A MISTRESS of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer ran a private bordello for his business and political associates and after their affair ended and they became estranged committed suicide, a new book says.
Paul Barry has updated his bestselling biography The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer, including in it the sad story of one of Packer's mistresses that on legal advice was withdrawn from the 1993 edition.
Carol Lopes was a black American model with whom Packer had a four-year affair from the late 1970s.
Described by Barry as "gregarious, glamorous, gorgeous" and a star at society parties, Lopes told friends she was Packer's "SONAP: Sex Only, No Appearances in Public" and referred to him as "His Nibs".
Packer put her up in lavish apartments in Bellevue Hill, near his family residence, and she enjoyed brief public fame as a late-night B-grade movie hostess on Packer's Nine television network.
After their affair ended in the early 1980s Lopes began organising for Packer private bordellos each summer in expensive and secluded rented houses in Palm Beach.
Lopes travelled to New York, London and South America to find intelligent, well-educated and beautiful women who were paid about $10,000 a week at the bordello, the biography says.
Barry writes: "Carol confided to friends that Kerry ran this private bordello to thank men who had done him a good turn." He says politicians and business people attended the bordellos, but does not name any.
The relationship between Packer and Lopes soured later in the 1980s. After he stopped supporting her financially she attempted to kill herself three times before succeeding in 1991. Much of her 16-page suicide note was addressed to Packer. It is on file with the NSW coroner's office, but has not been made public.
A second letter found in Lopes's apartment says: "Kerry Packer is the only family I know [Lopes had been raised by foster parents]. He has taken care of me for 12 years. I have been denied access to this man. For what reason, I don't understand.
"He is not aware of how distressed I am … I have no alternative but to end my life."
Apart from the media baron's "notorious" love of prostitutes, Barry recounts Packer's stream of mistresses given apartments and found jobs, with Packer footing the bill. After Packer died in December 2005 the Herald revealed he had transferred property shares worth at least $10 million to his long-time mistress Julie Trethowan.
Gerald Stone, in his recent book Who Killed Channel 9?, recounted that Packer divided the final days of his life between Trethowan and Ros, his wife of more than 40 years.
He also revealed that in his 30s Packer had a brief, torrid affair with his then employee Ita Buttrose, who became a magazine editor.
The updated biography, which won the 1994 Banjo award for non-fiction, is published on August 1, but copies appeared in bookshops this week.
Matthew Ricketson, Brisbane Times
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