Elizabeth Hurley reflects on single motherhood and the deaths of her 'great loves' Steve Bing and Shane Warne
Elizabeth Hurley is opening up about grief and raising her son Damian, now 20, as a solo parent.
The Austin Powers star, 57, spoke to The Times this week about being a single mom. Though Hurley shares her son with the late film financier and screenwriter Steve Bing, he did not help raise Damian. Damian had reportedly never met his biological father, who died by suicide in 2020.
“As a single mother, my life’s mission was to be the best parent I could,” Hurley explained to The Times. “Always to be there for Damian, getting him up in the morning and there last thing at night. I never went away for a night unless my mother or sister were there to hold the fort. I had childcare, but still I never left him.”
Hurley added that Damian also received love from men that she dated, including "wonderful stepfather" Arun Nayar and cricket player Shane Warne, who died earlier this year. The Christmas in the Caribbean actress said of Warne, “Damian loved him and had a great relationship with his three children in those formative years.”
The supermodel admitted that the passing of both Bing and Warne was particularly difficult for both her and Damian.
“Of the four great loves of my life two are dead — I always say to the other two, you’d better watch your backs. But yes, it was very hard and it still is very hard. Losing Shane was terrible. It’s taken a long time to sink in,” she noted. “I honestly kept thinking he’d call and it would turn out to be some big Aussie joke.”
She shared that “losing Stephen was something else completely.”
“We’d been estranged for so long but made up towards the end, and a bright and different future looked as if it was opening up, but of course it didn’t,” Hurley said. “For Damian, his death was more of a mental challenge because he didn’t know him as a person. Arun was his father figure. Arun still calls him son and Damian calls him Dad; Shane was more a fun uncle figure. But yes, all those things, combined with COVID and lockdown — that was a huge amount for a young person to process.”
Damian spoke out on Instagram about both Bing and Warne’s deaths. On the one year mark of Bing’s passing in June 2021, Damian wrote alongside an image of a purple sunset, “A year ago today, my mother and I received some devastating news. I didn’t realise at the time quite how much it would affect me... We all like to show ‘perfect’ versions of our lives- for me, the idea of publicly discussing something as personal as grief is terrifying... but sometimes it’s necessary. The last year has been bloody hard- for everyone on the planet- and I think acknowledging that is vital. It’s not weak to struggle. In fact, to get through to the other side is immensely strong."
In March 2022, he shared a throwback photo of himself and Warne in tribute to the late athlete.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around this,” Damian captioned the post. “SW was a father figure to me for most of my formative years and was truly one the best men I’ve ever known. My heart is broken. Thinking of and sending love to all SW’s family.”
In an October interview with Yahoo Life, Hurley — who is an advocate for breast cancer research — opened up about wanting to stay healthy so she can stay in her son’s life.
"[My son] plays into it a lot. I mean, I'm a single mother with one child, and you know, I don't want to leave him," she said at the time. "We all want women to stop dying of breast cancer for womankind and for ourselves, and for our own families. Of course we do. For our friends, for our loved ones, we don't want anyone to die of breast cancer anymore."
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