By Katie Martlew
The latest in the Michael Clarke and Lara Bingle split: engagement rings down loos, official statements, lost endorsement deals and ongoing speculation.
The latest controversy to hit the headlines following the split are reports that plumbers received a ‘distressed’ call early Saturday morning from the luxury Bondi Beach apartment block where Bingle and Clarke lived together.
An employee of Bondi Junction plumbers Twin Pipes told the Sun Herald Newspaper that he and a colleague were asked to attend the Campbell Parade property after being asked to retrieve an ‘item of significant value’ which had been flushed down the toilet. The colleagues understood that it was Lara’s $200,000 diamond engagement ring. However Bingle’s agent, Max Markson, has since denied the claims. ”The ring is safe”, he insisted ”It was never lost, never recovered.”
Since the couple announced their split, marketers are beginning to distance themselves from the couple. Bingle and Clarke have been dropped as the faces of Synergy Drinks. The former couple had teamed up for a steamy ad campaign last year as the faces of an endorsement deal reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Due to the fact the pair have a lack of ‘synergy’, the brand announced in an official statement on Saturday that they would be ending their business partnership with the pair. “Unfortunately due to recent events and the announcement of Michael and Lara’s separation, they no longer represent Synergy’s core values; that of “forces combining to create greater healthier energy.” As a result, Synergy Drinks has decided to terminate the contract with Michael and Lara as a couple. We offer our sincere regards to both of them and wish them well at this difficult time.”
In happier times, when revealing the Synergy endorsement deal last October, Bingle said “It’s so exciting to reveal our first ever joint campaign and working together has been a really fun experience.”
Michael added: “Lara’s been teaching me a lot about modelling but I think I’ll stick to cricket! We have synergy in our relationship so to be ambassadors for SYNERGY works naturally.”
Lara and Michael began their well-documented three-year relationship in January 2007, which was initially forged while both of their fathers battled cancer. Michael proposed to her in New York in March 2008.
In case you didn’t already know (or have been living on another planet):
After much hype and ‘speculation’, Michael Clarke and Lara Bingle are the glamour couple of Australian Sport no more, following an official joint statement confirming the split from Lara’s manager Max Markson and Michael’s PR firm International Quaterback on Friday.
”Michael Clarke and Lara Bingle have decided to end their engagement. They ask the media to respect their privacy during this difficult time. No further comment will be made.”
It’s been speculated that the pair broke off their engagement following Lara’s decision to sign a $200,000 deal with Women’s Day- the same women’s magazine that first published the nude image of her in the shower, taken in 2006 by ex-boyfriend (and married man) AFL star Brendan Fevola.
Adding fuel to the fire- Bingle’s claims that she was not aware that Fevola was married at the time, were put into question after former Hawthorn sports star Dermott Brereton revealed that he told her personally that Fevola was married, prior to the Fevola and Bingle beginning their affair.
Bingle took refuge from the media circus last weekend by staying in a luxury apartment on the Central Coast’s Avoca Beach with her best friend Hermione Underwood, while Clarke stayed in the couple’s $6 million Bondi Beach apartment. Despite the intensity of the past week, Lara was spotted looking camera ready in designer ripped jeans and a black singlet, and laughing and joking with her girlfriend while enjoying a manicure at the Central Coast’s Erina Fair shopping centre on Friday.
