Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald - Kardashian Secrets & Royal Rumors with Martyn Lawrence Bullard

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

My dear friend, interior designer to billionaires and Hollywood elite, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, is in the studio with me today! Martyn shares the wild, unusual way he broke into decorating, along with fascinating stories about the historical Hollywood homes he's lived in and restored. As the interior designer for the entire Kardashian-Jenner family, Kris, Kylie, Khloé, Kourtney, and Kendall, he finally answers the tough question of who actually has the best taste and breaks down how Kim’s style shifted so drastically during her time with Kanye. He also recounts a chilling story about a home that was completely haunted by a ghost and the unbelievable way they got rid of it. We tackle whether interior design trends actually matter, and being from England, Martyn brings some juicy inside scoop and theories on Meghan and Harry’s future as they head back to the UK for their kids' school. This episode is chock-full of unbelievable Hollywood stories and over-the-top billionaire design requests you won't want to miss! -Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/JUICYSCOOP -Order now at drinkwillies.com and use code JUICY for 20% off your first order plus free shipping on orders over $95, and live like a legend. -Use code JUICYSCOOP at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Gift with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #ad -Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com/juicy.  -Our listeners get a FREE MONTH of Primal Queen plus FOUR FREE GIFTS at PrimalQueen.com/JUICYSCOOP. #ad Subscribe to my new show Juicy Crimes!: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/juicycrimes Stand Up Tickets and info: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://heathermcdonald.net/ Subscribe to Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald and get extra juice on Patreon: https://bit.ly/JuicyScoopPod https://www.patreon.com/cw/juicyscoop Watch the Juicy Scoop On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JuicyScoop Shop Juicy Scoop Merch: https://juicyscoopshop.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopTZFUvAeokrJJ6dQ5wuAW1T3nssO6pHk47u7KymJUBtBgKCvfX Follow Me on Social Media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathermcdonald/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heathermcdonald YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HeatherMcDonaldOfficial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. Hi, I'm Laura Clary, mom, chaos coordinator, and someone who has learned the hard way that back-to-school season is basically a second mortgage. Last year, my daughter decided she absolutely needed this very specific backpack, not just any backpack, the backpack. I found it, I bought it, I sent her off on the first day of school. She lost it by week two, gone forever. So, remember, with Amazon.

Amazon's low back-to-school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Fast to the number one tabloid real life podcast. Heather McDonald's. Juicy Scoop. Hello and welcome to Juicy Scoop. I have a great show for you today, a great interview, a dear friend of mine. You will recognize his voice, his face, his style, and his interior design from famous people's homes to hotels to all around the world, Martin Ballard. Martin Lawrence Ballard.

Decorator. interior designer, TV host, reality star. All those things. Dog Dad. Yes. Most importantly, the dog dad. Palm Springs,

toast of the town. Thank you. I'm so glad we finally did this. We've been friends for so long. I love this intro. You need to be my new PR. Oh my God, I love it. So, you know, for those of you that might not know who you are

and I don't know how you wouldn't know. You really came onto the scene to the Bravo crowd when you did your show Million Dollar Decorator. Yes. They first held a million dollar listing, then they had a million dollar decorating. We followed you, plus a few others, doing these homes. But that only lasted, what, like one or two seasons?

Three seasons. Oh, three seasons. Yeah, we were for three years. Actually, it's still on. It's on Peacock right now. She's wild all these years later. It was amazing because it was the first time there was a reality show.

with real decorators, with real decorating, with real people ever on TV. So it kind of really changed the format and the way people saw it. And, you know, I got to have, you know, we had great people on there. I had like Sharon Osborne and people like Daisy Fuentes and Lindsay Lowen and we had all these kind of interesting people that actually let me film with them. And so the public got to see this not just the usual, you know, glue gun madness that you see on home decorating shows. Right.

This was real true decorating TV and all the dramas in the mix. Right. And I think, you know, in doing it, you have a very unique, like, bold style, but then you make it special for each person. But I feel like if someone's going to hire you, they're not gonna get some bland restoration hardware

kind of a look, even if that's the, the look that everybody's doing. And has it ever been hard where you have a client and it's like you just are not viving with what they're asking for? Like how do you make that work? Yeah, you know, the extraordinary thing in my career is that I've gotten to work with unbelievable people.

Incredible celebrities, you know, heads of state royalty. So everybody's got their own vibe, their own style, their own thing that they want. And for me, it's been the most important thing to kind of get into their heads. and extract their decorative fantasies. Now, I've had one or two along the way. I had an Arabian prince once that wanted to gold leaf his garage.

So when he drove his car in, he was in a golden glow. With real gold. With real gold. Which was so mad. And not, you know, not the most tasteful experience. But then I've gotten to work with people like, you know, Sir Elton John and David Furnish that have the most extraordinary homes, of the most incredible art collections

and are extraordinary people. Yeah. Share, for instance. You know, when I first got to work for Cher, it's kind of mad. She said to me, babe, I want to decorate my house. Like a, like a, I want to be a Buddhist behaving badly. That is a great.

That was my bad sharing pressure. Okay, I'll do it for you. Babe, I want to just be like a Buddhist behaving badly. I want you to walk in and be like, what is this, but I'm comfortable and peaceful. You got it. Okay. It was crazy.

But amazing. Imagine having somebody. Was that her beach? Was that the Malibu house? Yeah, that was the Malibu. So imagine something saying that to you. It's so fun to have these mad things that you can come up with. Yes.

And how does it work? Now, obviously, your clients are very, you know, of a wealthy level. How do you talk budget with someone? What is that? I mean, is every. everybody like the sky is the limit or do they say, hey, I only want to spend, you know, 50,000 on this room. I want the majority to be in this room. And of course it's different if we're pulling out a kitchen versus we're going to paint the walls, wallpaper and, you know, furnish it.

Everybody has a budget at the end of the day. Even the richest people. I mean, I've got people that are worth 20 billion right now and they still have a budget. You know, they still, I'm not going to start presenting million-dollar chandeliers. You know, they're going to freak out. So you've got to understand the value of money. And it's really important for me, actually, to give a service where people understand the value of it at the end of the day. Whether you budget is $200,000 or $20 million,

you've got to make sure that it feels right and somebody is actually getting the right value out of it at the end of the day. You know, again, I create magic. lifestyle and we give people new lives because that's what your home can do to you. You know, it gives you a new sense of who you are. Yeah. And that is invaluable. But there are budgets.

There are budgets. Sadly. Sad but true. This is the cover of Sunset Magazine and this is you and your Palm Springs home that I've been lucky enough to go many times for fabulous parties during Modernism Week because this is is one of those, is your home, your home is one of, how do you say it? Like the, well, it's, historical. Yeah, it's a listed American landmark.

Okay. It's a great mid-century house. You know, as you know, the history of it was, it was originally Roger Moore, who was one of the great James Bond's, and then it was Hugh Hefner's. So it was like the playboy in the desert for a while. I'm obviously I had to scrub that pool before I got in it. Actually, one of the great stories, is I was having dinner with Joan Collins.

I've been in the pool. You've been in that pool. I love the pool. I was having dinner with Joan Collins one night. And I said, well, I've just bought a house in Palm Springs. And she went to me, oh, darling, I remember swimming naked in that pool. That's amazing. That's divine. I love it.

And you guys, you and your husband, partner, Michael, you've had this house for quite a while. And every time I go there, though, it feels like you still are doing a little something. Like, how with your own house? You're done. You're like, you did it, you know? Every room looks great. Everything is perfect. How do you just go, like, we're good?

Or when are you not good? Or how often do you change it? There is never a finish. Okay. I'm never at the finish line. All right, yeah. There's always something new that I've seen that I love or a piece of art I want to change. Or, you know, it's like all of us.

Every day we're new people. Yeah. Right? You wake up in the morning. you might feel completely different the way you did yesterday. So my interiors evolve. Plus, I'm a complete spendaholic maniac. So I'm always out buying something or the other.

I've got to work out where it's going to go in one of my houses. But, again, I love it. I'm a collector. I really enjoy that. And it gives me great joy to keep decorating. When have you ever had something where they say, just do it, just do it. take this, I love what you do and, and they're not happy. Have you ever had a, like, I'm sure it wasn't often, but have you ever had a time

where someone just wasn't really that thrilled? I mean, I've had the odd thing where someone didn't like a sofa or something along the way, but I think the craziest story is I did a TV show in England called Hollywood Me. Hollywood, what? Hollywood Me. Okay. Where I picked up like a kind of a wonderful, deserving person, like a police woman or something on the street. And I sent her to Hollywood for a makeover.

And while she was in Hollywood, I redid their home. Oh, okay. I like that. And they came back and they didn't know this was going to happen. And they're all dolled up, you know, sort of had the hair done and the vagina steamed and all the Hollywood stuff. And suddenly come home and they've got a whole new house. Well, I had this guy that was obsessed with some rap guy that he loved. And we sent him to Hollywood.

and he got to meet this Buster Rhymes. He got to meet Buster Rhymes. But his dream had always been to live in a castle. Now, he lived in a very small sort of two-up, two-down little house, a council house they're called in England, which means they're sort of subsidized by the government. And so I went in and turned this little thing into a castle. Stone-blocked the walls.

I went to some local auction. I bought like a, I have to admit, it was plastic, but like a suit of armor. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the whole thing, it was hilarious. And when he came back, I was dressed as like a night, you know, greeting him outside in my, in my, with my helmet and everything. Well, he walked in. Oh, my God, and he cried.

He was like, this is the best thing you've ever seen. I can't believe it. Then the wife came. And then she really cried because she hated it. She was like, what is this? What's happened? Is my family home? She looked like I live in Lego Land.

Yeah, I'm like, I live in Legoland. Totally. I can see that. God, it was so dry, and it was all on camera. That's funny, because I've seen some of those ones where they, on a budget, whatever, well, we do a family room. And it's rare, but sometimes they're not into it, you know, and I'm just always wondering, like, oh, my God,

as the interior designer, like, someone not loving it, when you look back at, like, million-dollar decorator, which was, like, what, 17, 18 years ago? I think the first series was 14 years ago. Okay. When, like now when you look back at those designs or remember, are, do they stand today or is it, does it look dated? It's interesting, actually. Saturday night, this Saturday, I just had dinner with Sharon Osborne.

And Sharon was on my first episode. And I read an apartment for her in Ozzy. They were moving into Sierra Towers, which is a tower block building in Hollywood, a famous one. Whilst they were redoing their big house and they were going to be there for two years. And so we did it on the show. and Sharon said to me oh my god she said you know I loved that apartment it was so cozy and comfortable

kind of now on my own you know I wish I'd something like that again so I looked at it I went back and looked at it yesterday it's the first time I've seen that show in 10 years or something and I have to say it kind of stood the test of time like the furniture shapes

weren't quite what I would do today but it still felt right because it felt like them it was a little rock and roll it was you know there was the sort of bat chandelier hanging around for Aussie. But yeah. So, but in general, I think, decorating changes, you know, there are trends that happen every, every season.

But people invent trends to make money. You know, like, like, like, you know, a shop, crate and barrel or Williamson or whatever it is, will say, this season it's turquoise, next season it's orange. So it's to keep you buying. Right. The reality is, I don't believe in trends. I believe that you should decorate to what you love and how you like to live. And I truly believe that modern luxury, the most important thing is comfort.

So as long as you feel comfortable, that's the number one rule. So trends I don't go along with. I like to make the trends. I don't want to follow them. Yeah. I mean, I like a big, white, I like white, light, bright, you know, kitchen that overlooks the backyard. And that's what I have now.

And I know that I want to do more to it. Because when we came, when we bought it, it was redone, you know, with the beautiful white cabinets and, you know, classic beautiful wood floors, white, everything was painted white. There was no furniture in it. And it's like, it's hard to like make the leap of going, well, do I do the dining room in the color drench? But then is that weird that the rest of the house is? just white and bright and kind of classic. Like, how do you... I believe that you should have continuity in a flow in, in areas that flow into each other.

Right. So if it's open plan, which I think mostly it is, right, from what I remember, really and truly, you need to have a palette that flows, but there's ways to introduce color. Art is really one of the most important ways. And art is very personal. Art is a real window into your own personality, which is why I love... When I'm working with people that have art collections, it's so... amazing because you get to understand who they are almost from the very beginning.

So art is a great way to put personality in. And things like pillows, you know, pillows and throws, they're so inexpensive. You can buy a pillow for 50 bucks. It's a way to add color without making a big commitment. Yeah. It's like in your all white living room, if you suddenly decide, you know what, how about trying a bit of navy blue? You know, buy a few navy blue pillows.

Get a navy blue throw right over the arm of the sofa. Or there's even all these wonderful sites like rugable. You know, I designed a line of washable rugs for rugable. Rugable rugs are like 500 bucks. They're amazing, they're indestructible. It's an inexpensive way to add some color into a space. Right. And if you hate it, you haven't, you know, you haven't blown you all.

Yeah, I think that's great. Now, when you speak about art, how, what is your opinion of just having the TV change the art all the time. Does that just horrify you? Did you see the look on my face? I mean, listen, I love, in today's world, TV's are part of our lives. You and I both made careers on TV. It's like, you know, we love it. So it's a feature that you can't hide. It's part of everyday living. And so I love those, those art TVs where you sink a piece of art on the TV and it sits there and it looks in the daytime like it's, you know, some beautiful painting. or some gorgeous photo of a zebra or something.

I think the ones that flash are very distracting, and I don't think that's chic. I think if you're going to do it, stick to one image. You can change the image, but don't have it flashing. Right. You know what I mean? Keep it there for a while. Try and match it to your interior.

Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. And then, so what would you say to someone who is, starting out as an interior design. Like what's your biggest tip to someone that's like doing it? How do they approach a client so that it's, we're all on the same page, you know, and they can kind of control the client

or to stick with it so they're not being run over? I think it's really, really important though. So the most important thing is that when you're dealing with a client, you are there to try and make, as I said earlier, their decorative fantasies come true. So you want to get to know them, you want to understand what they love, what it is they want. I ask a bunch of questions. So I ask, you know, what do you like about your present house or a present apartment?

What do you dislike about it? What do you love in your best friend's house? What's your favorite restaurant? What's your favorite hotel to go to? All those things become like a little thread that you can put together and make a tapestry that becomes the image that is them. Now, when I say what's your favorite restaurant, you know, they may say, oh, it's Spargo or Chaconis or Pizza Hut, whatever it is. It might not be because of the food. It might be because of the lighting.

It's the way it makes them feel. Do they feel sexy in that dim light or do they love the color of that booth that they sit in? So you can suddenly extract all these bits of information. And each part is part of the jigsaw puzzle. And that's how you kind of get not only. to understand them, it's how you get the confidence with them to trust you, that when you're going to do your presentation that actually represents them, of course it has to represent you too because I've hired you for your taste.

But it has to be part of them. And that's how you get a successful interior. This back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. Hi, I'm Laura Clary, mom, overthinker, and someone who has a complicated relationship with the back-to-school supply list. Can we just be honest for a second? Kids are expensive. Last year, I went all out on my daughter's school supplies, color-coded folders, the fancy pencil case, gel pens and 17 colors she absolutely needed. By October, she had one pencil left. One. I don't know what happened to the rest, and honestly,

neither does she. Amazon has everything your kids need for back to school at prices that won't make you want to cry in the school supply aisle. Great prices, huge selection. And when half of it goes missing by October, at least you didn't break the bank. So remember, with Amazon's low back-to-school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. I'm darn man. And this is what happens next. Each week on the show, I sit down with extraordinary people who have faced tremendous setbacks and yet somehow have found a way to turn them into their greatest strengths. Life is one long lesson of chaos. And here. And here, heading to the Emmys, and I have police complaints filed against me.

When your free will was about to be taken from you, what would you do if it was given back? Where did that need come from where you thought that you had to succeed in order to feel loved? He said, I have a work dad, I need a home dad. What happens next? When I came in he started crying. Everybody in life encounters hardships. What defines them is not those hard moments that they go through. It's about what happens next.

I decided to risk it all. I realized how valuable every day was. the work. Listen, Darra, I'm not going to pull punches. You can use your voice even if it's shaped. The stories are different, but the impact is the same. Only one question matters. What happens next? Yeah. Now let's go back a little bit to how you got started. Like, did you have a calling? Were you decorating homes at five? Like, how did this become a thing where you're like, this is my gift? I don't know if I was decorating homes at five, but My mom said that she remembers that I used to take, do you remember cassettes that were in those little, like, plastic things?

Yeah. One side was see-through, one side was black. Right. Apparently, I used to take all their cassettes out from their music system and line them up and make houses. And then I would take all the dolls furniture out of my sister's doll's house and put it in these houses. When I was like four or something, crazy. But, you know, I didn't have any idea I ever wanting to do design. I basically, I wanted to follow.

My dad had been an actor and an opera singer when he was younger. I wanted to follow in those footsteps. I'd always loved that kind of theatrical energy. My dad had another idea. He thought it was a very bad idea. It was a very hard industry. It was a very hard thing to do. And they paid all this money for me to have this smart education.

But by the age of 12, I convinced him every Saturday to rent me a stall in a market called Greenwich Market in the south of London. And I would take my little bit of allowance money, whatever it was, $10 or something. And I'd run around first thing in the morning with a torch to other people's stalls and see what I thought was pretty. Maybe it was a cup and saucer, maybe it was some silver spoon, sort of a bunch of junk, but pretty. I'd buy it.

And then I'd put it on my own stall. And I'd wait for the sun to come up and the American tourists to come. And you're 12 doing this? I was 12. and then I'd spin them a story about, you know, oh, the queen just had her morning breakfast tea out of this cup. And, of course, you know, and I'd sell it a profit. And it was amazing.

And people would be mesmerized by this, like, you know, kid selling this cup that apparently had just been nicked out of Buckingham Palace. So it was wild. I mean, I'm still spinning those stories now, but it's for a bit more money. That is crazy. So I did that from 12 until I was 16. And by the time I was 16, I'd made enough money that I could pay my own way to go to drama school.

So that summer, I put myself through the summer course at Rada, the Royal Academy of Dracartre, Dramatic Arts. And by the time I was 17, I ended up enrolling in the Lee Strasbourg Theatre School in London. And I did that. All the time, going to these markets and still buying and selling things. At this point, I'd kind of graduated to silver or jewelry, things that were easy to carry. So I didn't have to have big boxes. And I kept doing that, kept making money and supported myself through all of that. And I didn't realize, but that sort of precocious child that was there, you know, making money and having fun, it was really my education.

Because I got to learn what period was something, what was a silver mark, what was regency, what was Edwardian, what was. Victorian and I really got to learn how you put two objects together and make them look better and that's what you do on a store when you're selling in a market you put two things together and you make them prettier and that's what you do in a house you put things together to make a beautiful picture and that was my education it's been my only education to this job yeah and so eventually you know I modeled for a little bit and I did all this staff and commercials and things in England and Eventually, when that time I was 21, I thought, I'm going to Hollywood, I'm going to be a star.

In your early 20s? 21. Okay. Moved to Hollywood. And I ended up doing another season at the Lee Strasbourg. And then I hit the pavement. And, of course, it wasn't easy. I worked in a coffee shop for a day until I blew the cappuccino machine up because I was flirting with someone, got fired immediately.

Just, you know, the usual crazy stories. Right. Eventually, I got cast in a movie called, I woke up early the day I died where I paled Arthur Kitt's boy toy. I was like her pianist. It was hilarious. Okay. And I befriended the producer on set.

And at that point, I mean, I really had no money, but I'd rented this really crazy little, house that like a little apartment that was behind pavilions market in west hollywood yes and that used to be charlie chaplin's movie theater his movie uh where we made movies the little house that you're renting no no where pavilions market oh okay uh-huh the little house i was renting he'd built as a dressing room for his star called norma talmage it's on a street called norma place now and norma talmage was a great silent movie star anyway this was her dressing room and so i rented this one weird space, had really high ceilings and small little rooms because it had been a makeup

room and a wardrobe room. And then later, I think in the like 50s or something, it had become the gambling den for Lucille Ball. She used to have all her girls go over then play cards. And it had been Tallulah Bankheads lesbian love nest. My God. And then it had been Judy Garland's little tiny house. when she split from Sid Laft, I think it was,

and she had no money, and she moved in there for a little bit. I didn't know that until Lorna left, her daughter, came one day to that little house to some barbecue thing I was having and recognized it. She said, oh, my mum used to lean against that tree. He had a tree growing through the middle of the house. My mum used to lean against that tree and sing. So this place had this crazy, magical, mad history.

Anyway, this producer, Victor Ginsburg, I told him about it, And he was like, can I come see it? Sounds amazing. So he came with his then girlfriend, walked in, and he was like, wow, this place is amazing. Who decorated this? And I was like, who decorated it? I said, it's all junk that I bought in the Rose Bowl, flea market.

I said, you know, I had no money. I just put these weird things again. And he was like, well, I love it. I want you to come and decorate our offices, the Hollywood Filmworks. I was like, my God, I was 22. I've never heard of anything like it before. I went. I basically started to decorate.

He had $30,000, which I thought was a vast amount of money, to decorate 5,000 square feet. Kind of hilarious. I buy lamps for that these days for people. But I mean, I managed to do the whole thing. Again, from the flea market. I put like old Indian doors on the wall and beaten up club chairs from the flea market.

And it was like a crazy, it was like out of the food. Africa goes to India via the Pasadena flea market. Yeah. But he loved it. Yeah. And I thought, oh my God, this is brilliant. He's going to put me in another movie. Well, the day it was, literally the day it was finished, I got a phone call from a lady

called Liz Heller. And she was like, I've just been to Hollywood film works. I love it. Will you come and decorate my offices? I'm in the capital building. I was like, the capital building. Is that the White House? You know, I had no idea what was going on.

Turned out she was the president of Capitol Records. her office was Frank Sinatra's old office. I went over there, we clicked immediately. And I, of course, in my crazy, 22-year-old brain thought, oh my God, I can sing. Maybe I'll decorate and I'll be singing songs while I'm doing it, and she'll give me a recording contract, and I'll be a pop star. Well, anyway, it turned out, I end up doing her office,

doing her house. At her wedding, she sat me next to Cheryl Teigs, who was the world's first ever supermodel. By the end of the wedding, Cheryl hired me. Nine months later, we were on the cover of six magazines around the world, and my career was born. By the time I was 24, I had on my books, Sigourna Weaver, Rebecca Romaine, a 16-year-old, Christine Rangalera, Edward Norton and Sam Hayek. We were together at that point.

And when did you get to a place where you're like, I need to have people under me? and was that difficult? I didn't even know how to balance a checkbook. Yeah. I kind of still don't. To the horror of my accountant. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy.

So I think within a year, I realized I needed other people because I didn't know what I was doing. And so I ended up taking a partner for a while and I ended up bringing in staff. And it suddenly built. And because I kind of, by some, you know, magic fell into this celebrity world,

Once you're in that, one celebrity changes to another and you get, you go, you know, it's all word of mouth. And so that's how it happens. And ended up being, you know, working for Elton and Cher and as you know for the Kardashians. I mean, that's how we met at one of their Christmas parties. Yes, and then we were at the Joe Francis wedding. A crazy Joe Francis wedding. And Cheryl Teigs was there. And so then there was like another party at her house that I wanted.

went to and then we just yes and then you're friends with Lance Bass and like we just kept seeing each other at events and things like that and became friends when you talk about that you can sing and that you wanted to was like I could be a singer too what is what was your relationship because I vaguely remember you telling me this story but you did have a significant relationship with George Michael correct well dated him when I was like 19 for a minute yeah which was which was really amazing because he was a huge star there but it was all very hidden. You know what I mean? He was deeply in the closet. I was in the closet. I barely knew what was going on. As a teenage girl, Wham was like my first concert I ever went to. He was an amazing,

amazing man. And, you know, that was, I mean, we were kids, but it was such a fun thing. I was modeling at that point too. So we had these things in London when you were a model. You got a model pass, which was all the nightclubs, just wanted pretty people to come in. So they gave you these free VIP passes. And there was a great club in London called Browns. And I used to go with my girlfriends to this particular club, with our model passes, get front of the line and straight in. And that's where I met George.

And it was amazing. It was weird because we sort of looked alike back then. Yeah. Yeah. It was the 80s, you know, shoulder pads and long curly hair. Yeah, yeah. And so, anyway, it was an amazing period of, You know, just a fabulous thing to have happened.

Because not only was he an extraordinary guy, but I'm such a fan of his music. And still, I mean, that man really went too early because he was an unbelievable talent. And the music videos were like my favorite. As a creative person, when you look at the creativity that George had, and you look at those videos, you know, had Herbert, you know, videographing those extraordinary. ordinary things and directing them. Those were works of art. Yeah. True works of art.

And he's one of those artists whose music, I'll never forget sitting there one day just listening to him compose. It was wild. It just came to him. It was like magic. It's like watching Shakespeare write. Those songs are still so prevalent today. I just heard a remix that somebody did a Careless Whisper.

It was so amazing. It felt so fresh. And the Christmas song is the best effort. Incredible. It's like that and Moran Carey's are like the two favorite Christmas songs of the last 30 years, you know? You mentioned the Kardashians. So how many of the Kardashians' homes did you do? Because I feel like you did almost everybody.

All of them. I mean, the only one I didn't really do was Kim. We kind of did a fix-up for a bedroom and got some bits and pieces along the way. But I did obviously first was Courtney, then Chloe, then Chris, then Kylie. and then Kendall. It was what? Kylie's story, which was the cover

of Architectural Digest, was... How old was she then? 21, just. So it was like her first kind of first big thing? She had just made a billion dollars. Off the lip kits.

Off the lip kits. Just pregnant with the first baby. It was her first like big real house situation up in Hidden Hills. And it was pretty amazing. It's pretty amazing to work for a 21-year-old

with a billion dollars. I mean, I was very respectful of that. I don't want to run around spending money on crap. I mean, we really did a beautiful design for her and a very particular design. I mean, and it was very personal, even things like her dining chairs, her leather dining chairs,

I had the leather custom dyed to match each one of her best-selling lip kit colors. That is brilliant. Yeah, everything was very, very, like, perfectly done for her. But that story, which ended up on the cover of Architectural Digest, with her in this amazing Mark Jacobs' dress is still the biggest interior design story in history.

It got 1.6 billion views within the first 36 hours. That has never happened. Before or again. Power of the Kardashians. I mean, absolutely. So now, and working with all of them, and I'm not trying to make the sisters fight,

but personalities match or working with someone, who was the easy? Or who was, did you feel like you connected with the best? Honestly, Courtney had done kind of a crazy house before that was like very mad. And when you're young, you do mad things. When she came to me, she'd seen other houses that I'd done. She'd spent time in those Joe Francis houses in Mexico and seen all of that. And she had really kind of, you know, those guys have been exposed to the best of the best now all over the world.

And so she was really already educated into the idea of wanting a more sophisticated home. And so we really did something beautiful. I got her to collect important mid-century furniture. I got her to start a real art collection. We went and visited art galleries together. And so that was wonderful because it was a learning process and it saw somebody evolving and their taste evolving. And she's passionate about designs.

That was really fun. And, you know, Chloe's fun and wild and crazy. And that was great. And we did kind of a Moroccany thing in her house that was very sexy and loungy and, you know, that's kind of her personality. Kylie was young, so that was fun in the kind of educational moment of creating a home for a young person that still had real essence. Because Chris has got fabulous taste.

Right, agree. But she's Mama Bear, so she really oversees everybody and everything. I feel almost like she has the last saying all of it. And so Chris was there guiding the train on the tracks with that one. But it was really fun. I tell you the one who has the most individual taste and cool taste is Kendall. Kendall's a super cool girl. She know what she likes.

She knows what she likes. She's got different taste to everybody else. She doesn't need to follow trends or follow the look of anyone else. She's got her own signature, which she's continued to do in houses that she's done. You know, since I stopped working for her and she moved to other decorators, she's done that because she wanted to experiment and see and feel other things and other ways to live. And she's done that in a bunch of homes and I really respect that about her. Yeah, I think it's so interesting.

You know, way back in the day, before the Kardashians were on TV, I was a realtor and I sold Courtney her condo. Did you? I didn't love that. And it was a very cute, like townhome. And, you know, and Chris was there and she was like, oh you know Courtney you could put this here this here and she was just like and it was just that mother-daughter thing where she I remember she was like mom I'm not making my house look like yours you know and it's true it's like you know when you when you have your own thing you just assume like that's what I like and and as you get older and you are successful as they are you know then that it's really cool that they you know can enjoy their own style and all of that but what did you think when And like for me, when Kim was with Kanye and we're hearing these stories of how they got all the Italian marble and then we're pulling out the Italian marble. And there's, you know, there's no color and it's this insane asylum. Did you ever go to that house?

I never went to that house. I only saw photos and stuff. I mean, I went to that house and it was very stark. It was, I mean, it was Kanye. This wasn't. That's what I'm saying. That's what I. It was Kanye led. for sure. It was very, there was very little furniture in there. The pieces that were in there were kind of like museum quality.

It did not feel livable. It felt very museum. Like, it didn't feel like a house that you bring kids up in, that's for sure. And it's interesting because Kim has got a really, you're like loving kind of, you know, wrap your arms around you kind of experience, especially with her family, about her. And so it was interesting to see it at home because it felt so cold. It's so interesting that even someone at her level of success can get into a dynamic with a partner where, yeah, I was like, when they broke up, I was like, okay, good, can she now dress herself? I want to see her sexy clothes again. I want to see her play, like her kind of embrace her own thing again a little bit. because it's like we were all watching it. And at that time, they were presenting like everything was good. But you were like, really?

And I remember even when the baby was born Northwest, like it was in shopping for a gift, we were told like beige, brown or black. That's it. That's the only thing the baby will wear. And I remember thinking, this daughter's going to have her own style one day and boy, does she now, you know, like, but it was just, and I was like, There's no way that Kim, who is like the most girly girl, is cool with like never allowing her daughter to wear pink or purple or yellow. I think, you know, when you're in love with somebody, you know, you get immersed in their world immersed in that experience.

And Kanye, as crazy as he may be, whether he is or isn't, a lot of people think he is, but he's also a genius. Totally agree. He's super genius. His music's incredible. His lyrics are incredible. I mean, he is a genius. And so when you have that around you, you get influenced by that. And it's overpowering.

And by the way, he brought in the best of the best. He had extraordinary people like Vincent Van Dyson and my God, the Belgian. There's a fabulously famous Belgian decoration. I can't remember this name of who's extraordinary. they brought in, Axelvovort, they brought in amazing people

to work with them. It's just what Kanye wanted it to be very severe. Now, obviously, Kim's warmed it back up.

She's brought in her great personality, her great style. And obviously, she's still, she's been educated by that experience with Kanye

to understand great art and great things, and she's probably still incorporating all that in her life. Yeah. The Kardashians,

the Kardashian Jenners have been exposed to the best, the best. They've been to the greatest houses. They know the wealthiest people. They've seen the most magnificent things, been to the best parties, thrown the best parties. So they've really educated themselves so much that now they're extracting that into their own style. And listen, they're pretty extraordinary. Oh, I totally agree. I think it's amazing, you know, what they've all built. And it's fun to watch. Well, you've seen it almost from the beginning. Yeah, and I always was thinking, you know, as a mom, Chris was so smart.

She created a business and a way that literally Kendall's the only one that I think doesn't live in Hidden Hills. Yeah. So, you know, she's got five of her six kids living in this community with her. I'm like, this is a mom's dream to have your kids be successful enough that they're not. living in your house, but they're living, you know, a five, ten minute drive away. And they're all working together. And then even if we're not having Sunday night dinner, we'll have to meet because we've quit filming a show or we're getting paid.

And we'll just have our salads on camera and talk. And it's just, it's just the most. Yeah, sell the salads. Like, it really is like such a genius thing. Oh, my God. And the reason it lasts is because they really are sisters and a family. you know, and so it will continue on forever. And their bonds extremely tight.

Yeah. And Chris is a genius businesswoman. And, you know, people don't even know. They're very religious. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, people don't know that about them. They're very religious. So they have these really strong core values.

I enjoyed so much working with them. You know, I've enjoyed being friends with them. You know, I've been on vacation with Chris. And, you know, it's been, it was an amazing journey. The most extraordinary part of all of it is that obviously, I mean, and you and I were both on the show. We were both on keeping up with the girl missions along the way. The most extraordinary part of it is that the connection with Kylie brought me a younger audience.

So suddenly 12-year-old girls knew who I was, which has been wild. Yeah. You know, I was actually, I was in Paris like five weeks ago at Couture Week. And it's funny, we went, oh my God, it was so hot. We went to the Gotee show and I saw, I've been working with Cardi B. I saw Cardi be there. Whenever to say hi. As I was walking out, a little girl stopped me.

She was like, I don't know, 18, probably. A young lady, I should say, not a little girl. She went over and she went to me, oh my God, she said, I first saw you on the Kardashians when I was 12, and I've loved you ever since and I've been following you. And I was like, my God, that is the power of the Kardashians. You know what I mean? Now I've got 12-year-olds following me on Instagram.

Right, yeah, it's amazing. You know, when you talk about spirituality and everything, I, and you're a spiritual person, and I believe, you know, in putting out energy in the end, I believe you get signs from those who have passed on. And have there been any amazing, like, interior design stories where, you know, already you told me how many kismic things have happened living in this Hollywood house and how your career went. And if you didn't do this, then this wouldn't have happened.

And, you know, all these. And I believe it's so great now as we get. older you start to almost connect like everyone has that if you open your mind to it and see it and look for the signs and be grateful do you have any like situations like that where yeah i mean by the way weirdly every single house that i own has had some extraordinary connection with it my old my old i still own it actually but my house in hollywood in old hollywood in wittley heights um was the home of Gloria Swanson. God, that's my mom's favorite movie.

Rudolph Valentine's. Well, she lived there when she shot Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard. Rudolph Valentino and the famous writer William Faulkner. My house I live in now. Have you been to my new house? Yeah, you've been to my new house. No, no, not in Beverly Hills.

No, it looks like him going this weekend. That house, Andy Warhol lived there. Tina Turner lived there. Wow. Dennis Hopper lived there. I mean, so all these houses have had these extraordinary people. I haven't known that when I've bought. them. It's just been something about that energy that somehow that creative energy draws you in

and attracts you to that. But I'll tell you a crazy story. A lot of people don't believe in ghosts and things like that. I did this unbelievable house in Ireland. Extraordinary, 18th century property, magnificent restoration. It was one of my favorite projects because we got to shop the entire world to bring back 18th and 19th century furniture to Ireland, sort of that had been, you know, sold off at auctions everywhere else, and we brought it all back and restored this extraordinary house. So anyway, we're installing it. I'm there with my little assistant at the time, installing this great big house, and there was a bedroom that was at the end of the hallway, smaller bedroom, and this beautiful old fireplace, Victorian fireplace,

had been walled up. And so I had it opened so we could see the fireplace again and kind of restored it and decorated the room more beautiful. And I bought this gorgeous mirror that was the shape of a liar. You know, a liar is like an Irish harp. Yes, yes. And so I had these big burly Irish delivery guys and these big kind of, you know, Guinness drinking bloke.

And doing all the install. And I suddenly heard from this room a scream. I thought, my God, whatever is that? ran in and this big burly guy who'd been up a ladder with another man next to him was hanging the mirror and he was white he was white as a ghost and the mirror was on the floor right over the other side of the room smashed on the floor and he was like oh my god he said i don't know what happened he said i was hanging the mirror he said and it came off the wall hovered in the air and shattered in front of the fireplace which was right across the other side of the room

It wasn't like he dropped it. You could tell he hadn't dropped it. So we're like, wow, this is so crazy. And he said, I don't know what it was. He said, but I'm leaving. I can't be here anymore. It's a huge, great big Irish guy. So we were like, God, whatever's going on?

Anyway, I did a bit of investigating. It turned out that in the late 19th century, this had been a nursery, and there'd been an Irish housekeeper or Irish, you know, nanny. who was a drinker and one of the family's kids, this baby, I guess, had colic or whatever and would stop crying. And she threw the baby in the fire and killed the baby. And then she went down to the lake and drowned herself.

So this room had had the end at that terrifying energy. And so at some point they'd blocked up the fireplace because they didn't want that happening. Of course, me not knowing any of this, it opened the fireplace. Oh, that's right. And release that crazy energy. And so, and we couldn't get this room warm. We'd turn the heating. I've heard that about ghosts.

A lot, they can kind of control the heat or the air, like how cold it is. Oh, my God, it was so wild. So I, we literally brought in the local priest and we did an exorcism and got rid of the energy. And now the family member that uses that bedroom all the time said they've never felt anything weird or whatever, which I think that we kind of helped move the spirit on. But isn't that a crazy story? Yes.

And it was literally, if it hadn't been that I'd walked in and seen this guy up on the ladder on the far side of the room and seen this mirror over on the floor, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have thought he just broke it. But the fact we found all that out afterwards, crazy. Now, you know, with real estate and everything, you have to disclose, at least in California, from our real estate days, if someone died in the house, if it was a violent murder, I think you have to say it was a violent murder. But if they died, like, you're not to say what it was. Because actually, they wanted to make sure that it wasn't people saying someone died of AIDS, like in the 80s. So they're like, if they died, you just have to say, hey, they died.

But they didn't have to disclose what they died from. but then of course if there's like a violent murder like a you know Sharon Tate whatever people know that and would you buy a house you know that had like this violent history but it's a gorgeous house and it's a great view and like the way that someone um you know I always was like well I've never been presented with that but if it was the house of my dreams for me I think if it it's almost like amniville horror like I almost think if if the crime I matched like our family. Like, let's say it was the husband went crazy or the mother went crazy and it killed everyone in the house.

No, I don't think I'd want to buy that house. You know what I mean? Yeah, I couldn't do it. Yeah. I couldn't do it. If somebody has a heart sack or dies of old age and it was the house they loved and, you know, you get it because it's life. It's part of the journey. But a murder or something.

I mean, that RX show American Horror Story. Yes. You know, where they heard that house, that crazy. which by the way, that house they filmed that in is supposedly haunted. It's like down by Hancock Park. Really? It's a huge old mansion. And it's super scary.

And it's been on the market forever. And so, you know, and you see all those. I mean, that show freaked me out. I couldn't watch that at home on my own. I can't really watch much of that stuff too. That's too scary. Like, I'm the person. I am scared by like ghosts and devil and the priest has to come in and the exorcist.

Maybe because I was raised Catholic. Like, that stuff. scares me. Yeah. No, it freaks me out. Yeah. Like literally. I will never forget that house and I had to go and say that one night on my own, like a 20 bedroom house. I was petrified. Absolutely petrified. I actually went to bed fully clothed. You guys like to get up and run out in the middle of the night. Yeah. So, but yeah, literally I think that I couldn't buy a house that have bad energy in it. Yeah.

And I feel like you feel energy. Yeah. Don't you think? Yeah. I mean, I've heard from people saying that like they walked in or they've brought a medium or psychic who just says there's something, I'm not feeling it, whatever. And then the realtor's like, could you not get rid of the psychic? I almost felt like, you know, I'm ready to make a sale or whatever.

But yeah, I do think that's kind of interesting about or like a piece, like if there was some piece of furniture or something that might. like this is like coming to like a horror story but as an interior designer I saw I saw this thing recently just coming across it was a female who's an interior designer and she said one of her biggest regrets and I thought it was kind of interesting and she said I had these clients and I'd worked for them with them for years but they're very private people she didn't necessarily say why they were private but obviously they had a lot of money because they were great clients so I don't know if they were you know Wall Street people or whatever and

And, but there was like one design or something and they said, yeah, you can, you know, give those photos and be in a magazine, but we were very private. And then there was another opportunity where she like did an interview or something and she never, she never talked to them about it before. And then they like called her and they were like, you know, we really don't appreciate that. And then they never worked with her again. And I thought it was really brave that she like shared the story. of like her biggest regrets of like boundaries and working with people. And this is such a world of like, for interior designers, comedians, everybody, like social media is so important.

Yeah. And so like what would be your advice in dealing with people? I think like, is it like right off the bat? Like, you know, are you down to let me share this? Are you not? You know, or what aspects of it? Yeah. But just to go back to one in for one second.

once we had that priest come in and get rid of that, the energy totally changed, and it became this unbelievably happy house again. So you can change things with those people. Well, I do think, you know, when they do the sage, and it is good to know, like, yeah, bring in like the poltergeist lady. And it changed the whole energy. And it's an extraordinary, happy family house.

So maybe if there is a great deal, but there's a scary thing, you might just bring in, bring a wand of everybody, you know? Bring it in. Do whatever. Yeah. Okay, so contracts for me with clients. I mean obviously confidentiality is very important. I have a lot of celebrity clients.

In general, the celebrities, because they are public, they enjoy the publicity with their home because it's another extension of who they are and sometimes it ends up actually bringing them, they get like, you know, a license for some home goods or, you know, so people see you've got great taste and great style, they want to emulate that and be part of that. The Kardashians are a great,

great advocate for that kind of thing, for instance. But I do believe that you have to respect your client's privacy when they want it to be respected. You can't talk about people without them knowing or having agreed to it. Almost every one of my clients have allowed us to publish. I think in my entire career there's only been a couple of clients where we couldn't publish the projects and that's because they were

public figures and they'd had like death threats or, you know, crazy stuff that's, that's happened along the way. And I get it. Listen, I once had a mad stalker who broke into my house and tore pictures out of people that were with me in the photo frames and stuck their own facing. Wait, when was this? This was a few years ago when I was back on TV all the time. Did you know that was the person stalking you and then one day you came home and saw that they'd gotten in your house or how did you know? you get when you're on TV you get mail from prisoners sometimes yeah you know I started to get all this mail from these from from prisoners some of it scared me but you know and then and then my press agent was

dealing with it and I didn't ever really see it for a while anyway some guy actually had become obsessed and had come out of prison and thought we were having it you know they thought it was the love of his life um broke into my house which is in that in that in the Beverly Hills. It was actually when I was living in West Hollywood. Okay. Broke into my house. Didn't take anything or anything but just went around at the time I had loads of like picture frames on tables and things and carefully. So he like took a frame, did the little thing, took it out, other people's faces like my mum and dad's face and stuck pictures of himself in. And put the frame back together. I didn't

notice. So at the time my housekeeper like who would come like two days a week, called me like, oh my God, what is this? She said, I don't know what's happened. She's just so strange. I think she thought I'd lost my mind and I'd done it. I was like, what are you talking about? I came home from, I couldn't believe it. All over my house.

I didn't even noticed. I mean, said he must have been in your house for a couple hours. Which then petrified me. So, yeah, so we had called the police. I had to get, they gave me a stun gun. Oh my God. So I managed to stun my own leg. was like somebody walked up to me

while I was coming down the street and I thought it was the crazy person I tried to get the stun gun out and stun my own leg and my leg like flew out to one side and split my tracks that was the end of the stun gun did they ever find him

they did they did he'd done it to have two or three people but I mean it's crazy so there's crazy did he go back to prison there's crazy people out there yes yes oh wow

so there's you know this is a crazy world Yeah. But that was a mad thing that happened. So having had that happened to me and my tiny little bit of fame in the world makes you understand that people that are really famous, you'll have really crazy people after them. Yeah, it's really scary when you see that.

I'll never forget shopping one day with Chloe Kardashian. We went to a store called the Rug Company to look at Rugs. And we came out and she was about to get in her car. And some maniac guy came by on her bicycle and squirted stuff in her face. like for no reason it could have been asked it could have been anything I know

it was just water so when that kind of stuff happened you just can't believe how crazy it is out there yeah so I understand when people want privacy and you have to respect that

so in my contracts it always has a thing that specifies you know that we're allowed to take pictures for our own internal use and that if we're going to publish anything we ask their permission first

and get written emailed permission from them to allow us to do that. And that way you're all protected. Yeah. Well, I think it's amazing everything that you've done. And I'm excited about this. This is your Instagram, which is amazing if you want to see lots of great scenes. The hotel, the houses.

It's Martin Ballard. But also, now I want to ask you being English, how do you think about Harry and Megan leaving Montecito and sending their kids to the English school and coming back to England. Well, it's wildly unexpected. I'm shocked. I didn't see this coming. Wildly unexpected. I have met Harry and Megan a few times up in Montecito. They're great friends of a friend of mine, a client of mine, and they couldn't be more charming in person. I had a very weird thing happen, though. When they first moved to Montecito,

The Daily Mail, you know, which God knows, write some crazy stuff, had on the front page, Elton John's decorator designs for Harry and Megan, multi-million dollar home. It was complete crap. I'd never even met them at that point, let alone design for them all, you know. And people are so venomately against them. I got death threats. I got literal death threats come to my office saying

how can you design for them? They're disgusting people. Like a piece of mail? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got all this mail and stuff on my Instagram and DMs from people. You're a disgusting human. How could you work for them?

It was shocking. Really shocking. So there is major hatred out there primarily for her, I think. And do you think primarily from the people of England? Like you've screwed up the monarchy. I think a lot of it was English. I mean, listen, the scandal of the interview with Oprah was pretty wild.

Yeah. There were a lot of things that should never have been said on that. There were things that were completely inaccurate or things that gave the impression of something that wasn't real and was said in a way that maybe would give people the wrong impression of the royal family. I'm a royalist. I'm English, you know, I love the royal family. They have been, they're the hardest workers, and they are the number one tourist industry for England.

The money they bring into the country is unbelievable, and they provide a great living for people. And the history of the royal family is extraordinary, 2,000 years old or whatever it is. It's really part of English culture. And I think it's very sad that Megan wasn't able to. to find her position in that because she could have become the new princess diana i mean i was so excited when it started and i i thought she was great i thought it was so cute yeah i was happy to watch the wedding i think the moment too was when she like didn't think it through like you're trying to be funny and you're like when she mocked having to bow to the queen it was very unnecessary and he was

just standing there like that's where I'm like I'm sorry she not educate like was she not educated or did she or did she not have the right big sister you know to like show her like this is what works with this is what doesn't you know and I don't know it seems like unfortunate I mean part of me feels sorry for her because I think you don't know what you're going into in those situations you kind of you know she bit off more than she could chew in essence you are a public She's already been a public figure by being an actress, but being an actress is very different from being a member of the royal family. You know, you're in the public eye 24-7.

There's no escape in a way. And you have to do public duties. And, you know, as an actress, you can wake up in the morning if you're feeling ill, you know, maybe they'll delay the shoot that day. If you've got 20,000 people waiting for you to cut a ribbon to open a Walmart or whatever it is, you have to be there and do it because it's Royal Duty. So it's a very different thing. I think it I think that's a really good point yeah that I think coming from California being an actress all that kind of things I've always said that because I related to a lot to her life story just you know middle class Catholic school went to college wasn't you know had to get her own way in the acting she wasn't like a full nepo baby your dad worked on a set in props or whatever so it's like I thought oh this is relatable so it's like if I married the prince you know and

And I definitely think that there was, like I said, like a lack of an education and understanding of what you're really getting into. And also just the gloomy weather, you know, when you come from California weather as a California, Southern California person, like, it's, it goes a little gloomy for a few hours and I'm like, my day is shot, like, I don't know how to deal. I shot that TV show in England two years ago. I was there January and February shooting. I thought it was going to kill myself.

you wake up it's dark and it just gets darker. My gosh. So I get that for sure. So I think that was a hard thing to adjust to and then yeah I think she just didn't really understand the depth of it being American. And of course with Princess Kate she grew up in England, she dated William for a very long time. She just was she was born for the role. She was born with her and she understood the role. Yeah. She really understood the role. Again, I think,

I think it's the saddest thing because she could have been the new Princess Diana. She could have done unbelievable things in the world for racism. Rather than creating now this big drama that everyone's racist and the royal family, everything, she could have gone the other way and she could have been the spokesperson as the first kind of mixed race princess. She could have done an unbelievable job in the world. And I think it's sad that she didn't step up to that. I still you know I also when you're an actor

you've got that inside of you and you want to fulfill that and I think it's quite sad that she had to give up the acting career I think if they'd been a bit more modern and allowed her to say you know you keep acting but also you need to do these royal duties and together she would have formulated a balanced life I think the fact she had to give up that career

to become a royal must have been very difficult well when she first got married I thought I predicted that she would be like the Oprah of England. And then she could have had the biggest podcast talk show there. Yeah. And speak to truly international, interesting people and still show her, like, who she is and have the best of both worlds. Sure, she wouldn't have been, you know, able to totally go off.

But she's not like a crass person. So it's like, it's not like me doing it, you know? like so yeah I feel like it was all like kind of these missteps and I don't know maybe going back do you think that she could ever win the people over again now I don't think so I think she'd have to really change the way somehow the other to get it back I don't think it's coming back there's been so much damage so why are they even even Oprah damaged her own career by doing that Yeah. ...overover's never recovered in the people's, you know, minds after doing that

because she allowed a bunch of, not a bunch, but some lies to be told and the shock and horror and the whole thing. It damaged Oprah's career. Oprah, the queen of television. Pretty wild. So do you think they're going back because of financial reasons? Because all their L.A. deals have dried up. And in England, you know, try this.

I don't know. I mean, for deals, for filming, for stuff like that, America's the number one. It's where you make money. That's an impossible track to the UK. But I don't know if they're going back because maybe Harry's missing his family, maybe, you know, the king's not been well for a long time. Maybe he's going back for that. I understand the education thing because Harry was educated in those fine English schools. isn't anything really comparable to that for younger children anyway here. Certainly later in life you have Harvard and Yale and all those things. But when the kids are young, the schools are very different. I mean, if I had a little prince and princess as she does,

and their dad is the prince of England, yes, go to school in England. Like, are you kidding me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, I do think it's smart. It's now or never. And maybe it can be repaired. Maybe the kids will form their own connection to their aunt and uncle. You know what I mean?

It's like Andrew and Fergie. Yes. You know, the scandal of Prince Andrew, well, not Prince Andrew anymore, Andrew Windsor, as he is now. Wow. The scandal of that has been so wild. They really made her the bad girl Fergie. Oh, well. Remember the photo of the guy sucking?

Oh, of course. Remember, like, Fergie's boyfriend was sucking her toe? I'm friends with Johnny Bryant. hilarious. He's hilarious. character. That was her boyfriend? The toe sucker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, they, we didn't know that they were separated open marriage, that he was hanging out with Epstein. We didn't know. So we, but we saw her, like they made her to be the enemy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, I mean, it's really both of them.

I mean, Prince Andrew made a complete fall of himself doing that documentary. No, absolutely. But I'm saying at the time that we Americans saw the tabloids of the toe sucking, it was like, fur, fur, you know, Oh, yeah. Is the bad girl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're getting divorced. But it's more like Fergie was the one that stepped out when this whole time, who knows all the crazy stuff Andrew was doing, you know? Well, history repeats itself.

Yeah. My God. Amazing. But I think there's so much scandal going on with my uncle Andrew and Fergie and maybe we'll come back and there'll be so much else going on. No one over really notice. Yeah. I don't think it's the case. I think the press will be all.

over them. I think they'll have a hideous experience. And the fact that they just lost that giant lawsuit in England with the, I think it was with the Daily Mail was it, the definition thing, yeah, he was suing the papers and he did not prevail. Well, they've lost. Yeah. Them, Elizabeth Hurley, a bunch of them, they have to give like 30 million pounds back because they've got to pay all the legal fees for the other side. So. How much money does he have? Like I've seen 60 million from Diana, but does he have it all now? I heard it was only 15 million

he got from Diana because it was divided out, but I heard that he inherited money from the Queen Mother, his grandmother. So, but you know, and they had they did have deals here. I mean, I'm sure they got a $10 million deal. But they don't anymore. The Netflix deal

is done. The podcast deal is done. Right. And you know, even if she got an acting role, it's not convenient to live in Montecito and have to be driving to Burbank. And it's not going to pay you anything. I mean, when you're living that lifestyle, that's not going to do anything. Yeah.

And then her little cooking show or whatever, that didn't last. There's going to be something else going on there. There's got to be some monetary reason why they've moved back. I think it's like, I think it's the opportunity is dried up here. Yeah. The kids are school age. Yeah. I think it's like a number of things.

The dad is sick. if they wait too long, it may never get repaired. And how are they going to live the next 30 years? Who's going to pay for them the next 30 years? I think the rift between the two brothers is probably the biggest situation because that seems to be really terrifying. Do you think as a man, though, I feel like brothers could make up? Well, you would hope so.

I mean, I would hate to have. I have three older sisters. I'd hate to have any fallout that's longevity within any of them. It can happen. I mean, I have siblings. but I feel like because they only have each other. You know what I mean? Like sometimes there's like a black sheep or whatever

when you have a bunch of kids. Because they have each, they have each other. Only they know what it's like to have grown up. And then they were children of divorce and they were children who lost a mother young. Like that is, I think, what makes people so sad. They really want to see those brothers make up.

And that's the other thing where you sort of then blame the woman. And they know it wasn't Kate, They were fine. The three of them would do all these things together. You know what I mean? Like she was always including him. So, well, we'll still be interesting to see. And the truth is that none of us know what it must be like to be a royal.

No. And to live in that and to have to perform like that and to have to. I don't think his book helped either, the spare. The book was ridiculous. It was a lot of boo-hoo. That was ridiculous. Yeah. You know, we don't need to hear about his Frozen Willie.

Yeah. Well, I'm excited about your show. I love the name. Live, Love, and Decorate. This is your show that, tell everybody where they can watch it. Yeah, so this is on Homeworthy, which is on YouTube. It can just put in my name or Live Love and Decorate or Homeworthy. It comes up.

This has been a real passion project because, you know, I love travel. It's the one thing that inspires me more than anything else. it's the one thing that, you know, gives me, I think, the most knowledge in my design and feeds myself. So I love going to different cities. I love to travel. The one thing is, when you travel, you never know a city or a place or a country until you know the people that live there. So the whole pretext of this show is that I introduce you, to friends of mine that live in these cities and the way they live and the way they're influenced by the city and their culture and how that culture sort of helps them design their homes and live their lives. So it's really been fun. It's kind of like an Anthony Bourdain sort of thing, but design

oriented. And each episode I have like five or six different people in all different houses. I mean, and it's not just the rich and famous. Yes, there's some of that on them. there, beautiful, you know, mansions on the Bosphorus or old palaces in Tangier. But there's also, I've got a cross-dressing life coach, you know, living on a barge in London. We've got real, real diversity in the mix of this, which is what a city, which is what the world is. And so you get to see these people that have got great individual style. And they tell you why, and they tell you why they love where they are. And we've always got a connection, like my gorgeous friend, Neby, who many, many years ago, used to work for me as a sort of a design assistant, now lives in this extraordinary house in Istanbul.

And, you know, you see the beautiful friendship that we have, but also the connection through the design. And how actually visiting her all these years in Istanbul and in Turkey, I've been influenced with Turkish and Ottoman style in my own taste. And so you get all of that wonderful extract. So it's been really fun. And I also, in each show, I give not only an insight to the people, but I always show like a beautiful place to stay, like a gorgeous boutique hotel. Oh, I love that. And I show like a flea market or the grand bazaar or somewhere that I love to go shop.

You know, because being the demented shopper that I am, we have to go shopping everywhere. And so you always get a little bit, a little taste of those things. And so it's great. It's been so fun to do it. We did London, we did Paris, Tangier, Istanbul. Australia was really fun too, actually, those crazy Australians. It was just fabulous. So we got all this wild places and mix and stuff going on on it.

And so YouTube's a wonderful thing because YouTube allows you to put in your taste into the algorithm and it feeds you these great shows. And so now all these design enthusiasts are getting to see this show. Awesome. It's also great for travel. It's great for people that want to see a little, you know, want to be nosy into other people's lives. You know, there's a little celebrity in there.

It's got a little bit of everything. I've enjoyed it so much. Well, I just adored this conversation we had. And I feel like there were so many things and we've had so many dinners and stuff. And you still brought all these new stories to me. So it was great. Thank you so much. And everybody follow Martin on his Instagram because it's so great.

And it's Martin Ballard is just the full name. And Martin is spelled with a YN, cute. And follow him. And then you can also see the show, live, laugh, decorate. Live, love and decorate. Sorry, live love, not laugh. Live love and decorate. My show is your show.

My new show is Live, Laugh, Decorate. That's the one we'll do together. We'll live it up and decorate doing that together. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, the best.