'My playboy dad had multiple girlfriends growing up - but to me it was normal' (2024)

Lucciana Benyon is used to the wild side of life - there’s not much that will make her bat an eyelid.

Working as a model, she’s open-minded and admits that there’s very little that could shock her.

But while most 19-year-old’s might fear telling their parents what happened on a big night out, Lucciana’s tales are relatively tame compared to her wild dad.

Her millionaire tobacco magnate father is well known for his infamous polyamorous lifestyle and notorious parties at his raunchy mansion filled with scantily clad women.

Travers Beynon, AKA The Candyman, has previously been dubbed the ultimate playboy, known for filling his house with a string of beautiful young models.

But despite the wild media headlines and raunchy photos on her dad’s Instagram, Lucciana says she grew up in a normal family home.

The 19-year-old, who was recently signed by Elite Model Management in Miami, started working at McDonald’s aged 15 despite her family’s huge fortune.

And after spending her childhood surrounded by her dad, step mum Taesha and his numerous girlfriends, she says polyamory is not for her.

Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, Lucciana lifted the lid on what it was like to grow up at the £2million Candy Shop Mansion on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Lucciana says her unusual upbringing helped her become an open-minded accepting adult.

She said: “I think it’s probably been the biggest influence in my life other than my mum and dad.

“Just being able to learn to accept different things and think outside the box.

“When you’re brought up in a different and unusual situation, it opens your eyes to other things.

“I feel like I learned a lot, I’m blessed and I wouldn’t take back any of it. I had a really fun life when I was living there, it was so much fun.”

And she rejected claims that her father is 'sexist' following previous accusations over the years.

Instead, Lucciana says it was “a lot of fun” growing up surrounded by multiple women living in the mansion at one time.

But she admits that she won’t follow her dad into the polyamorous world.

She said: “He’s with a few different girls and they’re all together. For me, personally, I couldn’t do that.

“But if you can make it work, you can make it work.”

A regular attendee at her father's extravagant house parties since she was young, Lucciana says she grew up quickly and always enjoyed living in a busy household.

She said: “It was never weird for me because obviously growing up like that, I just viewed him as my dad and I love him.

“It was never weird to me despite people saying all these things.

“It’s not as strange as some people would think, I have a relationship with all of the girls that live in the house.

“I get along with everyone, it's fun. I got to live with a bunch of older girls and was able to watch and learn. This benefited me a lot and they were there for me.

“To see my dad happy. This is all that I care about, I don’t care what he does.”

“When it first started, it was a crazy shock to everyone, people acted like it wasn’t normal. But it’s not too bad now.”

Travers, 49, holds annual parties at his Candy Shop Mansion, where up to 1,200 VIP guests are selected from more than 12,000 applicants to enjoy alcohol, performances and live DJ sets.

Dom Perignon flows at the huge events - which thousands of wannabe guests clamour to attend every year.

Previously, he offered to let people attend if they agreed to be branded with his Candy Shop Mansion logo.

Speaking out about his infamous parties in 2019, Travers described the wild events as a "place to be free and live out your wildest fantasies without any judgement.”

At the time, he cheekily joked: “The only problem with my party is that my bed only sleeps nine girls."

Travers and his wife Taesha have a custom made bed, the size of three king sizes, which stands under a mirrored ceiling and a stripper pole.

Growing up, Lucciana attended the parties from a young age - although she would only stay for a few hours at first.

She said: “When we were younger, we wouldn't stay for the whole party.

“He just wanted us to see what he has done because he’s a very creative person and he wanted to involve us in everything.

“When we were young, we would stay for an hour or so during the day so we could see him and the party.

“As we got older we started to say the whole night and, it was it's like a dream

“I’m so blessed, it was honestly the best parties in the world. He stands for free choice - you can wear what you want to wear.

“Everybody’s coming in lingerie, everyone’s coming half-naked, no one’s insecure and everyone’s having the best time.

“A lot of people think it was bad to be exposed to these things, but in this society, you’re going to be exposed to it no matter what you do.”

But despite his wild lifestyle, Lucianna said her dad wasn’t afraid to impose strict rules if she went behind his back.

The model was once grounded for three months after sneaking out of the family home.

And while Travers is said to have a net worth of £121million, Lucciana said he was keen to ensure she never took money for granted.

She said: “Working at McDonald’s was the beginning of me learning how to save money.

“It was my first job and I always wanted to move countries so it was the first step towards making the moves I have done now.

“It’s always been important to me to make my own money and that’s because of my dad.

“I think I would have been a different person if I had a different father.

“Obviously he’s the one that’s wealthy but like a lot of people with rich fathers, they get what they want and it’s an easy life.

“But he’s not like that. My brother and I were working in McDonald’s at a young age.

“The first lesson we learned was the value of money - and you can’t learn that until you have your own money.

“He didn’t just buy anything that we wanted.”

The 19-year-old now lives in West London in a bid to further her modelling career - and hopes to follow in the footsteps of her mum Ninibeth Leal, who was crowned Miss World in 1991.

She says her dad, who was an international model across two decades, taught Lucciana the ways of the modelling world from a young age.

Since arriving in London, she has modelled for various leading UK brands, including a bikini campaign for ASOS.

Lucciana said: “Modelling is going well, I’ve just signed with Elite Model Management in Miami.

“My goal is to get to America and one of the places I want to be in Miami for bigger things.

“So I’m very excited about that - I’m just waiting for coronavirus to go away.”

“My biggest goal is to move to America and become a supermodel.”

Check out Lucciana’s Instagram here.

'My playboy dad had multiple girlfriends growing up - but to me it was normal' (2024)

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