Devastated when his wife, fashion editor Lulu Anderson, died of cancer in 2022 at the age of 60, chocolate heir Cosmo Fry has found love again.
I can reveal that the Eton-educated son of the late inventor Jeremy Fry is dating an American pop star 26 years his junior.
She is Diane Birch, a 41-year-old singer-songwriter who has performed with superstars such as Stevie Wonder and Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates.
“We met in Somerset, where I live,” says Cosmo, 67, at the gala screening of Nutcracker in Havana, at London’s Southbank Centre.
Diane adds, “I’m in the next town.”
The couple has already traveled to Japan and New York together.
Cosmo founded the Big Sleep hotels with Lulu, who was his third wife. Guests at their wedding party included actor Richard E. Grant and designer Jasper Conran.
Cosmo’s first wedding, to Lady Cosima Somerset, was attended by 500 guests, including her cousins Zac and Jemima Goldsmith. The couple separated six weeks later.
Chocolate heir Cosmo Fry and his new girlfriend, American pop star Diane Birch, who is 26 years his junior
Fry was devastated when his wife, fashion editor Lulu Anderson (pictured above with him), died of cancer in 2022 at the age of 60
He then married Amanda Aspinall, daughter of the late gambling magnate John.
They had a daughter, March, and a son, Orson – once a friend of model Alexa Chung – before divorcing.
Aspinall, who married American pop star Daryl Hall, was found dead in 2019 at the age of 61.
With Lulu, Cosmo had another son, Jude, who has a romantic relationship with Ella Clapton, daughter of Eric Clapton – guitar legend and writer of course of Tears In Heaven.
Guru with a clean life gets dirty looks…advice falls on deaf ears
Kate Moss is said to have ended her nine-year relationship with photographer Count Nikolai von Bismarck, 37.
A source claimed: ‘At 50, Kate wants to have fun. Nikolai wants to enjoy a quieter life. He stays on his down-to-earth path.”
Now one of Kate’s friends, nutritionist Rosemary Ferguson, 49, admits she has tried to convince other ex-members of hard-partying Primrose Hill to also pursue sobriety.
But she adds, “They don’t listen! They’re all rolling their eyes at me.’
Kate Moss’ girlfriend Rosemary Ferguson, 49, admits she tried to convince other ex-members of hard-partying Primrose Hill to pursue sobriety
Merry Widow’s Vow Plan
Opera star Danielle de Niese, who will appear on Christmas Day in the title role of The Merry Widow shown on the BBC, has an even more important date for her diary before then.
Next week the 45-year-old soprano will celebrate the 15th anniversary of her marriage to Gus Christie, executive director of Glyndebourne opera house in East Sussex.
She tells me, “I said to Gus, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if the two of us renew our vows in our church?’
The couple first exchanged vows at St. Bartholomew the Great Church in the City of London.
“It turned out that one of Gus’s ancestors was buried there, and it was a coincidence that we saw him there,” she says.
‘I would like to renew them. But I don’t think we will succeed this year.’
She adds, “I would like our renewal to be one-on-one because we had an amazing wedding. It was a huge event. Maybe as an innovation it would be nice to just be with the two of us.’
Opera star Danielle de Niese will next week celebrate the 15th anniversary of her marriage to Gus Christie, executive director of Glyndebourne opera house in East Sussex
Bonny Blandford girl who failed to clear the heir
Coronets up! The Marchioness of Blandford celebrates the birth of a daughter, Leonora Eliza Cressida Spencer-Churchill.
The new arrival – Lady Leonora – is an excellently timed early Christmas distraction for her older sister, Lady Olympia, four, while their mother, Camilla, catches her breath before the festivities begin.
But is it too bold to wonder whether Camilla Blandford will eventually consider a third addition to the family?
She met her husband, George – the eldest son of the 12th Duke of Marlborough and heir to Blenheim Palace – when he was just 16 and she was 21, and married him ten years later.
Unless they have a son, the heir to the family dukedom will be George’s half-brother, Lord Caspar, 16, whose mother, Edla, became the second wife of Jamie Blandford (as the 12th Duke was then known) in 2002, but now his alienated, as I revealed this year.
The Marchioness of Blandford is celebrating the birth of a daughter with her husband, George Spencer-Churchill
The new arrival – Lady Leonora – is a beautifully timed early Christmas distraction for her older sister, Lady Olympia, four
Historian Lady Antonia Fraser has had “had enough” when the audience asks, “Are you who I think you are?”
After all, she thinks that ‘it is an impossible question to answer’.
The widow of playwright Harold Pinter comes up with a poetic answer. “I composed a Bad Verse to scare people,” she says.
“And it kind of works: ‘Are you who I think you are?/Your question really goes too far/I’m never who you think I am/In the meantime, why don’t you get to work?'”
Historian Lady Antonia Fraser (drawn above) gets “fed up” when the audience asks, “Are you who I think you are?”
Protester beats Battling Burgess over flats plan
High-octane lawyer Lord Banner – elevated this year by old Oxford friend Rishi Sunak – does not shy away from confrontation, as a British Airways cabin crew discovered in 2022 during a row over his family nanny’s right to a club-class seat .
That includes his lordship’s client, property developer Jack Burgess, who was once involved in an arrest outside Stringfellows over the exploits of one of the lap dancers.
But until now they had not had to deal with charity activist Laura Chapman.
Dismayed that Burgess’s proposal for 850 blocks of flats in Bristol had been given the green light, she launched a legal challenge using crowdfunding.
It’s due in court next week, but I can tell you that instead of sending Banner into battle, Burgess has agreed to a scaled-down plan. “Laura’s cock,” I was told.
Monty’s tribute to Queen’s sweet Beth
THIS must have been one of Queen Camilla’s most moving assignments this week. I hear she had a private meeting at Buckingham Palace with the television gardener Monty Don.
He is designing a dog-friendly garden for the Chelsea Flower Show, with the names of the Queen’s Jack Russells, Bluebell and Beth engraved on the garden’s path.
Sadly, Beth was put to sleep last month at the age of 13 after an inoperable tumor was discovered.
Keep it to yourself, but…
A recent addition to the aristocracy horrified her husband’s family by snorting a white powder during the celebration of her son’s baptism.