The Duke of Sussex is happily married to Meghan, but his close friend, who also found love with an American former actress and settled in California, is left heartbroken.
I hear that Arthur Landon, 42, has split from his fiancée, Alessandra Balazs, 35. “They broke up a while ago,” a friend confirmed.
The film producer, who inherited most of his Brigadier father Tim’s £200million fortune plus a glamorous 4,250-acre estate in Hampshire, defended Harry after their trip to Las Vegas in 2012 when the prince was infamously photographed at a naked pool party .
He and Alessandra sat front and center at St George’s Chapel for Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018. And Landon remained close friends with Harry after “Megxit,” as he has a home in Los Angeles.
Alessandra, who now works as a lifestyle brand consultant, is the daughter of Andre Balazs, owner of London’s fashionable Chiltern Firehouse, whose tenth anniversary party was attended by Princess Beatrice on Thursday. Her mother is former Ford Models boss Katie Ford.
The Duke of Sussex is happily married to Meghan, but his close friend is heartbroken
Arthur Landon, 42, has split from his fiancée, Alessandra Balazs, 35
Alessandra, who also worked as a model, said in 2019 that Landon had grown up since his Vegas days with Harry. “Everyone changes,” she told the Daily Mail Diary. “He is one of the most genuine, honest and kindest people around.”
The impeccably discreet Landon, son of an Austro-Hungarian princess, refuses to comment.
Aldo tells the absolute truth
When Aldo Zilli was announced as brand ambassador for tequila brand Mis Amigos last December, he was pictured holding a shot glass and saying, “I love the product.”
However, I can reveal that the TV chef is in fact a teetotaler.
“Alcohol has been a big problem in my life, and I gave it up two years ago,” he quietly admits at the Heart UK x Benecol brunch in London.
Since giving it up, Zilli has shed a stone and a half and is happy to wake up without a hangover. He reveals: ‘I have my life back.’ They don’t put that on the tequila ads!
Jo Wood denies. “I’ll be 70 next year – and that’s just not happening,” explains the former model at Theo Fennell’s studio in Chelsea. ‘The thought of being seventy. . . I won’t even say those words.’ Her ex, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, reached that age seven years ago.
TV presenter Anna Ryder Richardson has returned to the helm of a zoo she founded, six years after saying it destroyed her marriage.
The 60-year-old interior designer, who made her name with Changing Rooms, stepped away from Manor Wildlife Park in Pembrokeshire in 2018 following her split from Colin MacDougall. “I’m very excited,” she says. ‘I am finally back with my beloved animals and a fantastic team. I have big plans for the future.’
When Lumley climbed into the king’s bed
She was a close friend of Prince Philip, and now Dame Joanna Lumley sleeps in King Charles’ bed. Not when the king is present, I hasten to add. The Absolutely Fabulous star, 78, stayed at the ‘modest’ Transylvania guest house owned by the king, where he stays when he visits. She was filming her upcoming ITV series which saw her travel the 1,700-mile Danube.
“You can just book it, we had no idea,” she says. ‘We only stayed one night. It was interesting because it was quite modest and normal. There’s nothing clever about it. It’s old furniture and home-cooked food. It was very beautiful.’
It costs €120 (£100) to spend the night surrounded by ‘wild natural beauty’, with proceeds going to the Prince of Wales Foundation in Romania
She was a close friend of Prince Philip, and now Dame Joanna Lumley sleeps in King Charles’ bed
Flamboyant TV presenter Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is dismayed by the decline in the sartorial standards of modern men.
“I’m terribly ashamed of my gender: men are so dirty these days,” he tells The Lady magazine. ‘It shows a total lack of belief in themselves: no tailoring, no seams, lab fabrics – they are man babies.’
The 59-year-old star of The Changing Rooms adds: ‘My youngest grandchild, Eleanora, who cannot yet walk, wears more complicated clothes than most men.’
How regal feet get rid of bunions
Queen Camilla has fallen so in love with her bunion-busting Sole Bliss footwear that she has inspired five award-winning actresses who have played queens on screen to literally step into her shoes.
Dame Helen Mirren, who played Elizabeth II in the 2006 film The Queen, paired her amethyst dress with the brand’s £199 Premiere patent heels for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
And Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton, who played the late Queen in Netflix’s The Crown, have also worn their shoes on the red carpet.
Dame Judi Dench, a friend of Camilla and Queen Elizabeth I in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare In Love, and Cate Blanchett, who won an Oscar for her role in Elizabeth, are also converts.
Queen Camilla has fallen so in love with her bunion-busting Sole Bliss shoes (left) that she has inspired five award-winning actresses who have played queens on screen to literally step into her shoes
Photographer Alison Jackson, who specializes in lookalikes of prominent figures, has found five lookalikes for Sir Keir Starmer – one of whom is even named Keir – but is struggling to generate enthusiasm for the Labor Prime Minister. ‘I had a collection of Starmer pictures but I couldn’t sell them because he’s not exciting. He’s like a schoolgirl,” she tells me. “I threw them all away.”
Charles’s not-so-bad whisper
Just hours after Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s divorce was announced in 1992, the future king was heard whispering in actress Frances Barber’s ear as they presented an award at the National Theatre.
“Everyone asked what Charles said to me,” she tells me on the Ruby Wax show, I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was. “I said, ‘He asked for my number.’
More than thirty years later, she has finally revealed the truth. ‘I was wearing a Versace jacket and Charles whispered in my ear: ‘Is that a Versace?’.
“I said, ‘How did you know, sir?’ He said, “My wife likes clothes.”
Diana was a friend of designer Gianni Versace, who was shot dead in Miami six weeks before her fatal car crash.
(Very) modern manners
Friend of the royal family Basia Briggs is a well-known appearance at the best London parties, but she has had enough of guests greeting her with kisses. “Men need to learn that it is NOT okay to grab and kiss women,” says the former owner of Hyde Park Stables. ‘Unwanted contact is terrible. Keep your distance and just say ‘hello’.” Surely she would make an exception for a prince?