Condoms heir Michael Porter reveals the colourful world of Sydney’s wealthiest socialites – and his surprising connection to radio queen Jackie ‘O’ Henderson

Tammy Hembrow, pilates queen Bernadette Fahey and Caroline Tran all recently tied the knot surrounded by scantily clad family and frenemies.

And now Michael Porter, the heir to Four Seasons condoms, and his Georgio Armani publicist husband Billy Mitchell have opened up about their own extravagant, socialite-laden wedding in 2023 at the 18th century Villa del Balbianello estate on Lake Como .

The lush venue, which hosted some of Sydney’s biggest names for the event, is known for its extensive terraced gardens, where films such as James Bond Casino Royale and Star Wars have been filmed.

“It was so crazy,” Porter tells Daily Mail Australia of their big day.

Porter and Mitchell, who originally planned to marry in 2020, are entrenched in Sydney’s elite social scene, with guests including bikini model Natasha Oakley and booze heir Theo Chambers, socialite Nadia Fairfax-Wayne, stylist Caroline Tran and Jackie ‘O ‘Henderson.

“It kept getting postponed because we weren’t allowed to travel abroad,” Porter explains. “So we had a few years to work on it and it became a larger-than-life extravaganza.”

While chicken heiress Jonny Ingham’s $2 million Sicilian wedding to businesswoman Rey Vakili was reportedly the most expensive of the 2023 season, and chicken heiress Tamie and her husband Guillaume Brahimi attracted the most impressive guest list for their lavish Musée Rodin ceremony in France capital, Porter and Mitchell’s wedding was called ‘the best’ by those present.

That’s no small feat when the Ingham family, worth an estimated $1.17 billion, has some serious coin toss to throw at extravagant recovery parties, among other bells and whistles.

“It was quite fun and very exciting,” Porter said. “I mean, there was so much anticipation built up that the actual day completely fell through.

“Around 10.30pm a huge electric hailstorm passed by, which happens once in a hundred years,” he says.

“And it was just at the end of the ceremony, which is fortunate. So we’re about halfway through the reception and this storm came and hit everything like fireworks, with lightning bolts hitting everywhere and huge hailstones falling.

‘It was a seriously cinematic experience. We couldn’t have planned it. We were shouted at to run for our lives. It was so crazy.”

Videos posted to social media showed Married at At First Sight lovebirds Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli, Ingham chicken heirs Tamie and Johnny and their respective newlywed partners literally partying on the streets of Lake Como.

The couple had one of their best friends, Victoria’s Secret model Bridget Malcolm, as their officiant.

‘Half of the wedding party was escorted to the observatory of Villa del Balbianello, where the venue was, and then the other half was moved to the villa’s dungeons. We actually all grabbed a bottle of champagne on the way up.”

Guests were given strict marching orders to wear ball gowns or tuxedos, befitting an international charity gala.

‘Everyone was completely devastated. The girls were all wearing their long dresses with long trains, literally wearing the full ‘wet’ look because they were completely soaked from the rain,” says Porter.

‘Then we all ended up getting access to the villa via the water, so we all had to get on these boats during this crazy storm to basically evacuate ourselves from the wedding venue and then we went back into town at this local dive bar and just went from there went, which was a lot of fun.

‘It was definitely the highlight. I’ll never forget that night. It was absolutely incredible.”

Michael, the co-founder of beauty label Skin Control, also recently revealed his own favorite society weddings.

He praised Caroline Tran’s recent wedding at Mimi’s in Coogee and said he considers bikini mogul Tash Oakley’s beach club recovery party one of the “best days” of his entire life.

Porter’s one piece of advice to soon-to-be newlyweds in the grip of wedding planning panic is to “run your own race.”

‘Don’t try to conform to trends or what someone else is doing. We just did what was true for us and really leaned into what felt authentic.”

Jackie O joined the crowd of wealthy listeners who made their annual migration to the Northern Hemisphere in July, raising a few eyebrows among Sydney’s ultra-exclusive elite.

Porter revealed his connection to the Queen of Sydney radio.

“So my brother-in-law used to work with her, at an earlier radio station I think,” he explains.

‘They have kept in touch and become good friends, and I believe they are now working on some new ventures together, which is exciting. She’s super sweet.’

Jackie O saw her former colleague, Chris Ledlin, marry Michael’s younger brother, Alexander, during a three-day party at Cap Ferrat in France.

Ledlin is head of strategic partnerships at YouTube and Google Australia, previously head of Content Strategy and Commercialization at the Nine Network, and director of social media at Southern Cross Austereo.

Porter, meanwhile, got his start at advertising agencies Ogilvy and MC Saatchi after completing his marketing degree.

As a teenager, he said he had always suffered from severe breakouts and was desperate to find something “that actually works.”

While sitting at a skincare technology conference in New York around 2018, it occurred to him that no one had brought pimple patches to Australia.

“I came back to Sydney and designed the initial concepts for Skin Control, starting with our pimple patch range,” he says.

Porter’s parents, who have trained him since the cradle in their multimillion-dollar fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business, told him to “get to work.”

And just like that… “We’re now selling one product every seven seconds or less, which I think is just wild,” he says. ‘Baffling.’

Ironically, Porter says influencer and celebrity endorsements have very little impact on that figure, compared to boring marketing.

‘Ensuring that the products go on sale at the right price, at the right time and are actually on the shelves throughout the country, that’s all.’

While his business motto is “achievable and accessible,” his jet-setting-work-hard-play-hard lifestyle certainly is not.

A typical day for the CEO starts at 5.30am at his Elizabeth Bay residence – with a ‘quick dip in the harbour’, followed by a gym session or pilates class, or a run with his golden retriever Lulu.

‘From there I will go to our office and warehouses in Lanco Park, and during the day we will have meetings with internal teams, PR, supply partners, events…’, followed by no fewer than three high-end social engagements in one evening to fly.

“But when we don’t have events, we’re total homebodies.”