As the chatelaine of Longleat, her husband’s majestic family seat in Wiltshire, Strictly Come Dancing star Emma Weymouth is, very understandably, used to taking centre stage.
But next month it looks as if she’ll be eclipsed — at least for an hour or two — by a parade of similarly glamorous women, albeit a generation or two her senior.
All of them, I can reveal, will be ex-lovers of Emma’s late father-in-law, Alexander, the 7th Marquess of Bath, who died in 2020 aged 87, after enjoying a succession of so-called ‘wifelets’ — 75 of them in all — earning himself the soubriquet ‘the Loins of Longleat’.
‘His dear friends’ is how one of them, Bridget, an Australian fashion designer, describes the group, before explaining why she has co-ordinated the gathering, which, she says, will be held at Heaven’s Gate, a beauty spot on the 9,000-acre estate.
Alexander’s ashes were scattered there — not by his son, Ceawlin, or by his daughter, Lenka, but by the undertakers in lockdown.
‘We never had a chance to say goodbye,’ says Bridget. ‘But we are still here. We grieve. So we decided to do something about it.’
They plan to meet on April 4, alongside one or two of the marquess’s platonic friends.
‘We feel we need to be together, light candles, speak some readings of our love for Alexander,’ Bridget says.
Ceawlin, 49, refrains from commenting.
But he has, of course, been there much longer than any of his father’s old friends — including Jamaican-born bombshell and one-time Bond girl Sylvana Henriques, who, as I disclosed last month, hopes to retrieve the portrait Alexander painted of her and which used to hang on a staircase alongside those of his other wifelets.
As the chatelaine of Longleat, her husband’s majestic family seat in Wiltshire, Strictly Come Dancing star Emma Weymouth is, very understandably, used to taking centre stage. Pictured: Lord Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath
But next month it looks as if she’ll be eclipsed — at least for an hour or two — by a parade of similarly glamorous women, albeit a generation or two her senior. Pictured: Lord Bath of Longleat with his wife Anna Gael
Alice and Reese on top table
Having won over pals such as Princess Beatrice with her themed dining sets, Alice Naylor-Leyland is proving popular in Hollywood, too.
The socialite, 37, launched her first pop-up shop of her ‘Mrs Alice’ tablescapes spring collection at the weekend in California, where she was joined by Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon.
In a picture she shared online of the pair together (above), she wrote: ‘No better welcome to Los Angeles than this ray of Sunshine.’
Alice’s husband, Tom Naylor Leyland, is heir to a baronetcy and the £176million Fitzwilliam land owning fortune. Alice has three children with Tom, whom she first met when she was 17.
She says: ‘I’m now a working mum seven days a week, and he accepts and supports that.
He might have been a man who is like, ‘I just want you making granola with the kids.’ Yet he doesn’t want that.’
Alice Naylor-Leyland, 37, launched her first pop-up shop of her ‘Mrs Alice’ tablescapes spring collection at the weekend in California, where she was joined by Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon
Kate: Say sorry to children
Talk about new-age parenting. Broadcaster-turned-child therapist Kate Silverton is urging parents to apologise to their children after telling them off.
The former BBC newsreader and mother of two says, ‘Let’s say you lost your rag and you shout. You can actually go to your children afterwards and genuinely say, ‘Sweetheart, I am so sorry. I got that wrong and didn’t speak to you as kindly as I should have done.’ It doesn’t matter what the incident was.’
Silverton, 53, who has a daughter, Clemency, 12, and a nine-year-old son, Wilbur, with her former Royal Marine husband Mike Heron, adds on the Happy Place podcast: ‘We’re modelling the behaviour we want to see.’
Kate Silverton is urging parents to apologise to their children after telling them off
Hands up! Scarlett’s in the picture
Has some good finally come from the unnecessary furore over the Princess of Wales tampering with the picture of herself and her three children, which was published on Mother’s Day?
Well, writer Scarlett Curtis seems to think so — she no longer wants to Photoshop her hands in pictures.
‘I have freaky hands. Every time I post a picture on Instagram I get comments about my hands,’ says Scarlett, 28, daughter of Four Weddings And A Funeral film-maker Richard Curtis and broadcaster Emma Freud.
She adds: ‘I’ve Photoshopped my hands in pictures before. They look like a skeleton . . . But I’m done Photoshopping them.’
Scarlett Curtis no longer wants to Photoshop her hands in pictures
Big steps for dancing duo
Strictly Come Dancing star Nadiya Bychkova was ‘disappointed’ not to be in one of last year’s couples on the BBC ballroom show.
Now, the dancer, 34, and her boyfriend, Strictly’s Kai Widdrington, 28, are branching out on their dance tour, Behind The Magic.
‘When you’re doing other things you can tell your story and pour everything you have in you out there,’ she tells me at the Ballet Icons Gala at the London Coliseum.
Nadiya Bychkova, 34, and her boyfriend, Strictly’s Kai Widdrington, 28, are branching out on their dance tour, Behind The Magic
Pictured: Strictly Come Dancing star Nadiya Bychkova
Potty-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay is famed for flying off the handle, but his protegee Anna Haugh prefers a calmer approach.
‘If, say, someone messes up, if someone is late, I give people the benefit of the doubt because that way you can get down to the truth. In hospitality, it’s all about looking for the goodness,’ she tells me at The London Murphia List. ‘Gordon might not articulate that way, but the man is a natural host, and a good host gives and then gets back.’
Potty-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay (pictured) is famed for flying off the handle, but his protegee Anna Haugh prefers a calmer approach
The old adage that sex sells has paid off for bonkbuster author Dame Jilly Cooper, 87, who has sold more than 11 million copies of her books in the UK alone.
Yet historian and author Lady Antonia Fraser, who has written 39 books, refuses to take a leaf out of Dame Jilly’s racy books.
‘She’s an institution and a great person, but I wouldn’t dare write about sex,’ she tells me at a party in London.
‘I write solemnly about historical figures and wouldn’t know where to start.’
