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The Duke of Sussex is happily married to Meghan, but his close friend, who also found love with a former American actress and settled in California, is heartbroken.
I hear that Arthur Landon, 42, has broken up with his fiancée, Alessandra Balazs, 35. “They split up some time ago,” a friend confirms.
The film producer, who inherited most of his Brigadier father Tim’s £200million fortune, plus a charming 4,250-acre estate in Hampshire, defended Harry after his 2012 trip to Las Vegas, when the prince was notoriously photographed at a pool party naked.
He and Alessandra sat in front of St. George’s Chapel for Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018. And Landon remained close friends with Harry after ‘Megxit’, as he has a home in Los Angeles.
Alessandra, who now works as a lifestyle brand consultant, is the daughter of Andre Balazs, owner of London’s chic Chiltern Firehouse, whose 10th anniversary party on Thursday Princess Beatrice attended. His mother is former Ford Models boss Katie Ford.
The Duke of Sussex is happily married to Meghan, but his close friend is heartbroken
Arthur Landon, 42, has broken up with his fiancee, Alessandra Balazs, 35.
Speaking in 2019, Alessandra, who has also worked as a model, said Landon had grown up since her Las Vegas days with Harry. “Everyone changes,” he told the Daily Mail Diary. “He is one of the most genuine, honest and kind human beings out there.”
The impeccably discreet Landon, son of an Austro-Hungarian princess, declines to comment.
Aldo tells the teetotal truth
When Aldo Zilli was announced as an ambassador for Mis Amigos tequila brand last December, he was photographed holding a shot glass and gushed, “I love the product.”
However, I can reveal that the TV chef is, in fact, teetotal.
“Alcohol has been a big problem in my life and I managed to quit two years ago,” he admits calmly to me at the Heart UK x Benecol brunch in London.
Since giving up, Zilli has lost a stone and a half and enjoys waking up hangover-free. He reveals, “I got my life back.” They don’t put that in tequila ads!
Jo Wood denies this. “I’ll be 70 next year and that’s not going to happen,” the former model declares at Theo Fennell’s studio in Chelsea. ‘The idea of being 70 years old. . . I won’t even say those words.’ Her ex, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, reached that age seven years ago.
TV presenter Anna Ryder Richardson has returned to running a zoo she founded, six years after saying it ruined her marriage.
The interior designer, 60, who made her name on Changing Rooms, stepped away from Manor Wildlife Park, in Pembrokeshire, in 2018 after divorcing Colin MacDougall. “I’m very excited,” she says. ‘I’m finally back with my beloved animals and my amazing team. I have big plans for the future.’
When Lumley got into the King’s bed
She was a close friend of Prince Philip and now Dame Joanna Lumley has been sleeping in King Charles’ bed. Not when the King is present, I hasten to add. The Absolutely Fabulous star, 78, stayed at the ‘humble’ guesthouse in Transylvania owned by the King, where he stays when he visits. He was filming his upcoming ITV series in which he traveled along 1,770 miles of the Danube River.
“You can pre-order it, we had no idea,” he says. ‘We only stayed one night. It was interesting as it was quite humble and normal. There’s nothing clever about it. It’s old furniture and home-cooked food. It was quite nice.’
It costs €120 (£100) to spend the night surrounded by “wild natural beauty”, with proceeds going to the Prince of Wales Foundation in Romania.
She was a close friend of Prince Philip and now Dame Joanna Lumley has been sleeping in King Charles’ bed.
Flamboyant TV presenter Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is horrified by the decline in modern men’s dress standards.
“I’m really ashamed of my gender: men are so scruffy these days,” she tells The Lady magazine. “This indicates a complete lack of self-confidence: no tailoring, no seams, fabrics from the laboratory: they are man-babies.”
The Changing Rooms star, 59, adds: “My youngest granddaughter, Eleanora, who can’t walk yet, wears more complicated clothes than most men.”
How Majestic Feet Banish Bunions
Queen Camilla has fallen so in love with her bunion-removing Sole Bliss shoe (left) that she has inspired five award-winning actresses who have played queens on screen to step into her shoes, literally.
Dame Helen Mirren, who played Elizabeth II in the 2006 film The Queen, paired her amethyst dress with the brand’s £199 Premiere patent leather heels for this year’s Cannes Film Festival (right).
And Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton, who played the late Queen in Netflix’s The Crown, also wore her shoes on the red carpet.
Dame Judi Dench, who is a friend of Camilla and played Queen Elizabeth I in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare In Love, and Cate Blanchett, who won an Oscar for her role in Elizabeth, are also converts.
Queen Camilla has fallen so in love with her bunion-busting Sole Bliss (left) shoe that she has inspired five award-winning actresses who have played queens on screen to step into her shoes, literally.
Photographer Alison Jackson, who specializes in impersonations of prominent figures, has found five lookalikes for Sir Keir Starmer (one of whom is even called Keir), but is struggling to generate enthusiasm for the Labor prime minister. “I had a collection of Starmer photographs, but I couldn’t sell them because it’s not exciting, it’s like a school lady,” she tells me. “I threw them all away.”
Charles’ Not-So-Evil Whisper
Just hours after Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s separation was announced in 1992, the future King was seen whispering in actress Frances Barber’s ear as they presented an award at the National Theatre.
“Everyone was asking what Charles told me,” she tells me in the Ruby Wax show, I’m Not as Well as I Thought. “I said, ‘He asked me for my number.'”
More than three decades later, he finally revealed the truth. “I was wearing a Versace jacket and Charles whispered in my ear, ‘Is that a Versace?’
‘I said, “How did you know that, sir?” He said, “My wife likes clothes.”
Diana was friends with designer Gianni Versace, who was shot dead in Miami six weeks before his fatal car accident.
(Very) modern manners
Royal friend Basia Briggs is a fixture at London’s best parties, but she’s tired of guests greeting her with kisses. “Men need to be taught that it’s NOT okay to grab and kiss women,” says the former owner of Hyde Park Stables. ‘Unwanted contact is horrible. Please keep your distance and just say “hello.” Surely he would make an exception for a prince?