Big announcements come in twos for Richard Pratt’s granddaughter

November 15, 2026 — 8:01pm

After tying the knot in Melbourne’s society wedding of the year in early 2025 at the billionaire Pratt family’s Raheen estate in Kew, Bella Falk, granddaughter of late business titan Richard Pratt, and her husband, Jose, are expecting their first child.

Falk, the daughter of packaging magnates Raphael and Fiona Geminder, shared her happy news with friends and family last week.

But it was not the only reveal for the business-minded former model that day, with the news coinciding with the launch of her Strange Luxury pop-up store in upmarket Armadale.

After coming up with the idea for Strange Luxury in 2019 while living in Los Angeles, Falk launched the skincare brand in 2024 with one product, the Barrier Balance Cream. She has thoughtfully expanded it into a complete range over the past two years.

Falk’s parents; her sisters Georgia, founder of the Gem bathroom essentials range, and Sammy; her aunt Heloise; cousins Milly and Jacob; and, of course, husband Jose were at the event, and in what should come as no surprise, she has sought wise advice from her family on business matters.

“I’m incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such brilliant minds in my family,” Falk told us. “We are all very close, so I’m constantly seeking their advice and leaning on them every step of the way.

“One of the strongest values my family has instilled in me is the importance of hard work. Nothing comes without hard work, dedication and persistence. It’s something I have grown up with and a value I will definitely pass down to my own children one day.”

As for Strange Luxury, it’s all about doing fewer things better and with a personal touch. Falk was on site each day at the pop-up, which wrapped on Sunday, and is across every aspect of her growing business.

“Creating something meaningful takes a lot of time,” she said.

Hughesy and his F-bombs primed for home-town crowd

When lobby group Get Ahead launched its campaign against the Albanese government’s changes to capital gains tax and treatment of trusts in Sydney last week, it was described as a night of “F-bombs and finfluencers” by the Fin Review, with Dave Hughes adding the celebrity factor.

It sounded like quite the night, and it was fortunate that there was not a swear jar for speakers given Hughesy alone reportedly let fly with the F-word 19 times during his impassioned turn on the microphone.

Well, stand by to drag out the swear jar, Melbourne, because our turn is coming. The Get Ahead outfit, headed by Wilson Asset Management founder Geoff Wilson, is holding its Melbourne launch in South Yarra next Sunday, with the state and federal government’s chief comedian-turned-antagonist, Hughes, expected to be on the bill for his home-town launch.

When we checked in with him at the weekend, Hughesy confirmed he would “most likely” be there. Tax, trusts and punchlines – it’s going to be a hot ticket.

CBD hears business leader Ruslan Kogan, footy champion-turned-fund manager Chris Judd and restaurateur Chris Lucas are also expected to attend.

Get Ahead has some pretty well-known names attached, with its board including Wilson, restaurateur Nahji Chu, investor Gabriel Radzyminski, Luxury Escapes founder Adam Schwab and SugarMamma founder Canna Campbell. The campaign spokesman is Tom Humphries.

Humphries has a bit on his plate at the moment, being a City of Stonnington councillor and enthusiastic pothole spotter on social media.

Playing a straight bat

Talk about timing, as Melbourne breakfast radio king Ross Stevenson kicked off his annual Love Letter To Music lunch in Richmond on Friday, which included the 3AW star detailing prizes up for grabs in a raffle, the latest chapter in Australian cricket’s Sandpapergate scandal was playing out.

Around the same time as Stevenson was welcoming guests, Australian captain Pat Cummins was in Sydney in the midst of slamming his former teammate Usman Khawaja’s claims that everyone on the national team knew about the ball tampering that was going on in 2018.

Khawaja had inflamed the festering sore in Australian cricket that Sandpapergate remains by putting forward his take on the scandal in his new memoir, Sabr. He was part of the squad when the notorious sandpaper incident occurred.

Back to the raffle: naturally, in a room full of people interested in news, there was great interest in one of the prizes on offer at Stevenson’s lunch – a cricket bat signed by the Australian cricket team. Signatures including those of Khawaja, Cummins, Dave Warner and Steve Smith. Timing!

This year’s sold-out Love Letter to Music, hosted by Stevenson and his AW co-host Russel Howcroft at the Corner Hotel in Richmond, featured odes to the power of music from casting director and author Jane Kennedy, musician Phil Ceberano, 3AW’s Denis Walter, Spicks and Specks panellist Myf Warhurst and former Essendon champion Simon Madden, who described himself as “a pretend guitarist and a bloke who can’t sing”.

Turns out Madden can hold a note and can work a crowd. He had no lack of support getting the guests to join him on his pub versions of Daryl Braithwaite’s cover of The Horses and The Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again – with the unredacted ad lib chorus, of course.

Theatre drama

There was some added drama at the early afternoon performance of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest on Sunday: the show briefly stopped towards the end of act one after a woman in the audience suffered a medical emergency.

The stalls of the Athenaeum Theatre were briefly evacuated and an ambulance was called.

Ambulance Victoria said the woman was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital.

The show resumed after a short break. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest stars Jason Donovan and Nadine Garner and is in preview performance mode. The show’s gala opening night is on Tuesday.

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