|
Elizabeth Jane Hurley (born 10 June
1965) is an English model and actress who became known as a girlfriend of
Hugh Grant in the 1990s. Born in Basingstoke, Hurley was a struggling
actress in 1987, when she met Grant while working on a Spanish production
called Remando Al Viento. In 1994, Grant became the focus of worldwide
media attention due to the global box office success of his film Four
Weddings and a Funeral. Hurley accompanied him to the film's London
premiere and was noted for wearing a plunging black Versace dress held
together with gold safety pins. According to The Guardian, Hurley was
"then known as 'Hugh Grant's girlfriend,' now known as 'Hugh Grant's
former girlfriend,'" due to their high-profile romantic relationship that
ended in 2000.
The highlight of Hurley's professional life has been her association with
the cosmetics company Estée Lauder. The company gave Hurley her first
modeling job at the age of 29 and has used her as a model for its
products, especially perfumes such as Sensuous, Intuition, and Pleasures,
since 1995. Her best known cinematic work was as Vanessa Kensington in
Mike Myers' hit spy comedies, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
(1997) and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Hurley currently
models and designs an eponymous beachwear line. In 2002, Hurley had a son.
Hurley was born as a middle child in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, the
daughter of Angela and Roy Hurley. Her Irish father was a Major in the
British Army, while her Anglican mother was a teacher at Kempshott Infant
School. She has an older sister Katie and a younger brother Michael.
Hurley was educated at local schools including Kempshott Infant School,
Kempshott Junior School, and the Harriet Costello School. Aspiring to be a
dancer as a young girl, she took ballet classes and later briefly studied
dance and theatre at the London Studio Centre. While in her teens, she
became involved with punk fashion, dying her hair pink and piercing her
nose. "When I was 16 - this was about 1981, 1982 - the thing to be in
Basingstoke, the suburb I grew up in, was punk," she explained. She also
reportedly associated with the New Age Travellers in her youth.[
Hurley started working as an actress in the late 1980s and became a model
in 1995. During the 2000s, she worked unsuccessfully as a reality
television presenter in Britain. Allmovie described her as "one of the
world's most famous arm ornaments, model, and sometimes-actress," with the
first being a reference to her red-carpet appearances accompanying Hugh
Grant to his film premieres and other social functions while they were a
couple until 2000. She has appeared three times on the cover of British
Vogue.[
Hurley made her first film appearance in Aria (1987). She has since
appeared in movies such as Passenger 57, EDtv, Bedazzled, and Serving
Sara. In 1997, she received her first and only acting award, the ShoWest
Supporting Actress of the Year, for her performance in the spy spoof
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. When Hugh Grant founded and
became the director of Simian Films in 1994, Hurley was credited as one of
the producers for the company's two Grant vehicles, Extreme Measures
(1996) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). In 2000, she was publicly criticised
for breaking a five-month acting strike to film an Estée Lauder
advertisement, for which she was fined $100,000 (£70,000 in 2000) by the
Screen Actors Guild and labeled "Elizabeth Scably" by protesters.[
While Hurley was Hugh Grant's girlfriend, he was embroiled in an
international scandal for soliciting the services of a female prostitute
in 1995. Hurley stood by him and accompanied Grant to the premiere of his
movie Nine Months. After 13 years together, Grant announced an "amicable"
split from Hurley in May 2000. Hurley lived in a London home owned by
Grant after the break-up. She invited Grant to her wedding in 2007, but he
chose not to attend. On 4 April 2002, Hurley gave birth to a son, Damian
Charles Hurley. The baby's father, Steve Bing, denied paternity by
alleging that he and Hurley had a brief, non-exclusive relationship in
2001. A DNA test, however, established Bing as the child's father. Hurley
is godmother to Patsy Kensit's son Lennon, and two of David Beckham and
Victoria Beckham's sons (Brooklyn and Romeo).
In late 2002, Hurley started dating Indian textile heir Arun Nayar, who
has run a small software company since 1998. On 2 March 2007, Hurley and
Nayar married at Sudeley Castle and then had a second wedding at Umaid
Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, India. The Indian celebrations included a
sangeet at Nagaur Fort and a reception at Mehrangarh Fort. The wedding
ceremonies, photos of which were sold to Hello! magazine for a reported £2
million, were attended by Elton John (who gave Hurley away), Tracey Emin,
Tom Ford, Elle Macpherson, Donatella Versace, Trinny Woodall, Tamara
Mellon, Valentino, Janet Street-Porter, Patsy Kensit, and Leonard and
Evelyn Lauder, among other celebrities. Hurley, who has an estimated net
worth of £13 million according to the Daily Mail, resides on a 400-acre
(1.6 km2) organic farm in Barnsley, Gloucestershire, with her son and
husband. |
