From their Hunter Valley farm, model mum Miranda Kerr and Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel talk about the allure of the present moment and their philanthropic work for a brighter future.
I t’s almost lunchtime in the Hunter Valley as a giant parachute inflates against the softly rolling hills of New South Wales’s wine region on the 87-hectare property owned by Kora Organics founder Miranda Kerr and Snap Inc (Snapchat) co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel.
When we meet, the pair are a few frames into Vogue’s cover shoot: ”That looks lovely, hun, good job,” says Kerr surveying the monitor. ”I was looking for a career change, so this is good,” says her American husband of five years with a laugh, as their four-yearold son Hart drives past on a tractor with Kerr’s father, John, while Hart’s two-year-old brother Myles naps inside.
”They are just loving farm life, playing in the muddy puddles as I was when I was growing up,” says the 39-year-old organic skincare pioneer with a smile. ”It’s the full circle that makes me feel so grateful to have had this opportunity to provide that to them,” she continues of her own country upbringing in Gunnedah, New South Wales. As it turns out Spiegel - the 32-year-old billionaire businessman and philanthropist, who is already in possession of a certain presidential charm - spent his summer holidays growing up looking after his grandparent’s vines in Northern California. ”I remember running through the vineyards, so when I see our kids run around, it’s sweet,” he says.
Now cosied up in the plush, neutral-hued sitting room of the estate’s converted chapel, which Kerr uses as her office space, I learn that this bucolic tale took root years ago when she initially rented the picturesque property for Spiegel’s first trip to Australia. ”I said to him back then, ’This is amazing, I wish this place was for sale,’” she recalls.
”At the time, I had just moved out of my dad’s house,” Spiegel says, laughing. ”So I’m like: ’What do you mean a farm in Australia?!’” Years later they got word that the property had been sold to an event company that faced a change of direction when the pandemic hit. ”The game changer
