Oh baby!
After an alleged feud broke out between influencer Sasha Benz and top model Jessica Hart over their kids having similarly unusual names — sources tell Page Six that the pair were never that close, and pointed out that Benz’s latest child has a name that’s similar to Hart’s.
The Post previously reported that Hart last month named her newborn “Baby,” two years after Benz named her own little girl “Baybi” — and a rift reportedly erupted between the moms.
Benz then told The Post, “there is absolutely no feud… Jess and I are good friends, we have known each other for so long, over a decade and it was so great to be pregnant this time together.”
However a source in their social circle told Page Six of the situation: “Jess and Sasha are friends, but have only hung out like five times in their entire lives.” The source said of the pair, “they’re friendly acquaintances.”
When we reached out to Benz — who’s behind the lifestyle blog, “All My Friends Are Models” — she fired back, “No that’s ridiculous, we have known each other for over 10 years, communicate all the time and have many mutual friends, too.”
Hart and Benz are both Australian ex-pats in the US. Hart left New York after 15 years in February to move to LA with her race car driver fiance James Kirkham. The former Victoria’s Secret model told People Magazine of naming her newborn, “I first heard [the name] in the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ and always thought I’d love to name my daughter Baby.” Sources told the Sydney Morning Herald that Hart had gone to Benz for baby name advice, then informed her “a week before” she gave birth, “We are calling her Baby, but don’t worry — it’s spelt differently!” — which led to the alleged dust-up.
But a source told Page Six: “She did call [Sasha] to let her know, as a courtesy. This is a common thing to do.” The source added: “How can [Sasha] be so upset with Jessica, and start all this about Baby-Rae, when she names her new baby Haze Heart — a different spelling of Jessica’s last name! This is ridiculous.” The source added that, Benz, “was feeling like she owned the name, Baby. Which we all know is not possible.”
Benz told us when we reached out for comment about her third child, born in October, having Heart in her name, similarly to Jessica, “I find it hard to answer this without laughing — honestly, we always wanted to use Love as a middle name, but Heart was a similar meaning and rolled off the tongue nicely when we decided to go with Haze.”
Benz added in an email on feeling like she “owned” the name “Baby,” “Of course I don’t… it’s one of the most commonly used words. That’s why [husband] Oli and I chose that particular spelling, so if she wanted to change it to ‘Bay’ one day, it was easy.”
Either way, one thing the women seem to agree on is they’re ready to put the supposed feud behind them.
“Jess and I think the whole thing is stupid, but for the sake of the girls it really needs to end here,” wrote Benz in an email. She added, “I find this really upsetting that a fake story about a made up feud is now turning into something really negative and hurtful for our two children, and I really think people should consider that before making a mockery about this.”
A source familiar with the pair told us, “Jessica was never mad at this, and this was never a feud in her eyes.”
Maybe a future playdate will even be in the cards?