Adam Peaty’s Mother Finds Ally in Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Mistress’ Amid Bullying Claims

As the mother of Olympic champion Adam Peaty struggles to end her toxic feud with her son’s bride-to-be, Gordon Ramsay’s daughter Holly, she has been lent support by another woman who claims she was burned by her experience with the foul-mouthed chef.

I can disclose that Sarah Symonds, Ramsay’s alleged former mistress, has contacted Caroline Peaty to offer the swimmer’s mother the benefit of her experience.

‘Devastated about the cruel jibes I was reading, I endeavoured to reach out to Mrs Peaty to offer my support, not thinking for one minute she would see my message and reply, but she did,’ Sarah tells me.

‘What a lovely woman, a class act actually. We seemed to hit it off immediately, but then we do have someone in common.’

Sarah, who claimed in 2008 that she had been involved in a seven-year affair with married Ramsay, says: ‘If anyone knows what it’s like to be treated by the Ramsays, and their PR machine, it’s me. The wounds are still somewhat open for me.

So I, more than anyone, can empathise with what Caroline and her family must be going through.

‘Gordon will have reeled them in with shows of affection, and grandiose gestures, and the bonhomie of a true narcissist. He will have forgotten his well-known working-class roots and thrown them under the bus when they didn’t fit his mould. How shallow.’

Sarah who is currently undergoing breast cancer treatment, adds: ‘I pity this lady for losing her son to the Ramsay cult. Mrs Peaty, keep your head high, and be glad you have avoided this wedding full of sycophants and narcissists. You’re better than them.’

Ramsay’s spokesman declines to comment.

Exiled Abbott rubs shoulders with lords

Suspended by the Labour Party, Diane Abbott has lost none of her sense of adventure. This week she joined former Tory leader Lord (Michael) Howard and assorted venture capitalists at the second meeting of The Beaverbrook Forum – established to continue the tradition of the 1st Lord Beaverbrook who ‘relished strong disagreement well argued’.

Max Aitken, co-host with his cousin Jonathan Aitken, pointed out that it was fitting, on Remembrance Day, to recall how their forebear had been told by Churchill to increase aircraft production in 1940 – an impossible task according to officialdom. ‘Beaverbrook caused massive rows, ignored procedures and, in only four months, doubled production,’ reflected Max. A lesson Abbott might care to convey to Sir Keir Starmer – if ever she’s allowed near him again?

Fashion designer Jasper Conran, whose outfits were adored by Princess Diana, is hanging up his scissors after 45 years. ‘It has been a great privilege to have had such a long career in the profession I love and an even greater privilege to have dressed many thousands of clients and customers,’ says the son of Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran and Superwoman author Shirley Conran.

Jasper, 65, adds: ‘I will still be busy. My hotel group is expanding rapidly, and I’m looking forward to channelling my creativity into that.’

Jenny admits facelift dilemma 

Long described as an ‘English rose’ of stage and screen, Jenny Seagrove admits she’s wrestled with the temptation to have a facelift.

The actress, 68, whose theatre mogul boyfriend Bill Kenwright died in 2023 aged 78, remarks: ‘I’ve been terribly aware of getting older on screen and I don’t like it. I agonise and I think, “Maybe I should have a facelift?” Then people say, “Oh, Jen, you should have a facelift”. I resist it, then I get all neurotic.’ She adds, however: ‘And then I look at some of the great performances by Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, who’ve got faces like road maps, and I go, “But I love looking at them”.

‘So why would I want to have a facelift? I don’t want to look like these slightly strange-looking women who’ve had fillers and facelifts and all of that… so I’ve now officially declared myself a facelift-free zone and I’ll take the consequences.’

What does TV doctor Hilary Jones have in common with the Beckhams? It turns out that he named his eldest child after the place where he was conceived. ‘I worked on the most isolated inhabited island in the world,’ Jones says. ‘And he was conceived there.’ Tristan, who is now a GP himself, was named after Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. ‘Not Brooklyn, is it?’ Jones says of David and Victoria’s name for their son. ‘Luckily he wasn’t conceived in Brentford.’ I don’t know: Brentford Jones has a certain ring to it. 

Sharon Horgan’s whirlwind romance with businessman Jeremy Rainbird inspired her hit Channel 4 comedy Catastrophe, about the chaos of modern relationships.

Now, six years after the collapse of their marriage, I can reveal that Jeremy, 52, has found love again – with a glamorous blonde fashion designer 13 years Sharon’s junior.

Jeremy, who has two teenage daughters with Sharon, has struck up a romance with Caroline Louise Towning, 42. The pair, left, have been sharing affectionate photos on social media from recent holidays in LA, Nevada and Mykonos.

They clearly mean business: the couple are co-directors of fashion label Maison Rockman which specialises in black faux-leather designs and is due to launch next spring.

Sharon revealed earlier this year she regretted not ending her 14-year marriage sooner.

Davie in desperate plea 

As the outgoing £540,000-a-year director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie should have enough pennies to pay for a planning agent for his latest home improvements. Yet he’s opted to represent himself in a rambling plea for a ‘new opening’ in his £4million Oxfordshire farmhouse, which has a 150ft garden, barn, milking parlour and stables. He even appears to have penned his own drawings, saving on an architect. Davie wants a sliding patio door to replace two kitchen windows ‘in order for us to fully appreciate the far-reaching views and improve garden access’.