Jim Clark's Australian Honey

In the Australian Women's Weekly this month, my interview with supermodel Kristy Hinze about her relationship with Netscape founder Jim Clark. Here's a sample:

When the story broke that Jim Clark’s Australian “honey” was Kristy Hinze, there was the usual cynicism about a thrice-married billionaire hooking up with a gorgeous, younger model. (He is now 63 and she is 28). His divorce from third wife Nancy had cost him a $US125 million settlement, and had been all over the papers. Plus Clark was no ordinary billionaire. The subject of a recent book, The New, New Thing by Michael Lewis, he is an undoubted genius who has redefined American culture, from the high-tech movies of Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas to the way we get our information and do our shopping.

“At first sight he looks avuncular, with thinning white hair, wire-rimmed spectacles and a lovely smile,” writes John Naughton. “Behind the amiable façade is the nearest thing Silicon Valley has to a force of nature, an ungovernable, relentless, mercurial, capricious, inventive character who transformed the computing industry, spawned the internet boom and eats bankers for breakfast.”

I read this quote to Kristy as we’re sitting in the courtyard of her Sydney hotel. She is en route to Melbourne, where she is taking part in the Melbourne Fashion Festival in her role as brand ambassador to iconic fashion label Sportscraft and for pre-production on Australia’s version of the fashion reality show Project Runway, which she will host and which starts shooting in April. Golden-haired and golden-skinned, with those amazing green sloe eyes, she’s very much a goddess, even in jeans and white shirt - but a very earthy one, with her throaty laugh and pragmatic view of the world. “That’s Jim!” she laughs when I finish reading the quote. “It’s perfect. He is relentless and ungovernable, for sure! That’s what makes him so amazing.”

She has been reluctant to talk about her private life in the past but today she seems very relaxed about it and happy to sing the praises of “my boyfriend,” as she calls him. “I never thought I was going to date an older man when I first met him,” she says. “I wasn’t chasing him by any means. For me it was different to hang out with someone with something to say that was so interesting and important and who was really, truly incredibly intelligent.” Besides, she adds, “He’s handsome and he’s got so much charisma and he’s so funny. He’s very normal and down to earth. He’s an incredible man and I just love him.”