The Chaser Report - When 81 meets 38: a billionaire’s love story

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Today Charles and Dom explore a modern love story for the ages – very different ages, namely those of 81-year-old billionaire investor Robert Whyte and 38 year old fashion marketer Alessandra Eddy. As well as eternal bliss, could they have unlocked the secret to solving the housing affordability crisis? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Hello, yes, we are back. I think we've got to start this episode by profusely apologising for our notionally daily podcast, not being daily. If anything, it seems to dwindled to a couple of times a week. We haven't been inundated by complaints though, Charles.

No. I wonder why that it may be. People are using this time to rest and reflect. Yeah, just to take a moment. Become better people. Become better people, do better. Yeah. Or maybe they're just going through the previous episodes.

Yes. And just reliving the highlights. Yeah, reliving all the very depressing COVID era podcast that we did. Although, Charles, that said, having looked at the stats, I'm not sure that's what's happening at the moment. I know, people are. I mean, look, the Bruce Lerman, I think now, the one we came back from holidays to do. Yeah.

All-time classic. Thanks, Bruce. That's gone very well. And today I want to talk about someone I only just became aware of. Oh, yeah. Charles, there's a new billionaire. Oh. Have you ever heard of Robert White?

This guy's literally called White. That's how White he is. Is he an Australian billionaire? Yeah, he's an Australian billionaire. Oh, right. And let me guess he's involved in gambling in some way. In a sense, property and equity market. Oh, no.

It's a kind of gamble where you always win. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, so he's made his first billion out of negative gearing. That's right. And out of making sure that, you know, the future generations cannot afford their own home. Now, that's where you're wrong. Oh. Because there's one very special member of the future generations who he's just gotten engaged to.

Let's find out after this. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. Fizz is 100% online so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month Certain conditions apply

Details at fizz.ca So I know it's a bit random to do this, Charles, but we had such fun with Rift Murdoch's most recent Amorous Adventures that I think we have to

acknowledge this person Robert White who just got engaged to Bob? Does he go by the name Bob? I don't know. Rob? Robby?

Robby. Bobby White. How old is he? Eighty-1. That's 81. 81 years old. He was a close friend of Kerry Packers. Right.

And has he only just become a billionaire? I don't think so. I just think... Never say never. Just, um... Hell, there's hope for you. Yeah, yeah. Fly under the radar.

Basically, this is a beautiful story, Charles. And the funny thing is, the reason why he's a billionaire is he invested in a two-bedroom property in Surrey Hills back in the 1970s. Yeah. And that's now worth a billion dollars. Bored a run for a terrace. Yeah. That terrace at the woman died in, no one knew for months.

He's only got one house. That's right, just the one house. But, yeah, I mean, good work to him. And this really provides a solution, I think, to the housing crisis. If I was Anthony Albanese, I would be getting on this one. Right. Because this is a tangible way to get young people into housing that they, maybe they don't own it.

They certainly didn't buy it. Right. But they might get it in the will of their husband. Right, okay. 81-year-old Robert White is engaged to fashion marketer Alessandra Eddie age 38. Love doesn't observe age differences. It's a beautiful thing. It's amazing how love doesn't observe age differences when the man is older and the woman is considerably much younger.

No, it's been known to happen, yeah. Love is blind mainly in that direction and only that direction. I wouldn't want to speculate, not knowing there's. people. But I think it's fair to say, of others, Charles, that love is, is not blind to a bank balance. Right. Yeah. They're making a movie about Anna Nicole Smith now. She did this. Yeah. That's right. She married. Wasn't the guy in his 90s? Decreped man. Yeah. It's some sort of or something. So it's, I imagine, I imagine what happened here, Charles is this day. As Andrew Eddie had all these objections and scruples. And it was very clear not to date this man for his

money, but his charm, his magnetism. Yes, it's nothing to do with his money. In fact, she probably was surprised to find out that he was a billionaire. Yeah, I mean, talking to any 81-year-old man. Yes. You just fall in love with the verve and the energy. If I was 38 and I was being taken out for now on the town by an 81-year-old, as you do.

I would think, I mean, you'd know they're worth $100 million, just because they would have owned some property somewhere in the street. Australia. But a billion, you wouldn't have expected that. This guy probably owned an investment property as well, I'm thinking. Yeah, a billion is at least two properties in Sydney, isn't it? Do you think he has paid them both off? Probably not. And this woman, to be fair to say, Alessandra Eddie, she founded a fashion brand called Luna Atelier, which apparently is much loved by celebrities. Right. So she might be independently well, maybe she's the wealthier of the two.

No, but what does he see in her, is what I want to know. I imagine he's interested in fashion. Yes, of course, fashion, yes. Yeah. And so what would they, okay, so what do they have in common? I mean, besides their love of each other. Her dad was, her dad was a Sydney lawyer, Nicholas Eddy, and apparently he was, I'm quoting. So, 43 years apart, less than half his age, right?

Well, if you kind of look at the numbers, it's so shallow of you. child. She was born when he was 43. Yes. So he was born, what, just just before the Second World War started. So if I was... I'm 47, so in my case I'd be going to check out the four-year-olds.

Yes, that's right. Do you do you cruise around the child care senders? No, no, I don't. I don't. I might put a ring on that one day. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a very funny sketch about this for S&L. Here's a little bit of it. He's a professor from Alexandria, Virginia.

He's a software engineer from Palo Alto, California, and he's a financial analyst in Boston, Massachusetts. They may not know it yet, but they're all guests on America's favorite new show. Meet Your Second Wife! Hello, and welcome to Meet Your Second Wife. We're your hosts. I'm Helen Walsh. And I'm Tina Faye.

And this is the only show where happily married men get a chance to meet the person who will one day become their second wife. You guys excited? Wait, I'm sorry, what is this show now? But I think the point is, I don't want to speculate about people we don't know, although apparently

the tell he says that to Alessandra Eddie's father, who's a lawyer called Nicholas that he was, and I quote, far from impressed by the romance when it blossomed, but let's hope he's been won over or it'll be an awkward wedding. But Charles, the main point here is that this is

the solution to the property crisis. Anyone over the age of 70 who's single, I think is morally obliged to shack up to shack up with a young person. Yes. And in fact, I think at this point, it's fair to say, look, I reckon we could, we should legalise polygamy, Charles. So those who are already married, such as ourselves, don't have to miss out on this guaranteed way to get access to property. What a fantastic thing. I mean, we could just take on another spouse in their 80s and then get their house. It'd be fantastic. Right, so what you're suggesting is

so you get to keep your own wife Yes But then you marry another woman Well, that seems sensible Yeah, but who's bored or whatever And it has a house Yes But it would be their personality, Charles, that was so attractive

Yeah, because I don't think I think it would be highly defamatory For us to suggest that it's anything other than love We don't know this man He's probably very engaging I mean any friend who carry Packers You would imagine Yes, well he didn't have some yarn

Sparkling rack on too He might know, you know, they never figured out where, remember that story about the gold bars that were taken from Kerry Packers' office and how he had a gun and all that? He might be able to tell that, sir, I'm not saying anything to do with it, I'm saying, wouldn't it be fantastic if he could tell some yarns about Kerry? Yes, well, I'd marry Bobby. Just for that, just for the yarns, for the yarns, just for some good yarn, particularly if he had a few spare houses.

And this is the thing I'm hypothesising, Charles, if people like this have six, seven, eight houses, it wouldn't be strictly necessary to live in the same house, would it? during the marriage I mean But surely the reason to get married is to spend time together Like I think Bobby's going into this

Or Robbie, whatever his name You know Wherever he goes by The Beaster Yeah Actually probably Because we're probably doing 1940s nicknames

Isn't it Probably Reginald You know Again we know nothing about this man At all Robert Charles you said

But you know Like I imagine his aim is very much to spend time. Like, you wouldn't get married to somebody to spend time. Like, if she's going, oh, I want to stay in another house tonight, that's, I don't think that's part of the deal. Well, Charles, I think you're half right.

You said spend time. I'd say spend money. Right. It's almost there. Look, but again, these people might be the exception to the rule, but I do feel... Like, at the age of 81, life is not about... money anymore, isn't it?

Like, all the 81-year-old billionaires I know, they just want to, they recognize that time is the most important thing. And so I like to think, maybe if you date a younger woman like this, maybe you feel young again or you get to feel someone young again. I don't know how it works out. Again, I don't know these people. I've just got a photo of them. And look, if you look at this photo here.

Yeah, this will help. Here's a photo. A visual cue. Wow. So she looks quite vivacious. He looks very pleased with himself in this photo. He's kind of got a wrap around Sunny's on. Yeah.

And she looks, she looks, she looks, newly rich. Yeah. But again, she might be independently wealthy. This might be the love of his life. She has the charming smile of someone who knows that they are never going to ever again have to worry about the sea. in your property market. I don't want to cast a spurson, Charles.

That's why I'm filling this episode with caveats because I'd never heard of these people until this story. And also, billionaires tend to be litigious. Are you across that phenomenon? We wish them all the best. Like, this is a celebration of the growing trend. This is like, this is just social commentary on a growing trend in society. This is a growing trend.

And Charles. And so we're just saying these are trendy people. These are trendy people. They're setting trends. And Charles, I wholeheartedly, I want to be invited to the wedding. I really want to be invited. They haven't got married yet. I believe not.

There's just the engagement. Because Charles, I imagine that at a party like this with a property investor, the, you know how weddings, they give out gifts to each attendee. We gave a book to everyone who came to our wedding and copying our friend Dave from the chase. So he came up, they did this lovely thing. I imagine at that sort of wedding, you might get a one-bedroom apartment as you. Oh, yeah. Like little lollies.

What's the term for it? There's a little term for it. A little gift that they give you at the wedding. Yeah, a little gift bag. A little show bag. A little title deed in the show bag. That's what I'm after. Okay.

It's going to be great. Well, how do we get on the invite list? Like, I think this would be helping. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month.

Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. The Chaser Report. Less news, less often. Okay, there's one thing that the news.com. That's based on all this on. Yeah, yeah. Reveals, which is that they like going to big charity dinners.

There's the Sydney Children's Hospital gold dinner that happens. That's where they met. Yeah, this is a big thing in their relationship, the gold dinner. So we need to be rich enough to attend charity dinners. Or perhaps we can do a podcast for the way of the entertainment. Or maybe what we do is we become such a big charity case that people attend our dinner. Well, we have to have the Chaser Foundation. The Chaser Foundation for everything.

For impoverished middle-aged satirists. No, but it should be just like a catch-all foundation. We collect money. I like this. For everything to support every cause. Violence, we're against violence. The everything dinner. Yeah, we're...

I think this is good. We're against badness. We're against... What else can we be against? Oh, we can be against, like, environmental catastrophe? Yeah, aging. Particularly balding in my case. I'm very much against that.

Why isn't there a foundation, Charles? For everything. For research into balding. This is what I'm going to start. Yes. It's a bit of a... sidebar. The Chaser, the Chaser Institute for balding.

Every other, every other annoying condition has research into it. Yeah, male pattern baldness. What do you think the charity, should people wear a bald wig for a day? The advanced hair. To raise awareness of, the unadvanced hair. The receding hair. My hair isn't advancing. That could be good.

Well, look, I think that's a good idea because, I mean, fuck it. Like, isn't the whole point about. prostate cancer that it's completely overfunded as a cause. Is it? Isn't it? I don't know. Everyone gives to prostate cancer. And the whole point is you're actually not supposed to get the diagnosis.

Or like there's a whole debate about whether it's good idea to get a diagnosis. Sounds like someone who's just been considering whether to get prostate cancer. Be good, no, because everyone, everyone gets it, right? And so the argument is a lot of the time you've got it, there's not really anything much you can do about it. you better off just waiting it out. And this actually raises the question. I mean, this is not medical advice, by the way. This raises the question, which is has 81-year-old billionaire Robert White had prostate cancer?

I don't know. I don't know. Because that's the other trick, isn't it, when you're marrying older than, you want to make sure that they're healthy. Because the worst thing that would happen. You'd have to have a full medical. You wouldn't want to marry someone and then, you know, just a couple of years later, you left with them dying

and all you've got is the inheritance on your hands but that would be a negative outcome ah it'd be horrible I mean she'd be devastated imagine how devastated she'd be now Charles I've made a terrible mistake in bringing you this story

and I have to acknowledge it at this point it's only at this stage of the podcast late in the piece that I went to the daily mail to find the truly a gossipy angle on all this which is that it has ignited a family feud

Oh, amongst presumably For the man or the woman Like which one? I don't know So this is from yesterday It's close Source is close to the businessmen Have told Daily Mail Australia

That he hasn't proposed to her But they are head over heels in love Right And apparently Robert has According to the Daily Mail A history of giving significant rings To women I presume this means on the phone

So he puts a ring on it It puts a ring on it But doesn't necessarily Oh interesting And she chose to hide the ring at the gold dinner. Amazing. So she's moved into the, there's a $30 million mansion in Darling Point.

Do you think she's hocked it already? She's moved in. Do you think that's why she was hiding it? She's actually taken. I'm just hiding it. I'm embarrassed by your generosity. She's just taking it down to cash converters already. I don't think she needs to.

She's living in a $30 million house for love. Just for love. Love is blind, Charles. Love is not even caring what the bank balance is, is the person who you're with. Love, is love blind because of the failing eyesight that comes from old age? Because the cataracts. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. Also, love doesn't sign a pre-up, Charles. That's the other thing I've heard. Well, the thing, you don't need a pre-nup if you're not getting married, do you? No. Although under the law, if she's there for more than two years, it's defector. It's all good. She gets half.

So, look, Charles, I think we've managed to, I don't feel we've injured anyone's reputation. Because again, we have no clue who these people are. I just hope that they're happy. Oh, yeah. I hope that they are liberal in their disbursement of invitations to their wedding. We're happy to come. And if you'd like us to do maybe a tight five. A tight five.

We could have a little interview of the two of them get to know them better. But also, you know, just exploring your idea of Polly Amory. Yes. Maybe he could marry my wife as well. I'm willing. You know what I mean? Because he can marry you, Charles. The laws have changed.

Oh, yeah. He can marry both of us. We can both be there as well. See, this is the Chase of Foundation's primary cause. This is what Albaugh needs to get on to you. Polygamy. Polygamy as a means of letting us have somewhere live. Because Charles, this is the thing, to be serious to remind it,

imagine how many unused bedrooms a $30 million mansion in Darling Point has. He wouldn't even notice us squatting in some of the smaller downstance. stairs bedrooms. Yeah. We can just be his, you know, house husbands. That's right. That's right. What a good idea.

Okay, well, we solved the housing crisis. That's not bad. For us. For us. Yeah. So, if you're listening and you want a house, just find a billionaire and get Albo to change the marriage laws. Easy.

Very easy. I think, well, I think it's far more likely than Labor actually doing something about the housing crisis. Well, this would be it. Yeah. This is, this is the most. the most realistic solution. Chase an asset.

Find a boomer, marry a boomer, are sharing the inheritance of a boomer. I think that's the way for it here. Okay, well, you heard it here first. Max Chandler Mather, we expect you to act on this right now. And manage your proposals, very welcome at podcast at chaser.com. You please attach a recent statement of your network. Our gear is from Road.

We are part of the iconoclast network. And welcome to our new, Pro Tem producer Brendan Tacey. Hello, BT. Taking over for the next couple of weeks. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore?

FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca.