In news that seems a lot more remarkable than what it should be, Damian Hurley – the son of UK model and actress, Liz Hurley – is all grown up and bears a striking resemblance to his mother.
Like freakishly so.
The 18-year-old shares Hurley's high cheekbones, delicate facial structure and wide-set eyes and lush brunette hair. He's also followed in his mother's footsteps, dabbling in modelling and acting.
They also share lush brunette hair, and Damian's most recent Instagram post with a prosthetic bald head proves just how strong the Hurley genes are.
Damian said the positive reaction had him considering shaving his head for real.
But even without his trademark locks, he is still the spitting image of his mother.
Their lookalike model genes aside, Hurley and Damian’s family history hasn't been without its struggles.
While the pair have a close mother-and-son bond, the same couldn't be said about Damian’s relationship with his dad, businessman and producer Steve Bing, who died in June 2020, and his paternal relatives.
This is what we know about their tense relationship.
Shane Warne talks about his relationship with Elizabeth Hurley.
Soon after the actress and supermodel separated from long-time partner Hugh Grant in May 2000, she met a man who would change her life: Stephen Bing.
Although Hurley and Grant had been together for thirteen years, and Hurley would be with Bing for less than a year, Bing would come to mean much more to the former face of Estee Lauder, as the father of her only child, son Damian.
The relationship between Damian and Bing made headlines in 2019 because Dr Peter Bing, Damian’s grandfather, attempted to cut his ‘born out of wedlock’ grandson from a sizeable inheritance from his will. However, in July 2019, an LA judge ruled that Damian and his half-sister Kira Kerkorian were indeed beneficiaries to Dr Bing’s trust.
Bing died by suicide in June 2020, after which Damian thanked fans for their "overwhelming kindness" in the days following.
"This is a very strange and confusing time and I’m immensely grateful to be surrounded by my phenomenal family and friends," he wrote.
Following Bing's death, Hurley said she was "saddened beyond belief".
"It is a terrible end," she wrote on Instagram.
"Our time together was very happy and I'm posting these pictures because although we went through some tough times, it's the good, wonderful memories of a sweet, kind man that matter.
"In the past year we had become close again. We last spoke on our son's 18th birthday. This is devastating news and I thank everyone for their lovely messages."
Bing was an American businessman, film producer, and philanthropist. He was also heir to an enormous property fortune; when he was 18, he inherited approximately $600 million from his grandfather, Leo Bing.
After dropping out of college after receiving his inheritance, Bing founded his own entertainment company, Shangri-La Entertainment.
Under the company, the 55-year-old invested $80 million in animated film The Polar Express, and produced a number of films including Get Carter, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, and Rules Don't Apply.
In April 2012, Bing joined the Giving Pledge – a program established by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to commit multi-millionaires and billionaires to donate most of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes.
Bing and Hurley, then 35 and 36 respectively, and now both 54, met in 2000.
Their relationship involved a jetset lifestyle of trips to New York and Europe, and Bing reportedly showered Hurley with expensive jewellery.
The couple, whose relationship remained non-exclusive, separated briefly in March 2001. They reconnected soon after, and in August visited Elton John’s holiday home in Nice.
The vacation would be a fateful one for their relationship, as it is believed that is where Damian, now 17, was conceived.
When Hurley announced she was pregnant, Bing denied paternity. A public slinging match in the media ensued, with Hurley forced to deny she’d been with another man, and Bing receiving public backlash to his attitude.
“Ms Hurley and I were not in an exclusive relationship when she became pregnant. It is her choice to be a single mother,” Bing said in a statement at the time. “If indeed I am the father, I will be an extremely involved and responsible parent.”
The couple permanently separated as a result, and Hurley gave birth as a single mother to Damian on April 4, 2002.
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Oh my, those were the days ????
A post shared by Elizabeth Hurley (@elizabethhurley1) on
In August of 2002, Bing’s sister Vicky Ward wrote in a story for Vanity Fair, that according to her sources, Hurley became pregnant after antibiotics compromised the effectiveness of her contraceptive pill.
Ward wrote the article in response to the confirmation by paternity test that Bing was indeed Damian’s father.
Upon Damian’s birth, Bing announced he planned to create a yearly trust for Damian, which he could access when he was 18.
To prove that she had not “snookered [him] into being a parent”, as Ward had written, Hurley declared she wouldn’t accept money from Bing.
Since then, the true nature of the relationship between father and son (it had been been rumoured they never met), and the financial arrangement between the parents, remained out of the public eye – until 2019.
The Mirror reported that in court documents filed for Damian’s inheritance challenge to his grandfather’s estate – a challenge which was instigated by Bing on his son’s behalf – Hurley stated that not only has Bing supported Damian’s care financially, the parents have also shared joint custody since birth.
Finally the matter was ruled in Damian’s favour, acknowledging his entitlement to benefit from the family fortune as much as any of Dr Bing’s other grandchildren.
Damian may stand to inherit a great fortune from his grandfather – and his parents – but that doesn’t mean his mum isn’t pushing him to make the most of life.
Hurley told People in 2017 that she wanted her son to achieve at school to become a “fully- rounded person,” and then, hopefully, an actor.
“You don’t want to be a bore at dinner,” she explained.
“You have to know geography, you need to know history, you need to know ancient history, it’s interesting.”
Hurley’s wishes for her son seem to have come true. In 2016, Damian appeared on The Royals, which Hurley also stars in, and he has pursued an acting career since. In July 2019, he contracted with modelling company Pat McGrath Labs.
This article was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated.
Featured image: Instagram @damianhurley1.
Top Comments
So, Hurley was never a "single parent" - the father was fully involved personally and financially with the child from the get-go.