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Sol slow down? Never, says his wife, 34 years his junior

March 31, 2007 Edition 1

Sol Kerzner's gorgeous wife, Heather, says she doesn't notice the 34-year age gap between the two of them and says they both believe they are the luckiest people in the world because they have each other.

In an interview with the Daily Mail's You magazine in London, Heather insisted she wasn't a trophy wife.

"People have preconceived notions when somebody marries someone much older and he's been really successful … they just assume …"

During the interview with the magazine's Louette Harding, 71-year-old Sol joined them all smiles, still in shorts from his morning workout. He underwent a heart bypass in November, so despite flying in from Dubai the night before, he was up early to visit the gym.

"I've got such a young wife, I have to take care," he said, adding "I'm the luckiest man".

But then Heather (37) chimed in: "Remember, it takes two to be lucky, sweetie."

She explained: "It's funny in relationships, there's never one person who's lucky, there's always two."

Heather is Sol's fourth wife, and the two have been together as a couple since 1999, when the billionaire casino operator broke off his relationship with supermodel Christina Estrada, to whom he had been engaged for a number of years. He and Heather were married in July 2000. She has two children from her marriage to US banker Charles Murphy.

Harding wrote that Sol "is supposed to be rude and uncouth, but also a devoted father who was 'broken' by the recent death in a helicopter crash of his eldest son and heir apparent, Butch, the popular CEO of Kerzner International."

Harding asked Heather whether she would like Sol to cut back on his workload.

"A lot of people say to me 'You have to get Sol to slow down'. And now I guess I feel courageous enough, or confident enough, to say what I feel - which is, I am not his nurse.

"I'm his partner and I love him for who he is. I think he's an incredible, charismatic man, and work makes him tick. I trust that he knows when it's too much or not, and we don't have a relationship where I'm there to take care of him. If he needs a nurse, he's lucky enough that he can hire one."

Harding wrote: "Heather is the most upbeat person I think I've ever met. Her friends say so, too. Her maxim is 'You give good energy, you get back good energy'.

"The couple take the mickey out of their age difference. Their lack of pretension is a big part of their charm."

But, says Harding, it couldn't have been easy putting together a family where many of the members were older than the wife.

"When we look back, Sol and I think we were crazy," said Heather. "Sometimes it was really challenging. But I truly like everyone in Sol's family, and you respect the primary relationship, which is Sol with his children, and for him, me with my children."

According to Harding, Heather is the only woman Sol has ever taken to business meetings, and was instrumental in the company's appointment of the PR agency which played a key role in the successful stratagem for casino licences in the UK.

"She is never, ever dull," Sol said of her.

They have had their tragedies and personal crises to deal with, though.

Just after they got married, Sol was diagnosed with colon cancer and Heather ordered the American surgeon to operate sooner than he was planning to, and to limit the number of operations he performed that day so that he'd be on top of his game.

Nowadays, Heather ensures their diet centres on vegetables, often disguised in soups, "as if for a baby", and two years ago she ganged up with his children to pack him off to the Betty Ford clinic to renounce his pleasure in whisky.

Harding wrote: "He seems to have bounced back from the bypass in no time at all, though his face, in repose, seems sad. Heather believes the heart problem was connected to his bereavement. 'This huge surge of emotion has to play into what's in here,' she says, tapping her chest."

Butch Kerzner had been in the Dominican Republic on business when he was killed in a helicopter crash.

Said Heather: "You never get over these things. Your whole life changes. And there's nothing I can say, either. I can just be there, that's all." - Staff Reporter

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