EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Fergie’s pal Nigel ‘The Rat’ Pollitzer takes his secrets to the grave after dying peacefully at his home aged 80

He was once, he claimed, likely to marry Princess Caroline of Monaco – until his parents, hearing that he had been imprisoned for fraud and declared bankrupt, intervened.

It was a brief setback in the perhaps, happily inimitable, life of Nigel “The Rat” Pollitzer which, I can reveal, ended in a way that none of his friends and acquaintances – Fergie, the Duchess of York and director Roman Polanski among them – one would have expected: peacefully, at home in West Sussex, at the age of 80.

Pollitzer claimed he pursued teenager Caroline after a chance encounter in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad. Subsequently, accompanied by his pal, Dai (later Sir Dai) Llewellyn, he visited him several times in Paris.

“We drove around Paris in Dai’s car,” recalled Pollitzer, who said he and Caroline became friends in the back seat, with Llewellyn “nearly breaking his neck to see what was going on.”

It set the pattern for a life that owed almost everything to a scandalous stroke of fortune, when two-year-old Nigel was snatched from a London orphanage by multimillionaire George Pollitzer and his wife Esme.

After Stowe School, The Rat, as he was universally known, gambled recklessly on the Stock Exchange, only to have his father pay off his debts. But when he started again, his father let him go bankrupt.

A 12-month prison sentence for checkbook fraud followed. At that time, Pollitzer had an ex-wife behind him, the blonde Austrian actress Erika Raffael, whom he had married in secret.

But, endowed with unwavering charm, he became the manager of The Business (later Business Connection), the aristo group led successively by Lady Teresa Manners, the daughter of the Duke of Rutland, and “Bunter” Worcester, now Duke of Beaufort.

One of Pollitzer’s girlfriends, Tessa Gore, died of an overdose at the age of 25 in 1994. Five years later, his friend, John, 7th Marquess of Bristol, who would return “coked” after lunched with him at the London restaurant Foxtrot Oscar, died. at 44 years old. Pollitzer sailed unscathed, marrying two more times.

How lawless London lost its shine for Swarovski

She is from a multi-billion-euro Austrian crystal dynasty, but Nadja Swarovski is afraid to wear jewelry after her luxury watch was snatched from her wrist in central London.

“I was a victim myself. “That’s why I don’t wear a lot of jewelry, not even a watch,” the 52-year-old heiress tells me at the Mumble Forum International Women’s Day charity gala at Apollo’s Muse private club in Mayfair. .

Unfortunately, Swarovski has not found his watch.

She adds: “I have to say that living in London doesn’t make you very comfortable, the crime is just horrible.”

The country’s only field marshal, Lord Guthrie, 85, attended the launch party for These Must Be The Guards, as did Viscountess Montgomery of Alamein, 90.

There was no question, however, that Tessa Montgomery, Daphné du Maurier’s daughter, would run away: the book was co-written by her son, Paul de Zulueta.

James and Arun’s ex enjoy a nice day

Newly single chef James Martin has struck up a blossoming friendship with Kim Johnson, the ex-wife of tycoon Arun Nayar.

In our exclusive photo, the Yorkshireman, 51, and the personal trainer, 37, can be seen shopping together in London’s Mayfair.

A spokesperson for the former Saturday Kitchen host confirmed he split from his TV producer girlfriend of 12 years, Louise Davies, in December last year, but they “remain good friends “.

Meanwhile, Kim (pictured below with her ex-husband), a high school graduate, was left devastated after her year-long marriage to Arun, 59, ended in 2017.

She married the textile heir after his divorce from Liz Hurley, and the specter of the actress is said to have loomed over their union.

No need to curb the heckling, Bella!

Hold your horses, Bella Hadid! The model was slammed yesterday for lying down and standing on a horse during her latest photo shoot for Vogue Italia.

However, my wife at the stables tells me that there is no point in shouting.

“Bella is an avid horse rider and many riders ride on their horses, especially if they are strong and sturdy like this one,” she said.

Bella, 27, gave up horse riding in 2016 after developing Lyme disease.

“My dedication comes from my mother’s love of horses. I’ve been riding since I could walk,” she once said.

The guests shocked when the maître d’ left

Some of the capital’s belle monde were turned upside down by the disconcerting departure of Jesus Adorno – surely the world’s most brilliant and inspired maître d’ – from Arlington.

The restaurant has just opened on the site of Caprice, the legendary association of Chris Corbin and Jeremy King.

Jesus was a fixture at the restaurant they founded in 1982, after working there for 38 years, where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Princess Diana who lunched at least once a week at Table 7.

A source tells me: “Jesus has been very closed-minded about it, but as we know, Jeremy King has had a lot of fallout, despite his media profile as a charming restaurant genius.”

Meanwhile, Adorno, who wrote in his farewell message online that Arlington “didn’t suit him,” assures me that he responds to “hundreds of messages.”

One of them is sure to be Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the next provost of Eton, who wrote: “I am shocked, you have been part of my life for many decades. »