Shelley and Anthony Sullivan marriage split: How MCoBeauty boss’s husband’s life transformed from suburban modesty to mansions after marrying the multi-millionaire… and then breaking her heart
Shelley Sullivan’s estranged husband lived a modest suburban life before marrying the beauty guru and spending it in mansions while enjoying world travel and luxury vehicles, a friend of his.
Ms Sullivan, the multi-millionaire founder of the popular skincare brand MCoBeauty, and her accountant husband, Anthony, split two weeks ago after an explosive argument.
The heated argument prompted Anthony to leave for the United States, while his wife moved to the InterContinental in Double Bay. It is believed he will return to Sydney soon.
The high-society split, which comes just seven years after the couple’s lavish Point Piper wedding, has shocked the well-heeled social circle in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Before meeting the beauty boss, 46-year-old Anthony, a country boy from Cootamundra, lived a modest life with his ex-wife and two young children in suburban Sydney.
The family lived in a three-bedroom house on the Bilgola Plateau, 35 kilometers north of Sydney, which sold for $2.3 million in February.
Anthony Sullivan’s home that he shared with his ex-wife and two children on the Bilgola Plateau
Shelley and Anthony Sullivan lived in the landmark $11,000-a-week rental home in Bellevue Hill before they split
Shelley and Anthony often enjoyed lavish overseas trips together
“Before he met Shelley, he drove an old Mercedes and then moved up to a top of the range Range Rover,” said a source close to Mr Sullivan.
Since their lavish wedding in 2016, Shelley’s business venture has led to their high-flying life, traveling abroad first class to glamorous locations including St. Tropez, the Maldives, Paris, New York and the Swiss Alps.
They were last pictured together on Shelley’s Instagram page in March at celebrity hotspot Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
‘He led a fairly simple life. He married a girl from Adelaide before that marriage fell apart,” the source said.
“He went from Bilgola to Bellevue Hill and Adelaide to Apsen.”
The former couple last appeared together on Shelley’s Instagram page in March at celebrity hotspot Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles
Shelley and Anthony enjoy Mykonos in Greece
Despite their multi-millionaire status, Shelley and Anthony rented some of Sydney’s most enviable properties.
They previously lived in an opulent, Grade II listed house on the Vaucluse cliffs, next to Sydney’s oldest lighthouse.
‘We have been here for eighteen months. It’s heritage listed so we’re not allowed to do much,” Shelley told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2018.
‘I don’t have much room for shoes – I’ve given up closet space for the grounds! But living here is a wonderful experience; it is such a unique building.’
More recently, the couple lived in the $11,000-a-week Grade II listed Leura rental home in Bellevue Hill.
Daily Mail Australia understands the couple were looking for a home in the eastern suburbs worth $100 million before the break-up of their marriage.
Shelley, Anthony and their children from previous marriages also lived at The Keepers Cottage, next to Macquarie Lighthouse Station, on the cliffs of South Head in Sydney.
The couple pictured in the millionaires’ playground Zermatt, Switzerland
Shelley, 50, is celebrated as one of Australia’s most successful businesswomen.
She made a name for herself in the 1990s with her modeling and talent agency before launching her thriving ‘masstige’ beauty brand ModelCo in 2016.
In 2022, MCoBeauty was approached by a large Australian conglomerate who acquired part of the company.
The brand is on track to generate $247 million in fiscal 2024.
On Tuesday, Shelley’s longtime girlfriend Kristin Fisher slammed rumors that she was the “other woman” behind the power couple’s shocking marital breakdown.
Reports have falsely insinuated that Kristin (pictured left with Shelley) was involved in the breakdown of the marriage, which she says is “unequivocally untrue.”
Reports have falsely insinuated that Kristin, a Double Bay business owner and mother of two, was involved in the split, which she says is “unequivocally untrue.”
“This is absolutely not true,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“I’m so tired of being the clickbait in all these stories and having to defend myself over something that I had nothing, and I mean NOTHING, to do with.
“The truth is, I’ve only been with one person lately,” she added.