‘He has destroyed my life': Emma's nightmare in the heart of the Terzini empire

Sydney Morning Herald

3 days ago

Maurice Terzini and Emma Addams had it all: A world-renowned restaurant overlooking Bondi, a flourishing jewellery business that counted pop superstars Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus as its clients, and a wedding in Paris shot by Vogue.
There were plans to take the Bondi Icebergs restaurant brand global with bars and restaurants in Ibiza, Amalfi, Mykonos and Miami and deliver first-class food for Qantas, while Addams designed jewellery worn by Jean Paul Gaultier.
Three years later, Addams says their toxic marriage and Maurice's attempts to protect his reputation as 'the King of Bondi' have destroyed the globally successful jeweller's life, drained her savings and left her completely devastated.
In March, this masthead revealed that Maurice had allegedly protected his son, Sylvester Terzini, by moving him between his acclaimed restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne while he carved an eight-year trail of destruction that includes allegations of sexual and violent misconduct that have shattered decades-old relationships in the hospitality industry.
Now, Addams is speaking out about her volatile relationship with one of the most powerful figures in Australian hospitality.
'I'm just the tip of the iceberg,' she tells The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes. 'It just sends chills down my spine that these [alleged] victims haven't been acknowledged.'
'I'm horrified that men like this can operate within this industry. The industry has to be held accountable.'
There are at least nine alleged victims of Sylvester's sexual and violent misconduct between 2016 and 2023 whose claims include anal and oral rape. Sylvester has denied the allegations. Maurice described the allegations in March as devastating and said he would never 'intentionally ignore violent behaviour or cover up issues within any of my businesses'.
Addams has a different view.
'I advised Maurice strongly not to have Sylvester in the business,' she said. 'I was ignored.' Maurice doesn't recall any such warning.
'I will destroy you'
When Addams began dating Maurice in 2021, her cult jewellery brand Heart of Bone had celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish walking red carpets dressed head-to-toe in her gothic accessories.
'My business was thriving, and I thought I'd fallen in love,' she said.
The accomplished artist, designer and entrepreneur also boasted a successful consultancy business, global trademarks and a recently signed contract with AC/DC.
'I thought I met my match,' she said. 'He wasn't intimidated by my strength or intelligence.'
By the time the couple were done, Addams was in hospital suffering from debilitating chronic depression, a nervous system breakdown and post-traumatic stress disorder.
'He has destroyed my life,' she said. 'I was too ashamed to talk to friends'.
Vogue photographed the couple's glamorous yet intimate wedding in Paris, but on the balcony overlooking the Eiffel Tower, tensions were simmering.
Addams said Maurice was frustrated. Sylvester had turned up in the same clothes he had partied in the night before. Addams was wearing platform shoes that made her look taller than her husband.
Then came the promises.
'It was a lot of future faking … pretending that we're going to have this future together,' said Addams.
'It was like 'okay babe, let's buy this massive $10 million house, let's buy a boat, or let's buy this vineyard… let's use your money now to do all these things, and then next year when we make all this money, we're going to have heaps of it.''
They planned to build their dream home, first leasing a trust-fund mansion in Melbourne's inner-city suburb of Richmond. Addams bought expensive furniture and painted it herself after Maurice's promise for painters arriving never eventuated.
Several months into their marriage, Addams said Maurice became 'incredibly erratic'.
'I would have conversations with him in the afternoon. Then by the time I'd wake up in the morning, I'd have 20 abusive messages on my phone out of nowhere,' she said.
The situation became so volatile that police had to intervene on several occasions.
Maurice was led away by police outside their Melbourne home in March 2023 after they found him sitting on the steps with an empty bottle of wine and packed bags.
Describing that day to police, Addams alleges that Maurice, drunk at 11am, embarked on an hours-long aggressive outburst and threw suitcases off the balcony.
Police were called, and Maurice was handcuffed and arrested, but no charges laid. He accused police of racially profiling Italian-Australians and declared he would start a campaign against police called 'wogs unite'.
Then he allegedly threatened to destroy his wife.
'You know what, if you f---ing put me under the f---ing barrel, I will f---ing destroy you and me and everything that we know. That is not a threat,' Terzini told Addams. 'It's just a fact.'
Addams claims the relationship continued over the coming months, careening between vows of eternal love and allegations of verbal abuse. There are no allegations of physical violence made against Maurice and no charges were ever laid.
In July 2023, when Addams was at a police station to report a cyberattack that crippled her internet network and her businesses' ability to function, Maurice tried to call her 34 times in 10 hours, beginning at 2:38am.
Then in August 2023, Addams claimed Maurice called her hundreds of times in 24 hours as she scrambled to stop Maurice from continuing this 'path of self-destruction', which she alleges was fuelled by alcohol, substance abuse and growing claims of sexual abuse against his son.
Text messages show Maurice grappling with the claims against his son in 2022, when Sylvester faced charges of choking and sexually touching without consent that were eventually dismissed but cost Maurice $60,000 in legal fees.
'There are three girls that still want to press charges that I know,' Maurice wrote in a text message.
'Sylvester is done for me,' he said in another message. '[I've] lost my best friends of 20 years to support him and his sexual assaults.'
But Terzini continued to employ Sylvester in restaurants he owned in Melbourne and Sydney, including Cucina Povera Vino Vero, Jackson's on George, Snack Kitchen and Billy the Pig until at least March this year.
Two women allege they were attacked by the 32-year-old while sleeping. Another person claims Sylvester told them 'to lick the dirt' after violently sexually assaulting them in the bathroom of a popular Sydney nightclub. Two women said consensual sex turned violent when they repeatedly tried to stop Sylvester penetrating them anally.
'I haven't been the same since, with lifelong health and financial implications (including the relentless need for therapy) because of Sylvester,' said one alleged victim.
Multiple women say they tried to warn Maurice about his son.
'Instead of getting him the help that he needs, putting him in rehab or therapy, he just moved him around his restaurants,' said one alleged victim who messaged Maurice in 2022.
None of the alleged sexual incidents occurred inside Maurice's venues, but several of Sylvester's alleged victims first met Sylvester at one of the hospitality veteran's restaurants or connected businesses.
Addams said Maurice admitted his son needed help, but would then turn a blind eye.
'There was definitely a writing off of Sylvester's predatory behaviour,' she said.
'Then I had to experience, the hard way, what happens when you try and challenge the Terzinis. You come down. No wonder women have been too scared to come forward.'
Red flags
Addams said the relationship between Sylvester and Maurice was 'incredibly dysfunctional and toxic'.
Addams said she had consensual sex with Sylvester before she and Maurice were in a long-term relationship.
'I have a very open mind. I thought it was dysfunctional,' said Addams. 'Red flag? Absolutely.'
There is no suggestion that Maurice knew about Addams' sexual relationship with Sylvester at the time, or before their marriage.
Sylvester sent his father a text in 2022 about his sexual encounter with Addams that led to a temporary breakdown in the relationship between father and son and a barrage of abusive threats from Terzini to his wife.
'Get ready, I am a c---t,' Maurice wrote to Addams. 'It will become public….I have already sent solicitors and PR the full story. You're getting what you deserve.'
Maurice and Addams reconciled after the dispute, only for the relationship to spiral again after a series of arguments over finances, abusive messages and further allegations against Sylvester.
Fearing Maurice would follow through on his threats and publicly shame her, Addams stayed silent. But as the trauma suffered by Sylvester's alleged victims dawned on her, she said she could no longer stay quiet.
In March, this masthead revealed that Sylvester had been accused of keeping an album full of photos of naked or semi-naked women and storing the album at Terzini's house.
While Addams was packing in preparation for her and Terzini's move from their Darling Point to Potts Point home, she described stumbling across 'incredibly graphic' photos of young women, including those in the hospitality industry, which would 'threaten [their] career or livelihood'.
'It was graphic content that shouldn't be in a family home… and completely inappropriate for Maurice to have,' she said.
'I was incredibly upset and quite shocked at what I was seeing,' said Addams. 'I'm still really disturbed by what I've seen in that house'.
In one text message in February 2023, Terzini warned Addams: 'I'm sure there are photos in his collection, perhaps that's why you took [it] away'.
Addams said she later reported the photographs to police. 'It's horrifying,' she said.
One of Sylvester's alleged victims does not know if there are photos of her in the album. 'That makes me feel so sick,' she said.
Maurice has denied that he had the photo album.
NSW Police have encouraged any alleged victims to come forward either through a formal statement or through the anonymous online Sexual Assault Reporting Option.
'Police will always encourage victims to engage with support services even if they don't want a legal outcome,' a spokesperson said.
'Follow the sun'
While Terzini struggled with personal turmoil, his businesses appeared to be flourishing.
Icebergs Dining Room, perched on Bondi Beach's southern cliff, was selling more high-end champagne Veuve Clicquot per square meter than any other venue in the world.
There were plans to take the brand global through 5-star hotels and beach clubs in Europe and America under a 'follow the sun' strategy, including a deal with Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
Addams, who ran a globally successful jewellery business Heart of Bone, brought in her corporate lawyer, signed off on a business contract between Airport Retail Enterprises (ARE) and Maurice for 'Bar Terzini' at Sydney International Airport (now to be called Icebergs Bar + Kitchen'), estimated to generate $3 million in profits for Icebergs Dining Room investors.
Addams and Maurice also 'drew up a vertical strategy for growth' involving everything from trademarking the Terzini name, developing a podcast for Qantas, running food and beverages for the first and business class lounges and producing in-house wines and olives.
But money was pouring out of Maurice's businesses, leaving Icebergs Dining Room, a two-hatted, globally acclaimed restaurant, struggling to pay its staff superannuation.
Maurice was forced to turn to Addams for a $228,000 loan from her company, Heart of Bone Creative Services, with a 14 per cent interest rate.
'[Icebergs Dining Room] needed money overnight,' she said. 'I had to sell down shares. I have a security charge over that business'.
In 2022, Maurice pulled in new Icebergs investors, hotelier Damien Reed and former magazine publisher Deke Miskin, after a string of failed partnerships at the Bondi clifftop. Terzini retained a third of the shares in the business as a director, and he was paid $150,000 a year as a consultant for the restaurant, with an $18,000-a-year credit card allowance.
In February 2023, Addams loaned a further $89,500 to the since-liquidated CicciaBella to help Maurice cover his costs.
'As the over-promising and under-delivering kept going, there were just demands for more money. Like 'I need money tonight. $10,000, $10,000, $10,000',' Addams said.
Paper tiger, hidden dragon
Maurice's chaotic behaviour has long been known to former business partners, but they remained easily kept secrets because, as one former business associate said, 'even his enemies admired his talent and reputation'.
'He was the prodigal son [of Melbourne] that went to Sydney,' the former business associate said. Like several former colleagues, he spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution.
Maurice, described as the 'King of Bondi' and the 'Lazarus of Australian dining' by Good Food (published by Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead), was renowned for his ability to transform his 25 restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay and Bali. Maurice traded off his public reputation to win rave reviews and celebrity endorsements. Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson said Icebergs Dining Room was her 'favourite restaurant in the world'.
But behind the scenes, it was chaos.
'He's always been a paper tiger, hidden dragon,' said one former partner. 'He was very quick to be in the press, but it was very difficult for him to come to work unless there was a moment for him to shine. He would go through his tantrums and disappear for three days.'
One former business partner spent six months auditing one of Maurice's businesses to deliver a 10-year growth plan.
'On the day of presentation, Maurice was nowhere to be found. I couldn't believe it. Five hours later, I went to his house and said, 'What hell are you doing sitting on the stairwell high? That was it. That was the clinching moment when I'm like, I'm done.'
Maurice does not recall any such instance.
Another former business associate said Maurice was incredibly difficult to work with when he was not sober.
'One chef asked me: 'Do you realise who you have got into business with?' he said.
Addams says the dysfunctional behaviour continued.
'I would never have fallen into a relationship with a man this toxic…if he hadn't been painted as this incredible visionary, amazing entrepreneur who was all-powerful,' she said.
In March, after this masthead first raised allegations about Maurice protecting his son following multiple sexual assault allegations, Maurice resigned as a director of Bondi's Icebergs Dining Room. On Tuesday, he sold his last remaining shares in the business.
He also remains a creative director at DTL Entertainment, run by publican Michael Broome, investor Paul Ford and MoneyMe founder Steve Banningan. The company sold Jackson's on George for $20 million in March. DTL, Broome, Ford and Bannigan have not responded to multiple requests for comment.
In May, Maurice was seen painting the front doors of his latest venture with Broome: Billy the Pig, in Bondi Junction.
In a statement on Instagram in March, Terzini said the claims of sexual assault against Sylvester were devastating and argued he had been the victim of attacks on his reputation.
'For those who know me, they know that under no circumstances would I ever intentionally ignore violent behaviour or cover up issues within any of my businesses,' Maurice wrote.
'The allegations are not ones against me directly, yet the inferences have been hurtful and damaging to my reputation.'
He said in the statement that as a father, his priority has always been his children.
'In this storm, my mother reminded me that sometimes as parents we act with the best intentions, but sometimes we are challenged,' Maurice said.
Addams said she felt obligated to go public after reading Maurice's statement.
'I felt that if I did not come forward, there was a possibility that he might get away with this,' she said.
'He made himself the victim. It was just all flying monkeys and smoking mirrors. I was in the most toxic situation that I could ever imagine.'
Addams does not want to be seen as a victim.
'But hearing that there are women who have come forward, who Maurice has not acknowledged in any way, I felt that I needed to tell my story,' she said.
'Hopefully, it will help empower women to come forward and not be ashamed. I want to get my life back, I want to put this period behind me, and I want to let the [alleged] victims out there know that, yes, someone will listen to them.'