Trigger Warning: This article deals with the topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit their website.
Elizabeth Hurley is beloved for her roles in Austin Powers, Bedazzled, and The Royals, along with being a fashion icon. But it’s her role as “mother” that the 56-year-old star cherishes the most.
WATCH: Liz Hurley’s son Damian makes a cameo on her show
Liz has an “incredibly close” bond with her 19-year-old son, Damien Hurley.
“Both my mother and I are incredibly scruffy by nature. The second we’re not being photographed, we revert to slobbery with alarming ease,” Damian has previously said of their laid-back bond.
“Yes, we’re very close. Thank goodness, because it’s really just the two of us,” Liz said. “Of course, he’s left me streets behind because he’s young and knows everything, but otherwise we have the same sensibility, which is great.”
The actress is a mother to one son, Damian, born in April 2002. His father, American businessman Steve Bing, initially denied paternity by alleging their relationship hadn’t been exclusive.
“Ms Hurley and I were not in an exclusive relationship when she became pregnant. It is her choice to be a single mother,” Bing said in a statement at the time. “If indeed I am the father, I will be an extremely involved and responsible parent.”
But, when a DNA test proved he was the father, the matter was settled and the relationship between Damian and Steve was kept private – outside of reports Liz refused to accept a “yearly trust” for her son, after being accused of setting a “baby trap”.
Nothing much else was known about their dynamic until 2019, when Steve filed on his son’s behalf to challenge his grandfather’s estate after being excluded from the benefits of the family fortune.
Steve died by suicide in June 2020, with Damian telling his Instagram followers it was a “strange and confusing” time.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone that has reached out following the devastating news,” he wrote. “I’m trying to reply to as many of you as I can, but please know I will always remember your kindness. This is a very strange and confusing time and I’m immensely grateful to be surrounded by my phenomenal family and friends.”
Liz and Steve began dating in 2001, shortly after she split from Hugh Grant after 13 years of dating. Despite their split, the exes remained close and Hugh was named Damian’s godfather.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2021, Damian revealed that Hugh calls himself and his mother “the Monsters”.
“He says we’re like a tornado when we swarm into a room … we look ‘terrifyingly alike and cause mayhem,'” he told the paper.
“We’re good friends and I hope it always stays that way,” added Liz.
Along with Hugh, Damian had support from other father figures growing up, including Liz’s ex-husband Arun Nayar – who she married in 2007 and divorced a few years later.
“Arun is Damian’s daddy and a very good one too, they see each other a lot,” she says of the relationship.
“My husband and I had the most amicable divorce in the world and my lawyer said it was the cheapest case she’d ever handled because neither of us wanted anything.”
Damian also viewed Australian cricketer Shane Warne as an important influence on his life, calling the late athlete a “father figure” in an emotional tribute post to the star after learning of his sudden death in Thailand on March 4, 2022.
Liz and Shane first met at Goodwood Racecourse in 2010, becoming engaged in Spain in 2011, before splitting in December, 2013. Despite their break-up, the pair remained great friends until his untimely death.
While Liz said she felt as though “the sun had gone behind the clouds,” Damian wrote that his heart was broken.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around this… SW was a father figure to me for most of my formative years and was truly one the best men I’ve ever known. My heart is broken. Thinking of and sending love to all SW’s family,” he wrote.
While Liz has credited his father Steve and his “father figures” Hugh, Arun and Shane for the roles they played in Damian’s life, the actress has been his greatest support and caregiver.
“I wanted to bring up a really nice boy, and he is self-reliant and confident around adults,” Liz told YOU Magazine, revealing she finds herself picking up the same traits in her son that she had as a teen.
“He can’t cook properly yet which is a major failing on my part,” she says. “I hate boys who can’t even rustle up lamb chops with mashed potato, so it’s the next thing we need to tackle. I think we’ll start with an omelette.
“I love my son completely but I do realise I can only prepare him for life, I can’t control the world. Of course I find myself saying exactly the things my mother said to me, about picking up my clothes or bringing my plate over to the sink.
“But we’ve got each other’s backs, always. We’ve never had a horrible fight, we’re never rude to each other and I’ve always encouraged him to speak up when something is annoying or upsetting him. I try really hard to avoid stony silence.”
While they’ve certainly had their fare share of difficulties, this mother and son duo remain closer than ever.
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit their website.
