Welcome to The Group Chat with Lucy Manly, where Australia’s most trusted society insider shares the hottest gossip BEFORE it makes the news.
Unpacking the rumours
Lower North Shore businessman Angus Kennard, the silver fox heir to a third-generation storage empire, has shut down rumours he and his wife Angela have separated amid the sale of their luxury waterfront home.
This week a neighbour on the wealthy Wonga Street enclave in well-heeled Cremorne told me the street was abuzz with whispers that the well-known couple were in the midst of a separation, which prompted the sale of their six-bedroom trophy home.
‘The reason why we’re selling is because the kids are sort of all finished school, sort of moved out of home, and I’m spending a fair bit of time in the US, for work,’ the former Kennards Hire CEO told me.
‘I’ve got a software business called Inauro, so actually I’m in Japan at the moment on my way to the US, so we’re not around to enjoy it.’
Kennard Hire heir Angus Kennard (pictured) has shut down rumours he and his wife Angela have separated amid the sale of their luxury waterfront home
The waterfront mansion includes a pool, boatshed, and private mooring
The couple set the suburb record in 2018, splashing $18 million for the waterfront mansion that includes a pool, boatshed, and private mooring.
Sweet revenge
Eastern suburbs hair queen Mariah Rota, who tends to the tresses of the Who’s Who of Sydney’s east, has sold Cole Hair Double Bay salon for an undisclosed sum to longtime team member and celebrity stylist Frankie Endersbee.
Endersbee, who has clocked four years at the salon, is no small-time successor. The globetrotting stylist has worked internationally, styling Gigi Hadid at New York Fashion Week, and counts The Veronicas and Elisabeth Moss among her clients.
Rota will retain Cole Hair Mosman while pivoting to her next act: a push into the lucrative hair extension space, spanning distribution and education.
While Rota herself has largely avoided being the headline act in Double Bay’s soap opera, she has certainly had a front-row seat.
Her former boss, Joh Bailey, became, shall we say, highly spirited at her 2017 Bali wedding to now ex-husband Tom Cole.
Bailey, his partner and another young male companion were asked to leave the intimate 40-guest ceremony after arriving 90 minutes late in an excessively boisterous mood, with Bailey lighting a cigarette as the bride walked down the aisle.
Mariah Rota (pictured with longtime business partner Jordan Crugnale) has sold her Double Bay hair salon for an undisclosed sum
Kristin Fisher famously had an affair with Tom Cole who ran Cole hair with his then-wife Mariah
Pretty ironic now that Rota’s walking away with a massive windfall while Fisher has to contend with paying off that $100,000 tax bill
The groom and his mother subsequently intervened and asked the trio to leave. Cole was later sacked from his role as a star hairdresser at Bailey’s Bondi Junction salon.
The former couple went on to open Cole Hair, a competing salon two doors down from Bailey’s flagship.
Drama struck closer to home for Rota when her husband became embroiled in an affair with Double Bay eyebrow beautician Kristin Fisher, who was also married at the time – a scandal that set tongues wagging along Knox Street.
Pretty ironic now that Rota’s walking away with a massive windfall while Fisher has to contend with paying off that $100,000 tax bill.
Now leaving the sordid streets of Double Bay behind her, Rota insists the sale was strategic, not scandal-driven. She credits longtime business partner Jordan Crugnale as being instrumental to the salon’s success and says the timing simply felt right.
‘After building and leading the salon for so many years, I reached a point where I felt incredibly proud of what we had created. The business was in a really amazing place, with a loyal client base and, most importantly, an exceptional team,’ she said.
‘I wanted to step away while the salon was in such a strong position so I could focus on new business opportunities and the next phase of my personal and professional growth. It was important to me that the salon continued to thrive, and I could not think of a better person than Frankie to take it forward.’
Tom and Mariah at their Bali wedding in 2017
Celebrity hairdresser Joh Bailey (pictured), became, shall we say, highly spirited at the 2017 bash
A winning deal
After 120 years in Winning family hands, whitegoods scion John ‘Herman’ Winning Jr is welcoming deep-pocketed backing from Ellerston Capital, the investment house that once managed the billions of the Packer family.
But before the whispers get any louder: despite reports that the entire business was being bought, sources close to the deal say Ellerston is actually taking only a minority stake in Winning Appliances – tipped to be worth around $100 million – not the whole kit and caboodle.
The century-old retailer boasts 16 glossy showrooms and the fast-growing Appliances Online arm.
The Winning fortune, pegged at roughly $770 million on last year’s Rich List, has been built on keeping one of Australia’s last homegrown whitegoods empires in family hands.
The need for the capital injection is unclear, but investor sources indicate the bulk of the fresh capital is for distribution to Winning Jr, affectionately dubbed ‘Herman’ to those close to him, to bankroll an ever-expanding stable of passion projects and lifestyle pursuits.
John Winning Jr (pictured with on-again, off-again squeeze Dina Broadhurst) was in this column just last month after he broke the Winning family rule of sharing photos of himself on social media
What those entail depends on who you ask, but few doubt the fourth-generation boss has interests well beyond ovens and fridges.
The Eastern Suburbs playboy, who is rumoured to have a nightclub in one of his homes, has frequented this column due to his on-again, off-again relationship with nude artist Dina Broadhurst.
The pair appeared here just last month after Broadhurst broke the Winning family rule of sharing photos of himself on social media.
Days prior, he was been papped partying with British rocker Yungblud, posing for effortlessly cool selfies aboard a super-yacht.
Barefoot and bankrupt
Financial woes aside, eastern suburbs party regular Kashaya Williams was recently seen looking decidedly worse for wear – and barefoot, to boot.
A photo of the disgraced former Double Bay florist and mother-of-three was sent to the Group Chat. The face Kashaya is pulling triggered vivid flashbacks to my own teenage dance-floor misadventures – harsh lighting, pounding house music and questionable life choices.
The occasion? A birthday bash for fellow eastern suburbs fixture Natty Lockhart, who gathered her glam squad for celebrations on a boat on Sydney Harbour.
Also on deck was former Miss Universe Australia beauty queen Laura Csortan and Australia’s Next Top Model alum Charlie Austin, who dates Poeta Okeroa – business partner to nightlife entrepreneurs Julian Tobias and Eric Jury, the men behind Potts Point’s Sussudio and the Flamingo Lounge in Kings Cross.
But I digress.
In December, Kashaya reportedly splashed out on a booth at The Press, a move that would have set her back a cool $5,000. Not bad for someone now working in freelance distribution and perpetually dripping in designer labels.
Eastern suburbs party regular Kashaya Williams was recently seen looking decidedly worse for wear – and barefoot, to boot
Kashaya Williams (front, left) aboard a boat
Back in October, I spotted Kashaya – previously found by the NSW Supreme Court to have used a forged letter in an attempt to secure ownership of her late grandfather’s home during a bitter inheritance dispute – at a VIP table at Pelicano.
And before that, in May, she was perched at the Royal Hotel in Bondi, the slightly ramshackle pub attached to Totti’s, sporting an ill-fitting lace mini and sipping rosé like she owned the joint.
All this unfolded just weeks before her latest bankruptcy filing and a visit to Waverley Local Court over traffic charges – speeding and driving while suspended – which she is reportedly seeking to have annulled.
A traffic whoopsie may be the least of her worries. Word is she’s been booted from her Double Bay rental, with one source claiming the locks were changed after she allegedly fell behind on rent.
Her sons are said to be staying with her mother on the Central Coast while Kashaya continues to haunt the Sydney party circuit.
Freeman’s free labour?
Sydney interior designer Jack Freeman is on the hunt for an intern – though whether the lucky recruit will actually be paid remains anyone’s guess.
I spied the listing on Seek, which describes the successful candidate as demonstrating ‘a flare’ [sic] for creativity, graphic design and content creation, with the ability to work independently.
I think he meant flair…
The high-flying gallerist, who made an embarrassing cameo on US reality juggernaut Below Deck Mediterranean last year, was also the subject of whispers that staff at his firm, Freeman & Co, were left fuming following his months-long European escapades – after they were allegedly asked to take pay cuts.
‘The wild thing is that at the same time he was posting photos of his new G-Wagon and being on a private plane in Europe, he told his staff he needed to give them a 30 per cent salary cut,’ a source told Margin Call last year.
However, when I interviewed Freeman back in October ahead of his role as creative director for this week’s Soirée by the Sea charity gala at Catalina in Rose Bay, he struck a decidedly different tone.
Freeman rubbished the salary cut claims as ‘hearsay’ and hinted there was more to the story.
Sydney interior designer Jack Freeman (pictured) is on the hunt for an intern – though whether the lucky recruit will actually be paid remains anyone’s guess
Last year he was the subject of whispers that staff at his firm, Freeman & Co, were left fuming following his months-long European escapades – after they were allegedly asked to take pay cuts
‘It’s entirely false,’ he snapped.
‘People have made some very bold statements that, you know, are not the truth… there’s much more to that story, but I’m not going to get into it.’
Freeman’s turn on Below Deck Mediterranean followed the crew of a luxury yacht ferrying the rich and famous around the Mediterranean.
In the episode, which aired last October, Freeman leaned into his guest-from-hell moment, hamming it up for the cameras, dancing like a buffoon and demanding Szechuan chicken at midnight.
In true diva fashion, after insisting on the late-night feast, Freeman promptly passed out before the hapless interior crew could return with his snack.
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