The last time we caught-up with Caprice Bourret she was halfway up a bitterly cold Serbian mountain making a Christmas film – a world away from where we’re sitting now on a hot September day in Ibiza. As the summer draws to a close, the entrepreneur, model and actress has invited OK! into her incredible new home to share the results of what’s been a two-year labour of love – but, more importantly, to meet her two sons Jax and Jett, who she’s largely kept away from the glare of the public eye since they were born 11 years ago.
While their mum has graced more than 250 front covers of magazines during her career, she hasn’t shared that side of her work with the boys since they were newborns – until now. And there’s nowhere better to chat to 52-year-old Caprice than in her Palm Springs-meets-coastal-Mediterranean home, complete with its gorgeous outdoor dining area, pool, tennis and basketball courts, and home gym.
“With the last house, my husband was kind of looking after everything and then one day, I looked at the spreadsheet and the amount we spent on the running costs and said, ‘No, no, honey, there’s a new sheriff in town now,’” she laughs.
“It’s not about being dominant or about being a ‘meanie’. I’ve been saying it for 20 years, but I come from a very humble background and I never want to go back to that. I’m a discount buyer, a wheeler-dealer. I’m lean and mean, and I’m efficient, so I told him, ‘That’s the end, I’m running the show now’ and so we sold it.
“It wasn’t servicing the family anymore and it had 100 acres. Why do we need acres? We don’t, it’s ridiculous. I don’t need to be a big shot, I don’t care about being a big shot. I’m very happy to go smaller. I want practicality, I want comfort and I want entertainment for my children – those are my priorities, not the number of acres.”
The new house, which is a 12-minute walk to the beach, is bursting with cosy, warm neutrals and natural textures, but it’s still full of Caprice-worthy opulence and personal touches, such as the 22-seat handmade dining table outdoors (it can seat 30 at a push, Caprice says), which was made by a family friend.
The decision to purchase the property was a joint one, but Caprice admits she gently guided her husband Ty Comfort’s hand by presenting him with a full proposal of costs (sourced by herself), as well as a list of comps (which is real estate speak for comparable properties to help gauge the value), and finally, taking the negotiating reins.
Once the paperwork was signed, it was onto buying the decoration and furniture which, Caprice tells us, proudly, gave her another opportunity to flex her “wheeler-dealer” muscles.
“It took me a year to buy all the furniture because I’d wait for the sales,” she says. “There’s not a single item here that I paid full price for. I found five websites that I loved, and I would wait and wait and wait, and then I’d buy in a sale.
“I don’t understand why some people aren’t proud to talk about how they handle their money, I think it’s ridiculous. I’ve worked very, very hard for mine and nobody could ever accuse me of being given it, so of course I’m going to take care of it. It’s been hard work, it’s f*****g grafting, and I’ve done it, so I totally understand the value of a pound.”
The new house has nine bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, which Caprice says are very much needed.
“Honestly, we have the boys and my step-daughter, and then the two older stepkids too, plus Ty and I, so we need a lot of space. I’m all about the family and this summer, we had all the cousins come out and we were able to enjoy the space for the first time properly. It’s all been worth it.”
While most of the furniture was chosen specifically for this house, there’s one thing we instantly recognise from Caprice’s old home – a huge picture frame containing just a fraction of her 250-plus magazine covers hung in a stairwell.
She’s never hidden her past or who she is from Jax and Jett, but, she says, there’s a very big difference between experiencing something first hand and just being aware of it.
“I believe that if you don’t experience something, you don’t know the full impact of it. So they haven’t experienced my life as ‘Caprice in the public eye’, they’ve just experienced the loud mum shouting on the sidelines at their football matches – the loud American one!
“So they just know me as ‘mum’. The mum who meets them at the bus stop after school, the mum who takes them home and cooks horrible food for them – I’m a terrible cook, really terrible – so that’s who they know.
“They might ask ‘Why does that person know you?’ if someone says my name when we’re out and about. And I just say ‘Well, they probably read about me yesterday in the newspaper!’”
Sign up to OK!'s daily newsletter to get updates sent to your inbox for free
And with her boys keen to share a little of their mum’s limelight (today came about after a request from them to get a taster of their mum’s “other life”, she explains), Caprice feels comfortable opening up her new home –and sharing her family life – for the first time.
While she continues to run her own business empire, including her Loved By Caprice range at Peacocks and her JJLove Productions film company, she and Ty, who she’s been with since 2011, keep themselves as far from the media glare as possible.
“I’ve never brought my kids into the public eye, it can be daunting,” she explains. “I signed up for it but they didn’t. I’ve never taken them to premieres or even talked about them much. In the last 11 years, I can count the amount of photoshoots on my left hand.
“I’m sure some judgmental people think it’s because I don’t care, but it’s been my job as their mum to protect them until they made that decision for themselves. And let’s be real, these days are very different from when I was in the press every single day of my life for 15 years. My life now is private and I’m so protective of my children, I would never use them to get coverage for myself.”
In fact, Caprice’s approach to sharing – or rather, not sharing – her family has occasionally come at the expense of her career in terms of making money. In 2014 she appeared on the US series Ladies Of London, a sort of Made In Chelsea-style reality show about the lives of six women in the capital. She was by far one of the most popular cast members, but left after just the first season.
“The reason I actually left that show was because they told me they wanted me to film with the boys and I said ‘absolutely no way’. I signed up for it, they didn’t, so there was no way, but they just wouldn’t accept that. It was a bit of an ultimatum so I said ‘no’ and walked away. It caused the biggest drama, trust me, but I was absolutely not going to agree.”
Caprice’s determination to stand by her convictions is no doubt what’s led her to where she is today, and that becomes even more evident when we move on to chatting about her heaviest current workload – her films. She set up JJLove Productions (named in honour of Jax and Jett) last year, and has already made two rom-coms, A Toast To Love and A European Christmas, which are confirmed to air later this year.
Whatever you do, don’t call it a vanity project.
“You know, people will say ‘Oh that’s sweet, Cap, well done’ but I’m like, ‘No, we just sold A European Christmas to Channel 5 and my distributor is one of the biggest distributors in the world’. These are not sweet little projects, I’m making proper movies. It’s a lot of work but I’ve always wanted to do it. I know I always preach, ‘Don’t fear fear and yada, yada, yada’, but I’m not perfect and yes, I was maybe scared before. I’ve always wanted to act but no one would hire me so I just thought, ‘I can do this myself’.
“When I dive into something, I don’t do it half-heartedly. I do my research, I partner up with people who’ve been doing it for years and years, and then I get going. Now I’ve produced my own films and I absolutely love it.”
And as much as the production business isn’t a vanity project, Caprice is far from a silent partner, in fact, she’s sole owner of the company and incredibly hands on. “I book the tickets, I book the cast, I book the crew, I scout the locations, I do everything that a producer does,” she says. “I have a team of two people here and we do it all. My God, I’ve made mistakes, of course. But every movie I make, I learn something new. I’m also getting more involved in the writing process now. You have to stick to a formula with rom-coms, but you also need to be a little bit creative, which I enjoy.”
There can’t be a lot left on Caprice’s bucket list, though there’s something about her that gives us the impression that it’s still an ever-growing list. But while professional achievements are obviously important to her, she says they’ll never come at the expense of her personal goals – particularly when it comes to her husband and their kids.
At the time of life she’s at, crumbling marriages are a common occurrence, and Caprice has been famously outspoken about what it takes to keep a 13-year relationship healthy, happy and exciting: sex.
“I’ve always said how important intimacy is,” she grins. “You need to make it a priority and you need to make it happen. Look, it goes wrong when complacency creeps in, it’s dangerous. When I said before that we just need to do it, some people took it out of context and flipped the narrative. I obviously mean do it because you want to, be selfish, get the end result, which we know feels amazing! Get into it and be selfish, enjoy it.”
The Caprice of today, in her fifth decade and new home, is a powerhouse of a traditional celebrity – who else could get away with giving sex advice to the masses? She’s clearly somehow managed to maintain interest in herself as a brand, without giving away too much of herself, and that’s something she’s incredibly and understandably proud of.
“I could say now that I’m totally satisfied and I’ve killed it, but you just never know. In another five years it might be different. I don’t think any of us should limit ourselves in life, ever. We’re our own worst enemies. I’ve worked out who I am and what I want, and I’ve worked damn hard to get there.
“But even with it all, my family will always be my main priority, making sure they’re happy. I know people say they love hanging out with their kids but it’s a b******t answer to make them look good – I genuinely mean it from my heart.
“I would choose watching a movie with the boys and my stepdaughter over a Cannes red carpet any day. I just want my children to be happy in what can be a very scary and toxic world. I know we have to cut the cord eventually, but I’m not ready to do that just yet!”
