Latest news with #EileenBond
AU Financial Review
19 hours ago
- General
- AU Financial Review
‘Vibrant, unforgettable': Bond family pays tribute to late matriarch
The children of Eileen Bond, the former wife of late West Australian businessman Alan Bond, have paid tribute to their mother, celebrating the 87-year-old matriarch as a vibrant, unforgettable woman who brought joy to everyone around her. Eileen passed away peacefully on Wednesday evening surrounded by family, three days after suffering a stroke.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Bond matriarch Eileen dies in Perth aged 87
Eileen Bond, the matriarch of the Bond family and former wife of colourful businessman Alan Bond, has died. The 87-year-old passed away peacefully surrounded by family in Perth on Wednesday after suffering a stroke on Sunday. Affectionately known as 'Red', the Fremantle-raised socialite married Alan in 1955, aged 17. The couple had four children together – John, Craig, Susanne and Jody – before divorcing in 1992 and remaining friends. John Bond on Thursday recalled how his mother, who he described as an incredibly lively and staunchly loyal character, was by Alan's side in 1983 during the historic America's Cup victory. 'She somehow managed to turn the whole American public away from those who were defending the cup and in favour of the Australians,' he told ABC Perth Radio. 'She had an extraordinary ability just to relate to people. Loading 'She came over last weekend dressed in a tutu and leggings with her big sunglasses and big earrings, and my granddaughters were just blown away and just wanted to know how they could dress like her, and that pretty much summed her up, she related to all ages, she was happy, and I think that was very symptomatic of the way she was right to the very end.' Eileen was seen watching a South Fremantle Football Club game on Saturday, with president Peter Christie claiming the longtime supporter was in good spirits.
The Age
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Bond matriarch Eileen dies in Perth aged 87
Eileen Bond, the matriarch of the Bond family and former wife of colourful businessman Alan Bond, has died. The 87-year-old passed away peacefully surrounded by family in Perth on Wednesday after suffering a stroke on Sunday. Affectionately known as 'Red', the Fremantle-raised socialite married Alan in 1955, aged 17. The couple had four children together – John, Craig, Susanne and Jody – before divorcing in 1992 and remaining friends. John Bond on Thursday recalled how his mother, who he described as an incredibly lively and staunchly loyal character, was by Alan's side in 1983 during the historic America's Cup victory. 'She somehow managed to turn the whole American public away from those who were defending the cup and in favour of the Australians,' he told ABC Perth Radio. 'She had an extraordinary ability just to relate to people. Loading 'She came over last weekend dressed in a tutu and leggings with her big sunglasses and big earrings, and my granddaughters were just blown away and just wanted to know how they could dress like her, and that pretty much summed her up, she related to all ages, she was happy, and I think that was very symptomatic of the way she was right to the very end.' Eileen was seen watching a South Fremantle Football Club game on Saturday, with president Peter Christie claiming the longtime supporter was in good spirits.
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
Eileen Bond, ex-wife of controversial Perth businessman Alan Bond, dies aged 87
Eileen Bond, the former wife of controversial West Australian businessman Alan Bond, has died. Ms Bond's family has confirmed to the ABC the 87-year-old died on Wednesday night. Alan and Eileen Bond married in 1955 when they were both 17 and had four children together before divorcing in 1992. The Perth-based pair became a high-profile couple as Mr Bond's fortunes grew. They were together when his sailing team won the America's Cup in 1983, prompting massive national celebrations. But Alan Bond left a mixed legacy, with a very public corporate fall that ended with bankruptcy and a jail term. He died in 2015 after undergoing heart surgery. At the time Ms Bond, who had remained on good terms with her former husband, returned to Perth from London. "We've been in constant contact, but it's a very sad time," she told reporters at the time. John Bond, Eileen's son with Alan, also said at the time his parents had remained close to his mother after their divorce and described the pair as "great soul mates who never broke their connection".
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Alan Bond's former wife Eileen Bond dies of heart complications
The irrepressible and incomparable Eileen 'Red' Bond has died. The former wife of West Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond, one of the nation's most loved socialites, is said to have passed away after suffering a stroke, her second, in a short period. Bond had been living between homes in Perth and Sydney at the time but died in Perth on Wednesday night. Her age was a national secret but press cuttings suggest she was 85 or 86. Dubbed 'Red' for her famous flame hair, Bond was born Eileen Teresa Hughes in Fremantle, WA, the daughter of a wealthy Irish Catholic family who were the pillars of the church in Fremantle. Her father William was a Perth wool buyer who played football for South Fremantle and became Commissioner of the Fremantle Port Authority. As a teenager she would be swept off her feet by a smitten Alan Bond who she met at a dancing class in 1954 at age 16. By 17 she was pregnant and married. Bond would convert from Church of England to Catholicism for the ceremony. 'My family insisted, but Alan didn't mind, he was very happy to convert …' she would say years later. She and Bond would welcome four children during their marriage: John, Craig, Susanne and Jody. Outside of her family – and her Catholic faith – the famously high-spirited 'Red' loved to travel, party and decorate houses. She once said she could never did anything in moderation. Socialites and social scribes from the nation's west to east coasts loved her for it. 'You have to have either self control or moderation and I certainly haven't the latter,' she once said. 'I can never do anything in moderation. I'll eat and eat then suddenly stop and have next to nothing for eight days in a row.' It was a trait she shared with her husband, a sign-writer who would go on to prosper in property development, later founding the company Bond Corp which also had interests in brewing (Toohey's), and media (Nine), before his name would be writ large in Australian corporate criminal history after he went bankrupt in 1992 with debts totalling $1.8 billion. He was later sentenced to jail for seven years. In the decades prior, Bond had become one of the nation's most famous businessmen whose backing of Australia II to victory in the 1983 America's Cup made him a household name. Through it all his faithful wife had been at his side. She was devastated when the couple's marriage ended as rumours circulated that her much-travelled husband was having an affair with the woman who would become his second wife, Diana Bliss.
