The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-10)

The Sunday Times April 10, 2022 2GN 3

NEWS

because she feared the impact on their

careers of having a child.

His infidelity meant they broke up

before they tied the knot, though they

remained friends. There were persistent

rumours that the lothario, now 85, was

having an affair with his Splendor in the

Grass co-star Natalie Wood. Beatty was

said by one biographer to have slept with

almost 13,000 women.

Collins later began a relationship with

the actor and singer-songwriter Anthony

Newley. The pair married in 1963 and had

two children, Tara and Alexander, before

divorcing in 1970.

The actress said that Newley, who as a

child played the Artful Dodger in Oliver

Twist, David Lean’s 1948 film adaptation

of the Charles Dickens novel, gave her the

pear-shaped ring “shortly after I told him

that I never had any diamonds. It was my

first diamond ring.”

Her third husband was the American

music executive and film producer Ron

Kass, whom Collins married in 1972 and

divorced in 1983. She sought an annul-

ment of her fourth marriage, to the Swed-

ish pop star Peter Holm, just over one

year after marrying.

Collins married her fifth husband,

the film producer Percy Gibson, at Cla-

ridge’s in 2002 — and returned to the cen-

tral London hotel recently to celebrate

their 20th wedding anniversary with a

party. Collins said the white-tie event was

“reminiscent of the glamour and

romance of the 1930s and 1940s, with

candlelight and trailing orchids and a

wonderful big band playing the romantic

ballads of the time”. She added: “Every-

one was enchanted, so I think people still

love elegance and style.”

The actress, who divides her time

between London and Los Angeles,

believes that a return to partying after

the end of pandemic restrictions will see

jewellery and high fashion coming back

into style.

Collins’s jewellery has been a success

at previous auctions, with five items

raising more than £200,000 for a chil-

dren’s hospice in 2020.

Beatty’s ring will have a guide price

of up to £7,000 when it goes under the

hammer at Bonhams in London on April

27, while Newley’s diamond band could

fetch as much as £8,000.

Neither will be presented in chopped

liver.

@IamLiamKelly

When Warren Beatty asked Joan Collins

to marry him, he hid the engagement ring

in a tub of offal.

The Bonnie and Clyde actor had

returned to the couple’s New York apart-

ment in 1960 “laden with Jewish delica-

tessen delights”, including her favourite

treat, chopped liver.

“He must have known that I would

consume that first, so imagine my sur-

prise when I found that massive ring

inside the container as I greedily ladled

myself a spoonful,” Collins recalled this

weekend. “He then announced that we

were engaged.”

In what might be considered a perk of

being married five times — and engaged

more than that — the actress has decided

to sell her engagement ring from Beatty,

as well as the one given to her by her sec-

ond husband, the actor, singer and song-

writer Anthony Newley.

Collins, 88, joked that she was selling

the rings because, “like everything else,

my fingers have put on weight”, though

the real reason is that “jewellery is meant

to be worn, and these pieces belong to a

different time in my life”.

She met Beatty, the younger brother of

Shirley MacLaine, in 1959, when he was

an unknown actor; their eyes met across

a restaurant where he was dining with

Jane Fonda.

They embarked on a whirlwind

romance and were engaged the next

year. Collins wore the unusual ring — gold

encrusted with diamonds and pearls —

when she filmed the religious drama

Esther and the King, “since it fitted in with

the biblical costumes”.

The new owners may hope that it

proves luckier for them than it did for the

Dynasty star. Collins had an intense and

tumultuous relationship with Beatty —

she once wrote that “he needed to have

sex several times a day, which often wore

me out” — and had an illegal abortion

Liam Kelly Arts Correspondent

Warren Beatty and Joan

Collins on a date in 1959. He

later gave her a diamond

and pearl ring, centre, but

they never married. Collins

with second husband

Anthony Newley in 1969.

They had two children

before divorcing in 1971

The final furlong: Grand National amateur quits after fairytale triumph

line. “I couldn’t believe it.”

He paid tribute to his

father, his “long-suffering”

wife Annabel and his late

brother, Thomas, who died of

bone cancer aged 20 in 2004.

“I do think Thomas is

sitting on my back,” said

Waley-Cohen. “I ride with his

name on my saddle. These

days are family days and,

honestly, you couldn’t make

it up, could you?”

Noble Yeats, a seven-year-

old, held off a spirited

challenge from the favourite

Any Second Now to become

the youngest winner of the

race since 1940. Waley-Cohen

brought the curtain down on

brief period in 2007. The

couple are friends with his

family and apparently

reconciled at a party thrown

by Sam at their 17th-century

Oxfordshire mansion.

He has always played down

the extent of his involvement

in healing the rift between

the future king and queen.

“There’s an idea that I was

like Cupid with a bow and

arrow,” he told the Daily Mail

in 2011. “People love the idea

that somebody put them back

together but they put

themselves back together far

more.” He was a guest at the

wedding of William and Kate,

who tweeted their

congratulations yesterday,

writing: “What a way to

retire!”

His family is an illustrious

one. Waley-Cohen’s maternal

great-great-grandfather,

Viscount Bearsted, founded

Shell Oil and he is the

grandson of a baronet who

served as lord mayor of

London. His uncle, Sir

Stephen Waley-Cohen, is a

theatre owner who produces

The Mousetrap, the world’s

longest-running play, at

St Martin’s Theatre in the

West End. Waley-Cohen, who

turns 40 on Saturday, studied

at two private schools in

Oxford, the Dragon School

and St Edward’s before

reading politics at Edinburgh

University. After graduating,

he worked as a City

commodities trader but

continued to race, including a

fifth-placed finish in the 2007

Grand National.

In 2009 Waley-Cohen

founded Portman Dental

Care, which has grown to

include 200 dental practices

in the UK, Ireland and

northern Europe. He married

Annabel, a children’s party

planner, in 2012 and they

have a son, Max, and

daughter, Scarlett.

Sport, pages 14-

If there are better ways to

retire from a part-time job,

Sam Waley-Cohen is unlikely

to find one. The amateur

jockey, who runs a

multimillion-pound chain of

private dentists, won

yesterday’s Grand National

on 50-1 outside shot Noble

Yeats before hanging up his

riding crop for the final time.

Waley-Cohen, 39, said the

victory on a horse owned by

his father, Robert, was a

“fairytale” and a “fantasy” at

Aintree. “I can’t say anything.

It’s a dream,” Waley-Cohen

said after crossing the finish

Liam Kelly

I simply can’t liver

without you, Joan:

Beatty’s proposal

was offally tasty

Dame Joan Collins is selling her engagement ring from

Warren Beatty, which he hid inside her favourite dish

Bennifer’s betrothed — Lopez and Affleck reveal

second engagement 18 years after they split

Almost two decades after

they called off their wedding,

Tinseltown’s new golden

couple will be hoping for a

Hollywood ending. Ben

Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

are engaged again, 19 years

after they first became

betrothed.

The singer and actress

Lopez, 52, posted a video of

herself wearing an emerald-

cut pale green diamond

engagement ring, reckoned

to be worth at least

$3 million. The camera shows

her tear-covered face and a

voiceover whispers the

words, “I am perfect”.

Affleck, 49, and Lopez met

in 2001 on the set of Gigli, a

romantic comedy crime film

that was a box-office flop and

regarded as one of the worst

movies ever made. They were

christened “Bennifer” by the

press.

The couple became

engaged in November 2002,

and Affleck proposed with a

6.1-carat pink diamond ring

mounted on a gold and

Liam Kelly platinum band from Harry Winston, which cost

$1.2 million. However, they

postponed their marriage

four days before it was set to

take place in September 2003

because of “excessive media

attention”. They called off the

engagement the following

January.

Lopez, who revealed the

news to subscribers of her

newsletter, On the JLo,

started to date Marc Anthony,

a Grammy-winning singer,

shortly after the aborted

wedding. She married him in

June 2004.

This is Lopez’s sixth

engagement, and Affleck will

be her fourth husband, after

the restaurateur Ojani Noa,

the choreographer Cris Judd

and Anthony. She was most

recently engaged to Alex

Rodriguez, a baseball star,

but the couple broke up last

year.

Affleck and Lopez

rekindled their romance in

May and there have been

frequent public displays of

affection, including while

they seemed to be

househunting in Los Angeles

last week.

Affleck has three children

with his ex-wife Jennifer

Garner: Violet, 16, Seraphina,

13, and Samuel, 10. Lopez has

14-year-old twins, Max and

Emme, with Anthony.

The singer said last year

that time had given her a

different perspective on the

relationship with Affleck.

“We’re older now, we’re

smarter, we have more

experience, we’re at different

places in our lives, we have

The couple at the premiere

of her latest film, Marry Me

kids now, and we have to be

very conscious of those

things,” Lopez told People

magazine.

“It’s a beautiful outcome

that this has happened in this

way at this time in our lives

where we can really

appreciate and celebrate

each other and respect each

other. We always did, but we

have even more of an

appreciation because we

know that life can take you in

different directions.”

Celebrities including

Gordon Ramsay recently

arrived in Miami for the

wedding of Brooklyn

Beckham, 23, the son of the

footballer David and the

former Spice Girl Victoria,

and Nicola Peltz, 27, a star of

Transformers: Age of

Extinction and daughter of a

billionaire financier.

The guest list has been

kept secret and those in

attendance were asked not to

share photographs of the

bride and groom as they have

an exclusive deal with Vogue

magazine.

@iamliamkelly

Brooklyn Beckham takes a precarious pet passenger for a ride on his wedding day in Florida. The 23-year-old son of

David and Victoria Beckham was due to marry actress Nicola Peltz, 27, in a lavish ceremony in Palm Beach yesterday

WALKIES DOWN THE AISLE

LCD/SHUTTERSTOCK

a glittering 23-year riding

career in the grandest

manner. He is the first

amateur to win the world’s

most celebrated steeplechase

since Marcus Armytage on Mr

Frisk in 1990, and was also

the first amateur to win the

Cheltenham Gold Cup in 30

years when he clinched

victory on Long Run in 2011.

Unlike professional jockeys,

amateurs do not get paid

prize money. Professionals

take a percentage of the

winning owner’s prize

money, which for the

National yesterday was

£561,300. Waley-Cohen’s

father, an entrepreneur who

PETER POWELL/EPA

founded the radiology

provider Alliance Medical,

said: “It is what dreams are

made of, and absolutely your

cup runneth over ... Sam has

been dreaming of winning

this ever since he used to ride

Auntie Dot on his rocking

horse when he was a little kid.

This really is the fulfilment of

a lifelong dream.” Most of

Waley-Cohen’s big race wins

have come in his father’s

orange and brown silks.

The jockey is better known

outside racing circles as a

“royal matchmaker” who

helped to bring the Duke and

Duchess of Cambridge back

together after they split for a