“It’s always great when exes get along – but maintaining a close bond with a former lover can be a tricky thing to explain to your new partner.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
Just ask Sydney property developer Max Shepherd and his American actress girlfriend Vail Bloom, who are possibly having some difficult conversations at the moment.
You see, a few days ago we published photos of Max, 31, reuniting with his old flame Dina Broadhurst, 46, after he flew in from the States so they could sell their renovated apartment in Darling Point.
In between meetings with real estate agents, Max and Dina, who dated for four-and-a-half years until 2023, enjoyed some rest and relaxation at Kutti Beach.
So relaxed were the pair that art collector Dina whipped off her bikini top and paraded around topless in front of her toyboy ex, who didn’t seem fazed by the display.
When Daily Mail Australia snapped the duo’s reunion, and contacted Vail for comment in Los Angeles, well, it’s safe to say there were some robust messages flooding into our inbox.
Dina and Max said they were just good friends and nothing more – and we are not suggesting otherwise – but Vail had a more pointed message for her boyfriend’s ex.
She confirmed she was still dating Max and made it clear she felt it was ‘very inappropriate’ for Dina to be swanning around topless in front of her man.
While stressing she had a good relationship with Dina, she questioned whether the socialite – dubbed ‘the nude artist’ because of her fondness for scantily clad self-portraits – still would have gone topless if she were there too.
‘She’s always been nice to me and I like her. I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it or think about it,’ Vail said as she broke her silence on the beach photos.
‘However, she could try thinking how her choices come across to others and, personally, I don’t think it’s totally the most appropriate for her to sunbathe topless when Max is around, to each’s own.’
Resurfacing in LA just hours after speaking to us on Thursday, Vail looked notably stony-faced as she stepped out to run some last-minute Christmas errands.
Keeping a low profile, Vail kept things casual in an oversized denim shirt and straight leg jeans, which she styled with a pair of beige sandals.
The Vanderpump Rules star, who has two young children from a previous relationship, grabbed some festive presents as she arrived home with a toy airplane and bags of shopping in hand.
But she didn’t appear to have completely brushed off the drama of recent days as she looked sombre while stepping out of her lavish LA family home.
In an unexpected reunion on Tuesday, Max hit the beach with Dina and another female friend – and our snapper was on hand to capture every moment.
Max had returned to Australia from the U.S. to sell the luxury apartment he owns with Dina – who recently became single again after splitting from Winning Appliances heir John Winning Jr.
Cooling off amid the soaring temperatures, Dina went topless and left little to the imagination in a barely there pair of thong bikini bottoms. A shirtless Max didn’t seem to bat an eyelid as he lay in the shade nearby.
When approached about their unexpected reunion, Dina and Max both said they were good friends and were currently working together to sell their property.
Dina told us: ‘We are great friends and business partners,’ while Max added: ‘We are just friends and currently selling a property together.’
In fact, the exes did recently list the lavish unit they used to share in Sydney’s Darling Point, putting it on the market for a whopping $11.5million.
They bought the three-bedroom, two-bathroom harbourside pad in 2022 for $5.2million before overseeing an ambitious renovation.
Construction took two years to complete and involved a complete interior demolition, but it was not to become the couple’s forever home.
Dina and Max, who share a 15-year age gap, called time on their relationship last year, having first got together in 2018.
In a sign of things to come, Max had been notably absent from Dina’s social media pages since February 2023, while she hadn’t appeared in any of his posts since December 2022.
A source then confirmed the break-up to Daily Mail Australia and not long after, Max jetted off to Europe to nurse his broken heart on several luxury superyachts.
After the break-up, Dina moved on with multimillionaire refrigerator heir John Jr., as they started dating after knowing each other for quite some time.
However, their whirlwind eight-month romance didn’t last as the art collector realised their lifestyles weren’t compatible. They split just hours before Dina made a solo appearance at Bernadette Fahey‘s wedding to Jordan Sukkar.
Max debuted his romance with Vail in November last year.
At the time, the couple shared some very loved-up snaps together to Instagram as they flaunted their newfound affections for one another.
In June, Vail paid tribute to Max in a gushing post to mark his 31st birthday and lauded his close bond with her two children.
‘Happy Birthday to the man of my dreams, and Charlie’s dreams and Jack’s – We all love you! Endlessly!’ she wrote in the caption.
‘Can’t believe a year’s gone by. To many more trips around the sun – Happy birthday, my love. See you soon.’