Sally Ridge, Nick Mowbray, Jaimee Lupton and Shaun Johnson. Photo / Herald montage
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 - this new Thursday column pulls back the curtain to reveal how New Zealand’s other half live.
Whispers to Society Insider have celebrity Sally Ridge dating multi-millionaire property-developing mogul John Darby.
The pair are said to have been dating since earlier this year, between Ridge’s base in Herne Bay and Darby’s in Queenstown, and have shared trips overseas.
Former TV personality Ridge, 53, has spent 35 years in the media spotlight since marrying former league star Matthew Ridge at the age of 18. She now enjoys her work as an interior designer and has been a real estate agent for Bayleys.
Darby, 66, is one of the country’s most renowned property developers, reported to have developed more than $2 billion worth of projects.
His company Darby Partners has played a major lead in the development of high-profile projects in Queenstown such as Millbrook Resort, Jack’s Point Residential Community and the Hills Golf Club.
Darby is also the founder of the award-winning Amisfield Winery and Bistro in Arrowtown.
And in Northland, his company has worked on Te Arai Links North, and Tara Iti Golf Club.
In 2019 Darby’s personal life made headlines over a multi-million dollar property dispute with his then estranged wife Kristin Darby, to whom he was married for more than 20 years.
Ridge had two children, Boston and Jaime, with Matthew before their marriage ended in 2001.
She had two more children during her seven-year relationship with former Black Cap Adam Parore, Astin and Mclane.
She has since had long-term relationships with former printing business owner and now real estate agent Warren Fenning, multi-millionaire supermarket owner Auckland Glenn Cotterill and most recently multi-millionaire Scott Fitchett, founder and managing director of AA Smartfuel.
Ridge and Fitchett purchased a rundown 1920s arts and crafts-style mansion on Hamilton Road in Herne Bay at the end of 2022 for $4.9 million – well below its $6m CV.
Since then, Ridge, famous for her interior design skills, has documented the renovation on an Instagram page. Ridge also owns a home over the hill on Ardmore Road.
Her relationship with Fitchett is understood to have come to an end at the start of this year and talk of her dating Darby started around April.
The pair have been seen at various Viaduct and Herne Bay hotspots, as well as in Queenstown.
Sources tell Society Insider that in the early stages of their relationship, Ridge and Darby had a luxury holiday together through the US and on to Europe.
In June on Instagram, Ridge showed herself enjoying time at Tara Iti, followed by a trip to Queenstown in July with time also spent at The Hills.
Last month, Ridge threw a fancy dress party to celebrate the 18th birthday of her youngest child Mclane.
In a spread of photos that she shared on Instagram, Ridge and a man who looks to be Darby, are seen wearing costumes from what looks to be the 1980s US cop show Chips.
Earlier this month, Ridge and Darby are understood to have met up with Ridge’s daughter, Los Angeles-based Jaime, and her husband Tommy Bates and their 2-year-old son Porter in Hawaii.
The group stayed at the luxurious Rosewood Resort Kona Village on the idyllic Kona Coast.
While she was there Jaime announced on Instagram that she and Bates were expecting their second child.
Last weekend Ridge and Darby are understood to have dined together with friends at Amisfield.
Neither Ridge nor Darby returned a request for comment on this story.
What to do with a tired, old, creaky mansion you paid $24 million for?
If you are a member of New Zealand’s richest family, you host a Halloween party for up to 300 of your closest friends before bowling the 478sq m place.
Despite their new Herne Bay home already being creepy, not people to do things by halves, Zuru co-founder Nick Mowbray and fiancee, Monday Haircare’s Jaimee Lupton, decked it out with themed rooms and a makeshift graveyard. Not worried about the clean-up, a heaving dance floor with standing room only and smoke shows provided extra entertainment.
The couple became known for their annual costume parties at their Coatesville mansion.
But the venue this year was the 1940s Spanish-style waterfront mansion which Mowbray and his brother Nick purchased for just over $24m in October last year. It was the highest price paid for a home in Auckland that year at the time.
Society Insider understands the home, which sits on a sprawling 3000sqm-plus site, will be removed and the building of a new family home for the couple and their baby daughter Noa will start soon.
In the neighbourhood are multi-millionaire marina owners Simon and Paula Herbert, big-time property investor Ben Cook, Rod Duke of Briscoes, top architect Andrew Patterson and former television personality Sally Ridge.
Before hosting their bash on Saturday, Mowbray and Lupton choppered visiting Sydney friends, including Bondi Rescue star Harrison Reid, from their newly-renovated, $39.3m Coatesville mansion to Tara Iti Golf Club in Mangawhai.
The group were sure to have checked out the progress on Mowbray and Lupton’s beach house being built at neighbouring Te Arai. Last October, we reported the couple broke ground on the house, with Auckland-based architect John Irving and his team said to be helming the project.
On arrival back at their Coatesville mansion, a glam squad was there to get the troops ready for the Halloween. The hosts dressed as Bridgerton ghosts with Lupton’s tresses taken care of by hair stylist Joshua Scott, of Vivo salon in Milford, and her and Mowbray’s gory makeup by Kaysey Taylor. A white Hummerzine took the group to Herne Bay from Coatesville.
In past years, themes at Coatesville have included The Great Gatsby, Burning Man and Out of this World. This year’s theme was the Herne Bay Horror House.
Lupton is understood to have themed rooms curated by design extraordinaire Angus Muir, including a mirrored DJ room, an asylum and a forest room.
And for the voyeurs, there were monitors for guests to spy on each other from every room.
Actors from Spookers were also there to scare the living daylights out of guests.
DJ and founder of Remix Magazine Tim Phin and the hosts’ good friend Cam Robertson were on the DJ decks.
Outside the horror house leading onto the clifftop, there were more deathly touches with temporary graves in the rose garden with the names of Mowbray and Lupton’s nearest and dearest emblazoned on them.
As a nod to Mowbray’s toy heritage, a floating tray of teddy bears sat over the pool with a 180-degree view of the harbour.
Guests included the son of New Zealand’s former richest man Graeme Hart (Mowbray and brother Mat were this year named as New Zealand’s wealthiest family with an estimated worth of $20 billion), Harry and his Australian heiress partner Cartier Lee.
Hart wore camouflage deer-hurting gear, while Lee looked like Bambi with tight tan leathers and foliage on her head.
The costumes of the night were worn by media personalities and Pals co-founders Anna and Jay Reeve, who dressed as the ghosts of the murdered Grady twins, the young girls from 1980s horror film The Shining.
Lupton’s sister Morgan dressed as the Black Swan character and her niece Noa was the White Swan.
Morgan’s partner Tim McGoldrick was one of a few costumed Jokers at the party, as was Reid, who donned a green wig with a nurse’s outfit.
Reid will have caught up with Hart and Lee, who he was in the South of France with at the end of the European summer.
Former All Black Israel Dagg wore an IT mask while his wife Daisy was Medusa. PR and branding maestro Tatum Savage went as Marilyn Monroe, her husband Gavin Pook was JFK with a gunshot wound and Dominic Bowden and fiancee Esther Cronin took a break from their wellness lifestyle and wore Mexican-style Day of the Dead attire.
Hannah Barrett, wife of All Black Beauden Barett, was also among the guests.
The Herne Bay haunted mansion will still be dressed at its creepy best for Halloween and those lucky enough to be trick or treating in Auckland’s wealthiest suburb will score Zuru toys as treats.
While her brother was being a ghoul across town, Anna Mowbray and her husband, former All Black Ali Williams, were watching their Auckland FC football team’s historic debut with a 2-0 victory over Brisbane Roar.
The couple hosted friends, including Mowbray’s bridesmaids at her August wedding in Fiji, interior designer Shelley Ferguson and Soul Bar & Bistro general manager Olivia Carter, at their box at Go Media Stadium, Mt Smart.
In March, Mowbray, who was a co-founder of the Zuru toy empire and has since started several other businesses, and Williams were unveiled as co-owners of the team with American billionaire Bill Foley.
She shared her appreciation on Instagram on Monday: “Literal chills listening to this and seeing what we’ve created! Saturday was a turning point for NZ Football, a proud moment for the fans and everyone connected with the first-ever match of @aucklandfc.”
A celebrity RTD company which has several A-List names attached has stopped selling its drinks.
Rugby league legend Shaun Johnson is among Awn’s shareholders and promoted the brand to his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers when the company launched to market at the beginning of 2022.
Before it was parked Awn had more than two dozen stockists, mainly in the North Island, including at Liquorland and The Bottle-O.
The website no longer works and the last post on the company’s Instagram page was last year.
Director and shareholder Jordan Mills tells Society Insider the brand has been parked for now.
“We’ll see what happens in 2026. I’m a part of a group that started it but we all have various other businesses we are involved in.”
Awn followed Grins, the RTD business started by All Blacks Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown and former All Black Stephen Donald, which entered the market at the end 2021.
Both brands followed the mega-success story Pals, started by Nick Marshall, Mat Croad, and celebrity couple Anna and Jay Reeve in 2019.
In August 2021 Mills and Johnson were part of an impressive lineup of directors and shareholders when Awn by the Brothers LTD was incorporated.
Mills is CEO of basketball team the Mills Albert Wellington Saints.
Other shareholders include professional dancers Lance Savali (who is also a director) and Laurence Kaiwai, basketballers Reuben Te Rangi and Josh Bloxham; former All Black and professional rugby player Steven Luatua and fellow professional rugby player Lima Sopoaga.
Other directors are entertainer Jordan Vaha’akolo, owner and founder of clothing brand Spirit and Sin, Alesana Pereira, and entrepreneur Joseph Webb.
Awn by the Brothers LTD is registered to the Ponsonby address of Webb who along with his partner Aïda Amoozegar-Montero are directors for Youknow Clothing and Youknow Media.
The pair featured on Society Insiders’ recent list of Ponsonby’s most influential movers and shakers and are due to open their first retail store for Youknow Clothing at Sylvia Park any day now.
The marketing said Awn was a “beverage, culture and movement” and the name was a take on the term “you’re On.”
Grins, which is still a boutique operation, is understood to be in more than 400 stockists throughout New Zealand and has had impressive growth since launching two and a half years ago.
The local RTD market has been lucrative for Pals. At the end of last year, it reportedly ranked eighth in the category, with every other name in the top 10 made and marketed by an enormous multinational.
She was one of the highest-paid models of the 1990s, dominating the runways and fashion campaigns globally.
Now Kylie Bax can be found living a much simpler life among her horses on her Cambridge farm, Coniston Lodge.
Her new documentary Bax and Beyond premieres at The Capitol Theatre in Balmoral this Sunday night and pulls back the velvet ropes on her stellar career.
“I hope everybody enjoys what they see, especially the fashion, and they understand me a little bit more,” Bax tells Society Insider.
“Contrary to popular belief I am quite a shy person and don’t like to talk about myself.”
Renowned Kiwi photographer and documentary maker Neil Gussey has spent nearly two years archiving and interviewing key figures of the time, locally and internationally.
“Kylie achieved massive success, appearing on the cover of Vogue 11 times, so I thought she deserved a documentary all by herself,” says Gussey.
“The doco will also focus on how famous Bax became in the US and some of the movie roles that came after ‘99.”
Nineties magazine maven Paula Ryan and New Zealand Fashion Week founder Dame Pieter Stewart are just some of the fashion names that talk about the Kylie effect, which saw a 16-year-old Thames girl discovered in a shopping mall by agent Kim Larking.
She went on to walk the catwalk for dozens of top designers including Chanel, Versace, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Gucci and Valentino. She did numerous campaigns for the likes of Giorgio Armani, Escada, Louis Vuitton, and Moschino. Plus, her worldwide smash hit the 1997 Happy campaign for Clinique.
“It’s hard to pick favourites,” Bax says.
“I did work with so many incredibly talented designers. Some of the highlights were walking for Versace and Gucci and working with Giorgio Armani.”
Bax graced countless magazine covers including Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle and Vanity Fair.
She was also the muse of legendary photographer Steven Meisel. Other greats she worked with include German/Australian photographer Helmut Newton and American photographer Richard Avedon.
Bax insists she wasn’t focused on the money she earned and didn’t count it.
“Doing the documentary reignited beautiful memories. I love fashion and what we achieved throughout my career,” says Bax.
“It was intense and humbling looking back at all the people I worked with in fashion - the designers, the stylists the photographers, the agents. Some of them are sadly no longer with us.”
Growing up around horses and the equine industry, Bax always kept an eye on the bloodstock industry and invested in horses throughout her modelling career.
Bax, 49, has raised her two daughters, Lito and Dione, who are now teenagers, back home in New Zealand for more than a decade.
She now thrives in her racehorse syndication business B.A.X Bloodstock Achieving Xcellence.
Bax scoffs when Society Insider asks how lucrative her business is.
“You have to be good at it, it’s a bit like fashion, a lot of luck and hard work.
“The people involved in my syndicates know I live and breathe horses and that I know what I am doing.
“There’s not a horse syndicate I have that I don’t have a stake in myself.”
Bax says she loves seeing her horses win both locally and internationally and can’t wait for the upcoming racing season, a time when she is able to bring out her vintage designer couture.
“I love the new generations coming through in both the racing and fashion industries.”
On course, both her careers come together with events like Fashions in the Field.
Bax is shooting footage for betting giant Entain which will focus on the upcoming Melbourne Cup.
This week Kiwi racing star Liam Lawson marked his Formula One return with a points finish, taking ninth place for Racing Bulls at the US Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.
Before his race, Lawson was snapped trackside with his US girlfriend Hannah St John, who is studying biological and biomedical sciences at Arizona State University.
Two hundred glamorous ladies and a handful of equally polished gents gathered for fashion designer Kathryn Wilson’s annual catwalk spectacular.
Sole to SOUL, at the Auckland Viaduct’s Soul Bar & Bistro last Wednesday, was inspired by the retro glamour of hit Apple TV+ show Palm Royale. Models sashayed through the restaurant to a 60s-style soundtrack curated by DJ Justin Sweeney.
Hosted by the establishment’s general manager Olivia Carter and Wilson, guests were greeted with cocktails and delectable new dishes from Soul’s spring menu.
Carter took a turn on the catwalk among the models and a pop-up KW boutique offered Wilson’s shoe collection, clothing and accessories for sale.
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.
If you need a break from the slopes or don’t fancy a ski, there’s still a lot to do this.