Erica Packer and celebrity chef boyfriend Shannon Bennett have ended their romance
Erica Packer and her celebrity chef boyfriend Shannon Bennett have ended their romance.
The mother of three and the part-time MasterChef judge are said to have split earlier this year.
Friends say distance played a key role in the breakdown of the couple's 18-month union.
Packer, the ex-wife of billionaire James Packer and the mother of his three children, lives in London having relocated to the UK with her children in 2023 to be closer to her sister.
Melbourne-born Bennett, whose business Culinary Wonderland is based in Sydney, lives at Belongil Beach near Byron Bay.
'The distance was always going to be a challenge for them,' said one friend.
A year ago Bennett admitted the then 46-year-old Erica was spending a fair bit of time travelling.
'She's really good. (Erica is) going back and forwards a lot. It's a fun and amazing adventure. It's amazing we haven't met earlier. We're loving life. I'm a very lucky man.'
According to sources the travel became less 'fun and amazing' with the passage of time.
Further complicating matters was the couple's combined brood of nine children..
Bennett has six children with former partner, ex Neighbours actor Madeleine West.
The couple welcomed five daughters, Phoenix, Xascha, Xanthe, Xahlia and Margaux and a son, Hendrix, during their 13-year relationship, which ended in 2018 when their youngest children, twin daughters, were just two.
The chef and onetime owner of Melbourne's Vue du Monde restaurant later told the Herald Sun the couple's six children live with him.
Packer's three children, Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle are heirs to their businessman-investor father's billion-dollar fortune.
The chef and the onetime model reportedly met at the wedding of Sydney chef Guillaume Brahimi and chicken heiress Tamie Ingham in Paris in June 2023.
They managed to keep their love affair under the radar until photographers captured the entire clan cavorting together on a Byron Bay beach at Christmas in 2023.
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