Welcome to The Group Chat with Lucy Manly, where Australia’s most trusted society insider shares the hottest gossip before it makes the news
Bow-ditched?
It’s been two-and-a-half months since aspiring socialite Chloe Hayes emphatically shut down whispers she and her banker boyfriend Dyson Bowditch had called it quits.
One version of events suggested the pair had quietly split because they were ‘at different stages of their lives’ – a polite enough explanation considering Bowditch, the co-head of equity capital markets at Barrenjoey, is a 46-year-old father of two.
But when I approached Hayes for comment in May, she was quick to hose down the well-sourced gossip… with the help ChatGPT, it would seem.
In a fiercely worded – and robotic – response, she insisted that she continued ‘to reside at my home shared with my partner and you are welcome to contact Dyson directly to verify this’.
Socialite Chloe Hayes is gallivanting around Europe looking every inch the single pringle, two months after strenuously denying her split from Barrenjoey banker Dyson Bowditch
She even threatened legal action if I reported on their ‘rumoured’ split.
I made it clear in my story that Hayes maintained their relationship was ‘intact’ – although I also noted I was keeping a close eye on the situation given the reliability of my sources.
As always, my sources were right.
Eleven weeks on and the glamorous brunette is gallivanting around Europe’s favourite influencer playgrounds looking every inch the single pringle.
So far, she has ticked off Saint-Tropez and Ibiza with the obligatory beach clubs, bikini thirst traps and sunset spritzes.
Oh, to be young and beautiful.
No trip to the White Isle would be complete without a turn behind the DJ booth, where Hayes happily danced the night away as if she’d just landed a residency.
According to a close friend, Bowditch has remained in Sydney ‘busy working’ while his former flame (and yes, she is a former flame) tops up her Mediterranean tan.
When I first caught wind of the break-up in May, Hayes maintained the relationship was ‘intact’
Dyson and Chloe are pictured together in happier times – before they quietly split because they were ‘at different stages of their lives’
In all, it’s been a rather drawn-out and confusing end to a break-up that I knew all along was true – even if one party seemingly wasn’t quite ready to admit it.
Meanwhile, I’m told the financier is still carrying the scars of his second marriage to Jessica Bowditch, a prominent Sydney socialite and former morning television producer.
The Bowditches’ split made it into the pages of the Australian Financial Review after Jessica allegedly entered Dyson’s bedroom during an argument over a recent purchase and struck him with a pillow before calling police.
In a twist stranger than fiction, it was Jessica who was subsequently arrested, taken to Waverley Police Station and charged with assault, while police also obtained an apprehended violence order against her.
During court proceedings, Deputy Chief Magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis reportedly chastised both parties for engaging in ‘childish behaviour’.
Thankfully, cooler heads ultimately prevailed, and Sydney’s most talked-about pillow fight was recognised for what it really was: nothing.
Oddi off the market
One of Sydney’s few genuinely charming real estate agents, Adrian Oddi, is officially off the market after hard-launching his romance with restaurateur Kelly Fedeli.
It’s been one glamorous backdrop after another for the impossibly good-looking couple, who have been making their way through Paris, Saint-Tropez, Rome and Ibiza.
I’ve heard the pair may have first crossed paths at the school gates, with both their daughters attending the same elite private school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
It’s Adrian’s first public relationship since his split from interior designer Chloe Matters, the mother of his two children.
The former couple have remained remarkably amicable – so much so that Chloe even joined Adrian on his podcast, The Oddi Poddi, where they spoke candidly about the end of their marriage.
‘My future husband is not going to be in real estate,’ Chloe Matters told her ex-husband Adrian Oddi on his remarkably candid podcast The Oddi Poddi
Adrian has a new partner, restaurateur Kelly Fedeli (pictured in Ibiza). I’ve heard they may have first crossed paths at the school gates, with both their daughters attending the same school
Chloe Matters (bottom right) is seen at the Australian Open with WAGs and fashion influencers
The pair admitted that the relentless juggle of raising two children, building a business and the demands of Adrian’s high-pressure career caused them to drift apart.
‘My future husband is not going to be in real estate,’ she remarked to her ex.
The cracks in their marriage became public in April 2024, although those close to the couple say the relationship had unravelled well before then.
While Adrian appears to have embraced a new chapter filled with romance and podcasting, Chloe has become a regular on Sydney’s social scene.
In recent months, she has been seen rubbing shoulders with fellow interior designer Jade Yarbrough, the sister-in-law of Karl Stefanovic; Melbourne AFL WAG Jessie Murphy, the wife of former Carlton skipper Marc; and model Montana Cox.
Clara’s new ‘Soulmate’
More Aussies escaping to Europe. Are you sensing a theme in this column?
But for controversial Perth socialite Clara Hurst, jetting off overseas isn’t a once-a-year splurge; it’s practically a seasonal ritual.
The Tenerife native, who has long called the well-heeled western suburbs home, is living it up aboard a superyacht named ‘Soulmate’ off the coast of Sardinia, celebrating the 50th birthday of Perth lawyer Peter Walls.
A week-long charter will set you back a cool €110,000 during the high season.
Only days ago, the glamorous group were tagging each other at Le Terrazze Ritual, the open-air rooftop restaurant and cocktail bar carved into the granite cliffs of Baja Sardinia.
La dolce vita indeed.
In a photo passed on by one of my Perth spies, Clara Hurst sun-soaks aboard a boat docked at Es Vedrà, an uninhabited island off the southwest coast of Ibiza, Spain
Glamorous Clara (left) is seen alongside her sister Cristina (right) in Ibiza
Perth elites Grant Schaffer, Kristina Young, Clara Hurst and Nic Van Heurck are pictured dining at celebrity hotspot Gigi Ramatuelle in Saint-Tropez
The Italian getaway follows several equally enviable stops across the continent.
Just weeks ago, Clara was soaking up the London summer before making her way to Saint-Tropez, where she dined at celebrity hotspot Gigi Ramatuelle. From there, it was on to party island Ibiza before hopping back across to Italy.
The glamorous getaway comes amid the ongoing fallout from the collapse of her late husband Dr David Hurst‘s Perth dental clinic – and just weeks after ASIC agreed to fund an investigation into the affairs of his former practice.
In a scandal that rocked Perth’s wealthy western suburbs, Dr Hurst withdrew $7.1million from his practice before taking his own life in December 2024.
It later emerged he had allegedly been battling a severe gambling addiction that plunged the business into financial ruin.
The full extent of the practice’s money troubles only became apparent in the months that followed his suicide.
Eighteen months on, patients are still trying to recover money prepaid for dental implants and other expensive procedures that were allegedly botched, left unfinished or, in some cases, never even started.
About 156 patients are among 223 unsecured creditors collectively owed almost $4.4million following the practice’s collapse. Many had accessed their superannuation or retirement savings to pay for treatment at the practice’s request.
On December 10, 2024, Dr David Hurst (right) died suddenly at Crown Perth casino while his wife Clara and their two children were in Bali. Clara became caretaker of his business, Perth Dental Rooms, only to discover it had been trading insolvent since June 2023
Law firm Slater and Gordon is now preparing legal action on behalf of 48 of Dr Hurst’s former patients.
Clara, it should be noted, is not accused of wrongdoing related to the clinic’s financial implosion; however, many patients believe their only hope of seeing any of their money again rests with her as the executor of her late husband’s estate.
I can only guess that seeing Clara chasing the European summer won’t do much to reassure those still waiting for answers.
Clara previously said in a June 2025 statement: ‘I can confirm that I have diligently acted as the executor in informing all relevant parties of any potential claim against the estate of my late husband.
‘I have great sympathy for the patients who have been left untreated after my husband’s passing, and I hope that the professionals in charge of winding up his business can continue to diligently work to recover value for them.’
What’s in a double-barrelled name?
The annual Ladies Luncheon supporting the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation is one of Sydney’s few social fixtures where designer fashion and philanthropy share equal billing.
The glamorous fundraiser is fronted by a Who’s Who of the eastern suburbs set, including hotelier and philanthropist Harriet Waugh; socialite Deborah Symond O’Neil, the daughter of Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond and wife of property developer Ned O’Neil; and Madeleine Holtznagel, the partner of Merivale mogul Justin Hemmes and mother of his son, Jaeger.
Naturally, the most recent lunch was held at Merivale’s waterfront hotspot Mimi’s in Coogee, where the rosé flowed as freely as the air kisses.
The event raises money for the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation, funding research, innovation and improved outcomes for women and newborns.
This year, however, one name on the host committee stands out.
Joining the glamorous trio is lawyer Zena Nasser White, wife of former WiseTech Global executive chairman Richard White, whose colourful personal life has generated almost as much intrigue as the software billionaire’s fortune.
Long before she was helping to host one of Sydney’s chicest charity dos, Nasser White was a familiar face in the society pages thanks to her husband’s spectacularly messy personal affairs spilling into the courtroom.
Zena Nasser seen arriving at Mimi’s in Coogee last December
Zena Nasser has joined the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation
Their relationship has unfolded like a corporate soap opera with a revolving cast of former partners
Court documents filed during the couple’s own relationship breakdown contained a series of explosive allegations from both sides, all of which were vigorously denied and never tested in court.
But time heals all wounds, it seems, and they are now firmly ‘on’, with Zena even opting for a double-barrelled surname as a symbol of her commitment to White, who, I am sure, is now a thoroughly reformed one-woman man.
Last year’s luncheon raised an impressive $800,000. This year, the cashed-up committee has set its sights even higher, hoping to crack the $1million mark.
I wish them luck.
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