Picky bits for tea, Glastonbury Festival, the first official ‘mugging off’ on Love Island: these are all signifiers that we are in the throes of another glorious summer. But, for me, there’s something else, something even more dependable, more tangible, that solidifies our entry into summer proper; and that’s when Leonardo DiCaprio goes into Yacht Boy Summer Mode.
Any browsers of the Mail Online's Sidebar of Shame will have borne witness to the Wolf of Wall Street star in his element, in his natural habitat - a superyacht - in the summer months. Drink in one hand, Brazilian model in the other, Leo will somehow always look almost disgruntled as his 120 footer bobs on the most expensive seas in the world: Positano, Cannes and Capri are just some of his favourite places to anchor, a truly A-list Below Deck primary guest.
This year, having split from girlfriend of almost five years Camilla Morrone (she of Daisy and the Six fame), Leo, 48, is firing up his first single Yacht Boy Summer since 2018 on a yacht just off the Amalfi Coast. Fresh from being linked to Gigi Hadid, we’re waiting with bated breath to see whether he’ll be joined by his usual slew of twenty-something models but for now, in a rare burst of wholesomeness, he seems to be accompanied by his father George DiCaprio, stepmother Peggy Farrar, and niece Normandie, with whom he was seen this week earnestly exploring the Blue Grotto in Capri.
Leo’s had some flack over the years for these yachty summers: for his body (which has often been dubbed a ‘dad bod’ though quite why that’s a criticism I’m not sure), for his yacht mates who are routinely two decades younger than him (the female ones, that is, his male companions are usually his best friends Tobey Maguire and Sean Penn), also for what is perceived as hypocrisy when he spends so much time campaigning for environmental matters.
Does any of this bother Leo? Nah. He's supremely unbothered, in fact. We see Yacht Boy Summer Leo riding on water toys, smoking a cig, euphorically firing water pistols at bikini clad models. He's truly free on a yacht.
When Leonardo finally stops making this annual summer pilgrimage, when he finally settles down with someone his own age (surely?!), I will long for the summers of love we were lucky enough to witness. No more ‘bevvies’ of beauties hanging off his deck, no more water pistol fights.
Leo’s Yacht Boy Summer brightens up my calendar, and I never want him to grow up.
Yacht Trumps: How Leo’s Summers Played Out
2011 - the yachting may have started way before this but this was as far back as I was willing to research. Leo took to the deck in Cannes with Blake Lively (though in a platonic fashion, I must stress)
2013 - back in Cannes again, and the Daily Mail described this outing best when they said Leo was simply, ‘alternating between smoking, having some fruity cocktails and chatting to a stunning group of women’.
2014 - a rare foray out of the Med, when Leo chartered a $400m superyacht in Brazil for the World Cup
2015 - back to Cannes, where he invited Juliette Lewis on board the $200 million superyacht Rising Sun which he’d chartered for the summer.
2017 - hitting up St Tropez with Tobey Maguire and a ‘bevy of beauties’
2019 - a spell in Positano with then-girlfriend Camille Morone, and old pal Sean Penn
2022 - Leo was spotted enjoying the South Of France again, this time from on board his friend Sir Philip Green's £100million superyacht Lionheart.
2022 - Nerano, Italy with Camilla before they split
June 2023 - Leo is spotted at lunch at his favourite Amalfi haunt, Lo Scoglio in Nerano, with his family