‘It still is very hard – losing Shane was terrible’: Elizabeth Hurley reflects on death of ex-fiancé and cricket legend Shane Warne

‘Of the four great loves of my life, two are dead,’ said Hurley

Elizabeth Hurley has reflected on the death of Shane Warne, the cricket legend and her ex-fiancé who died earlier this year.

The Australian cricketer, who was considered one of the best bowlers of all time, died of a suspected heart attack while in Koh Samui, Thailand, in March aged 52.

In a new interview with The Times Magazine, Hurley, who was engaged to Warne in 2011, talked about how difficult it has been for her and her son Damian, 20, to process the deaths of Warne and Damian’s film producer father Steve Bing, who died by suicide in 2020.

“Of the four great loves of my life, two are dead – I always say to the other two [Hugh Grant and Damian], you’d better watch your backs,” the actor and model said.

“But yes, it was very hard and it still is very hard. Losing Shane was terrible. It’s taken a long time to sink in. I honestly kept thinking he’d call and it would turn out to be some big Aussie joke.

“Losing Stephen [Bing] was something else completely. We’d been estranged for so long but made up towards the end, and a bright and different future looked as if it was opening up, but of course it didn’t.”

Hurley continued: “For Damian, his death was more of a mental challenge because he didn’t know him as a person. Arun [Nayar, a textile millionaire Hurley was married to from 2007 to 2011] was his father figure.

“Arun still calls him son and Damian calls him Dad; Shane was more a fun uncle figure. But yes, all those things, combined with Covid and lockdown – that was a huge amount for a young person to process.”

Hurley and Warne (Getty)

Damian has cast Hurley in his first feature film, a thriller called Strictly Confidential, which he wrote and is directing.

But the actor can currently be seen in Christmas in the Caribbean, which is streaming now on Prime Video, Virgin and Sky Store.