His paternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Harewood, were invited to a wedding reception at St. James’s Palace, attended by George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth.
But it seems safe to say that vivacious blonde Ellen Lascelles will be opting for something far less formal when she takes the marital plunge, with her Australian fiancée Channtel McPherson, known as ‘Chan’.
I can reveal that Ellen, 38, has been gleefully alerting her friends to her engagement by posting the news online.
Ellen takes Chan’s proposal completely seriously, saying that she is “floating on a cloud of love.” To prove it, she posted a photo of herself with Chan, formerly the manager of Bang-On T-Shirts, looking radiant as they enjoy the beach together.
“On New Year’s Day, Chan asked me to marry her and turned what was an amazing 2022 into an even more amazing 2023,” says Ellen.
She is the niece of David Lascelles, 8th and present Earl of Harewood, and the eldest daughter of David’s younger brother, Jeremy Lascelles.
“Two proposals in one day, plus a cat ring to seal the deal until we come up with a real engagement ring,” adds event manager Ellen.
A playful character, she has described herself as a “left-handed free spirit and full-time daydreamer” and elsewhere as a “sun-chasing vegan snack queen”.
She and her equally glamorous younger sister, Amy, once dressed in fake tiaras and hosted fitness classes culminating in lifting a 10kg dumbbell (‘the weight of an average royal corgi’) before Prince William and his wedding. Kate Middleton.
But Ellen takes Chan’s proposal completely seriously, saying that she is “floating on a cloud of love.” To prove the point, she posted a photo of herself with Chan, formerly the manager of Bang-On T-Shirts, looking radiant as they enjoy the beach together.
Theirs will not, of course, be the first same-sex marriage within the Royal Family at large. That milestone was marked by Lord Ivar Mountbatten, great-nephew of Lord (‘Dickie’) Mountbatten.
She and her equally glamorous younger sister, Amy, once dressed in fake tiaras and hosted fitness classes culminating in lifting a 10kg dumbbell (‘the weight of an average royal corgi’) before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
In 2018, seven years after divorcing Penny Thompson, with whom he has three daughters, Ivar married James Coyle, director of cabin services for a Glasgow airline.
But Ellen, who lives in Australia, and Chan, the owner of a design company, will become the first female marital couple in the royal diaspora.
Like Ivar at the time of their divorce, Ellen also has young children, a six-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter, with her Australian ex-boyfriend. But the couple never married, so their children will not join Ellen in the distant line of succession to the throne, in which she is ranked 74th.
Her willingness to defy convention is far from unusual in the Lascelles family.
His grandfather George caused his cousin Queen Elizabeth II great consternation by fathering a child out of wedlock. Even after her subsequent divorce from him, he was not welcome at court for several years.
Their second son, James, Ellen’s uncle, has been even happier, living variously in a hippie commune, performing at Glastonbury and marrying three times so far, most recently to Nigerian actress Joy Elias-Rilwan, the first. black woman to marry in the broadest. Royal family.
His paternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Harewood, were invited to a wedding reception at St. James’s Palace, attended by George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth.
Government minister Zac Goldsmith, whose sister Jemima was a friend of Princess Diana, has little sympathy for Prince Harry. Paraphrasing King Charles’ youngest son in his new online memoir, Lord Goldsmith says: “William took the best room in Balmoral, the biggest with a view.” My half was smaller and less luxurious. He quips: ‘Is there no end to deprivation?’
Joan Bakewell is optimistic in revealing her battle with cancer
Baroness Bakewell, who has spoken movingly of how helpless she felt as her sister was dying of breast cancer at 58, has revealed that she is now fighting her own battle for health.
The distinguished 89-year-old presenter tells me that she is undergoing treatment for colon cancer. “I had an operation before Christmas,” she says. “I feel fine, and the chemotherapy is a clean-up operation to make sure it doesn’t come back.”
Lady Bakewell, whose cancer was detected during a routine examination, adds: ‘I have always been optimistic that I caught this cancer early. Within a week, he was in the hospital undergoing surgery.’ He continued to work, including on a new Landscape Artist of the Year series, on Sky Arts tonight: “A voice-over session: that’s all I needed to cancel.”
Lady Bakewell, who was nicknamed the ‘thinking man’s crumpet’, inspired Harold Pinter’s betrayal after she had an affair with the playwright when she was married to television producer Michael Bakewell. Pinter was married to actress Vivien Merchant.
Her work as a sponsor of Breast Cancer Care has been very helpful to her: ‘Treatments have improved a lot and cancer is no longer a death sentence. In a way, it made me optimistic, which sounds strange.
A dig at Harry and Meghan’s Netflix ‘documentary series’ comes from former Tory MP Hugo Swire. Speaking in the House of Lords, the newly ennobled Swire spoke of the ‘recent and not uncontroversial Netflix documentary in which one of the contributors labeled the Commonwealth ‘Empire 2.0”. This was, says Swire, “either deliberate mischief or staggering ignorance.” Harry and Meghan guilty of mischief or clumsiness? Impossible!
Criticized for becoming ambassador of Qatar, host of the World Cup, where homosexuality is illegal, David Beckham cries all the way to the bench. I can reveal that the former England captain earned a staggering £454,000 a week last year. Accounts from his business, Beckham Brand Holdings Ltd, published this week, reveal that he made a pre-tax profit of £23.6m on revenue of £42.2m in 2021.
His ‘portfolio’ of contracts is reported in the trade review to include: ‘Electronic Arts, Adidas, Tudor, Diageo’s Haig Club and Maserati’.