Crikey

Bec and Lleyton Hewitt’s new Bahamian neighbours have been outraged by a story that appeared in the August 31 edition of Woman’s Day. The story, entitled ” BEC’S BAHAMIAN NIGHTMARE” depicts Bec fleeing from her sheltered compound, a “look of fear” on her face.

But according to a story in Bahamas paper The Tribune last week, Lleyton Hewitt personally phoned the local paper to set the record straight after the Woman’s Day website was deluged with angry comments from the couple’s Old Fort Bay neighbours. Comments such as this:

Hewitt told the paper that he was just as angry as his new neighbours when he heard about how the article had portrayed their home of the past eight months. Hewitt assured:

… Bahamians that he and Bec, 26, have only good things to say about The Bahamas.  “Any story about us in any of those magazines is absolute rubbish and it’s not coming from us whatsoever,” said Mr Hewitt.

The introduction to the original story on the Woman’s Day website reads:

The look of fear on Bec Hewitt’s face when she leaves the high-security Bahamas mansion she and Lleyton call home is warranted, Annette Witheridge discovers.

Woman’s Day is particularly adept at guessing at what Bec is thinking:

Bec probably expected to find a sizzling new social life among the rich and famous.

Probably.

If so, she must be sorely disappointed.

Must be.

In a brave attempt at social justice reportage, Witheridge continues:

Just 25 minutes drive away, locals live in abject poverty in the slums of Nassau, and Bec’s neighbours warn that it’s a dangerous place blighted by crime, poverty and high unemployment. Armed robberies are commonplace, and last week a 34-year-old mother of three became the country’s 53rd murder victim this year when she was gunned down metres from a church. A few days later two more people were killed.

“No doubt,” continues the authoritative Witheridge, Bec expected to live alongside a glittering calvacade of celebrity residents but alas, her only neighbours appear to be “retired bankers and businessmen” (read: tax dodgers).

“Adding to her loneliness is the fact that while Lleyton is instantly recognised by the sports crazy locals, no one has any idea who former Home And Away star Bec is,” writes Witheridge.

And Witheridge’s source? The gardener. Or it could just be any gardener, actually, the story doesn’t specify:

“Lleyton couldn’t be friendlier,” gardener Charles Lewitts says. “But his wife looks so lonely. She is always at the playground with her little girl. It’s such a shame there aren’t any other children here.”

Hewitt, who is already engaged in a legal battle with New Idea over Mannygate, told The Tribune:

At the end of the day if our faces are on the front page of these magazines then they’re going to sell and most of the time we just blow it off. But obviously when we come to a new country and we’re living here and everything’s fantastic and everyone’s treating us well we don’t want to be perceived in a totally different situation than it is and put a negative spin on it.

But it looks like Bec has at least one friendly face to look to in the neighbourhood. Crikey suggests she look up Hammisha over the road should she ever need to borrow a cup of sugar: