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Anthea Turner’s friends were hoping it was third time luck when socialite Mark Armstrong proposed to the twice-divorced TV personality in Italy in 2019 after a whirlwind two-month romance.
Now, however, I can reveal that the couple have called off their wedding, for the fourth time. And some friends aren’t convinced it will ever happen.
The wedding was due to take place in Italy in 2022, but was postponed to 2023 with the location changed to Britain.
Anthea, 64, who was a presenter on Blue Peter before becoming TV’s Golden Girl as a presenter on shows including GMTV, admits she and Armstrong, 59, no longer have plans for a wedding. “We kept telling her friends, ‘Oh, we’ll figure it out,'” Anthea says at the launch party for Undercroft’s Mayfair restaurant in London, which is run by TV chef Aldo Zilli.
Anthea Turner has admitted that her marriage to socialite Mark Armstrong has been called off
The couple at the launch party for Aldo Zilli’s Mayfair restaurant
She tells me: ‘We feel like we’re married. But why it hasn’t happened is that my mother died, and Mark’s mother died, then there was Covid and then we moved in together properly.
Anthea, 64, split from her first DJ husband Peter Powell in 2008 and later married businessman Grant Bovey. They divorced in 2015 after her adultery with a 24-year-old man.
Anthea tells me: “Maybe we went away and we’ll go on vacation and tell everyone that we got married on vacation.”
Marquess’ business partners jailed over £13m contempt case
There can be few more blue-blooded property businessmen than George Gordon, 8th Marquess of Aberdeen.
As well as overseeing the 5,000-acre Haddo estate, which has been in the Gordon family for over 550 years, he also specializes in ‘transforming iconic buildings into unique workplaces’, in conjunction with his business partner, Sam Lawson Johnston.
But no matter how noble their vision, formed, they explain on the website of their company, Kinrise, looking through ‘four lenses; Human, social, environmental and financial’: they cannot be accused of remaining distant from the less genteel elements of society.
I can reveal that one of its business partnerships is with Inc & Co, described on its own website as a private equity firm.
What it fails to mention is that two men who, until recently, on its board have been given 22-month prison stretches after a judge found they had “lied on a prolific scale” to move £13.7m to the Virgin Islands British.
The prayers were given to David Antrobus and Jack Mason, who became directors of Inc & Co in 2019, the year it was founded. So they remained until months before their court appearance eight weeks ago, when the judge found them in contempt of court for ‘deliberate and planned failures’ to comply with court orders intended to safeguard the £13.7m.
Instead, the money was ‘spirit(ed) away’ from Barclays Bank to companies they controlled in the Caribbean. An Inc & Co blog goes on to describe Mason as the firm’s CEO.
George Gordon, the 8th Marquess of Aberdeen, is photographed with his wife, Isabelle
More seriously, for the Marquess of Aberdeen, it shows praise supposedly from the Marquess’s company, Kinrise, who says he is “delighted to see (Inc & Co) have already signed tenants to bring this iconic and beautiful (Manchester (Manchester (Manchester) build once again alive’.
Neither Antrobus, 38, nor Mason, 35, appeared in court, prompting the judge to issue arrest warrants.
But his colleague, Scott Dylan, the founder of Inc & Co, according to his website, is behind bars after receiving a 22-month sentence.
“They sent him to Pentonville,” they told me. “He is now at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.”
It may be some time before the Marquess, 41, and Lawson Johnston, 42, can completely disconnect from these unsavory business partners.
“The issue is currently being dealt with by the court, so there is very little we can say,” Lawson Johnston tells me.
At least Scott Dylan seems to find the next few months stimulating: the Inc & Co website describes him as “someone who enjoys immersing himself in the culture of new destinations.”
Buon address for Harry’s Italian work
He is almost as acclaimed for his romantic entanglements as he is for his stage and screen efforts. But has Harry Styles, who split from Canadian actress Taylor Russell last May, found true love?
I ask because one of your recent passions seems to be maturing into something deeper. I mean their love story. . . Italy. I can reveal the former One Direction star, 31 next week, is showing every sign of settling down there.
“He’s building a studio in his house outside Rome,” one admirer tells me. When his love 2023 tour ended there, he spoke fluently in Italian. Splendid!
The smart set is talking about… Rocco Forte’s son Charles getting engaged
Hotel magnate Sir Rocco Forte has a welcome new addition to his family empire. Her only son, Charles, is engaged to a handbag designer, Georgie Wright. “Georgie and I got engaged at Christmas while we were with my family,” Charles tells me. “It has been an incredibly happy time and we are looking forward to the wedding, which will probably take place in May next year.”
Charles, 33, is named after his grandfather, the owner of Trusthouse Forte, Lord Forte, a close ally of Margaret Thatcher, who became Britain’s best-known hotelier.#
Turning 100 this year, Dick Van Dyke says he has never enjoyed the profits from the film classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The veteran American actor, forever mocked for his attempt at ‘Cockney’ when he played Bert in Mary Poppins, had the lead role of Caractacus Potts in the 1968 film, which was filmed in Britain and based on the Children’s Book by James Bond author Ian Fleming. . “I’m supposed to own 20 percent of that movie,” Dick announces now. “But I haven’t seen any checks…they never came.”
Jeremy (damn) Ironos
While the identity of the next James Bond remains unclear, Oscar winner Jeremy Irons reflects on turning down the role in the 1980s.
‘Cubby Broccoli (Bond Late producer) came to see me. There was a chance… but I wasn’t excited. After Sean Connery and Roger Moore, they chose Timothy Dalton. Looking back, I was probably wrong – it wouldn’t have hurt my career at all.’
It wasn’t just Bond: Irons also said no to portraying Hannibal Lecter before Sir Anthony Hopkins got the job.
‘That was probably a mistake, although I would never have done as well as Anthony Hopkins. But I realized that I was starting to accumulate too many strange characters, dark guys.
Lady Victoria is happy to be one of Trump’s golden girls
President Donald Trump has proclaimed his second term in office marks the beginning of the ‘golden era’ of the United States, and Lady Victoria Hervey appears to agree.
This week, the Marquis of Bristol’s sister jetted off to Washington to show his support for Trump at his inauguration celebrations.
Lady Victoria 48, sported a £400 gold sequence bomber jacket with the words ‘Trump the Golden Era’.
‘I bought the jacket in Texas and had so many people ask me about it and they tried to buy it, offering me double what I paid,’ the former ‘it girl’ tells me.’
His priorities have changed, he tells me: “Meeting world leaders, I find more interesting than any fashion show.”
(Very) modern manners
Alan Titchmarsh claims that when he collected his MBE from Queen Elizabeth, she told him: “You give a lot of pleasure to a lot of women.” Now the garden guru reveals his horticultural horrors include gladioli and excessive signage. “”Daddy’s Vegetable Patch “Really?” But writing on the ScribeHound Gardening website, Titch admits to having a hot tub in his own garden, something he once regarded “with disapproval.”
Hollywood star Samantha Morton, left, and her actress daughter Esme Creed-Miles, 24
Sam’s girl opens up about her love life
Hollywood star Samantha Morton made a big move last year when she ended her 20-year relationship with her agents, Conway Van Gelder Grant, after her actress daughter, Esme Creed-Miles, left the agency. Now, Esme has made a very public statement about her private life.
The rising star, 24, came out to her fans on social media this week, describing herself as a “Jewish lesbian.”
Esme, whose father is actor Charlie Creed-Miles, 52, starred in TV drama The Doll Factory and will appear in Netflix’s latest adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comics, The Sandman.
Nigella Lawson split from famous lawyer Geoffrey Robertson KC in the 1980s, but the shadow of the domestic goddess remained over his marriage to novelist Kathy Lette, 66. She and Robertson, 78, who have two children, separated in 2017 and the author now says: ‘Here’s some gossip for you. When I met Geoffrey, he was dating Nigella. He broke up with me for me. And I can’t cook. I use my smoke alarm as a timer! I think he really regretted it.
Temperatures are short at Mayfair’s Savile Club, which next week will vote to allow women. The club planned to let people vote remotely, but that had to be pulled after a potentially costly court threat. The mood in the bar is quite toxic.
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