‘HE'S A BLESSING AND A MIRACLE'

Lee-Ann Liebenberg and Nicky van der Walt fill us in on their busy family life since welcoming their son, Jagger

- JANA VAN DER MERWE

YOU’D expect them to be a little burnt out: in the past year and a bit they’ve started a new business, moved house and welcomed their third child. But Lee-Ann Liebenberg and her husband, Nicky van der Walt, are bursting with health and energy.

Lee-Ann doesn’t have a hair out of place when we meet the couple at their trendy new restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg. Dressed in a blouse, faux leather pants and stiletto heels, she’s glowing and Nicky looks sharp in his formal trousers and shiny black shoes.

When they were here before lockdown last year, they were sad that their favourite Thai restaurant in Nelson Mandela Square was closing down. That’s when Lee-Ann jokingly told her restaurateur hubby to put in a bid for the property.

“I wasn’t being serious but clearly he took it seriously,” she tells YOU.

And here we are, in Nicky’s brand-new Asian restaurant and bar, Tang.

“I had two babies in two months,” Nicky quips, referring to the couple’s three-month-old son, Jagger, who was born just two months before Tang opened.

Caring for a newborn while getting a business off the ground is stressful, but Lee-Ann says Jagger is “such a good baby”. That’s not to say it’s all been smooth sailing though.

“I put in the offer on the restaurant the Friday before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the national lockdown,” Nicky says.

That meant they had to put their plans for establishing their own luxury Asian restaurant on hold.