After years building the multimillion-dollar global fashion empire Sass & Bide with her best friend Sarah-Jane Clarke, battling breast cancer and embarking on motherhood, the idea of a fairytale ending was no doubt an enticing one for Heidi Middleton.
And with her very own castle - albeit a crumbling one that requires deep pockets and plenty of energy - in a picturesque part of France, it all appeared to be coming together for the statuesque designer who still keeps a holiday home at Sydney's Palm Beach.
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However a cloud has cast a long shadow over Middleton's fairytale, with friends rallying around the young mother after her marriage of 14 years to former Sydney businessman turned meditation guru Nicholas "Nicho" Plowman came to a sudden end.
Heidi Middleton instagram post of her French Castle. Photo: @bidemiddleton on Instagram
Middleton confirmed the split to PS, saying: "After 14 happy years together, we have made the decision to separate. We remain close and are dedicated to co-parenting our daughters. Our family will continue to live in France."
While she declined to disclose any further details, PS understands that it was Plowman's desire to immerse himself into the mystical world of vedic meditation including lengthy trips to India, which caused a rift in the relationship.
In recent months Middleton has thrown herself into the restoration of a towering chateau the family now call home.
Heidi Middleton and husband Nicho Plowman with their daughters Elka and India. photo: @nichoplowman on Instagram
The chateau has been undergoing extensive renovations ever since Middleton took the keys of the historic property in Medoc in the Bordeaux region in the south-west of France.
"You called our name ... and we came," Middleton wrote in her Instagram post celebrating her new home. The designer relocated to France with Plowman and their two young daughters, Elka and India, in 2015.
The family's new home has absorbed many of the millions Middleton made from the sale of her fashion label, which at its peak generated $50million in sales globally, to Myer.
Sarah Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton. Photo: Mark Nolan
The retailer bought a 65 per cent stake in the business in 2011 for $42.5 million before snapping up the remaining 35 per cent in October 2013. At the time, Clarke and Middleton maintained their executive roles and chairs on an advisory board for the brand.
But by 2014 both Clarke and Middleton had departed from the business they founded as a couple of teenagers.
Cupid's arrow strikes true for millionaire yachtie Neville Crichton
Cupid must have used his diamond-tipped arrows when it came to finding love for three of Sydney's wealthiest chaps of a, ahem, certain vintage.
Amber Symond, Nadi Hasandedic and Marly Boyd. Photo: Belinda Rolland
On Saturday, millionaire car importer and yachtie Neville "Croaky" Crichton, 74, will tie the knot with his glamorous and much younger fiancee Nadi Hasandedic, formerly the "boutique directeur" at Christian Dior.
It will be a lavish affair, kicking off at Sydney University's Quadrangle in the afternoon before moving into the Great Hall for a no-expense spared reception, for which the groom has dropped $20,000 to spruce up the toilets, on top of another couple of hundred thousand dollars on the wedding itself, which could top $1 million.
But he can certainly afford it; Crichton's fortune is estimated to be topping $400 million. He recently downsized from his harbour-front mansion in Point Piper, selling his digs for $60 million and moving to a smaller new pad just along the shoreline.
Amber and John Symond. Their new superyacht is soon to be unveiled in Monte Carlo. Photo: Belinda Rolland Photography
On the eve of her big day Hasandedic told PS she hoped it would be a "wonderful day shared with our friends and family" and revealed she had found her wedding gown on a trip to New York last year.
"It was the first dress I saw and fell in love with it," she said of the custom-made gown by Ersa Atelier.
Neville Crichton and his fiance Nadi Hasandedic will get married this weekend. Photo: Belinda Rolland
Croaky's best man, millionaire property developer John Boyd, married his own young bride a few years back. Marly, the mother of his youngest son, is also an old girlfriend of Hasandedic, and the couples often "double date". It was Marly who threw a lavish bridal shower for Nadi in the expansive penthouse Boyd built atop the ANZ tower, affording one of the most dramatic views in the city.
Also on the guest list for Saturday is John "Aussie" Symond, who will be there with his wife, Amber, who was previously married to Patrick Keating, the son of former prime minister Paul Keating.
Amber has been busy helping John plan his upcoming 70th birthday in Monte Carlo, where PS hears his huge new superyacht will finally be unveiled. The $75 million vessel has been under construction at the Dutch shipyard Feadship, and reportedly includes such essentials as heated floors, a gymnasium with steam shower and a temperature-controlled wine cellar.
And while a few tongues have been wagging about what could seem three unlikely pairings, PS can confirm that all three brides are completely smitten with their men. Ain't love grand?
Murdoch's teen daughters show keen sense of style at Met Gala Ball
They are set to inherit a share of one of the greatest fortunes ever amassed in the world, let alone Australia, and it looks as though Rupert Murdoch's two youngest daughters with his third ex-wife Wendi Deng, Grace, 15, and Chloe,13, are ready to take their place on the public stage.
Fluent in Mandarin, the bilingual teenagers flanked their Chinese-born mother Wendi at the recent Met Gala Ball in New York, giving the world a glimpse of how they are growing into young women: a couple of teenagers with a keen sense of style and immediate entree into a life of privilege.
In a video posted on social media the trio are seen cavorting about before the ball on the terrace of their magnificent Fifth Avenue triplex which Wendi received in the divorce settlement. The former couple paid $US44million in 2005 for the penthouse which once belonged to Laurance Rockefeller.
Chloe Murdoch, left, Wendi Deng, and Grace Helen Murdoch at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gala Ball. Photo: AP
And while the girls may have little connection with their father's homeland, their roots run deep from Manhattan to Beijing. Up until last year President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka helped oversee a trust fund worth nearly $US300 million ($406.6 million) on behalf of the sisters.
In February The Financial Times quoted a Trump spokesman saying that she had stepped down from a five-person trustee board at the end of December, pre-empting any suggestions of improper association with one of America's most powerful media moguls.
But when it comes to everyday life the sisters appear to do all the things regular teenagers do, from dabbling in fashion to posing in cheeky selfies, including one on Grace's Instagram feed showing her embracing her kid-sister in front of a sign saying "Hug A Hoe", with a $10,000 Hermes Kelly bag hanging off her wrist.
It's not clear what their 86-year-old father, who has remarried to former supermodel Jerry Hall, would make of it all.
The eternal optimists party on
Last year Rodney Adler told The Australian that when people stop and stare at him in public, his reaction is to: "Try to pretend they are thinking nice thoughts about me ... I'm an optimist!"
Well, his positive thinking must be working because in recent weeks PS has witnessed a virtual resurrection of the one-time jail bird and former corporate high flyer on Sydney's red carpets, and he has been all smiles.
From sashaying down the red carpet at the premiere of Kinky Boots with his theatre producing wife Lyndi, to holding court last month at The Sydney Institute Dinner just before Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rose to speak, Adler is very much back on the scene.
Rodney and Lyndi Adler at the Gold Dinner in Sydney. Photo: Supplied
Then, as PS navigated the cashed-up tables in the epicentre of last week's Gold Dinner, there was Adler again, though this time playing second fiddle to Lyndi, who was one of the charity dinner's pioneers. Adler was sitting with former power broker Graham Richardson, who managed to put in a valiant effort on the night after looking a little weary from his recent health battles. Richo managed to make his way into the party with the aid of his collapsible walker.
Also on the table was freshly minted software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, who no doubt would have enjoyed hearing a few tales of yore from Richo and Adler.
It was all for a good cause though, with the Gold Dinner raking in more than $2 million for the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick.
Flannery charged
Quentin Flannery, heir to an $800 million-plus coal fortune, has seen better times in recent months, from marrying his new wife Kim, soaking up the delights of Disneyland and buying a new, designer mansion in the eastern suburbs.
But last Friday night things went south when he was searched and arrested by police outside the Tilbury Hotel in Woolloomooloo. He was charged with drug possession, which police will allege comprised of two bags of cocaine totalling 1.53 grams.
Better times: Quentin Flannery. Photo: Supplied
PS' attempts to contact Flannery, who is the son of Queensland businessman Brian Flannery, have gone unanswered. The matter is due for mention in the Downing Centre on May 23. Flannery junior is listed as a director of his father's property development company KTQ.
Late on Thursday night his Facebook and Linkedin profiles vanished. Flannery was caught up in the same police operation that ensnared Cronulla chairman Damien Keogh, who immediately stood down following the charges.
As the Herald's Andrew Webster revealed on Thursday, an ABC film crew was shadowing police that night for an upcoming documentary with the working title "Keeping Australia Safe", which will no doubt be compulsory viewing in the Flannery household.
Life of Moses
It's good to know that Moses Obeid's legal travails haven't challenged his and wife Nikki's miraculous financial skills.
As a Supreme Court judge once said of the couple, they exemplify the doctrine: "How to live well on nothing a year." Mrs Obeid, the former proprietor of hairdressing salon Hairlarious and now the maker of scented candles, has been spotted zipping around Sydney's eastern suburbs in a flashy, late model Porsche.
Moses Obeid, Eddie Obeid's middle son. Photo: Rob Homer
Meanwhile hubby Moses will be in court next week over 16 counts of lying to the ICAC, while he and father dearest Eddie face a committal hearing later this month in relation to the family's $30 million windfall over a coal deal.