Daily Mail - 03.03.2020

Page 24 Daily Mail, Tuesday, March 3, 2020

life

T

HE restaurant Bedford 234

p r i d e s i t s e l f o n i t s

‘comfortable yet engaging

atmosphere’, avocado fries

a n d s t r o z z a p r e t i w i t h

pecorino and winter black truffle.

But the presence last summer of one

particular regular customer provoked out-

rage among the moneyed clientele of this

upstate New York dining spot.

Harvey Weinstein — convicted last week of

sexual assault and rape in the third degree

by a Manhattan court — was that customer.

He would often arrange to meet ex-wife

Georgina Chapman plus their children

Dashiell, six and India, nine, there.

The eaterie is near to the large farm in

Bedford — a town populated by stars such as

Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and

Ryan Reynolds — which Georgina bought

last year, after reportedly receiving nearly

£ 15 million in a divorce settlement in 2018.

Weinstein was renting a house nearby.

Manager Kyle O’Connor said: ‘What he

would do is he had people come in first — his

family, ex-wife, they would come in, sit down,

order food, and he’d join a half-hour later. He

might have tipped all right, but [customers]

around him were disappearing. He made

everyone uncomfortable.’ He was asked not

to return.

Now, following a landmark three-week trial,

Weinstein is awaiting a sentencing hearing.

His disgrace is on an epic scale. More than

80 women have said he abused them.

So what must it be like to be the ex-wife of

Hollywood’s most hated predator — and the

mother of his two youngest children?

Friends say that Georgina, 43, ‘does not

want to be seen as a victim’. That right she

reserves for others. In the first five months

after he was exposed, she scarcely dared to

leave her apartment — she feared that having

any kind of public profile might seem

disrespectful to his victims.

She has undergone therapy to try to cope

with her sense of shock and shame. ‘I was so

humiliated and broken that I didn’t think it

was respectful to go out,’ she said.

She has also had to fight hard to remain in

business — she is the co-founder of designer

fashion label Marchesa — as her association

with Weinstein, to whom she was married

from 2007, has threatened to derail her career.

And not only has she remained in business,

she produces four collections a year and has

branched out into childrenswear.

Some thought that she might lend her

support at his trial, but she chose to stay

away. His lawyers tried to paint a picture of

her as a part of his family, with attorney

Donna Rotunno saying: ‘They are divorced

but they work well together with the kids.’

She added that the children ‘rely’ on their

father ‘on a daily basis’, noting: ‘He’s been

seeing the younger kids their whole lives. They

live next door to each other, he has a great

Divorced:

Georgina

with ex-

husband

Harvey

Weinstein

in 2016

by Alison

Boshof f

relationship with [them].’ But

Georgina’s friends say things

are by no means ‘cosy’ between

them. ‘It’s a little damper than

has been indicated,’ says one.

He did not, for one thing, live

‘next door’.

G

EORGINA has not

been among those

visiting Weinstein

a t t h e s u i t e i n

Bellevue Hospital following

his conviction. In fact, she left

the country with her children

before the trial.

The Mail has also learned

that she is ready to officially

confirm a romance with the

American actor Adrien Brody,

whom she has been dating for

s e v e r a l m o n t h s. H e a n d

Georgina are ‘very happy’, and

I’m told the new romance is a

‘positive’ element in the new

life she has been building.

Adrien, 46, an Oscar winner

himself, seems to be every-

thing Weinstein was not —

c h a r m i n g , d i s c r e e t a n d

self-deprecating.

Romance blossomed after

they met at the launch of

H e l e n a C h r i s -

tensen’s swimwear

range last April.

They were spotted

h a v i n g d i n n e r

together in New

York in autumn.

It was said she

wasn’t interested in

dating post-Harvey,

but she has found that

Adrien has been a

source of support.

With a new man in her

l i f e — a n d a

determination to not be

b r o u g h t d o w n b y t h e

sins of her ex-husband —

Georgina is embracing a

new beginning.

The British model and

former actress, who attended

Kate Middleton’s alma mater

Marlborough College, was

born into money.

Her father Brian Chapman is

a m u l t i - m i l l i o n a i r e w h o

founded the Percol coffee

brand. He has houses in

Wimbledon and on the Isle of

Wight. Her mother, Caroline

Wonfor, worked for Reader’s

Digest. They are divorced, and

Caroline lives in Richmond.

Georgina boarded

at St David’s in

A s h f o r d , S u r r e y.

She has dyslexia, but

this was not diagnosed until

s h e w a s e i g h t. S h e a l s o

suffered from a hip defect

which gave her pigeon toes.

‘I was incredibly clumsy, and

it set me back at school

socially,’ she said. ‘I was always

that kid who was the last to be

picked for any sport as I

couldn’t do it.’ She left school

to model aged 17, then decided

to go into acting. She had roles

in the 2003 TV adaptation of

D. H. Lawrence’s Sons And

Lovers, and in Julian Fellowes’s

fi l m a d a p t a t i o n o f P. G.

Wodehouse’s Piccadilly Jim.

She met Weinstein at a party

in 2004, and had a tiny role in

2006’s Factory Girl, produced

by Miramax, the company he

co-founded. Weinstein split

POSTMASTERS who claim they were

w r o n g l y j a i l e d f o r t h e f t a r e t o

s p e a r h e a d B r i t a i n’ s l a r g e s t e v e r

miscarriage of justice case.

Their lives were ruined when money appar-

ently went missing from their branches. But

it later emerged that the Post Office’s coun-

ter-top terminals were riddled with bugs.

The Post Office eventually settled a long-running

High Court case brought by 550 former postmas-

ters who were wrongly accused, agreeing to pay

them £58million last year.

And yesterday the Criminal Cases Review Com-

mission, which examines possible miscarriages of

justice, revealed that it is considering pleas from

56 of them to have their convictions quashed.

In a letter to claimants, it says it will decide this

month whether to refer the cases to the Appeal

Court. If it referred them all, it would be the big-

gest miscarriage of justice case in the commis-

sion’s history.

Jo Hamilton was convicted after her terminal in

South Warnborough, Hampshire, recorded inex-

plicable losses of £36,000. She said: ‘This is the

first time in five years I have felt optimistic about

my conviction being overturned.

‘The mood changed in their letter and when I

hear that there will be a meeting of commissioners

in March I am very optimistic. Justice is coming.

Now post

staf f f ight

to have

thef t slurs

quashed

By Sam Greenhill Chief Reporter

Giant of UK Asian

media dies at 88

RaMniklal Solanki CBE, who founded the

biggest asian media company in Britain, has died

after a short illness at the age of 88.

Mr Solanki came to England in 1964 and four

years later launched weekly newspaper Garavi

Gujarat from a small terraced house in Wem-

bley, north-west london. it became the biggest

selling Gujarati paper outside india.

His asian Media Group went on to create a

range of titles and events, including the GG2

leadership awards, where the Daily Mail spon-

sors the young journalist category.

Home Secretary Priti Patel was one of many to

pay tribute to the ‘giant of Gujarati journalism’.

‘I like to think justice

will now be swift’

Hopefully, unlike some, I’ll still be alive to see the

day I get my conviction overturned.’

Tracy Felstead was thrown into jail as a teenager,

her supposed crime was to ‘steal’ £11,500 from the

post office where she worked in her first job after

leaving school. Yesterday the 36-year-old mother-

of-three said: ‘I have had to endure this my entire

adult life since aged 19. I’d like to think justice will

now be swift.’

The Post Office settled the High Court case after

being lambasted by the judge in a series of exco-

riating ruling. It had spent years battling its

postal veterans and fiercely denying any problem

with its IT system.

The publicly-owned service blew an estimated

£32million on legal costs fighting the mammoth

series of interlinked High Court trials.

Mr Justice Fraser mocked as wishful thinking its

description of itself as ‘the nation’s most trusted

brand’. And he said the Post Office’s long-running

refusal to accept its computer system was faulty

‘amounts to the 21st century equivalent of main-

taining that the Earth is flat’.

The Post Office said: ‘We are assisting the CCRC

to the fullest extent with inquiries concerning past

convictions of a number of former postmasters.’