I lived with Brynne Edelsten during her fall from grace: The open secret about her desperate life after Geoffrey has never been told - until now | Retrui News | Retrui
In my world - the paparazzi world - we call these 'set-ups'. They're slightly crude and transactional, but a necessary evil for those - like Brynne - on the D-list celebrity merry-go-round in Australia.
It's a way to, firstly, control your image and, secondly, maintain profile and relevance.
Little did I know then that these pictures - and that introduction - would mark the start of 12 chaotic months with the one-time media darling and ex-wife of eccentric sugar daddy of sugar daddies, the late Geoffrey Edelsten.
Just two years earlier, Brynne had been worth millions. Now, she was posing for me, with an assorted cast of barflies, for a lousy $200.
On that particular night, embarrassment was the cost of entry.
Brynne, you could tell, was mortified that her once 'bedazzled' life had come to this: a 'set-up' with the likes of me.
Brynne Edelsten is pictured in one of the many paparazzi 'set-ups' we did together in 2016
At the time, she was living in an apartment in Melbourne's CBD with her dog, Juddy
The arrangement involved Brynne posing up for pictures in exchange for cash post-sale
The images are designed to appear like the subjects are unaware they are being photographed
In time, we would go on to greater things - the highly- publicised stitch-up of cricket legend Shane Warne. You probably remember him grimacing outside her Melbourne CBD apartment in the middle of a biting cold winter... but more on that later.
Despite all the embarrassment of that evening, I was invited back to Brynne's high-rise apartment in the city - an address I'll surely never forget.
In the months that followed, it would become my home too.
The situation was unbelievably grim. The domestic equivalent of one of the unluckier apartment blocks in Kyiv this past year.
The front door looked worse for wear, as though there'd been signs of a struggle.
Once past the deadlocks, I was confronted by an unusually symmetrical tower of pizza boxes - carton after carton stacked four feet high like some greasy shrine.
Where was the 'bedazzled' Brynne I'd seen in the newspapers, at the Brownlows and seen on her doomed Channel Seven reality show?
A $1,000-a-week apartment that somehow screamed Housing Commission?
Brynne became famous after marrying eccentric Australian multimillionaire Dr Geoffrey Edelsten in 2009. They are pictured together at the Brownlow Medal in January 2013
The former fitness instructor, from Arizona, lived a life of luxury during her marriage, and even starred in a reality TV show about her 'bedazzled life'
Brynne Edelsten is pictured leaving Melbourne Magistrates' Court with her legal team on Wednesday after being charged with alleged drug trafficking offences
It made no sense - at least it didn't then.
I turned my gaze to the rest of the kitchen and was struck by the discarded Coke cans, Chardonnay bottles and half-drunk lipstick-stained mugs.
There was no attempt to confine the chaos to just one area. It was an apartment littered with knick-knacks, all somehow sentimental, yet sitting under layers of dust.
Move to the living room and there was no room anywhere for actual living.
The beige couch was smothered in sequinned gowns, expensive furs and designer dresses - memories of days gone by when an appearance by Brynne Edelsten on the red carpet would make the front page.
A glance towards her bedroom found a bedside table littered with pharmaceuticals, makeup-stained books and ornaments; to the left was another chest of drawers next to a mountain of clothes that had found a permanent home on the floor.
None of this made sense.
The how, the why, the 'what-the-hell'.
Behind the carefully curated photos, Brynne was living in chaos
I was shocked by how far she had fallen from her former life
After I moved into her apartment, we became close as we spent our days constructing shoots
This is one of the many photos I took during our outings together
They say first impressions are like invisible tattoos: they leave a mark that only deepens with time. This was the case with Brynne and our time together.
In my world, there's nothing quite as tragic as a fallen celebrity. I've seen plenty.
It's a pitiful sight, especially when the star is unaware the world has woken up to the fact that all the hype that once surrounded them was just that - hype.
Still, there was something about Brynne. From that first introduction, I sensed that she had this accommodating persona - this need to be liked.
Wilfully naive and happy to lend her name to anything she thought might reignite her faltering career, there was also, behind that smile, a sadness which, over time, would lead to a series of poor decisions that have since returned her to the public eye.
But this time, that glare will be far more unforgiving.
She has been charged with drug trafficking and, of course, is entitled to the presumption of innocence and I do not suggest that her dwindling fame and money troubles are evidence of guilt. Still, one thing is certain: she has a rough road ahead.
She must contend with the potential loss of liberty - and even worse, what this might mean for her four-year-old daughter, Starr, who, through circumstance and no fault of her own, has now become involved in this sorry saga.
Brynne was living in this two-bedroom in central Melbourne when we met in 2016. Only clean real estate photos exist today, but the reality of the place when I lived there was quite squalid
When I first met Brynne in 2016 - navigating that labyrinth of pizza boxes and dust-covered clutter - she was out of work, vulnerable, and at war with her ex-husband, who was refusing to make court-ordered maintenance payments of $3,000 a week.
That night, she confided in me over a few gin and tonics. It was clear she needed a friend, and there I was.
Her appearance fee for events had dried up. Her only income was payments she was receiving from a former boyfriend - another older man - who lived in the U.S.
Brynne said they used to date, but were now friends. They'd catch up if he was ever in Australia, but other than that the relationship was confined to texts and phone calls.
I didn't know what to make of that relationship really. It didn't seem normal.
Left penniless after her divorce, Brynne resorted to hocking relics of her former flashy life
In addition to the monthly payments from the ex, Brynne would do staged pap sets with me.
At the time, there was still interest in her, but nothing like the crazy years from 2012 to 2014 where an exclusive story with pictures would sell upwards of $30,000.
So we tried to be as creative as possible. I'd shoot her outside Geoffrey's home in St Kilda ringing the buzzer and bellowing to be let up.
There were shots of her at the beach in mismatched bikinis, with 'mystery' men, and then the pièce de résistance: the 2016 sting on Warne, which netted $14,000 and a whole lot of surprisingly unwanted publicity for Brynne.
The plan had been simple. Lure Warne to Brynne's apartment on the false premise of a 'naughty nightcap' and then have me pounce on him in an unforgiving and unforgettable paparazzi moment.
The pair were both guests at a charity event in Geelong and the instructions to Brynne were clear - cosy up to Warne to the point where he thought romance might be on the cards.
'It'll be like taking candy from a baby,' Brynne told me. It was.
Brynne's lifestyle was funded by set-up pap shoots and a generous ex-boyfriend
After the event, Warne invited Brynne back to Crown for drinks. The trap was set.
An hour later, an unsuspecting Warne was outside Brynne's apartment. He was shocked, confused and hurt when she made the dash upstairs and I stepped in. Under the flash of my camera, he stood like a deer in the headlights.
He knew he'd been fooled.
It should have been a moment of triumph for us, but little did I know then the extent to which Brynne's life was in the midst of chaos.
Three months after first meeting her, she'd invited me to move into her apartment. She had a spare room and I was in temporary accommodation and needed a place to stay. It worked for us both.
Up until that point, we were catching up a few times a week to do our 'set-ups', but as I soon learned, living under the same roof as Brynne was a terrible idea.
We tried to whip up interest in the photos by being as creative as possible. This included stitching up cricketing legend Shane Warne
Another 'set-up' showed Brynne reading about the scandal in a magazine. It was shameless
At the time, I thought I could help someone in need and solve my own short-term accommodation issues, but in reality, no one could be the friend Brynne truly needed.
It turns out, the empty pizza boxes were just the tip of the iceberg.
During my earlier visit, I thought I'd just caught her on a bad day. Upon moving in, I realised it was worse than I'd imagined.
The apartment hadn't been tended to for months. The toilet was cleaner than the fridge. The balcony - with sweeping views of Melbourne's CBD - had become a giant litter box for her dog Juddy. Brynne was oblivious to it all.
Her days were spent in bed in what seemed, on the surface, to be some sort of blinding depression, while the nights were spent rummaging around the apartment looking for who-knows-what.
The reasons soon became clear.
Eviction and bankruptcy loomed.
Brynne had moved to Australia in 2009 after meeting Geoffrey in Las Vegas in 2008. It was a whirlwind romance. The following November, they would wed in a lavish $3million ceremony at Melbourne's Crown Casino.
According to Brynne, problems began to emerge in the marriage by early 2011.
The issues coincided with the sale of Geoffrey's company, Allied Medical Group, to Sonic Healthcare for a reported $125million. Geoffrey received $65million from the sale.
Brynne seemed to be oblivious to the squalor she was living in as Juddy used the balcony of her apartment as a litter box
Brynne is pictured with Juddy during a trip to the beach
She told me that during the marriage, Geoffrey - who died at the age of 78 in June 2021 - squandered millions in a series of calamitous investments, including a fashion label, a casino in the Dominican Republic, and various properties at the height of America's post-subprime mortgage crisis.
He also spent, she said, $4million on a Bombardier Challenger jet, which he then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars decking out.
Meanwhile, creditors were lining up with overdue promissory notes.
But Brynne played her part too. She once famously splurged $275,000 in 15 minutes on duty-free goods before heading home to see her family in Arizona.
Did she love Geoffrey Edelsten? Or was she just there for the money? It was a topic I broached with her often, out of curiosity rather than judgement.
She'd always argue that she did love Edelsten, who was 41 years her senior.
What I was sure of though was her desire to have a baby. It was a constant theme on her reality television series, Brynne: My Bedazzled Life.
Behind the designer clothes and expensive jewellery, Brynne was in dire financial straits
Her life appeared to lack order as she slept all day then ventured out at night to get food
'Geoff and I are trying,' she would routinely tell the cameras.
The reality, however, was different.
Geoffrey, she confided, was 'asexual' - meaning he had no interest whatsoever in sex.
The marriage, she assured me, was never consummated.
There would never be a baby.
Brynne would tell me that Geoffrey's frivolous spending would cause countless arguments, driven by his ego and what she described as a desire to maintain a 'Hugh Hefner-type' image.
She spoke of his wild mood swings, possibly a sign of prescription drug abuse.
In 2013, Brynne became aware of an affair her husband was having with an escort and that was that. The fairytale was over.
Brynne and Geoffrey wed at Melbourne's Crown Palladium on November 29, 2009
Geoffrey and Brynne are seen on the red carpet in September 2012
There'd been an agreement to pay Brynne $500 a day, but Geoffrey reneged on that, so she engaged lawyers to seek a court-ordered spousal agreement.
Lawyers, as they say, are like rhinos - thick-skinned, short-sighted and always ready to charge - and before Brynne knew it, she was $100,000 in the hole for legal fees.
She managed to pay them $40,000 - the last of what she'd earned from her reality show - and soon after that, she was bankrupt.
From bedazzled to bedraggled, just like that.
At home, things were tense. Brynne was in a downward spiral. She spoke of ending her life. I would try to console her, but her depression was like being in a deep, dark hole with no ladder to climb out.
Then another man entered her life. A so-called financier who offered her the 'ladder' she so desperately needed.
For months, this man courted Brynne, promising her $100,000 to pay the lawyers and her landlord for the escalating unpaid rent that had now forced her - and me - to the point of eviction.
Here's the thing with conmen: people like Brynne don't fall for them because they're naive, greedy or foolish. I believe it's a state of mind. You're most likely to be conned when you're emotionally vulnerable and lonely. Brynne was both.
It's when we're the most desperate that we are the most grateful for the 'kind-hearted stranger' who shows up with a solution and is able to silence the inner voice that whispers, "Surely this is too good to be true."
To me, it was clear what this man was after. Need I say more?
Despite his assurances that the $100,000 had been deposited into her account, the money never arrived. In the months that followed, Brynne's world crumbled.
I moved out and the mounting debts forced Brynne into crisis accommodation. In the years since, she has been in and out of relationships - and trouble.
Am I surprised? Not really, because the trouble with trouble is that it usually starts out as fun.
Despite everything, I can say with confidence that Brynne Edelsten is a good person.
But good people, as we know, can land themselves in bad situations.
I spent the best part of a year with Brynne and I hope the charges are all a terrible mistake and that this isn't the end of her story.
But facing charges of drug trafficking and the possibility of serious prison time, right now she has a mountain to climb.
For confidential support 24/7, contact Lifeline 13 11 14
New to DailyMail+? Here are our most-read stories from the last week