Interview Point Howard and went to the local to spend her last two years of writing and decided Canterbury’s Muritai Primary School in Eastbourne. school boarding at King’s College post-graduate degree in journalism Her father James Willis, a commercial in Auckland. “I liked the idea of would give her a practical way of lawyer, worked at the big-city firm being independent and, frankly, putting her skills to work – a handy Bell Gully, while her mother Shona having boys in the class.” ability for any politician, although Valentine was a well-known journalist she says politics was never on her and member of the parliamentary It didn’t go well. “After two weeks, mind as a possible career until she press gallery, a smart, talented I called Mum in tears and said I saw an ad for a research job in Sir woman who gave up her job to raise wanted to come home. She told me, Bill English’s office. her family. ‘You’ve made the commitment – get on and make the best of it.’” It was right after he had lost the Nicola’s childhood was, she recalls, National leadership. “I was in my a time of endless opportunity and Nicola continues, “I was raised early twenties,” she says. “He was an possibility, much of it spent roaming a feminist, then suddenly, in that incredible mentor. He told me, ‘I may the bush tracks around her home, environment, boys were in charge. have lost the confidence of caucus, something she continues to relish There were different expectations. but I can still make a difference.’” with her own children. I’d never been pretty. I wasn’t cool His ideas form the bedrock of much or the most popular. All of a sudden, of National’s social policy. Her parents are both high-energy I felt judged differently.” Her obvious people, she says. “They have real drive intelligence wasn’t rated. Nicola wrote speeches and and a sense of fun. They work hard researched policy. “I worked hard and they play hard. They taught me So how did she find the male- and my contribution was rewarded.” to always do your best. If you give dominated realms of Parliament? She would go on to serve as a senior everything, you’ll have no regrets.” “I’ve found it incredibly meritocratic,” policy advisor to Prime Minister she declares. Sir John Key, another important Nicola’s family is a close bunch. influence in her life. “There were always lots of discussions Nicola completed a degree in and debate at dinner. It was never English literature with first-class “He taught me that attitude is said, but there were expectations that honours at Victoria University and everything – to bring belief and you would come to the table with then wondered how she was going energy to work to inspire others to be something to say.” While interested to make a living. She’d always loved better. That attitude spread to the in politics, there were no allegiances country. People felt good about New to any particular party, she insists. Zealand and where it was going.” Her high school years were spent Nicola was living the dream, but initially at the elite all-girl Samuel in typically courageous fashion, she Marsden Collegiate. Nicola would decided it was time to step outside commute in the car with her dad, the Beehive and experience life in listening to Morning Report on the business world. Fonterra had National Radio. The pair would approached her for a senior role in debate the issues, a sign of things global trade strategy and incident to come perhaps. management, and she took the job. Nicola was, even then, a strong character. She decided she wanted An idyllic childhood (from left): Nicola showing off her board skills; with mother Shona, sister Amanda and brother Jono; dad James, who encouraged a work-hard- play-hard mentality. 38 The Australian Women’s Weekly
But John wanted her to stay, telling Nicola and National her, “You’re a senior advisor to the leader Chris. Prime Minister. It’s a wonderful role. Above: Nicole’s first bite Why would you leave?” She replied, at politics was joining Bill English’s office as a speech “Farming is the real energy of the writer and researcher. economy. I want to experience that. Left: Enjoing the ride as John Key’s senior advisor in 2007. I’ll work hard and I’ll learn lots.” infamous breakdown. Nicola explains to me, “Parliament “It was a terrible time and the Beehive is its own world. for Todd personally. I did a lot of personal examination. It’s important to keep a perspective Did I do enough to support him? What could I have outside the Wellington machine, done differently? But in the end, I just had to knuckle but I didn’t know a Jersey from a down and do my best work.” That work was recognised by new Friesian at that stage!” leader Judith Collins, who promoted her to the front bench as education A real learning moment came spokesperson. But Judith wouldn’t last in the leadership role and, at the when she was “standing in my end of last November, Nicola became deputy leader to former Air New gumboots in the mud in Waikato”, Zealand CEO Chris. explaining government policy to a farmer. When she’d finished, he replied, “That’s all very well, Nicola, but what does it mean for the “It was a milk price and me?” She returned to the capital to contest the Wellington terrible time... Central electorate in the 2017 election, where she I did a lot was soundly beaten by Grant of personal Robertson, but she entered Parliament on the National list when Steven Joyce resigned in 2018. examination.” Her mother Shona was concerned about her daughter’s move into the political fray. Nicola remembers, “She was quick to warn me about the difficult aspects of the job. No matter who you are or how lovely you are, you will never be universally liked. Mum had a protective instinct, but I always loved debate and advocacy, and I went into it with my eyes wide open.” Anyway, she continues, “Parliament is now more collegial than people think. There’s Nats appeared to be coming apart the theatre of debate the public may at the seams. see on TV and it can get fiery, but In 2020, Nicola was said to have had it’s rarely personal. There’s a lot of a major role in Simon Bridges’ demise, respect across the House.” although she is quick to dispute that. Nicola’s was a meteoric rise through She says simply, “I was just one of the ranks. She began to appear in the a caucus of people to vote.” She was, background of leadership pressers. however, a visible supporter of Todd But while Labour was on a roll, the Muller’s and was shocked by his The Australian Women’s Weekly 39
Nicola and her university Life’s a juggle – sweetheart Duncan Small married luckily, Nicola has 15 years ago. They’d met at Victoria’s her family’s support. debating club. Duncan was captivated “It’s messy, but I’m by her feistiness, and she by his so fortunate my charisma and handsome good looks. husband believes Duncan has also spent time in shared providing policy advice, working in responsibility.” Treasury and in Parliament in the Department of the Prime Minister “I’d never been pretty. I wasn’t and Cabinet. Now, though, he is a cool or the most popular. part-time business consultant and I felt judged differently.” full-time carer for the couple’s four children, James, 12, Harriet, 10, her eyebrows, she’s actually saying however, she reckons the Government Reuben, nine, and six-year-old Gloria. a special hello”. was too relaxed on the roll-out of “He drops the kids to school, picks vaccines and rapid antigen tests. them up and runs them to all the Like many of us, Nicola’s family after-school activities.” found the necessary lockdowns Duncan has recently been away for challenging. “We have a very deep a week at a school camp as a parent As it is for most working families, appreciation of how patient and helper. Parliament was sitting the life is a constant juggle. Nicola is up hard-working teachers are – and entire time, which meant Nicola early reviewing the morning news. we have learnt that TV can always routinely wasn’t home until 11pm She is often called on for interviews be an educator,” she grins. or midnight. What to do with the by “that Kate Hawkesby”, she laughs non-camping children? Fortunately, wryly, as well as Kate’s husband Mike She gives credit to Prime Minister Nicola’s parents now live five minutes Hosking at Newstalk ZB. Jacinda Ardern for her life-saving up the road, so she and the kids moved decision to buy us that extra time to in with them for the week. Her first formal meeting at deal with the COVID-19 response, Parliament is at 8am and then the day rolls on, scheduled in 15-minute blocks. How does she do it? “I’m so fortunate to have two people in my office with huge initiative and loyalty. They block out time for me. They’ll say, ‘Now, Nicola, it’s your time. Go out for a walk.’ I really enjoy the time away – reflection is so important. I often do my best thinking when I step away.” At 5.30pm, she tries to squeeze in a FaceTime chat with her children. “I try to time it so I don’t interrupt dinner – that just makes it hard for Duncan. It gives the kids a chance to rumble around in their school bags and show me what they’ve been doing, and they can show me that special hut they’ve built on the trampoline. They’ve noticed I’m more high- profile, but generally they just know Mum goes to work and loves her job.” They do occasionally visit Nicola in her office and walk through the press gallery to get there. “They’re so lovely to our kids,” she says of the journalists, adding that TVNZ’s political editor Jessica Mutch McKay has told them that “when she raises 40 The Australian Women’s Weekly
The Judy Bailey Interview Duncan is the young family’s full-time carer. Above: Marrying Duncan in 2007, with Bill English and wife Mary in attendance. Below: Mum shows off baby Gloria to the kids. She is devoted to her job and “It’s messy, but I’m so fortunate It’s a team effort: The proud parents it is Duncan who frequently my husband believes in shared with their children (from left) Harriet, reins her in, telling her, “You responsibility, and that I have family think you need to go to this support and my team at Parliament.” Reuben, Gloria and James. event, but people will accept it if you take time off.” Of the recent riots outside her “In a liberal democracy, you office, she says, “What impacted expect that people can protest, The family spends some of those me most was seeing how vulnerable access different information and hold precious moments together at Nicola’s the people of Wellington felt. Many different views, but there should family bach at Riversdale Beach on were scared to leave their homes. be no tolerance for people impinging the Wairarapa Coast. I felt a sense of powerlessness.” on the rights of others. If you break the law, there will be consequences.” “The kids are in the Nippers surf However, Nicola is quick to lifesaving club,” she says. “It’s a sleepy add that she had sympathy for With John Key having touted her town where they can ride their bikes the Prime Minister. The right to as a future leader of National and to the dairy to buy a dollar mix and protest is enshrined, but she insists, indeed the nation, I ask Nicola if the a Fruju.” Ah, the quintessential “It doesn’t ever mean that decision- thought of becoming PM has ever Kiwi summer. makers should feel unsafe. I was crossed her mind, but she says with grateful that police were so protective conviction, “The only thing on my Nicola certainly counts her blessings of us in Parliament. radar in 2023 is to make Chris Luxon when it comes to her family life. our prime minister.” “It’s not perfect by any means – there’s Lego all over the floor, there Now that is the answer of are days we miss things at school a practised politician. AWW and we get things wrong,” she sighs. The Australian Women’s Weekly 41
Investigation of promise WORDS by GENEVIEVE GANNON Multi-level marketing schemes can sound like a dream come true to aspirational and often underemployed women, but who actually profits from them, and at what cost? W hen “Sarah” SeneGence denies these allegations, questions, you get slapped down attended a saying distributors’ main income comes pretty quickly,” Sarah says. “There is training day from product sales. However, research a lot of emotional and psychological that promised that has just been published by the manipulation, bullying and abuse to help her sell Queensland University of Technology behind the scenes.” lipstick, she found low levels of profitability and was hoping to get some business lessons financial literacy in MLMs. Have you MLMs use direct selling to and a few tips on how to apply make-up. received a pitch like this on social media? distribute products like make-up, She had recently signed on to sell health supplements and even sex SeneGence cosmetics after the friend “Hi Hun, how are you? I wanted to toys. Distributors also earn income who had introduced her to the products touch base because I’ve just attended by recruiting other sellers. They train told her she could get a discount if she the most incredible conference and it and motivate their new recruits who became a distributor. Sarah’s intention left me inspired to share more about my are known as their ‘downline’ and take had only ever been to buy the colours business with people I feel could benefit.” a cut of their sales. In turn, a portion she wanted and sell some on to of their earnings go to the person people who were interested. She really MLM critics say sellers like these who recruited and trained them, their liked the lipstick, after all, and you have become part of a system that ‘upline’. Uplines are highly incentivised couldn’t buy it in stores. But as she sat exploits women’s need and desire to to keep their downlines hustling and listening to the company’s training, earn an income while caring for their working harder. she had the sickening realisation family. Sarah says her experience left that what she had signed up for her feeling that they were “basically “This is YOUR world my loves. You was not really about make-up at all. business cults”. have ONE chance at this. ONE go at living this life here on earth. Why the “The whole thing was about “They are predatory and growing hell wouldn’t you give it all that you marketing. It was about pushing during the pandemic. It’s a huge got????” This is a post from an MLM’s recruitment,” she tells The Weekly. issue,” she says. closed group. “It was even things like: ‘Just contact your friends and say we’ve got a Before she signed on with SeneGence There’s money to be made, to special deal in your suburb. It doesn’t she read the documents very carefully, be sure. The local sector is worth have to be true. Make a list of all the but she found that what MLM companies $1.4 billion annually, according to people you know. These are all people say on paper is vastly different from Direct Selling Australia, but research you can approach. Everybody is your the way they operate in the real word. shows all the profits are concentrated market.’ It’s really unpleasant.” at the very top of the company. “I thought: all of those things seem Sarah had been recruited into a reasonable to me. When you actually Sarah says: “These companies are multi-level marketing company, get in, it’s a different story.” basically ‘legal’ pyramid schemes or MLM. She’d paid for a business operating within the grey areas of starter kit, thinking she would make She was immediately added to Australian consumer legislation.” a little money. Now it appeared the several closed Facebook groups and only way she could turn a meaningful says, “When you first get in, it’s like, MLMs differentiate themselves profit was by signing up other people ‘this is your new sisterhood’ and it’s from pyramid schemes by providing to sell lipstick. all the love bombing stuff.” a product or service. But a major analysis of 350 MLMs found that Screenshots she provides show a 99 per cent of members simply world of toxic positivity. If someone could not make any money. speaks out, they’re blocked or deleted. “If you’re slightly critical in asking The Australian Women’s Weekly 43
“Profitability in MLM does not come SeneGence’s female distributors (top) climb and it was very frustrating,” Alanda cheaply or easily,” the 2011 Consumer goal levels with names such as Countess and says. “I was working my arse off. I’d Awareness Institute report said. “It’s Crown Princess while selling its wares (right). never worked so hard in my life for so very costly and time-consuming, Its social media posts make it sound so easy. little because I was actually losing and compensation plans require money. Not making money.” consistent effort over time to advance conferences. The other members in in any MLM scheme. ” her Facebook group were called her She was thinking if she just kept “success partners”. working harder, she’d start seeing Crucially, in many MLMs, uplines returns. “You come to believe that the don’t earn commission from the “It was all to keep you wrapped up only reason you’re not successful is products their downlines sell, but within the mindset and the belief you don’t have the right mindset. from “stock” their downlines must system of ‘Beachbody is your saviour’. I remember someone saying, ‘don’t buy in order to sell. So much of it is like attending an let anyone else outwork you’.” evangelical sermon but you also felt “That’s why the anti-MLMers say like you were part of something Alanda’s original upline left, so the distributors are the customers,” greater than yourself,” she says. she was assigned to a woman Sarah says. who she believed was making more Each distributor needed a certain than $US3 million a year. “But that’s And in her experience, the people number of ‘volume points’ each month before expenses,” Alanda says. at the top would do and say whatever to be considered active. “Most people they needed to keep them buying. stay active by getting a month’s supply each month of Shakeology,” Alanda Slave to sales says. Once you start recruiting people, you become a “coach”. Texas resident Alanda Carter has Master’s degrees in anthropology and “I did reach the first rank. Most people instructional design, so she is not don’t. But I couldn’t hold that rank someone you would expect to be lured into an MLM, but like many people, she found herself enticed by the promise of financial freedom and flexibility after a difficult time in her life. “I became a victim after I went through breast cancer,” she says. “I was very vulnerable and I was looking for something that would give me freedom. One of the things that spoke to me about multi-level marketing was the illusion of being able to work from anywhere.” Alanda began radiotherapy treatment in 2015. It was a difficult time, made harder by the fact that her manager didn’t like her working from home while she was recovering. Eventually she was told she no longer had a job. At the same time, she made friends with a neighbour who would come over to drink wine and talk about how she was earning six figures. “And I thought, well if you can do it, I can do that. I didn’t really know what it was until I got out.” Alanda’s neighbour became her upline and coached her to sell online workout programs, supplements, recipes and a powder called Shakeology for the fitness MLM Beachbody. Alanda quickly found herself immersed in a regime of regular calls, meetings and 44 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Investigation for the scandal-plagued clothing what needs to be done. You can achieve anything you set your mind MLM LuLaRoe. Hugh Jackman to with hard work and dedication.” This is a screenshot of the messaging appeared at essential oils MLM rained down on distributors. dōTerra’s event in 2018. There is “I was on social media so much that I injured my neck. Your work is no suggestion, however, that these 24/7, 365,” Alanda says. “You lose your mind. You’re no longer thinking celebrities were critically. You become willing to start emulating those who are successful aware of the harmful because you feel like that’s what you need to do. You do things you Sales STRUCTURE practices adopted by wouldn’t do if you were not crazed some MLMs. with MLM. What exactly Sarah recalls the “There are people who are having pervasive princess a baby and they’re doing a post about paradigm at Beachbody or dōTerra. My upline – is an MLM? a SeneGence the woman who was making all that conference: “They money – while she was in hospital get up on stage with the last child she had, she kept doing stuff on Instagram. I was like, MLMs, or multi-level and they’re all in ‘Girl, just have your baby’.” marketing companies, are ballgowns and tiaras. businesses that use direct It’s just horrible,” Alanda’s friends wanted nothing selling to distribute products. she says. to do with her enterprise. “I’m sure Consultants sell to their friends, they wanted to slap me,” she says. relatives and broader network. The frenzied Her husband was supportive. “But They also recruit others to sell #Girlboss chant is he also didn’t know that I put products to their networks. constant. “The a course that was $US5000 on When a consultant recruits comfort zone can be a credit card.” a new seller, that person emotionally deadly ... When she reflects on why she Luxury, wealth becomes their “downline”, push yourself to do did this, she says: “I believed. It’s as simple as that. Their colour and freedom are and they earn commission is blue. I was so smitten I said that I would bleed blue.” key parts of the from their downline’s sales. MLM promise. In turn, part of their earnings Alanda Carter (above left) began Internal goes to their “upline” – the selling Shakeology (above) for the documents person who recruited them. fitness MLM Beachbody (left) after losing her job. She’s now cautions shared with others about the perils of MLMs. The Weekly show GETTY IMAGES. FACEBOOK. INSTAGRAM. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION. there are 10 tiers in the SeneGence “Distributor Goal Matrix”, starting at Maiden, climbing up to levels including Countess, Duchess, Crown Princess and Empress. Distributors climb the royal rungs by recruiting new maidens and purchasing products for which they receive ‘point value’ or PVs. Each promotion comes with an enticing incentive – ruby or emerald charms, sashes and holidays. Once you have a few dozen distributors in your downline, the company will pay the lease on your branded Audi. This is the modus operandi for most MLMs. Alanda describes members in constant contact with their uplines who push them to strive, sell and, crucially, spend. Companies host lavish training conferences where distributors are wooed and wowed by top-tier sellers and celebrities. Kelly Clarkson and Katy Perry performed at conventions The Australian Women’s Weekly 45
Investigation However, discontent was building, Companies often host lavish conventions to motivate consultants. and the internet started feeding her Hugh Jackman appeared at dōTerra’s 2018 conference (below), content that reflected this. while scandal-plagued LuLaRoe has featured Katy Perry (bottom, with the company’s founders DeAnne and Mark Stidham). “All of a sudden, anti-MLM content started coming into my bubble,” “The use Alanda says. “I went, Oh my God, of coercive I was a Hun-bot?” persuasion techniques The scales fell from her eyes. similar to those Alanda had lost $20,000 to Beachbody. employed by But what was worse was that she’d cults is at least recruited others to do the same. She was horrified. partially to blame.” “My mother-in-law’s on a fixed income. I got her to join Beachbody companies on behalf of distributors who even when they were transparent, because I was so desperate. It’s so lost money, and began to see a pattern. “these disclosures did not appear embarrassing and shameful for me to have had much effect on the to admit that.” “One universal fact was the vast ability of MLM firms to recruit new majority of MLM distributors lose participants”. After analysing MLM She now works to educate others money, and eventually drop out, training videos and speaking to on the perils of MLMs as The while a tiny percentage are paid MLM distributors he reached a Recovering Hunbot on YouTube. huge sums,” he wrote. chilling conclusion: “They are a pyramid scheme. The He initially thought the reason so “I suggest – and I am not the first main thing they are doing is endless many people were signing up was that – that the widespread use of coercive chain recruitment. Unless you’re the MLM compensation structures persuasion techniques similar to recruiting you cannot make money. weren’t clear, but he came to see that those employed by cults is at least It’s impossible to do it just on the partially to blame,” he wrote in products alone. I don’t want others Coercive Techniques in Business to be taken advantage of the way Opportunity Cults. I had been,” she says. This goes some way to explaining You’re the product how distributors have trouble seeing Sarah echoes Alanda’s sentiment that in many MLMs the products are a decoy for the real business of many of these operations, which is to lure participants in with unrealistic goals and channel their money to the top. “The product is incidental, and they use it as a way of getting past legislation,” she says. The opaque nature of the MLM world makes it difficult to police. The compensation plans are often incredibly complex and sales take place in private houses and closed Facebook groups. The companies exercise a lot of control over their distributors. “When you sign a contract, you say, if I leave, I will not speak out in public,” says Sarah. Most critics who are ex-members are anonymous because they’re scared of being sued. This is why Sarah is not using her real name. US lawyer Douglas M. Brooks has spent much of his career suing MLM 46 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Left: MLMs offer their a corporate environment or retail, members a sense you might want to reconsider because of sisterhood, which the success of it is to be able to make makes them such an money, to recruit people, to believe attractive business and in what you do so you can help build social opportunity for your business.” stay-at-home mothers. She says the tiered system Ugly TRUTHS incentivises and rewards hard work. MLMs “The top one per cent or whatever behaving badly of [the MLM] is a minute number of women who are super successful and PHOTOGRAPHS SUPLPIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION. they have bought a losing ticket. Green Tea washing have been in the game since almost Ponzinomics author Robert FitzPatrick day one and all of a sudden their says the fatal flaw in the multi-level In 2012, Younique marketed teams are just thousands and marketing model is that growth is an “all natural” mascara, but a thousands of women. They rose limited. A recruitment system that court found “the product was by attrition,” Shelley says. has one person recruiting five, who composed of ground-up nylon.” each recruit five, can only reach 13 Younique was fined $US3.25 “You do need to go in with your levels before it exceeds the population million for deceptive marketing. eyes wide open and say, ‘Okay, I’m of the Earth. not going to leave my day job in the Arbonne’s Faux Pas next month or two. But hey, maybe Beauty and the beast I could compromise on the salary Vegan beauty MLM Arbonne came side of things to be able to have the There are an estimated 1000 active under fire when its consultants life and the lifestyle I want in a year MLMs today. Australia has nearly or two. It’s part of this movement half a million direct sellers, of which were caught using the pandemic as of people saying, I want a lifestyle, 77 per cent are women. Despite a a marketing opportunity. The US and I want to do something other growing anti-MLM movement online, Federal Trade Commission wrote than the 9 to 5.” But, she cautions, Direct Selling Australia says the a sternly worded letter to the “if it feels too good to be true, it model “offers important benefits to company in 2020, warning it had probably is.” people who want an opportunity 48 hours to address consultants’ to earn income and build a business false and misleading claims. Assessing individual MLMs is of their own”. Arbonne consultants were difficult because the sector is not spruiking an ‘immunity support’ well regulated. But other entities are Others say multi-level marketing, product that could ‘boost up your responding to the growing call for like any industry, is a broad church. immune system right now the space to be cleaned up. In 2020, #coronavirus’, and promising high TikTok banned MLM material from Shelley worked as a salaried staff earning potential. One consultant its platform “to reduce the spread member for a well-known make-up gushed: “14 million people applied of misleading content, including MLM in 2017 and 2018. She was never content that aims to deceive people a distributor herself and disagrees for unemployment just last week … for financial gain”. This reflects the with the ‘hey hun!’ cold approach but turn a small investment into Consumer Awareness Institute’s sees MLM companies as providing six figures …. #arbonne … findings that MLMs are “extremely opportunities to people who have a #quarantine #2020.” viral, predatory and harmful to knack for sales to carve out a flexible many participants.” source of income. trying to build their business in Australia and New Zealand, and they For Sarah, the most important “I do believe there are some could work “at home, around your thing is shielding vulnerable groups organisations with good intentions kids, at night – whatever works for from the MLMs’ false promise. and others not so much,” Shelley says. you,” Shelley says. And women, she believes, are particularly susceptible to When she worked for the MLM there MLMs are divisive, Shelley says, believing the too-good-to-be- were about 1000 “presenters” actively but like anything, it’s important to true MLM dream. have realistic expectations before signing on. “It is a sales job, so “It just ties into women’s lack of if you’re not the kind of person financial equality in the world,” she who would consider a sales role in says. “It ties into [women] wanting to be mums at home with their kids and feeling torn. It’s leaning on mother guilt.” AWW The Australian Women’s Weekly 47
Society scandal The downfall of the Duchess of Argyll WORDSbyJULIETRIEDEN It was the most infamous We are in 1963 and while London is GETTY IMAGES. SHUTTERSTOCK. divorce of the 20th century swinging, it seems it’s not quite with a salacious court battle ready to embrace the sexual involving some very racy antics of the Duchess of Argyll. photos. But was the Duchess Born in 1912, the vivacious, of Argyll actually the victim party-loving Margaret Campbell was the darling of Britain’s society set until a bitter and of gross misogyny? very public divorce battle with her second husband, Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, one of Scotland’s most powerful noblemen and owner-occupier of the 90-room Inveraray Castle, ripped her reputation to shreds. 48 The Australian Women’s Weekly
Margaret, the Duchess of Argyll pictured with her poodle in her London apartment. Opposite page: Margaret on her way to being presented to the royal family at Buckingham Palace in the early 1930s. The Australian Women’s Weekly 49
Society scandal The acrimonious split was the enjoyed sex wasn’t something she biography The Duchess Who Dared, culmination of years of legal wrangling felt she had to hide. The physical and based on an extraordinary series of as the tempestuous couple indulged emotional cruelty she endured at the exclusive interviews with Margaret in ever-increasing tit for tat skirmishes, hands of her husband she also wasn’t which took place in the mid-1970s suing and counter-suing each other. going to brush under the Persian but couldn’t be published at the time But what was revealed and pored over carpet – that and his brazen theft for legal reasons. in smutty detail in the final courtroom of her family money. stoush shocked the nation. This A sparkling debutante was the longest, costliest and most Until this vile dressing down, notorious divorce trial in British Margaret, then 51, had been the beau Margaret was an heiress in her own history, opening up the Duchess’s monde’s glittering jewel of charisma right, the daughter of a Scottish private diaries to painful public at every event she graced. But now self-made man and raised in a world scrutiny and famously hinging on she was depicted as a lying, scheming of incredible financial privilege and a set of pornographic polaroid nymphomaniac or, to quote Judge comfort. “She was an enchantress,” photographs that the Duke had Lord Wheatley’s excoriating 64,000- writes Charles Castle, “considered one stolen from his wife’s private desk word judgement, “a highly-sexed of the most beautiful women of her drawers and cupboards in her London woman who had ceased to be satisfied generation and one of the 10 best- townhouse while she was overseas. with normal relations and had started dressed in the world. Charming, elegant to indulge in what I can only describe and gregarious, she was sought after.” In the arty images were the torsos as disgusting sexual activities to of naked men with a woman, her gratify a basic sexual appetite”. British actor Claire Foy, who plays face turned away from the camera, Margaret in the TV series, describes performing oral sex. Though the features were unrecognisable, Claire Foy (left) will play Margaret (right, pictured in 1960) in a new three-part television GETTY IMAGES. SHUTTERSTOCK. AMAZON PRIME VIDEO. Margaret could be identified by drama that details the Duchess’ public shaming and fall from grace. her signature three-strand pearls. The Duke was ultimately granted Margaret as “an ‘It Girl’ and a When questioned, she claimed the his divorce and Margaret lived until debutante ... The year that Margaret man in question was the Duke, which she was 80, doughty to the end, but was presented to court was the year prompted a medical examination to this fascinating, if skittish Duchess it was all about fashion and romance. see if his naked attributes sized up! never regained her standing among She came out when she was young – The doctor declared this was not in the ruling classes, and died penniless at 16. She just loved everything to do fact the Duke, who in his divorce and ostracised by her own family. with society and being in amongst it. petition had listed the names of She was special.” 88 lovers he claimed his wife had So what really happened here? entertained throughout their Margaret’s story is reassessed in a The fact that Margaret wasn’t born marriage. He then named three gripping new three-part TV drama – into the aristocracy and was raised in suspects whom he suggested could A Very British Scandal – and the America didn’t hold her back, and be “the headless man” in the photo. re-release of Charles Castle’s 1994 though many felt she ached to be part The case hit front page headlines day after day and neither the Duke nor the Duchess came out of it well. Their louche living was laid bare, the Duke’s addictions and brutality picked over; but it was Margaret’s reputation that was dragged through the mud. The judgements of disapproving men displayed what, with 21st century eyes, feel like the deep-seated misogyny and sexism that propped up the framework of the decaying aristocracy Margaret had married into. I suspect we would see her in a different light today. Certainly Margaret dared to take on the hypocrisy of her accusers and was punished for her audacity. That she enjoyed the company of men and 50 The Australian Women’s Weekly
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