An international porn star and escort claims Philip Polkinghorne contacted her two days after his wife Pauline Hanna died.
US-based Kiwi Aubrey Black claims the now-retired Auckland eye surgeon offered her Hanna’s designer shoes, a handbag and the use of her Mercedes after one of their $3000 sessions.
Hanna, a high-ranking health administrator who had taken a lead role in distributing the Covid-19 vaccine, was found dead in the Remuera mansion she shared with Polkinghorne on Easter Monday 2021. Polkinghorne was acquitted of her murder last Monday after an eight-week trial.
Black, a 50-year-old sex worker originally from Gisborne, claimed Polkinghorne approached her Australian-based escort agency Scarlet Blue days after Hanna’s death. The pair arranged to meet at Sky City’s The Grand in Auckland on June 30 of that year, when she came to visit her family.
Black said Polkinghorne, 71, told her his wife had killed herself during their first booking
He claimed Hanna was “depressed” and cheated on him “all the time.”
“He wasn’t feeling great and started sobbing. He was carrying a green lady bag with Feta cheese [inside] which is disgusting and a bottle of Prosecco. I know he dresses weirdly, but this bag was a bit much, I later discovered it belonged to his wife,” Black said.
Black was paid $3000 for each of the two-hour liaisons, she told the Herald in an exclusive interview.
“I didn’t know anything about a murder case until I left New Zealand, and he contacted me to say, ‘Oh my God, they are trying to pin this on me.’”
“The first time we talked, the second time we had sex. He was trying to impress me and said he was obsessed with woman’s lingerie, especially if it’s sheer at the front,” said Black, who told the Herald she also earns about $100,000 from adult film appearances.
After their first meeting, Black says Polkinghorne offered her a lime green handbag, shoes and the use of Hanna’s red Mercedes so she could travel to visit her family in the North Island. He also offered her a place to stay and money to fix her teeth.
“I said, I have huge size 10 Kiwi feet, I don’t need designer shoes, I am happy to wear $9 shoes I’m like, ‘No, I want cash’,” said Black, who was raised in a Mormon household, one of nine siblings.
Black was also a friend of Polkinghorne’s former regular mistress, Madison Ashton.
“We talked about getting married, buying a house and having children,” Ashton said.
Black believed Ashton genuinely loved Polkinghorne.
“He comes across as charming, sweet and kind, a loving family person, even the way he talked to me was intelligent.
Both escorts believe Polkinghorne is attracted to a type of woman with a certain look.
“He gets clones of women who look the same, younger versions of his wife. Madison and I look like sisters, Pauline was an older version of us. He likes big boobs, big hair and curves. Women who are brunettes, have strong jawlines and chiselled features,” she said.
After the Auckland rendezvous, Black says Polkinghorne stayed in touch with her on WhatsApp until January 2022. His last text said: “Size isn’t everything... Except for crawfish and penis... "
‘He treated me like his lockdown wife.’
Another high-class escort, Nicole, whose name has been changed for legal reasons, claimed she assumed the role of Polkinghorne’s “lockdown wife.” She cleaned and cooked for the retired eye surgeon at his Rings Beach holiday house.
In her police statement, obtained by the Herald, Nicole claims Polkinghorne told her his wife of 30 years had hung herself at their Remuera home but claimed she wasn’t living there at the time and gained access using a spare key while he was asleep.
After dining at the Grove restaurant, the pair returned to Polkinghorne’s Upland Rd home for sex on July 19, 2021. Polkinghorne gave the escort $5000, she told police. Three days later, Polkinghorne bought her a computer and flowers and offered her his car, which she declined.
A week later, the pair went skydiving and had lunch at Amisfield winery in Queenstown.
After several dinner dates, Nicole messaged Polkinghorne to remind him that their relationship was transactional and not personal.
In her police statement, Nicole said she told Polkinghorne: “I feel as though I am being taken for granted or that you are not respecting my time or business. I don’t have the luxury of just having dinner and sex with people for fun, or for free,”
In August 2021, Nicole says she was invited to Polkinghorne’s home for dinner and stayed the night. She clarified it was a paid date. While they were sitting in his library, she told police that Polkinghorne told her “I don’t want to pay you every time I f**k you; can you please tell, me what you want as I have not really done this before.” Polkinghorne paid $5000 for the evening, she said.
When the country went into lockdown on August 17, Polkinghorne invited Nicole to stay at his Coromandel beach house.
“I asked Philip, ‘Is this a work trip’ to which he responds, ‘Of course it is darling.’ En route to Rings Beach, we were stopped by police. Philip said his house in Remuera had just been sold, and he no longer lived there.”
Nicole told police that Polkinghorne had sex with him on “numerous” occasions in various locations in the house.
“I jovially refer to him as Professor Boner because humour helped me digest his behaviour which toward the end made me feel very uncomfortable,” Nicole said.
At Rings Beach Nicole said she “assumed the role of “lockdown wife” for the first two weeks of her contracted time.
Before and during lockdown Polkinghorne gave his credit card to Nicole to buy wine, a pair of Christian Louboutin stilettoes and a matching handbag, and money for legal expenses. But after the first week at the beach, Nicole noticed Polkinghorne hadn’t paid her full fee. When she confronted him, he told her about his $7m property, and that he needed to sell some shares and was waiting for a payout from Auckland Eye, where he worked as opthalmologist.
“He kept saying not to worry and that he would help me once the money came through. I made it very clear to Philip our relationship was unique, and it was one of a professional nature.
“I was at his remote beach house with no car, with no end in sight. I was there to perform a job, not to fall in love,” Nicole told police.
Nicole and Polkinghorne also went shopping at two homeware stores in the Coromandel before she severed ties with him.
“In the first store, I heard him tell the sales assistant that he was “waiting for the wife. I... considered this behaviour inappropriate as he was parading me around like an actual partner when the arrangement was a professional one.”
Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards in 2022. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007-2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Sunday.
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