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It's 2019, and Lara Worthington is now the kind of person who can rock PJs on a red carpet.

 

Thirteen years ago, Lara Bingle was known as the 18-year-old model casually swearing at foreigners in ‘that tourism ad’.

You know the one. She’s standing on a deserted beach in her bikini, asking people why “the bloody hell” they haven’t yet spent thousands of dollars on a plane ticket Down Under, where her Federal Government was waiting to have its economy stimulated.

Watch: A young Lara Worthington asks, “Where the bloody hell are you?”

Video by Tourism Australia

After that one commercial, the Sydney-raised model became Australia’s “it girl” (Jason Derulo even wrote a song about it. But we’ll get to that later). There were endorsement deals, ambassadorships, cover shoots with Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Grazia and more. She and her ridiculously white teeth were everywhere.

But in 2019, life looks very different for Lara.

Now Lara Worthington, she’s a private, polished 32-year-old entrepreneur and mother of two boys: Rocket Zot, 4, and Racer, 2. And, as she told Vogue on Wednesday, it’s actually about to become three — she and husband, actor Sam Worthington, are expecting another boy next year.

The news came ahead of a rare public appearance at a Louis Vuitton event in Sydney. To which she wore silk monogrammed Louis Vuitton pyjamas. With heels. Because 2019 Lara Bingle Worthington can do that kind of thing.

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Image: Getty.

Here's a reminder about what happened in between.

Engagement, breakup and nude photo outrage.

They were quite possibly the most 'Strayan couple of the 2000s:  Lara 'Bloody' Bingle and Australian cricketing superstar, Michael 'Pup' Clarke.

The pair became in engaged in March 2008.

But two months later, then-20-year-old Bingle experienced a family tragedy. Her father, Graham, died from complications of bowel cancer at the age of 55. After his death, Bingle became an ambassador for Bowel Cancer Australia, and continues to advocate for the organisation.

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Lara and Michael in 2007. Image: Getty.

In March 2010, two years on from Clarke's proposal, the sportsman publicly confirmed their engagement was off.

It was an already difficult time for the model.

In the days prior to the announcement, Bingle was forced to launch legal action against married footballer, Brendan Fevola, after an intimate image he'd taken of her in the shower during their brief 2006 affair was published by a tabloid magazine. She was just 19 in the photograph.

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In the fallout, Bingle and her celebrity agent, Max Markson, ended up scoring a reported $200,000 deal with the same publication to share her response to the photo scandal.

The ARIAs, Danny Cipriani and Jason Derulo's tears.

The 2010 ARIA Awards were the most chaotic and cringeworthy in recent memory. Hosts and presenters popped up in various spots over the Sydney Opera House, Bob Katter was there (for some reason), and Lara Bingle kept asking co-presenter Jason Derulo how he was feeling.

But something positive came out of it: Bingle and the American R&B star started dating. It was all speculation at the time, but during a 2012 interview with Nova's Hughesy and Kate, she confirmed he had been her boyfriend.

"I hung out with him for almost a year, but we didn't see each other," she said. "He was in the States, and I was in Australia.

"He's the shyest person I know... He's really down to earth and grounded."

Catch up on the latest pop culture news with The Spill. Post continues after podcast.

Another radio revelation about the partnership came in 2015, when KIIS host, Kyle Sandilands, claimed things ended between the pair after Derulo discovered Bingle was having a fling with English Rugby Union player, Danny Cipriani (a relationship she had previously confirmed).

"[Derulo] flew into Australia in between touring in Asia to surprise her... And then Lara was in the Maldives with some clown from a football club in Melbourne," Sandilands said. "And that was all over Who Magazine, and Derulo saw that and...he started crying in my arms and he was very upset... He was crying with me, in the [KIIS] studio — couldn't believe it. Tears were running down his face."

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Sandilands also claimed Derulo had written his hit song, 'It Girl', about Bingle.

She went on to date fashion designer Gareth Moody in 2012; a man the then-35-year-old [rather problematically] credited with helping her lose 12kg. Saying she "got rid of everything that was weighing me down," Bingle told Who Magazine, "I've learnt you've got to be consistent in your eating and training. Gareth's taught me that."

From reality TV star with a dodgy driving record to entrepreneur.

After previous TV hosting jobs, including Channel Nine's show Holidays for Sale in 2008, Bingle turned to reality television.

She competed on the 2011 series of Dancing with the Stars and survived for three weeks before being voted off. Then in June the following year, the inevitable: Bingle scored her own series with Network 10.

The, erm, economically titled Being Lara Bingle, aimed to give viewers a glimpse into the daily life of the model, who then lived in an $8m Bondi flat. The show premiered to impressive ratings (925,000 viewers), but it was cancelled after one season on the back of mixed reviews.

Watch: 'Being Lara Bingle' lasted one glorious season. Post continues.

Video by Channel 10
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That same year, Bingle was involved in a traffic accident (the headlines practically wrote themselves) in Bondi while driving on a suspended license. Though she fled the scene, she turned herself in to police the next day and was subsequently fined $3500, slapped with an additional 12-month driving ban plus an 18-month good behaviour bond.

But... she got behind the wheel again in 2013. Twice. Those offences earned her a six-month suspended jail sentence.

She moved on from all that (hopefully in a taxi/on foot), and turned her attention to business.

Between 2013 and 2014, Lara co-designed a line of bikinis for Cotton On. Then, in November 2014, launched her own line of premium fake tan called Share The Base, which she still operates today from L.A.

The Worthingtons, who married secretly in Melbourne in 2014, moved their family to California last year, where Sam is filming two sequels to the blockbuster movie Avatar. The four of them are looking forward to adding to their "boy's club" (Lara's words).

“I think any addition brings joy and happiness to the family, but more so when you can share it with the other boys. It’s such a boy’s club in my house!” she told Vogue this week.

“They think it’s cool… All boys, I think, want a brother. So another brother… you know, it’s building the football team. They’re excited!”

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