Four days after the outgoing face of Estee Lauder revealed that she was less than six months away from motherhood, more news of Liz Hurley’s pregnancy is emerging. The 36-year-old model and actress, who is “delighted” with the situation, looks set to bring up her child as a single mother, away from the baby’s father, Steve Bing, the heir to a real-estate fortune.
On Thursday night, her spokesman released a brief statement confirming that Elizabeth was indeed going to have a baby, and that Steve Bing was the father. But the millionaire film producer from California was not so happy with news of his impending fatherhood – since Liz broke the news to him six weeks ago, contact between the two has been minimal and the doe-eyed brunette is single once again.
A source close to the actress has implied that Steven was expecting his on-off girlfriend not to go through with the pregnancy and did not share her elation when he found out. “Obviously her situation with Steve is not ideal, but Elizabeth has got amazingly good friends in England, who all love her and will support her through thick and thin,” said wealthy socialite Henry Dent-Brocklehurst, one of the model’s closest friends.
When Liz went for her first check-up at hospital in London last week, there was just one person who could have been at her side: Hugh Grant. The quintessentially English actor, who was Liz’s other half for eleven years before they split last year, was there to hold her hand while she went for a pre-natal scan. The 41-year-old actor is currently living in his ex-girlfriend’s London house while his flat is being redecorated.
William Cash, a journalist who lived with Liz in Los Angeles a decade ago and is still one of her closest chums, is in no doubts that Hugh will stand by his ex-lover and business partner. “He will obviously have a role to play – although whether it is surrogate father, godfather, football coach or zoo walker, I don’t think either has the faintest idea,” he says.
Cash also told readers of the Sunday Telegraph that his beautiful friend was coping fine, health-wise. “She had morning sickness in the early weeks, but now feels fabulous,” he wrote. “She wolfed down lunch and looked fantastic. Her aqua green eyes sparkled. Just occasionally, though, I detected a glint of sadness.”