What a madam knows about sex that you don't.
Plus, Holly attempts to shop a Duchess's wardrobe and has feedback. And an American TV star has lost custody of her children and her home. Welcome to your weekly dose of MID ;)
Antonia Murphy was raising three kids, including one with a serious disability, in a small town in New Zealand when her marriage unravelled.
She had ‘opened’ her marriage with her husband, but things got complicated when she fell pregnant with her third child, Matisse. The father? Patrice — Antonia's lover, and later her partner.
The situation exploded when her husband “went and punched him in the nose”.
Living in a small town meant everybody knew everybody's business, and the fallout was swift.
“I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse how completely non-confrontational Kiwis are, because nobody ever said to my face that they disapproved of what I was doing,” Antonia told Holly Wainwright on Mamamia's MID podcast.
“But it did hurt when friends just stopped — like, literally just didn't call back, didn't email back, just cut us dead.”
What made things especially painful was how close these same people had previously been to her new partner.
“Patrice had lived in the community a lot longer than I had, and these are people who… he'd cared for their kids over the school holidays… he basically conducted a summer camp at his house and took care of all their kids, and they just cut us out.”
As an American living in New Zealand, Antonia found the cultural approach to conflict particularly frustrating.
“Honestly, as an American, I'd rather they'd had a conversation with me, because maybe we could have salvaged some of the friendships. But alas, that was not to be.”
But with a full plate of responsibilities, she couldn't waste energy trying to repair these social rifts.
“I think I was so overwhelmed at the time with a new baby and a profoundly disabled child and two businesses and all the rest of it, I wasn't going to go door to door and say, ‘Hi, do you still want to be my friend?’ I didn't have time for that.”
So, what does a single mum with three kids do when her community turns its back on her? In Antonia's case, she made the bold decision: she opened an ethical brothel called ‘The Bach’ in the tiny coastal town…
🎧 Follow below to listen to this week’s new MID: a shame-free conversation about when Antonia opened a legal, ethical brothel and what she learnt.
Read and listen to more
LISTEN: From No Sex To Best Sex At 49 on MID
LISTEN: MID EXTRA: Van Life Dream Vs Reality
HOLLY: ‘How you feel about Meghan's new “shop” tells me one thing about you.’
I am shopping The Duchess of Sussex's closet.
The skinny jeans are sold out.
The big beige bag — textured calf leather, available in Australia — is low in stock.
The little beige bag is strictly pre-order.
There's only an extra small left in the silk shirt, and it's $700.
So far, my cart remains empty.
I've never had the chance to shop an actual Duchess's closet before. It's so tasteful. And expensive. I've also never had the chance to directly pop a few dollars in a royal family member's pocket before.
Other than in the years I was paying tax in the UK, of course.
But I know that if I worked up the financial nerve to buy the big beige bag, about $38 of the $760 I would theoretically spend goes directly to Megs. Because, as she declared on her ‘Shop My Closet’ Instagram page, she is sharing all her favourite things using ‘commissionable links’. Sometimes called affiliate links, the way they work is when a content creator recommends a product — say, a beige bag — and you buy it, the creator gets between 3-7 percent of that sale. Little bits of money, piling up as your audience spends. Meghan's following on Instagram is 2.6 million people. So, a big pile of money now, probably, 12 hours after the shop ‘opened’.
Mamamia uses affiliate links sometimes. So do plenty of content creators I know. I'm not above monetising social media with paid content. God knows, we've all got to make a living and this is part of the package for many who work on the Internet.
But a Duchess? That's new.
Members of the royal family are specifically forbidden from endorsing or promoting commercial products. And although Harry and Meghan officially stepped back from their HRH (His Royal Highness) status in 2020, they are still royal. They still have their titles, their kids have theirs, and they still feature on the ‘About’ page of the Royal Family home page, and you can't get more official than that.
The royal title ‘magic’ is not intended to be sullied by commerce. But that magic is real — Meghan's shop is in her royal name, not just plain ‘Sussex’, her real-world one. It's a title that no other monetised influencer on Instagram can claim…
🎧 Follow below to hear Holly, Jessie and Amelia unpack Meghan’s Influencer era on Out Loud
Read and listen to more
Jaime King was once the star of Hart of Dixie. Now she's lost custody of her children and her home.
In 2018, actor and model Jaime King stepped onto the red carpet at The Incredibles 2 premiere with her four-year-old eldest son, James.
He wore a pink tulle dress with matching ribbons. Jaime didn't comment on his outfit, didn't feel the need to explain it. Instead, she captioned a photo, "I love my baby SO MUCH!!! He chose my lipstick and dress."
It was a quiet but meaningful act — a mother letting her child be exactly who he is, without fanfare.
At the time, King was praised for her parenting and her advocacy for gender-neutral children's fashion. She even launched a clothing line that encouraged kids to wear whatever made them feel most like themselves.
Now, that same mum is in the headlines again. But this time, it's for something far more difficult.
Despite being known for her sparkly Hollywood life and close-knit friendship with Hollywood A-listers such as Taylor Swift (who is the godmother to her youngest son Leo), Jaime King's life hasn't been smooth sailing.
She spent her teenage years modelling, during a time when 'heroin chic' was actually involving, well, heroin.
She traded school life for the high-flying world of modelling, admitting that she was given the drug by a photo assistant at age 14. It soon became her drug of choice.
"Yeah, I was 14," she responded when asked. "I remember being naked as a 14-year-old, 15-year-old, 16-year-old, even at 13 years old, dude, it's — I remember being naked in a bathtub for Italian Vogue when I was not even 14 years old. I remember being given Champagne, and I never knew what to do with that. How could any child know what it is to do with that? You're just trying to get through it, and there's this pervasive terror that if you don't participate, you'll be sent home."
In an effort to fit in, a young Jaime became embroiled in a world she wasn't ready for.
"I got myself into a little trouble," she admitted to The New York Times Magazine. "I was missing planes, I was screwing up jobs."
The death of her partner, Italian photographer David Sorrenti, who she called 'the love of my life', was a wake-up call for the 17-year-old.
So, she embarked on a journey of spiritual growth, reading books like Spiritual Warrior by John-Roger. "It helped my young mind and heart," she said. "Now I'm just following that path."
King left the modelling industry at the top of her game, to pursue a career in acting. It was during this time that she met and married director Kyle Newman. They tied the knot in 2007 and tried to start a family for four years, but struggled due to King's diagnoses of endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
She went through five miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy, five rounds of IVF and 26 rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) in order to get her beautiful brood of children.
"When I got pregnant, it was the best thing in the whole world. I had never felt so grateful, happy and elated," she told People.
She welcomed her first son, James Knight, in October 2013. Her second son, Leo Thames, came along in July 2015.
When she welcomed Leo, King and Newman had to face a shocking reality for any parent: a rare heart condition that required open-heart surgery.
"He had a major heart surgery, that was terrifying, and traumatic for us as parents, for our family," she shared to People. "I was wheel-chaired to him every three hours, so I could breastfeed him and take care of him before he went into this huge surgery."
King and Newman appeared to be living the high life, but in 2020, King filed for divorce from her husband, simultaneously filing a domestic violence prevention petition, which claimed that Newman was verbally and emotionally abusive…
Read and listen to more
READ: Kanye West’s latest move may cost him custody of his kids
READ: Why the family court gives children to abusive fathers
THE SCROLL 📱
5 things to feed your mind and fill your soul.
1. 'Adolescence is proof that boyhood is being broken before our eyes.'
2. Ben Affleck, notorious diva, says his life is pretty 'drama free' actually.
3.'I was told my pain was 'normal' for 20 years. Here's what finally helped me.'
4. When Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor had their first date in 1999, they silently agreed on one thing.
5. Graham had never met his birth mother. Then he received an email he never should have opened.
ICYMI 👀
The jaw-dropping detail in The White Lotus you probably missed. How the budget is actually going to help the cost of living. A fitness influencer revealed his bizarre morning routine involving banana peel. Cecilia Webb should have been safe in her garden, but she wasn’t. Annie Knight just got engaged and plans to sleep with 1,000 men this year. Here's how they make it work.
MID-SPO STYLE 👗💄
We stumbled upon a video from NYS where we can steal Grece Ghanem’s fashion lessons and elevate our style game. She is all elegance and attitude and we can’t get enough of her confidence and style. Watch below… and take notes.
Our pick of what’s new in beauty, home and style on Mamamia this week.
The Aussie label the women of The White Lotus are wearing.
'I've found 8 great mattresses on sale right now if you're too lazy to try them in-store.'
'I've slathered hundreds of serums on my face so you don't have to. These 11 are worth it.'
'I transformed my sad beige home with dopamine decor. This is how.'
A mere moment of your time? We would love to hear your thoughts about money and your financial future (because let's be real, who isn't thinking about that right now?)
Complete our quick survey HERE to go in the running to win a $50 gift voucher.
Know someone who’d get a kick out of MID? Why don’t you share the love…
You could be getting even more weekly marvels in your inbox from fan favourites Mamamia Out Loud, You Beauty and Nothing To Wear Yes, friends, there’s more goodness just waiting to inspire, surprise and delight you.
Have a lovely week. And we’ll see you next time ; )