Actress Teuila Blakely’s son Jared has spoken of how hurt he felt at seeing his mum upset by the reaction to the sex video of her and Warriors player Konrad Hurrell.
Teuila, 39, shares a west Auckland home with 22-year-old Jared, whom she raised as a solo parent after being ostracised by her mother for becoming pregnant at 16, New Idea reported.
After the footage of the Shortland Street star and league player Hurrell, 17 years her junior, emerged on social media in early May, Teuila had gone to her son’s room to tell him about it.
“When it happened, mum came into my room and said, ‘Son, there’s something on the internet and people are going crazy’. And I just went ‘okay’,” Jared told New Idea.
“I was never angry with her or Konrad, because of course he did something stupid … sending the video to his mates clearly wasn’t the smartest move … but it was a mistake. Every one of us makes mistakes. His intent wasn’t to hurt mum. If anything, I’m angry with his friends. If I sent something private to my friends, I’d expect them to have the decency to keep it to themselves.”
After the initial shock, he couldn’t care less about the incident, he said.
“What mum did, didn’t hurt me. What hurt me was seeing my mum so upset and listening to her apologise repeatedly to everyone like she’d offended them… Watching mum saying sorry like she was in court for killing someone was the hard part.”
Teuila said she had “cried for about three days” because of the reaction to the video but had no regrets, including the act itself.
Jared advised people to not get “so uptight” about it.
“Of course it’s been hard, but I can’t take on everyone who says something, no matter how much I was to protect mum, so moving on is the only option.”
Over at Woman’s Day, the big New Zealand story is about the relationship between disgraced cricketer Lou Vincent and his fiancee, former magazine boss Susie Markham.
He’s 35 and she’s 50 – with children aged 32 and 25 – and has stood by him as he confessed to match-fixing.
The couple met at a charity dinner on the British Channel Island of Guernsey in July 2012, although at the time her marriage was ending and she was in no mood to entertain his advances, Woman’s Day reported.
“But it did my confidence a great deal of good, because he really, really chased,” Markham said.
Vincent persisted and it was not long before the couple were shuttling back and forth between Guernsey and England, where he was playing cricket.
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While both insisted the age gap was not an issue, it had been a surprise when they shared their first kiss.
Markham recalled how she told Vincent her daughter was 30 and he “kind of jumped”. “You said 13 not 30, right” he asked.
“He told me his age and I nearly ran out the door. I was so shocked because I thought he was older,” Markham said.
Vincent said it had taken him a couple of months to tell Markham about his role in match-fixing.
“I was really scared she would reject me. I was in love and I wanted to be honest,” Vincent said.
Markham, who had five siblings but lost two sisters, as well as her father, in difficult circumstances by the time she was 19, said she was big on forgiveness and did not believe in bitterness.
“I was appalled by Lou’s crime – it’s huge. Cricket’s patriotic – it’s a gentleman’s game. He’s shamed his country, but to me, he is the ultimate gentleman – he just made a big mistake. I don’t condone it in any way but there are worse crimes.”
As for the rest of the world, Woman’s Day reported that True Blood actor Joe Manganiello, 37, had “all but” moved into Sofia Vergara’s seven-bedroom Beverly Hills mansion.
Modern Family star Vergara, who had a 21-year-old son, was already talking babies.
A source said both wanted to sell up their Los Angeles homes and buy somewhere together for a fresh start.
“It’s still relatively early days but they aren’t going to wait around, and if they continue like this, Sofia will have another ring on her finger by the time the year is out.
“She is desperate for more children and Joe would love to become a father. With Sofia just having turned 42, they want to get on with it and start trying.”
New Idea is confident Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is expecting her second baby because the news came from Kate’s oldest friend Jessica Hay.
Hay was reputable because she had famously confirmed the duchess was pregnant with first child George in a world exclusive, the magazine said.
“Kate’s inner circle is buzzing with the news that she is pregnant. I’ve heard it from several different friends of theirs now and they’re saying that they think there’s going to be an official announcement in weeks,” Hay said.
“I think she could be pregnant again too, and I’m sure we’ll hear something from the couple themselves in the coming weeks if she is expecting, as everyone’s saying she is.”
A telltale sign was that Kate’s face had become fuller, which happened when she was expecting George.
At the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, Prince George’s upcoming first birthday is previewed in a special souvenir issue.
Born on July 22 last year, George had “proved to be an unstoppable bundle of energy”, the magazine said. A recent sighting at a polo match confirmed he was walking with a little support from his mother, and was growing at a healthy rate.
Sources suggested Kate and William thought a quiet rural upbringing would be better for George than the hurly-burly of city life in London.
Details of George’s birthday celebrations were being kept secret, while a new set of family photographs was expected.
In Woman’s Day, singer Lorde puts the record straight about teenagers.
“A lot of people seem to think that all teenagers are, like, super-misguided, not at all ambitious and just kind of, like, dropkicks,” the 17-year-old said.
“Such a high proportion of the people my age I know are super-driven, super-focused and super-creative in a way I haven’t seen a lot of adults in this business being. Teenagers are a lot wiser than you think.”
With her album Pure Heroine a smash hit, her record company had decided to just let her get on with it.
“I feel like they’ve seen early on that I can see what’s cool and what teenagers think is cool much better than they do,” Lorde said.
And she did not think scantily-clad female stars were a bad influence.
“People should stop worrying about their daughters,” Lorde said. “I don’t see a female without clothing as a terrible influence. There are worse things. Shooting people. Glorifying violence…”
– Stuff
