Man about town Ricardo Simich brings you Society Insider. The exclusive parties, the exotic holidays, the hook-ups, the break-ups, and the high-stakes business deals - the column pulls back the curtain to reveal how New Zealand’s other half live.
Society Insider: Marc Ellis to open wellness studio; Trelise Cooper’s $10m apartment off the market; Andy Higgs new executive director role
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Marc Ellis and partner Mibella Villafana are set to open a new wellness studio; Trelise Cooper's $10m apartment has been taken off the market; Businessman Andy Higgs is working to give Kiwis more security online. Photo / Herald composite
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Villafrana and Ellis have been dating since early last year. She has two young children with her former partner, Kiwi Blake Loveridge, while Ellis has four - two with ex-wife Augustina Mon, and two with his former partner, Italian Linda Codegoni.
Originally from California, Villafrana moved to New Zealand a decade ago. She has a health and wellbeing background. She was a high school gymnast and coach, graduated from the University of California with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and is now a yoga instructor.
Ellis registered Cora Club as a business last June, and Villafana says the premium wellness studio will offer Reformer Pilates, and contrast and intravenous therapy (IV), mixed into bespoke community events and corporate executive groups.
Villafrana, whose father is Mexican, says the name for the new studio comes from the Mexican word Corazón, meaning heart. It can also refer to the courage or spirit of a person.
This isn’t Ellis’s first foray into the wellness market. In 2019, Society Insider revealed he and then-girlfriend Codegoni opened Look Lab Medispa in Westmere, specialising in luxury treatments.
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Society Insider revealed last November that Ellis was part of the group of rich and famous Kiwis joining forces on the $100m Auckland Surf Park in Dairy Flat.
Villafrana and Ellis enjoyed time together in Mexico last year, as well as taking in the Mediterranean summer. Earlier this year, the couple spent time at Aro Ha Wellness retreat in Glenorchy. Whilst there, Ellis joined Aro Ha founder Damian Chaparro in the Aro Ha sauna to record a podcast on how wellness keeps him grounded.
Ellis discussed love, saying, “If you’re in pursuit of love or in receipt of it, you’re winning.”
He also talked about the importance of empathy and teaching values to his children, how rugby has evolved and the importance of mental health in sports.
Ellis returned to the airwaves last year, resurrecting popular TV show Sports Café as a podcast, alongside its creator, Ric Salizzo. Former co-stars, media personality Leigh Hart and Lana Coc-Kroft, also came back, and the podcast has become a top 10-rated show.
They were thrilled last month when they won Podcast of the Year at the 2025 NZ Radio & Podcast Awards at SkyCity Theatre in Auckland.
Dame Trelise takes $10m penthouse off the market
Fashion icon Dame Trelise Cooper and her husband, Jack, have taken their $10m St Heliers apartment off the market.
Barfoot & Thompson’s Aaron Foss tells Society Insider the couple is removing it for a year, “and will see what’s happening in the market in 2026”.
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When Society Insider contacted the Auckland offices of Trelise Cooper Ltd, we were told Dame Trelise, 67, was at her house in France, awaiting news of her son Jasper’s first child, and she would be heading to California soon.
In April last year, Cooper told the Herald that she and her husband already spent five months a year in their house in France and that they planned to buy a place in San Diego, in the United States, to be close to family.
Once their St Heliers apartment sells, Cooper has said, she hopes to buy a smaller place in the same area, as well as one in California.
“Our son and his wife have made a life in San Diego with incredible careers. So, I am not waiting any more for him to come home, we are going to him. While we talk most days, I miss him and being in his presence.”
While she still designs daily and is in regular meetings with her business, at the beginning of last year Cooper stepped back from the day-to-day running of Trelise Cooper Ltd. Long-time employee Kate Devlin became CEO and now runs the fashion business alongside Cooper’s trusted right-hand of more than 20 years, general manager Judith Pratt.
The Coopers spent a reported $10m on their Buchan-designed Devore St 275sq m three-bedroom apartment in late 2022, on the third floor of the Sonata apartments.
The property passed in at auction in May last year. A few months earlier, a garden apartment in the same complex sold for $8.2m. Foss told Society Insider that when the Coopers’ apartment does go back on the market, it will be for upwards of $8m.
The couple sold their modernist Orakei home for more than $2.6m in late 2024. Just weeks after moving into Devore St, they put the palatial apartment up for sale.
The Coopers’ home in France is in a small medieval village near Toulouse. They have owned the house for 17 years and have lovingly restored parts of it, which date back 600 years.
In April, son Jasper started working for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, where he leads data analytics, integration, and evaluation at LA County’s largest provider of services for unhoused people.
Andy Higgs’ latest crusade for NZ
After years of helping lay the foundations of Digital Identity New Zealand (DINZ), colourful businessman Andy Higgs has now become the organisation’s executive director.
Thanks to some high-profile support from more than 100 leading corporates, including Air NZ, Spark, major banks and leading tech companies, such as Xero, DINZ - a member of the NZTech Alliance - is working to enable Kiwis to have secure control over their data and online identity.
The membership-funded, not-for-profit NGO is working with the private and public sectors, helping New Zealand companies lead the way in tech innovations. The aim is to enable Kiwis to have a safer digital footprint for e-commerce and ownership of their online identities.
Higgs says this is increasingly important as the use of AI, automation and surveillance systems becomes more common.
“It’s about how we retain agency over our data in a world of AI agents, deepfakes, and global digital ecosystems,” he tells Society Insider. “As the world’s innovation petri dish, New Zealand has a unique opportunity.”
Higgs, 53, has been known as a connector throughout his 30-year career and maintains a tight circle from his King’s College days.
He lives with his wife, Rachel, and their three boys in a sprawling North Shore bungalow with sweeping views. In his guest house, Higgs has his own golf pro, Paul Parlane, famous for coaching A-listers including Sylvester Stallone, Pete Sampras, and David Beckham.
Higgs’ first foray into dealing with local government and the media came when he and some friends, including Marc Ellis, made headlines fighting to open a café in Piha in 2009. Higgs and his associates later handed it over to be run by chef Lucas Parkinson, who turned it into Aryeh Restaurant in 2023.
The Piha Café experience paved the way for Higgs to work at the Auckland Council, and to work his magic with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.
“I leveraged my network to create partnerships for Auckland, including Ian Ferguson’s Wero Whitewater Park, Vector Lights and the Hyundai Marine Sports with Akarana,” Higgs says.
Higgs is also a shareholder in Sarah and Otis Frizzell’s successful business, The Lucky Taco.
Higgs is now championing DINZ, working with the public and private sectors.
“The bigger picture is that digital sovereignty will help us get a more symbiotic relationship between NZ’s growing tech scene and the overseas tech giants,” he says.
Higgs has previously worked with tech titan Aaron McDonald on a portfolio of Web3 companies specialising in decentralised product and service companies, including AI and blockchain tools provider Futureverse. In 2018, they approached the chief executive at NZ Tech, Graham Muller, to establish DINZ to advocate for the world’s first decentralised credential identity ecosystem.
Before our interview, Higgs had just spoken to the country’s leading tech billionaire, Rod Drury. “Rod’s view is that digital identity will unlock the next wave of unicorn companies [high-value start-ups],” says Higgs.
Higgs will talk at Anna Mowbray’s Revved 2025 conference early next month at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre. He says he admires Mowbray’s announcement on LinkedIn last week that she had deleted all her Meta social media channels, calling it a “profound safety move for future generations”.
Like Mowbray, Higgs is also a big supporter of the B416 campaign. Co-founded and chaired by entrepreneur Cecilia Robinson, the lobby group is advocating for a minimum age of 16 to access social media in New Zealand. He was pleased to see Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and high-profile Kiwis at the launch at Mantell’s on Tamaki Drive in May.
Now, Higgs is focused on his Digital Trust Hui at Te Papa in Wellington, a conference of digital identity innovators, regulators, researchers, educators, entrepreneurs and leading executives in the commerce and tech sectors.
Higgs says the Government’s new Digital Identity Services Trust Framework, with rules covering online security and identity, is in step with how local corporates are innovating.
He highlights Spark’s investment in MATTR (TrustTech solutions) as one corporate leading the way.
Speaking at the conference will be the Minister of Defence Judith Collins, as well as the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Scott Simpson, with Higgs telling Society Insider that “security and commerce sit hand in hand”.
Party people of the week
Romeo & Juliet Season
Auckland Theatre Company (ATC) opened its latest production on Thursday evening, William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson. Set as a fast-paced thriller in 1960s Italy, the production stars Shortland Street star Theo Dāvid as Romeo and One Lane Bridge’s Phoebe McKellar as Juliet.
Before the show’s opening, ATC’s Artistic Director and CEO Jonathan Bielski and Kilby-Henson, who is ATC’s Artistic Associate, hosted guests who enjoyed Villa Maria wines and pizza.
The star-studded opening night was attended by a who’s who of Auckland governance, theatre, culture and arts, including Auckland Council CEO Phil Wilson and Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson and her husband Rich lister, Peter Goodfellow, Shortland Street alumni Bella Kalolo-Suraj and her husband Suraj Kumar, local It girls Sophie Negus and Coco May, TVNZ’s Isobel Prasad, and fashion legend Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet.
Romeo & Juliet is on until August 9 at the ASB Waterfront Theatre.
Odd Socks Ahoy
Odd Socks Productions – founded by the small yet mighty creative team of Yvie Harvie-Salter and Daryl Habraken - celebrated its first birthday in style aboard charter boat Wasting Light on Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour on Friday. They were joined by clients and colleagues who have supported them throughout their first 12 months.
The company specialises in commercial, documentary and content creation.
Harvie-Salter and Habraken gave thanks, sharing with their guests lashings of bubbles, fine wine, and a collection of Waiheke Distilling Co’s gins and RTDs.
Guests also dined on canapés from the onboard crew led by Jodie Vaughan, and a handcrafted Basque cheesecake from Nosh Clan catering.
An eclectic group of guests and partners joined the festivities, including music promoter Ramesh Premaratna, DJs Chris EM and Rich Parker, Detective Inspector Scott Beard, author and advocate Gloria Masters, socialite Marlana Ritchie, Adam Brami, Director of Art of the Possible agency; Honorary Consul Brian Thorrington, co-founder of Fleetwood and stylist Jackie Houghton, and Tanya Walshe of Waiheke Distilling Co.
Injecting Elegance Affair
LA Aire, a New Zealand cosmetic medicine consultancy and training organisation, held its Injecting Elegance evening at the Park Hyatt Auckland on Saturday evening.
LA Aire provides support to registered nurses, oral health therapists, and pharmacists through NZSCM-accredited doctors and connects clinicians to exclusive, industry-leading brands.
The evening brought together some of the country’s top cosmetic industry leaders, clinicians, and media for a memorable night of cocktails and networking. LA Aire founders Dr Nameer Wadea and Dr Peter Aspell hosted guests who included the CEO of The Diamond Shop, Sera Lynn, former Real Housewife and beauty maven Angela Stone, ihartpr’s Jade Hart, Aotearoa Aesthetics’ Shalu Shankar, Inhance Cosmetic Clinic’s Weilim Shin and Laser Clinic’s Selina Fernandes.
Ricardo Simich has been with the Herald since 2008 where he contributed to The Business Insider. In 2012 he took over Spy at the Herald on Sunday, which has since evolved into Society Insider. The weekly column gives a glimpse into the worlds of the rich and famous.