A rugged 57-year-old salvage tugboat formerly owned by media magnate Kerry Packer is playing an unlikely romantic role at the Mallorca wedding celebrations of his granddaughter, Francesca Barham.<\/p>\n
The muscular 88-metre refurbished icebreaker Arctic is in service as the floating wedding HQ and luxury hotel to a select group of wedding party guests who have travelled to Spain for the bride\u2019s wedding to failed Australian wellness entrepreneur Robert Bates.<\/p>\n
The boat, currently moored off the east coast of Mallorca in the Bay of Pollensa, is also tipped to serve as a reception venue \u2013 possibly for a cocktail cruise \u2013 during the three-day wedding festival, which kicked off yesterday and will be based at a five-star resort nearby.<\/p>\n
Arctic\u2019s presence is a nod to the sentimentality of its current owner, Packer\u2019s daughter Gretel, the bride\u2019s mother, who took ownership of the $100 million boat in 2018 following a carve-up of family assets with her younger brother James.<\/p>\n
Described as the \u201cstrongest toughest salvage rescue vessel in the world\u201d, the boat, which is at home in deep water and among giant icebergs, is expected to also play an important diplomatic role this week as it hosts the formerly estranged billionaire scions, helping break up any ice that exists between them.<\/p>\n
For the sake of their six children, the siblings are setting their well-publicised differences aside as their offspring, respective exes and current partners come together to celebrate the first wedding of the next generation of Packer billionaires-to-be, writing a new chapter in a family history riven with bitter sibling rivalries.<\/p>\n
The pair were at odds for the best part of a decade after falling out over the division of their father\u2019s assets, which Gretel pressured her brother \u2013 then dealing with his mental health breakdown, addiction issues and the collapse of his second marriage \u2013 to settle up in 2015 as his Crown Casino was pressing on with expansion plans in Vegas and Macau.<\/p>\n
Packer would, in 2022, be forced to offload Crown and abandon his father\u2019s dream of owning a casino in Sydney \u2013 along with the casinos in Vegas and Macau \u2013 following a damning royal commission.<\/p>\n
Both siblings at one time issued statements saying they loved one another, but in his 2018 biography, The Price of Fortune, Packer conceded \u201cunforgivable\u201d things had been said during the feud, the pain of which has lingered for years.<\/p>\n
The rare reunion in Mallorca has also brought James Packer\u2019s magnificent $280 million motor yacht IJE into the Balearic Sea.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s believed to be the first time the two vessels, Arctic and IJE, have dropped anchor together. They are currently moored together off the Spanish island. <\/p>\n
James\u2019s ex-wife Erica and children Indigo, who turned 18 this week, Jackson, 16, and Emmanuelle, 13, have flown in from their home in the UK for the celebrations. <\/p>\n
Erica\u2019s French billionaire pharma heir partner Sebastien Aguettant has also joined the party, as has Packer\u2019s fiancee Kylie Lim.<\/p>\n
The bride\u2019s two brothers, Benjamin Barham, 27, and William Murray, 20, are expected to both have roles in the wedding party as too, in all likelihood, will the bride\u2019s English financier father Nick Barham. Barham\u2019s second wife, former Miss World entrant Karen Carwin, is also among the guests.<\/p>\n
The bride\u2019s almost 90-year-old grandmother Ros, Kerry Packer\u2019s widow, is believed to have remained at home in Sydney, having attended the couple\u2019s official wedding at the family polo property Ellertson near Scone in May.<\/p>\n
The two luxury boats, with their rival design philosophies, reflect the vastly disparate personalities of their owners.<\/p>\n
Like her father, Gretel has said she finds her working class German-built cargo and research ship \u201cvery beautiful\u201d.<\/p>\n
The ship has had four refits since Packer Sr acquired it for about $25 million in 1993 and consigned it to a Malta shipyard for a year-long top to bottom overhaul, which included the addition of three new decks, a swimming pool and the most modern satellite, navigation and telecommunications equipment money could buy.<\/p>\n
In the two decades following Packer\u2019s 2005 death, there have reportedly been two subsequent upgrades, the most recent of which, in 2019, saw the boat redesigned to commercially compliant standards so that she might be leased out for $750,000-a-week exploratory charters. The pool and jacuzzi have also been upgraded.<\/p>\n
Despite the many millions of dollars Gretel and James have spent modernising the icebreaker, Arctic has for decades offended the snooty yachtie classes, who prize sleek streamlined profiles, timber artistry, the classic graceful sweep of a canvas sail and the thrill of taming the wind above dependable power and speed and generous home comforts.<\/p>\n
Such hallmarks of romantic yachting tradition were apparently lost on Kerry Packer, whose own father, media proprietor Sir Frank, loved yachting and was the driving force behind Australia\u2019s first America\u2019s Cup campaign in 1962.<\/p>\n
Famous for gambling with his fortune, Kerry was not going to gamble with his life at sea and opted for a sturdy and stable deck beneath his feet and the comforts of a five-star hotel.<\/p>\n
At 107 metres, James\u2019 motor yacht IJE dwarfs the Arctic both in length \u2013 by 20 metres \u2013 and style.<\/p>\n
Designed by British design studio RWD and Italian masters Benetti, the motor yacht is a sleek, modern, sculptural partyboat, complete with nightclub, cinema, gym, bar, beach club, helipad and three tender boats for exploration, all of which will likely be put to good use by the extended family this week.<\/p>\n
Armytage comes out firing<\/b><\/p>\n
Breakfast television escapee Sam Armytage came out firing during her stand-in role on Nine\u2019s Today show this week.<\/p>\n
A highly-energised Armytage slipped seamlessly back into the hosting seat and looked mostly happy to be there \u2013 if not at times sounding a bit snide and, during one cross to a woman dressed as mermaid, coming off a bit mean girl. <\/p>\n
The same (re happy to be there) could not be said for Nine\u2019s latest male fill-in host, Mike Willesee Jr, aka Mr Allison Langdon, whose laid-back style suggested he doesn\u2019t covet the seat vacated by Karl Stefanovic last month.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s surely a good thing too for Nine, which must surely have learnt \u2013 having once stacked the company with Stefanovics \u2013 Karl, Peter and Peter\u2019s wife Sylvia Jeffreys \u2013 that while talent can run in families, so too can loyalty, and subversive Uber pile-ons. <\/p>\n
Luckily Armytage, who according to a report in The Australian, put the kybosh on Brisbane news anchor Joel Dry\u2019s chances of sitting opposite her for the week, was prepared to do more than her share of the heavy lifting with the verve of a veteran Rockette taking to the stage at a Vegas residency. (A cheerio to Kerri-Anne Kennerley while I think of it.)<\/p>\n
This at times saw her sounding forced and frantic, something she might want to work on next week.<\/p>\n
The pairing with Willesee also highlighted a rather large fault in Nine\u2019s breakfast show casting.<\/p>\n
Of the four regular main panel spots \u2013 male and female host, a news reader and sports presenter \u2013 three of the roles are filled by women.<\/p>\n
Jayne Azzopardi and Danika Mason normally flank the main hosts and this week that meant they bookended Willesee and Armytage, who is currently filling in for on-maternity-leave Sarah Abo.<\/p>\n
When the dominant Stefanovic was in the chair, for reasons best known to Nine execs, he was surrounded by women.<\/p>\n
This may have been to offset Stefanovic\u2019s established supremacy or balance his predisposition to blokeyness but in the end, because of the lower profiles of the women involved and their tendency to servility, the program ended up being little more than a showcase for Stefanovic. <\/p>\n
(This column recognises that entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins and weatherman Tim Davies also contribute to the show, but as they are given proportionally less airtime, this perception remains largely unaltered).<\/p>\n
In creating this dynamic, Nine has driven a greater wedge between Stefanovic and the rest and added to the ratings collapse that invariably followed his sacking: the audience believed he was the program\u2019s primary star, and so many left with him.<\/p>\n
That puts greater pressure on Nine to either replace Stefanovic with another alpha male or make broader across the board changes.<\/p>\n
Breakfast babies at ten paces<\/b><\/p>\n
Last Friday, both Today and Sunrise had exclusive baby announcements.<\/p>\n
Today crossed to regular anchor Sarah Abo, in a hospital somewhere, to announce the arrival of son Sonny \u201cabout a week ago\u201d, while Sunrise crossed to weatherman Sam Mac to announce the arrival of son Miles.<\/p>\n
Abo was apparently without a spare pair of hands to help conduct the cross \u2013 the presenter resorting to holding the baby in one arm and the camera \u2013 her phone? \u2013 in another; a vantage point that left the viewer periodically \u201crocking\u201d along with Abo as she soothed her silent newborn, something she apologised for.<\/p>\n
Mac also held the camera for his cross to a hospital room where the viewer met his partner Bec and new baby son, Miles, born the day prior \u2013 a sibling for Margot and Mabel McMillan.<\/p>\n
With scant promotion of Abo\u2019s long-awaited announcement, Sunrise \u2013 which hasn\u2019t skipped a beat in the ratings in a decade \u2013 out-rated Today by 449,000 viewers to 326,000 nationally, a margin of 38 per cent.<\/p>\n
Newcastle radio GM incoming<\/b><\/p>\n
Newcastle regional radio station 2HD has advertised the role of general manager following the sacking of boss Guy Ashford last month.<\/p>\n
Ashford, the boss of Super Radio Network\u2019s 2HD, was stood down in May after manhandling 2HD presenter Cheralyn Darcey on stage at the 2026 Australian Audio Awards at Carriageworks, where the presenter picked up the Best Newcomer award for her show The Nightline.<\/p>\n
Super Radio Network managing director Graham Mott later confirmed Ashford had \u201capologised to Cheralyn and her husband\u201d and suspended Ashford from duties.<\/p>\n
A week later, Ashford was sacked.<\/p>\n
According to this column\u2019s Central Coast sources, a familiar local identity could be a contender for the job \u2013 Sarah Warry, who for a brief moment in 2023\/2024 became the seventh wife of businessman John Singleton.<\/p>\n
Warry is currently general manager of community radio station CoastFM at Gosford, a role she picked up in August 2025, having previously served as the station\u2019s sales manager \u2013 the gig that landed her in the path of serial Gosford spruiker Singleton.<\/p>\n
Working in Warry\u2019s favour, or so we hear, could be that she knows the aggrieved Darcey, who was on the receiving end of Ashford\u2019s groping.<\/p>\n
Possibly working against her, however, might be the fact Super Radio Network has thrown its lot in with Singleton\u2019s old mate Chris Smith \u2013 serial sex pest and veteran boozer.<\/p>\n
Smith has claimed to have given up the drink since being sacked from 2GB and Sky News in 2022 for inappropriate behaviour \u2013 just his latest misdemeanour in an impressive line. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rugged 57-year-old salvage tugboat formerly owned by media magnate Kerry Packer is playing an unlikely romantic 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