James Packer turns 50 today and in keeping with past milestone birthdays the billionaire is apparently marking his half-century away from the public glare.
The casino operator will reportedly celebrate his 50th in a low-key gathering this weekend at his luxurious Ellerstina polo ranch outside the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires.
Ellerstina is described as ‘the most important integral polo organization in the world’. It has eight polo fields, a gold course, tennis courts and seven stables with 268 horse boxes.
James Packer with former fiancee Mariah Carey at the GLAAD Media Awards in May 2016
Billionaire James Packer playing polo at the Steadham ground in West Sussex in July 2006
The clubhouse at the spectacular Ellerstina polo grounds outside Buenos Aires in Argentina
Casino owner James Packer (left) with Hollywood legend and business partner Robert De Niro
Packer’s sister Gretel – whose 50th birthday he skipped in August last year – will be attending with the siblings’ mother Ros, according to The Australian.
It was to Ellerstina that Packer retreated after the break-up of his relationship with singer Mariah Carey, to whom he was engaged for 10 months until October last year.
Carey had given Packer a gold Cartier wedding band for his 49th birthday.
The twice-married father-of-three has recently been calling Aspen, Colorado, home. He previously lived in Tel Aviv, where he was a neighbour of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The only son of the late Kerry Packer, James missed ex-wife Erica’s three-day 40th bash in Aspen last month which was attended by Gretel, Ros and Gretel’s daughter Francesca.
The man behind Crown Resorts also stayed away from Gretel’s 50th at Chiswick restaurant in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last year and Francesca’s 21st at Luna Park in 2015.
James Packer with then wife Erica at the memorial service for Dame Elisabeth Murdoch in 2012
James Packer’s sister Gretel (left) and mother Ros (right) are said to be joining him for his birthday in Argentina
Billionaire James Packer with first wife Jodhi Meares at a Channel 9 season launch in 2001
Gretel (left) and Francesca Packer (right) at a Children’s Cancer Foundation fundraiser in 2015
Packer, listed in ninth place on this year’s Australian Financial Review Rich List as worth $4.75 billion, has long avoided public displays of celebration on his big birthdays.
He marked his 30th birthday in 1997 over a quiet dinner with a few friends while his then fiancée, actor and model Kate Fischer, was overseas.
For his 40th he had another intimate gathering with friends and his then wife, model and sometime singer Erica.
Packer shares a birthday with media mogul mate Lachlan Murdoch – who is four years younger – and the pair have previously marked the day in each other’s company, sometimes on Packer’s yacht Arctic P.
A source told Daily Mail Australia Arctic P was in Argentinian waters ahead of the birthday gathering.
The super vessel has been a regular venue for recent Packer birthdays according to Fairfax Media.
James Packer skipped the 40th birthday of ex-wife Erica (both pictured) in Aspen last month
James Packer (centre) with father Kerry (left) pictured in 2000, five years before Kerry’s death
James Packer’s converted ice-breaker, Arctic P, pictured on the French Riviera in June 2007
‘At this time of year, he usually comes down from the south of France and stays in Ibiza a while,’ a Packer friend recently told the Herald.
‘Different friends come on at different times, he prefers smaller groups, so keeps them separate.’
Those friends have included Today host Karl Stefanovic, former Nine Network boss David Gyngell, which whom Packer had an infamous street brawl at Bondi in 2014, and his first wife, model Jodhi Meares.
Arctic P was reportedly moored in French Polynesia last month.
Casino billionaire James Packer (centre) followed his father Kerry onto the world’s polo fields
James Packer’s niece Francesca, mother Ros and sister Gretel pictured in Sydney in 2015
James Packer (left) with his father Kerry in October 2005, two months before Kerry died
The year has been difficult for the former media mogul with business challenges including the arrest of 17 Crown Resorts staff in China.
Hurricane Irma this week tore through the Caribbean island of Barbuda, where Packer and actor Robert De Niro are building a $310 million resort.
First secretary for the Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda in Washington, Roderick Faustin, told the Los Angeles Times the island might have be be evacuated.
‘Barbuda is totally destroyed,’ Mr Faustin said. ‘At least 95 per cent of the properties in Barbuda are either totally destroyed or damaged.’
Packer’s father Kerry died of acute kidney failure aged 68 in 2005. His grandfather Frank died aged 67 and his great-grandfather Robert Clyde – known as R.C. Packer – died aged 54.
Billionaire James Packer (left) pictured with his famous business partner, actor Robert De Niro