EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Strictly star Annabel Croft’s joy as her son becomes engaged to a jewellery heiress a year after the tragic death of her beloved husband.

When Mel Coleman, a vigorous 60-year-old in seemingly impeccable health, died last year just weeks after being diagnosed with bowel cancer, his wife, the tennis star turned television presenter Annabel Croft, was comforted by their only son, Charlie, 27.

“Charlie said it was like a hand had reached down from the sky and ripped Mel away, leaving our family with a huge hole that will never be filled,” Annabel later recalled.

Now, Charlie has cheered up his mother and two sisters by giving them some good news.

“He’s engaged,” a friend tells me. “The family is delighted and really looking forward to getting married. He’s given us all a lot of encouragement.”

Charlie, who works in the financial sector, has clearly found a gem: he is marrying a descendant of a family of jewelers. “He won’t be short of choice when it comes to jewellery,” jokes the friend.

His future wife is Honour Wainwright, 28, whose father, Michael, is managing director of Boodles, the jeweller founded in Liverpool in the 19th century.

He is the sixth generation of his family to run the company for which Earl Spencer’s twin daughters, Lady Eliza and Lady Amelia, work as models.

The Princess of Wales and her sister, Pippa Matthews, have attended the Boodles Boxing Ball, where friends including Hugh van Cutsem have fought in bouts to raise funds for charity.

Honour, a graduate of the University of Exeter, works for Boodles as a marketing manager, having previously worked at magazine giant Conde Nast.

“I grew up in Boodles,” she said in 2022. “It’s always been a part of my life and I always knew I ultimately wanted to work here.”

Following the death of America’s Cup and Admiral’s Cup sailor Mel, Annabel, 58, signed up to Strictly alongside Johannes Radebe and left the show’s judges in tears when she blew a sky-high kiss to her late husband after a dance. She was denied a place in the final, to the fury of viewers.

In June, I revealed that Annabel had decided to part ways with the house she and Mel, a “DIY fanatic”, built almost 20 years ago.

“I don’t cry every day anymore,” she said. “Now I’m ready to sell.”

In 2001, the couple bought a run-down house in Surrey with their three young children in mind, with the intention of knocking it down and building their dream home.

The house had been rented to students who had left a tap on and flooded it. In the end, she and Mel built a beautifully proportioned neoclassical house. With six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a conservatory and, of course, an all-weather tennis court, it is likely to sell for more than £6 million.

Annabel hopes to find a smaller venue, closer to what she calls her “tennis family” at Wimbledon, where she commentated at this year’s championships.

She said of her beloved Mel: ‘(He is) the last person I think of when I go to sleep and the first when I wake up.’

Who would have thought that Stephen Fry’s underwear had so many fans?

He’s not exactly pop star Harry Styles, but Stephen Fry claims his fans are clamoring for his underwear anyway.

“Sometimes I get asked quite personal questions like, ‘Would you send me your underwear?'” the 66-year-old says.

‘I used to watch people on talk shows like Parkinson and they used to talk about viewers asking their guests for their underwear.

‘I thought it was because they were pop singers or actors, but now it seems that even if you look like me there is someone in the world who wants my underwear.’

If you say so, Stephen…

The King’s holiday labels stagnate

Forget getting Prince Andrew out of the Royal Lodge at Windsor, King Charles had enough trouble getting his belongings to Balmoral over the weekend.

The company needs at least two lorries to transport their luggage during their two-month annual holiday in Deeside. But someone forgot to tell the staff they would be arriving on Saturday.

“The driver tried the intercom and got no response,” one shocked bystander tells me.

‘He made a phone call from his taxi, went back to the intercom and got no answer. As he walked away, he heard a voice over the intercom and was eventually let in.’

Suchet swaps London Docklands for Dartmouth

Former ITN news presenter John Suchet has a newsletter about his own life.

He has moved to Dartmouth in South Devon, where David Dimbleby also has a house.

“Life is much more sociable there,” says Suchet, 80, who previously lived in the Docklands area of ​​east London.

“There’s always something going on and it’s impossible to walk around the city without running into someone you know.”

Grimmy smiles and bears it like Grace’s hot waiter.

Former X Factor judge Nick Grimshaw was mistaken for a waiter when he and Grace Jones were guests in a hospitality suite at Wimbledon.

“Every time I wanted a drink she’d tap me and say, ‘Oh, can I get you another Pimm’s?’ and I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll get you one because she’s Grace Jones and she’s fabulous,'” the 40-year-old said.

‘At one point she said, “Why don’t you bring some in a bag?” and I brought several pints of Pimm’s in a paper bag.

Sir Roger Moore was not a fan when the famously fiery singer appeared in the 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill.

“I did all my own stunts,” he recalled, “except the one where I slept with Grace Jones.”

Suki’s team attends her concert in Swift

Suki Waterhouse was very excited after supporting Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium at the weekend.

“My nervous system will never be the same,” says the singer and actress, who has a five-month-old daughter with The Batman star Robert Pattinson.

Londoner Suki, 32, wore a peach ruffled dress by Chloe for the show, which was spotted by friends including fellow model Georgia May Jagger, actress Eiza Gonzalez, TV presenter Poppy Jamie, socialite Jack Guinness and singer Lilith Ai.

They wore white T-shirts emblazoned with the face of Suki, the star of the hit TV drama Daisy Jones & the Six.