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It started with a dress held together with safety pins.
And three decades on, as she prepares to turn 60, Liz Hurley is still front-page news — and still redefining beauty rules for women.
Stunning actress Liz Hurley reigns supreme at 60GETTY
Loved-up with boyfriend Billy Ray CyrusGETTY
On Tuesday, flanked by her latest love, Billy Ray Cyrus, 63, and her beloved lookalike son, Damian, 23, she will no doubt be blowing out her candles wearing a fabulous skimpy bikini – from her own multimillion pound Elizabeth Hurley Beach collection, of course.
Decades before the It girls, influencers and YouTube fashionistas, there was Liz – the OG posh girl pin-up.
‘I promise I didn’t mean to steal the show’
A woman responsible for white jeans, plunging necklines, leopard-print knickers, Jilly-Cooper-style high-octane romances, jet-set friends and an ability to pick herself up by her crystal-encrusted slingbacks and glide through any scandal with the grace of a swan.
A woman who is never stuck for words and who, when asked on the red carpet what on earth she had in common with three-times-divorced Billy Ray (father of Miley Cyrus), quipped: “Well, isn’t it obvious? We have the same hair.”
She originally met the country star on the set of the 2021 movie Christmas In Paradise, and Billy Ray – who is flying into the UK for her birthday celebrations – has described her as “a great human being” who just makes him laugh.
The OG posh girl pin-up
As unlikely romances go, it’s certainly compelling.
Liz – or Elizabeth as she insists on being called today – and I go back a long way, before that Versace dress that catapulted her into global sex symbol status overnight, before the high-profile romances and break-ups or the paternity scandal surrounding Damian (more on these later).
When I first met her at the 1988 launch of BBC drama Christabel – in which she was playing the title role – she was a little-known actress, who’d previously appeared in detective series Inspector Morse.
The former dancer from a middle-class army family in Hampshire, Liz – sorry Elizabeth (she was a lot less grand back then) – was ambitious, smart, beautiful and a lot of fun, with a fruity sense of humour and an equally good-looking, up-and-coming actor boyfriend called Hugh Grant, who she’d met on the set of a Spanish movie the previous year.
In order to make it as an actress, she’d transformed from a rebel punk with a nose ring and pink, spiky hair into a classic English rose, all fresh-faced, dewy-skinned and with those sleek brunette locks.
“It’s all about luck, timing, right place, right time, right look and a really great part to get that breakthrough,” the then 23 year old told me over several glasses of warm white wine.
She wasn’t totally wrong. Six years later, at the London premiere of Four Weddings And A Funeral in 1994, it was that low-cut, thigh-split, floor-length black dress that got everyone talking.
She didn’t even have a minor role in the movie, and was only there as a plus-one to Hugh.
It’s all about luck, timing, right place, right time, right look and a really great part to get that breakthrough
Liz HurleyAs blinding cameras flashed wherever she moved at the film’s after-party in London’s In & Out club, she laughed: “I promise I didn’t mean to steal the show!”
But she did. Overnight, Liz Hurley became as big a star as her boyfriend, and certainly it’s still the one thing everyone remembers about that night.
Just shy of her 30th birthday, after a decade trying to make it as a serious actress, Liz got her chance to become a global star – and there was no way she was going to let it slip through her elegantly manicured fingers.
“What sets Liz apart is not actually her beauty but her brains,” says a friend who worked with her when she and Hugh set up the film company Simian Productions in 1994.
Showing off her amazing bikini bodINSTAGRAM
“She’s smart. That Versace dress was her light-bulb moment. She immediately saw how she could make a great future for herself. It wasn’t about her acting. It was about her. She was the brand, the product, the look. The English rose dripping with sex appeal. Or ‘the Posh Totty’ as her friends would joke. She never took herself too seriously, but she did realise she had something way beyond being an actress.
“Liz totally understands that beauty, style and fashion are so much more than how you look and what you wear. If you meet her at a party, she can talk about everything from the Kardashians to Sigmund Freud. Her taste in men is equally eclectic – she doesn’t have a type, so her choices are always unexpected.”
In her six decades, she’s built an empire and is now worth over £50million.
Eclectic taste in men
As well as breaking Hollywood in iconic roles in Austin Powers, Gossip Girl and The Royals, she has a hugely successful bikini business (she is the flagship model) and has been the face and global ambassador for Estée Lauder for more than 30 years.
She returns to our screens later this year on Channel 4’s reality show The Inheritance, alongside Rob Rinder.
Meanwhile, home is a £6million Georgian house in Herefordshire, where she lives with Damian and her black Labradors.
There you’ll find a beautifully kept English country garden (she is a keen gardener with a vast array of her own secateurs, shovels, hoes and pruning equipment), which is said to be one of the settings for her big 60th birthday celebrations.
Figure defies gravity
Best friends with Elton John and the Beckhams, she is godmother to Brooklyn and Romeo, plus Elton’s sons Zachary and Elijah, as well as her close friend Patsy Kensit’s son with Liam Gallagher, Lennon.
Entering her seventh decade, she still looks insanely fabulous, with those glossy highlighted locks, the same dewy skin, expertly plucked brows and fresh, minimal make-up.
Last year, she was voted by men’s magazine Maxim as the World’s Sexiest Woman – beating off women half her age including Sabrina Carpenter, as well as Margot Robbie, Jennifer Aniston, and Beyoncé – and celebrated her 59th birthday by showing off her perfect body in a bright-blue skimpy bikini.
Her figure defies gravity – not that she’d ever admit to hours sweating in a gym.
Three years after the birth of Damian, she told me during an interview that the best thing about motherhood was nibbling on kids’ party foods.
World’s sexiest woman
“I’ve discovered a passion for pink fondant fancies and those chocolate mini rolls – oh, and egg mayonnaise sandwiches with the crusts cut off.”
I had to laugh. Not that I’m cynical, but Mr Kipling just doesn’t make exceedingly good bodies like that.
But as much as Liz Hurley has redefined a carefully curated beauty look – think English aristocrat meets sexy Hollywood glamour – her life has not been without scandal, humiliation, disappointment and grief.
With pal Elton JohnGETTY
The real measure of Liz’s everlasting appeal is the grit and grace she has shown in the face of a series of highly public messy affairs, which have threatened to destroy her image.
In fact, it was this that brought her and Billy Ray together.
In April, he revealed Liz had reached out to him after his marriage to fellow singer Firerose (AKA Johanna Hodges) collapsed last year, amid tabloid reports of an ongoing feud with his daughter, and a disastrous performance of epic proportions at Donald Trump’s inaugural ball.
‘Hugh was always there for her. Their bond is truly remarkable’
On The Ty Bentli Show in April, Billy Ray said: “I felt like: ‘Wow, can life get any harder? Can it get any tougher?’ For me, at a certain point, it was like, you can’t get knocked down any flatter than laying on your back when life is kicking you.’ And at this moment, a friend reached out to say: ‘I’m in your corner.’”
There are few people who understand how hard it is to go through a public disgrace more than Liz Hurley.
In 1995, a year after her triumphant breakthrough, her “perfect relationship” with Hugh was destroyed after he was arrested following an incident with sex worker Divine Brown in Los Angeles.
Giving the outward appearance she was unshaken by the scandal, which dominated the tabloids, Liz stood firmly by her partner’s side, explaining afterwards on an American news show that that although she felt “like I had been shot” when she heard the news, “you don’t kick someone when they’re down.”
Their relationship lasted for five more years before ending in 2000 after 13 years together.
She still refers to Hugh as her “closest friend”, and their strong bond has baffled many and infuriated some.
It was Hugh who stepped up after her brief relationship with multimillionaire Steve Bing in 2001 hit the skids.
The businessman refused to acknowledge that Liz was pregnant with his child, until a DNA test proved it shortly after Damian’s birth in 2002.
Their acrimonious court battle and his initial refusal to be involved in his son’s life was intensely difficult for Liz, and Hugh’s advice and support according to friends was “everything to her”.
At the time, she had begun dating her future husband, Indian businessman Arun Nayar – who she would marry in 2007 – but, says one friend: “Hugh knew exactly what it was like to be dragged through the mud in public. Liz had been by his side throughout the worst months of his life and he just knew what to say, what to do, and how to be there for her.
“She was pregnant, desperately sad that Steve was refusing to acknowledge the baby she was carrying – but there was Hugh, always there for her. Their bond is truly remarkable.”
Hugh – along with Elton John, his partner, David Furnish, actor Denis Leary, multimillionaire Teddy Forstmann and aristocrat Henry Dent-Brocklehurst – is Damian’s godfather (“Godfather Number One,” as friends describe him).
He was there to lend support again when, in June 2020, Damian’s estranged father jumped from the 27th floor of his luxury Los Angeles building and fell to his death.
In the traumatic weeks that followed, Liz, as she had always done, showed grace under fire.
Despite the conflict over Damian’s parentage and the fact Bing did not include him in his will, she revealed that he had in fact sent a text to Damian on his 18th birthday and left a note for him before he took his life.
‘Damian adores her, and she can’t go a day without talking to him’
She put up pics of her ex on Instagram, and told her 3 million followers that he was a “sweet, kind man” and “our time together was very happy”.
Liz has never been one to dish the dirt – when her four-year marriage to Arun came to an end in 2011 and she began divorce proceedings citing his “unreasonable behaviour”, she never once hinted what that behaviour was.
Three months after her divorce, she began dating Australian cricketer Shane Warne, and within the year they were engaged.
Again, it seemed an unlikely match: the classic English beauty Liz with the hard-drinking, partying, bad boy.
After two years, the relationship – which he described as “the happiest of his life” – came to an end.
Elizabeth with lookalike son DamianGETTY
They remained close friends and when he died suddenly of a heart attack in Thailand in 2022, she spoke of her deep grief at his loss.
In an interview last year, she said: “It was appalling losing Shane, it was a terrible thing. And it’s a sadness, you know, that stays with you a long time.”
Elizabeth also acknowledged the impact on her son.
“I know as we get older we’re going to experience more and more loss, but Damian as a young man has experienced probably more than most.”
In tabloid terms, it may be Liz’s latest romance that keeps her in the news, but those closest to her know that there is really only one man who will forever remain in her heart – her beloved film-producer son Damian.
“They are a unit,” says her friend.
“He adores her, she is his muse and she can’t go a day without talking to him. They collaborate on everything, including her modelling shots for her bikini business. She has appeared in his films, they laugh together, cook together, go out together. He is completely her world.
“Her greatest sadness was he didn’t get to have a father, which is why he has six godfathers, and Liz has always made sure that any man in her life knows he comes first. On her 60th birthday, of everything she has done, Damian remains her greatest achievement.“
Like that dress fastened only with golden safety pins, Elizabeth Hurley has tenaciously held her world and her family together in the face of circumstances which could have floored a lesser mortal.
At 60, she has emerged as a true woman of substance.
Happy birthday, Elizabeth.
The Ex Factor
She may be loved-up with Billy Ray Cyrus, but there’s been no end of drama when it comes to Liz’s love life.
Hugh Grant
Liz met Hugh Grant when she was 22GETTY
The pair met when he was 27 and she was 22 on the set of 1987 movie Rowing With The Wind.
They have remained firm friends ever since.
Steve Bing
Liz dated The Polar Express producer Steve Bing for 18 months in the early 2000sMEGA
Liz dated The Polar Express producer for 18 months on and off in the early 2000s, before giving birth to their son Damian.
Steve Nash
Basketballer Steve Nash dated Liz briefly in 2001GETTY
The Canadian basketball player dated Liz briefly in 2001.
At the time, a representative for Steve described the duo as having “just vibed”.
Arun Nayar
The actress and Arun Nayar had two wedding ceremonies in 2007GETTY
The actress and the Indian heir had not one but two wedding ceremonies in 2007.
Three years later, Liz announced their divorce.
Shane Warne
Liz and Australian cricketer Shane Warne got engaged in 2011GETTY
Liz and the Australian cricketer got engaged in 2011, but split in December 2013.
After his death, she called him her “beloved lionheart”.
Justin Theroux
Liz denied any romance with Justin TherouxGETTY
Paparazzi pics with the actor sparked rumours of a relationship.
However, Liz denied any romance between them.
She’s forever in fashion
Ever since that Versace dress, Liz has barely put a foot wrong when it comes to her style choices
Put a pin in it
This Versace gold safety-pin dress catapulted relatively unknown Liz into the limelight in 1994GETTY
It was the Versace gold safety-pin dress that catapulted the relatively unknown Liz into the limelight in 1994.
Her gravity-defying outfit, which cost £3,000 at the time was, she said: “The first incredibly expensive dress I’d ever put on in my life.”
Pretty in pink
Stunning Hurley dazzling in a hot pink sequin dress in 1995GETTY
Liz dazzled again in this hot-pink, sequin, maxi-dress she wore to the 1995 César Awards in Paris.
Pared-back make-up and coiffed hair completed the look.
Mellow yellow
Liz looked vibrant as she was unveiled as the new face of Estée Lauder in a £2million deal in March 1995GETTY
This vibrant yellow Versace blazer and matching skirt marked a very different look for Liz as she was unveiled as the new face of Estée Lauder in a £2million deal in March 1995 – a role she still holds 30 years on.
Animal magic
All eyes were on Elizabeth when she flashed her leopard print knickers while wearing a red Versace dress in 1998G4BYTB
All eyes were on Elizabeth when she flashed her leopard print knickers while wearing a red Versace dress with a thigh-high split to the wedding of millionaire film producer Henry Dent-Brocklehurst and model Lilikoi Maltese in 1998.
All white on the night
Hurley donned in white at the Rocketman premiere in May 2019GETTY
Attending the Rocketman premiere in London in May 2019, the actress showed she was out of this world as she posed in a sequined white Versace suit paired with silver heels.
Her marble-effect clutch bag added a pop of colour.
Barely there
Earlier this year, Elizabeth showed off her incredible figure in a Celia Kritharioti form-fitting optical illusion gownGETTY
Stepping out at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March, Elizabeth showed off her incredible figure in a Celia Kritharioti form-fitting optical illusion gown that was covered in crystals and made it look like she wasn’t wearing a dress at all.
Beach babe
Liz showed off her enviable shape in a skimpy red two-pieceINSTAGRAM
The actress showed off her enviable figure in a skimpy red two-piece from her hugely successful Elizabeth Hurley Beach in a collection of shots taken in Baglioni, in the Maldives, last month.
If we looked this good in a bikini at almost 60, we would too!
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