Stuart Rattle, Michael O'Neill and the story behind the perfect smiling couple

Michael O'Neill (left) and Stuart Rattle. Photo: Supplied

A-list interior designer Stuart Rattle and Michael O'Neill were known as the "A Gays".

The handsome couple lived and worked together in Rattle's high-end interior design business. Sought after by the wealthy and connected, they circulated with the "A Gays", a good-looking and social clique from the worlds of art, design, fashion, hairdressing, food and wine.

They were surrounded by beautiful antiques and fabrics, they lived in South Yarra and had a prized getaway, Rattle's beloved Musk Farm, near Daylesford. They travelled in style in a Range Rover flew first-class. To some, they were the perfect, smiling couple.

Now O'Neill is staring at the prospect of bedding down in jail after pleading guilty to murdering Rattle and arson. O'Neill, 48, pleaded guilty to murdering Rattle, 53, by hitting him over the head with a saucepan and strangling him with a nylon dog lead on December 4. O'Neill also pleaded guilty to arson by setting fire to their South Yarra home four days later while Rattle lay dead in his bed.

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How did the lives of two men who loved each other and were partners for 16 years end in murder?

Those close to the duo have speculated about a business that was in disarray and the emotional state of O'Neill. While Rattle was the face of the business, O'Neill grew resentful of being the office boy and, from what friends say, an inept one who was out of his depth and a pathological liar about his background and most other things.

People called O'Neill "The Talented Mr Ripley" and he was an exasperating one because no one could tell if he was lying or telling the truth.

Bespoke furniture maker Kim Moir knew Rattle for 22 years and O'Neill for 16, saying: "Michael has always been staggeringly unusual and frustrating but their relationship was always very good."

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Stuart Rattle, Michael O'Neill and the story behind the perfect smiling couple