EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Best-selling author Richard Osman's wedding secret

2022-11-18

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Best-selling author Richard Osman says his wedding to Doctor Who actress Ingrid Oliver will be ‘very un-showbizzy’

Pointless host turned best-selling author Richard Osman said his forthcoming wedding to Dr Who actress Ingrid Oliver would be ‘very un-showbizzy’.

Their choice of venue is, however, full of glamour.

I hear the couple are to exchange vows at Goodwood House, the Duke of Richmond’s West Sussex seat, known for the ‘Glorious Goodwood’ horse race meeting and the annual Festival of Speed.

Osman, 51, grew up in Cuckfield near Haywards Heath, and his Thursday Murder Club book series was inspired by a visit to his mother Brenda’s retirement village in the county.

The broadcaster, who has two adult children from his previous marriage, met Oliver, 45, when she appeared as a guest on his show, House of Games.

Pointless host turned best-selling author Richard Osman said his forthcoming wedding to Dr Who actress Ingrid Oliver would be ‘very un-showbizzy’

The broadcaster, who has two adult children from his previous marriage, met Oliver, 45, when she appeared as a guest on his show, House of Games

A failed politician, who helped destroy his party, former Lib Dem leader Sir Nick Clegg is nevertheless becoming one of the super-rich. I can disclose that the ex-deputy prime minister has landed another bumper payday.

Stock-market filings report that he has sold almost 17,000 shares in Meta, the Facebook owner for which he works as president of global affairs. The shares were awarded to Clegg at nil cost, netting him £1.6 million.

Clegg, who is said to be paid more than £15 million per year, bagged a £3.6 million profit from the sale of his mansion in Silicon Valley, California, after deciding to move back to Britain for family reasons. Chin-chin!

BBC Breakfast weather presenter Carol Kirkwood has revealed why she intends to step down from her job before too long. The 60-year-old Scot declares: ‘I plan to retire within the next ten years because I don’t think I’ll be able to reach the Northern Isles by the time I’m 70.’

King of clubs and the art of partying

THE OCCASION: Grand opening party at Bacchanalia, the opulent new Mayfair restaurant from Richard Caring, owner of The Ivy, Scott’s and Annabel’s.

SUPERFOODS: Supermodel Naomi Campbell, 52, was among the guests who dined on the Greek and Italian canapes, such as oyster and spicy mignonette, sea bream with green apple and caviar, and mini tart crab salad.

GODS: The world’s richest artist, Damien Hirst, 57, who attended the bash with ex-ballerina girlfriend Sophie Cannell, 27, has designed four specially made sculptures for the venue, inspired by Greek mythology. He says: ‘I wanted to make the environment celebratory and hopeful.’

TALENT SPOTTING: Dutch model Lara Stone, 38, kept shtum about her ex-husband David Walliams, who’s apologised for making derogatory remarks about contestants on Britain’s Got Talent.

PHONEY WAR: Singer Florence Welch asked the star-studded crowd to put their phones away so they could concentrate on her song, Dog Days Are Over.

The world’s richest artist, Damien Hirst, 57, who attended the bash with ex-ballerina girlfriend Sophie Cannell, 27, has designed four specially made sculptures for the venue, inspired by Greek mythology. He says: ‘I wanted to make the environment celebratory and hopeful’

Dutch model Lara Stone, 38, kept shtum about her ex-husband David Walliams, who’s apologised for making derogatory remarks about contestants on Britain’s Got Talent

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, 52, was among the guests who dined on the Greek and Italian canapes, such as oyster and spicy mignonette, sea bream with green apple and caviar, and mini tart crab salad

Hotel tycoon Sir Rocco Forte’s younger daughter Irene, who runs her own eponymous skincare company, is taking feminism at work very seriously. The Oxford graduate, 34, reveals she has hired just women to work with her.

‘We’re a female-only team, and even our scientific director is a woman,’ she explains. ‘I believe that all women have the capability to become empowered leaders, and we need to support each other.’

Historian Lady Antonia: Genes mean time is on Kate’s side

Distinguished historian Lady Antonia Fraser applauds the Princess of Wales for continuing to wear her hair long into her 40s.

‘I don’t think she should cut her hair,’ the 7th Earl of Longford’s daughter tells me at the launch party for Rachel Kelly’s book, You’ll Never Walk Alone: Poems For Life’s Ups And Downs, in Notting Hill.

‘Women traditionally cut their hair after [having] children, but she doesn’t need to. She can do whatever she likes. She’s beautiful and she’s a good mother. She gets more beautiful as she gets older.’

Distinguished historian Lady Antonia Fraser applauds the Princess of Wales for continuing to wear her hair long into her 40s.

Hays Travel boss Dame Irene Lucas-Hays, whose husband and business partner John died in 2020 after collapsing at the firm’s head office in Sunderland ‘while doing the job he loved’, is to be handed a prestigious honour by King Charles.

I hear that Dame Irene, 68 — whose company saved all 555 Thomas Cook stores, protecting the jobs of more than 2,000 employees when it took over the travel agency in 2019 — is to become High Sheriff of Tyne and Wear.

‘I’m sure that Dame Irene will do an excellent job,’ a royal source tells me.

As High Sheriff, she will be the unpaid enforcer of the King’s writ in the region.

Sharif’s trans ex left just £38k

April Ashley, the transgender model and actress who made her name in the Swinging Sixties as a muse of David Bailey and lover of Omar Sharif, left just £38,000 in her will.

One of the first to have pioneering surgery to change from a man to a woman, she coached Eddie Redmayne for the film The Danish Girl in 2015. Probate documents reveal that she left her literary estate and possessions to friends Beverley Ayre, a producer, and Lou Muddle, a project consultant.

Ashley, who died last December aged 86, had a gross estate of £90,000, reduced to £38,000 after her affairs were settled. The balance will go to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in her home city of Liverpool.

The smart set’s talking about… Money struggles of the super rich

It’s not just the lower orders struggling with the cost of living.

Super-rich beauty mogul Amanda Cronin says she’s having to make sacrifices. ‘I always fly business or first class, but recently I flew my whole team and I in premium economy for work,’ she tells me at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London.

The former model, 54, received a multi-million-pound settlement in 2019 after divorcing Monaco energy tycoon Mark Daeche. I revealed in July that she was going out with Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley.

She adds that she’s feeling the pinch at the check-out. ‘I just noticed that everything has gone up,’ says the star of Channel 4 documentary The Millionairess And Me. ‘I go to the supermarket myself, but I can write a list and give it to my housekeeper to do.’

Castle’s Christmas cheer for refugees

It was an emotional night for two Ukrainian refugees taken in by Wimbledon commentator Andrew Castle and his wife, Sophia.

On Thursday, they took the mother and daughter, Sofiia and Yulia, 13, pictured with Andrew, to the West End to watch their own daughter, Georgina, far right, perform in Elf The Musical.

‘They used to go to the theatre in Mariupol which was destroyed by Russia when women and children were sheltered there,’ Andrew tells me. Georgina adds: ‘I think they enjoyed the show.’

It was an emotional night for two Ukrainian refugees taken in by Wimbledon commentator Andrew Castle and his wife, Sophia. On Thursday, they took the mother and daughter, Sofiia and Yulia, 13, pictured with Andrew, to the West End to watch their own daughter, Georgina, far right, perform in Elf The Musical

(Very) modern manners

Viewers of author Giovanna Fletcher’s CBeebies show The Baby Club may be shocked were they to see the more aggressive side of the 37-year-old.

The 2020 I’m A Celebrity winner, who has three sons with McFly star Tom Fletcher, says: ‘One thing I’ve found recently, that really helps me, is that once the kids are on the school run, I put on some great tunes and I just punch the c**p out of my punching bag. It gets it all out.’

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