Looking through the Instagram account of the ‘Candy Shop Mansion’, you’ll see women in bikinis, women in lingerie, women in… nothing and occasionally, the man behind it all: Travers Beynon.
The former AFL player turned model turned (non-smoking) tobacco tycoon is often referred to as Australia’s answer to Hugh Hefner. The 47-year-old shares his home with his children, wife, girlfriends and well, just about any other women who want to come stay.
Judging from the social media content, you’d assume it was all partying and debauchery. No doubt there is a fair share of that going on, but according to 22-year-old American Ashley – who stayed there for 10 days in 2018 – it’s not all what it seems.
Ashley gave an insight into what life is really like inside the mansion. Post continues below video.
Ashley travelled to the Gold Coast from the US to stay with Travers, his wife Taesha, and a number of girlfriends, saying she was initially excited for 10 days of partying and fun.
But the reality of it was sort of… mundane.
The mansion is huge: not surprising given his $200 million net worth and love for extravagance. The 15-bedroom, 19-bathroom home is decorated with Grecian and Italian-style art. There’s a gold-plated swimming pool with a grotto and bar, which is watched over by a seven tonne statue of Poseidon.
It's a lot.
When Ashley arrived at the mansion, she was surprised to learn that all the women had to cook their own meals as well as work out daily in the mansion's gym.
She said she would take "long showers" to pass the time, as well as spend entire days watching TV or movies in the mansion's theatre or working on her tan.
She explained how the women would follow a cleaning roster... which she was not too worried about, because at least it gave her something to do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Daily tasks included making Travers' breakfast, making Travers' "1st and 2nd meal", making Travers' 'shake' and making Travers' dinner.
At night, all the women and Travers share a room: There are three beds all put together, effectively creating one big bed.
She was surprised by the daytime routine of the household, which meant early morning wake-ups and "crazy early" bedtimes to fit in with Travers' work schedule.
But then the weekend would roll around, and perks included parties, dinners out in matching outfits, trips on Travers' private yacht (with just one bottle of champagne to share between them which Ashley was disappointed by) and um, KFC for their Sunday family dinner every week.
Ashley also let slip that many of the photos we see on social media - of half-naked (and sometimes fully naked) women - are often staged.
"The assistant comes down and says, 'You need to be ready at this time because we're going to take pictures'," Ashley recalled.
"So this photographer lady comes in, we take a billion pictures... what they would do for these pictures, which I know a lot of other people do, is they would show us these different pictures and we were supposed to mimic them."
Although she was expecting more... rowdiness, Ashley said she had a great time at the mansion.
"All in all, honestly, it was awesome. I'm very glad I went and did it... even though it wasn't what I expected, at all, it was awesome."
Top Comments
Oh seriously...of all the opportunities in this world, why would you want to be a chump for this weirdo. Seriously.
This sounds like a very boring, unfulfilling time for all involved, really.
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