Page 33PRINCE HaRRy’s marriage to Meghan Markle
will always loom large at his uncle’s ancestral
seat, althorp.
For Earl spencer has commissioned the first
painting of his wife, Karen, dressed in the outfit
she wore to the royal wedding. The portrait, by
argentinian Fabian Perez, will go on display
today as part of a partnership with Clarendon
Fine art and White Wall Galleries.
The Earl tells me: ‘It’s a wonderful portrait,
powerfully combining my wife’s beauty, strength
and poise. a very refreshing addition to the
collection at althorp, I am sure it will be admired
for many generations.’Earl reveals new
portrait of his Lady
Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019 Page 33We are just good
friends, insists
Chloe after THAT
snap with polo hunk
HOLIDAYS on Sir Philip
Green’s £125 million
superyacht seem very
lively indeed.
The Topshop tycoon’s
daughter, Chloe, was
pictured with her arm and
leg entangled with those
of polo player Rommy
Gianni on Lionheart’s
deck in the Med earlier
this week.
But Chloe rings me to
insist they are just pals.
‘He is not my boyfriend,’
she declares.
Dashing Rommy, 42, a
grandson of Italian foot-
ball chairman Anacleto
Gianni, has been a friend
of the Greens for years
and has known Chloe, 28,
since she was a girl.
One of Chloe’s friends
claims: ‘They aren’t kissing
in the pictures, I can
promise you that. There is
no romance.’
If he’s not her boyfriend,
then it’s a crying shame,
as he could scarcely be
more eligible — or more
of a contrast to her ex-
boyfriend Jeremy Meeks,
with whom she shares a
son, Jayden.
‘Hot felon’ Meeks is a
former Los Angeles gang
member and convicted
criminal who was married
to another woman when
Chloe met him.IT’s been a blissful
summer for the Duchess of
Cambridge’s brother,
James Middleton.
Not only is he enjoying a
passionate romance with
French financial expert
alizee Thevenet, but now
he’s turned his first profitat his marshmallow and
greetings card business,
Boomf, after five years of
tireless toiling.
‘It’s great news,’ James
tells me. ‘Like any start-up,
to get to profitability is a
wonderful feeling, and I
have to give credit tothe amazing team we have
at Boomf.’
The company’s newly
published accounts reveal
that it returned a profit of
£176,000 last year.
Irrepressible James
declares: ‘Now onto my
next venture!’At last! Middleton Jr’s £176k profit
(Very) modern
manners
SOME couples have to
continue living
together after break-
ups, but TV chef Gizzi
Erskine has chosen to
move in again with
her former fiance,
graphic designer
Dean Martin.
‘I have quite a weird
living situation,’
reveals the 39-year-
old. ‘I was with him
for ten years. We
broke up six years
ago. We still have a
property together and
we just moved back
in.’ Gizzi describes
Dean as her ‘bestfriend’ and says she’s
pleased not to live
alone. However,
speaking on Alesha
Dixon’s podcast Wear
It’s At, she admits the
arrangement is
playing havoc with
her love life: ‘It’s
a nightmare!’n OLYMPIC diver Tom Daley
became the sport’s youngest-
ever European champion as a
13-year-old. These days, he’s
still breaking records, albeit
of a very different kind.
Daley reveals he ate 75 bowls
of soba noodles in just three
minutes during a recent visit
to Japan. That’s each bowl
gobbled down in little more
than two seconds.
‘There’s this challenge
where you have to eat as
many soba noodles as possi-
ble,’ he tells me at Japan
House in London. ‘I started
eating the first two [bowls]
with chopsticks, but, after
that, I was gulping down as
many of them as possible.
‘It felt easy at the time, but
an hour and a half later I wasgetting more full to the point
that I slept for two hours on
the train to Tokyo.’
Where does slender Tom
put it?Jodie: I won’t count
out a third wedding
JODIE KIDD’S second
marriage lasted
scarcely four months
but, happily, she’s not
afraid to wed again.
The model-turned-
pub landlady reveals
she’s considering
tying the knot with
former Royal Marine
Joseph Bates, whom
she has been court-
ing since 2017.
‘Who knows?’ Jodie
muses. ‘My grand-
mother married
three times, so
there’s hope.’
Jodie is referring to
Janet Aitken, daugh-
ter of press baron
Lord Beaverbrook.
Janet was married
to the 11th Duke of
Argyll, then William
Montagu, son of the
9th Earl of Sandwich,
and thirdly to Major
Thomas Kidd.
Jodie, 40, says of
Bates, 33, (above):‘We’re wonderful as
we are, but my previ-
ous experiences
haven’t put me off at
all. Life’s about big
learning curves and
you’ve got to kiss a
few frogs.’
Jodie’s ‘frogs’
include author David
Blakeley, from whom
she split in 2015, and
internet entrepre-
neur Aidan Butler.
Their marriage lasted
18 months.A happy ending for
Poldark’s Elizabeth
as ILL-FaTED Elizabeth,
Heida Reed has haunted her
troubled widower, George
Warleggan, in hit BBC drama
Poldark, which reaches its
finale next weekend.
In real life, the actress is
enjoying marital
bliss: she has just
tied the knot with
U.s. television pro-
ducer sam Ritzen-
berg (right).
‘They make a
lovely cou-
ple,’ a friend
tells me.
Meanwhile,Oscar winner Colin Firth
was proud to attend the
wedding of his son Will, who
married fellow actor amelie
Edwards, at Daven-
port House in
shropshire, fol-
lowed by a honey-
moon in Tintagel,
Cornwall.
Will’s mum,
the Holly-
wood star
Meg Tilly,
flew over
from her
native
Canada.What a tangle! Chloe and Rommy on her father’s
superyacht and right are chums since childhoodTHE Duke and Duchess of
Northumberland, whose
Alnwick Castle home doubled
as Hogwarts in the Harry
Potter films, have some wizard
news: they have just become
grandparents. Their son, Lord
Max Percy, and his German-
born wife, Princess Nora of
Oettingen, have called their
daughter Romy. ‘We are
thrilled,’ the Duchess, Jane
Percy, tells me.nPicture: PIERS ALLARDYCE