Table of Contents
When asked how he managed to father daughters by three different women in the same year, Lucian Freud replied dismissively: “Don’t you realize he had a bicycle?”
But perhaps only now are the consequences of the artist’s utter disregard for convention becoming fully evident.
Two of his 14 recognized children came to blows in 2022 when, as I revealed, Paul McAdam Freud – one of his two children with Katherine McAdam – punched Alex Boyt – Freud’s only son with Suzy Boyt – in a London pub.
Paul, like his brother David and two sisters, Jane and Lucy, had been omitted from Freud’s £42 million will, unlike his ten half-siblings.
Now, in the rarefied surroundings of Hatchards, London’s oldest bookstore, it has been left to Annie Freud – the eldest of Freud’s two daughters with his first wife Kitty Garman – to talk about her own psychological bruises and how, At the age of 76, he is finally at peace.
Annie Freud, the eldest of Freud’s two daughters with his first wife Kitty Garman
When asked how he managed to father daughters by three different women in the same year, Lucian Freud (pictured) replied dismissively: “Don’t you realize he had a bicycle?”
After reading Hiddensee, her latest collection of poems, Annie, who posed nude for her father at the age of 14 for a graphic portrait, revealed how “childhood trauma” led her to spend years in psychoanalysis, the treatment initiated by his great-grandfather, Sigmund Freud.
But that hadn’t stopped her from sinking into a pit of alcoholism as she lived a seemingly idyllic life in Dorset with her late husband, Dave.
“I drank at least two bottles of wine a day,” recalls Annie, who, at the age of 27, was devastated when, while having lunch with her father in Soho, she met one of her half-brothers. I had no idea he (or anyone else) existed.
Annie, who was never given her father’s phone number, subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown.
The death of her husband, from lung cancer at the age of 73, was heartbreaking. But maybe that saved her. “I had to give up alcohol, or I would be dead,” says Annie, who moved to Suffolk and is now, she says, finally “in good mental health.”
She has played a series of cold mothers in TV series such as Lady Caroline Collingwood, mother of Logan Roy’s children in Succession, and Dame Harriet Walter, 74, has a theory why: “Many writers have come to a age at which their mothers Died and can say nasty things about them.
Dominic’s Birthday Delight
When Dominic West was photographed hugging his co-star Lily James on a private outing in Rome, he admitted the situation “was deeply stressful for my wife and children.”
However, West, who played Prince Charles in The Crown, appears to be firmly back in the family fold, with his daughter Martha, 26, sharing a video online of her 55th birthday celebrations.
The actor, married to aristocrat Catherine FitzGerald, appears in the photo with Martha and their youngest daughter, Dora, 18.
‘Cake and candles’, Martha titles the video, in which the actor smiles from ear to ear before giving her a kiss on the cheek.
The actor appears in the photo with Martha and his youngest daughter, Dora, 18 years old.
Wyman’s tears over the poverty of the Blitz
Known as ‘The Quiet One’ in the Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman reduced the guests at The Oldie magazine’s literary luncheon to stunned silence yesterday when he burst into tears.
The bassist, 87, was giving a speech about his memoir, Billy In The Wars, at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall when he recalled the severe poverty he suffered as a London schoolboy during the Blitz. “I was so hungry that Mom sent me to the place where there was a bomb to get dandelions to eat between bread,” he said, collapsing.
You’d have to look for something edible. “It was fucking horrible and I was so cold.”
He apologized to the guests and said, “I’m sorry, I’m getting really emotional.”
I feel confident now that I’m 40, says Natalie
Natalie Portman, who rose to fame with the film Leon: The Professional at the age of 13, said last year that she believed children should “play and go to school”, not work on film sets.
Now the Oscar winner (left) has said it took her until she was 40 to come to terms with being sexualized as a child. The 43-year-old actress, who divorced her husband this year, said: “It’s been liberating to be 40 now, because I don’t feel that threat anymore.” I don’t feel sexualized by other people, I feel confident in my own adulthood and my ability to handle situations.’
Natalie Portman said last year that she believed children should “play and go to school,” not work on film sets.
Vanessa: single life is “horrible”
Vanessa Feltz was left devastated when she split from her fiancé, Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu, after 17 years together following his infidelity.
Now, the broadcaster, 62, admits that she is fighting loneliness. “I live alone in Feltz Towers, which is what I fear most in life, and I can’t stand it,” she tells me at Wimbledon BookFest, where she was promoting her memoir, Vanessa Bares All.
‘I have an absolute fear of being trapped at the singles table at bar mitzvahs or weddings. It’s the worst thing that can happen.
“I found myself going to a wedding alone in June, and when I walked in the door I thought, ‘I’m going to end up at the singles table.'”
She adds: “I felt absolutely horrible. The only thing I could do was count the minutes until I could get out of there. Why do I need a really horrible, insensitive, awful, parasitic boyfriend to make me feel normal?
Alice Naylor-Leyland, pictured, said: ‘Sometimes the body misbehaves.’ I’m totally fine, it was just a small infection.
Socialite Alice Naylor-Leyland, whose friends include Princess Beatrice and Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, felt the need to apologize to her friends after having to spend much of a recent trip to New York in the hospital.
Alice, 38, whose husband Tom Naylor-Leyland is heir to the baronetcy and £176m Fitzwilliam landowning fortune, runs a popular business called ‘Mrs Alice’ which creates themed dining sets.
She says: ‘Sometimes the body misbehaves. I’m totally fine, it was just a small infection, but I couldn’t feel more sorry for those I missed.’