As the blistering sun beats down on the tarmac at Sydney Airport, the door of a private jet swings open and out steps one of the most powerful men in Hollywood you’ve probably never heard of.
He likes it that way.
Dressed in a white sweater, jeans and sneakers, with a backpack slung over one shoulder, Patrick Whitesell, the millionaire co-founder of talent agency Endeavor, has a grin stretching from ear to ear.
Moments later, it’s clear why he’s smiling. Following behind him is his much younger Australian wife Pia Whitesell, to whom he’s been married for three and a half years.
Pia, a model-turned-actress, is the picture of understated glamour in sunglᴀsses, high-waisted white jeans and a tank top. Considered one of Australia’s most beautiful women, she has called California home since the pair became engaged in late 2020 and she moved into Patrick’s palatial LA mansion.
The couple head straight from the airport to Sydney Harbour, where they spend the afternoon soaking up the sun. Pia – aged 41, but with the body and complexion of a woman half her age – radiates beauty in a skimpy ʙικιɴι while her husband gazes upon her adoringly.
Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell touched down in Sydney with his wife Pia on Sunday
They drove straight from the airport to Sydney Harbour, where they boarded a luxury super yacht and enjoyed a day out on the water
Pia (left) – aged 41, but with the body and complexion of a woman half her age – stripped down to her barely there swimwear for a scorching afternoon on the harbour
The duo’s arrival Down Under to ring in the New Year is a far cry from the chaos that seems to follow Patrick’s ex-wife and her new fiancé around. No phalanx of waiting pH๏τographers, no grand entourage – just a single paparazzo with a long lens.
In the tabloid world, Patrick remains best known as the ex-husband of Lauren Sanchez. Her affair with billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019 resulted in one of the most expensive divorces in history – Bezos handed over $38billion to ex-wife MacKenzie – and now Lauren and Jeff are engaged to be married (although reports of a $600million wedding in Aspen last week proved unfounded).
What isn’t so widely known is what Patrick did next.
While the talent agent, whose client list is a Who’s Who of Hollywood, was said to have been ‘blindsided’ by his wife’s affair, he refused to play the role of jilted cuckold.
Instead, he pulled off a masterclass in revenge, and even beat Lauren down the aisle.
And it’s no small irony that while Jeff and Lauren spent their weekend hosing down rumours about their impending wedding – including the venue, date and price tag – Patrick and Pia kicked back on a yacht in Sydney’s spellbindingly beautiful harbour, seemingly without a care in world.
Patrick had only just separated from Lauren when he was introduced to Pia by mutual friends in 2019. At the time, Pia was trying her luck in Hollywood following a successful stint on Australian soap opera Home and Away; Pat was also throwing himself into work to distract himself from the headlines about Lauren and Jeff.
By early 2020, the pair were pH๏τographed together for the first time on a sun-soaked holiday in Malibu. Later that year, in November, Patrick proposed with an enormous emerald-cut diamond ring, with Pia declaring herself ‘the luckiest girl in the world’.
Patrick was previously married to Lauren Sanchez, who had an affair with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos circa 2018-2019. (Patrick, Lauren and Jeff are pictured in LA on December 3, 2016)
Lauren Sanchez, 55, (right) shocked the showbiz world when her secret whirlwind romance with multi-billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 60, (left) was exposed almost five years ago
And it’s no small irony that while Jeff and Lauren spent their weekend hosing down rumours about their impending wedding, Patrick and Pia kicked back on a yacht in Sydney’s spellbindingly beautiful harbour, seemingly without a care in world
They didn’t waste time getting married, making things official in a private ceremony held in May 2021, not long after Pia had packed up her life in the Sydney to move across the world to live with Patrick, bringing her sons from previous relationships, Isaiah, 21, and Lennox, 17, with her.
More than three years later, the Whitesells remain blissfully happy, with a source telling Daily Mail Australia, ‘Pat’s having the last laugh, 100 per cent.
‘He’s living the f****** dream with Pia and he knows it. I doubt he thinks about Lauren or Jeff or that whole debacle at all.’
Indeed, the 59-year-old businessman looked like a man on top of the world on Sunday as he touched down at Sydney Airport with his second wife.
For the flight from the U.S., Pia tucked a spotless white T-shirt into a pair of straight-legged white jeans, completing her look with a brown cap, Adidas sneakers and sunglᴀsses. She also toted two designer bags from Celine, which retail for a few thousand dollars a pop – a drop in the bucket for Patrick.
After disembarking, the couple were whisked into a waiting car then set off to begin their low-key New Year’s celebrations on a super yacht in Sydney Harbour, alongside a small gathering of close friends and family.
Their end-of-year send-off will certainly be a subdued affair compared to whatever headline magnets Lauren and Jeff are planning. Controversy follows Mr and (soon to be) Mrs Bezos them wherever they go – whether it be wedding rumours, scrutiny over their politics or business dealings, or snarky commentary on her racy fashion sense.
