Billionaire’s Secret to Avoiding Marriage to Younger Girlfriend: Ewan McGregor’s Embarrassing Star Encounter – Richard Eden’s Diary

Were the comedienne Caroline Aherne still alive, she would, as TV’s Mrs Merton, no doubt ask Modesta Vzesniauskaite: ‘So, what first attracted you to the billionaire John Caudwell?’

After all, at the age of 72, the founder of Phones4U seems an unlikely match for the beautiful Lithuanian cyclist 29 years his junior.

In fact, he insists, it is Modesta who refuses to join him at the altar.

‘Modesta has never been interested in marriage, and nor am I,’ the tycoon tells me at the Butterfly Ball’s 25th Anniversary in aid of Caudwell Children. ‘We’re too busy with life.’

The pair met more than a decade ago on a charity bike ride and they have a son and daughter together. Modesta also has a son from her previous marriage.

So what’s the secret to the success of their relationship? ‘I always say to her that I’m going to always have the last word, and she has to accept that. She said, “Well, what are you going to say?” I’m going to say, “Yes, dear. That’s the decision.” ’

Caudwell has an estimated fortune of £1.6billion and the couple live in a £250million Mayfair mansion. He also owns Broughton Hall in Staffordshire and a home in Monaco.

Phones4U founder John Caudwell and Lithuanian cyclist Modesta Vzesniauskaite at the Butterfly Ball

He has three children with Kate McFarlane, his wife for 25 years. He also has a daughter with violinist Jane Burgess and a son with ex-model Claire Johnson.

Caudwell says the super-rich such as him shouldn’t leave their empires to their children. ‘I’m donating 70 per cent of my wealth to charity during or after my life,’ he tells me. ‘It still leaves quite a bit of money for my children. But I don’t agree with people who want to hand massive dynasties down to the children. I don’t think it helps them.

‘The kids need a motive and a drive. While I’m alive, I can provide that by managing them. But when you’re dead, if you suddenly leave tens of millions or more, which I probably will do in fairness, but there’s a balance to be had. It’s a trauma. It’s a traumatic decision.’

A quantum of sun cream for Mr Craig! 

Former James Bond Daniel Craig cut a dapper figure at Tate Modern’s 25th Anniversary gala in London.

The cropped hair of his 007 days is long gone, of course, and the 57-year-old also opted for an altother more relaxed double-breasted suit in a neutral tone. The effect was only slightly spoiled by a livid sunburn.

It’s no time to fry, Mr Bond!

Former James Bond Daniel Craig appeared to have caught the sun at his most recent public appearance

Ed Miliband may be anti-oil and anti-gas but a large drilling rig has been erected on the Thames directly next to the Houses of Parliament – opposite Mr Speaker’s study windows.

It is not, however, a fracking operation. Engineers are worried that the Palace of Westminster’s foundations are in danger from the river’s tidal currents.

If the rig’s exploration confirms that problem, the bill for any retaining wall could stretch to hundreds of millions of pounds.

‘I was so excited to meet her and I kept swearing,’ cringes Ewan McGregor

Ewan’s F-bomb Delia disaster

Hollywood star Ewan McGregor cringes at the memory of his one and only starstruck encounter with his television culinary idol Delia Smith.

The Star Wars actor explains: ‘I embarrassed myself, way back in the day when I was young…I was so excited to meet her and I kept swearing.

‘I didn’t mean to, but I just kept dropping F-bombs to Delia Smith.

‘I really let myself down, I’ve been carrying the shame all these years… it was just nerves.’

Award-winning author Nicola Barker, who wrote the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel H(a)ppy, has revealed that she nearly quit writing when turmoil struck her own life. ‘Everything imploded for me, in my private life, in every way,’ says Barker, 59, who had split up with her long-term boyfriend, music journalist Ben Thompson. ‘It was a whole drama for me around the meaning of the novel and whether I had anything else to say.’

She adds: ‘Writing had always been such a source of pleasure for me, and also an escape, I didn’t want to live in fantasy anymore. ‘I wanted to actually hatch into real life.’

The ever-glamorous Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon Two Sicilies has managed to style out her neck brace after a near-fatal road accident

Only an Italian princess could make her neck brace a style statement

She has one of the most extravagant titles in Europe – Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon Two Sicilies – and is known for her flamboyant fashion sense.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that the Italian ‘It-girl’, who has been pictured partying with Prince Michael of Kent on the French Riviera, has managed to make a neck brace look stylish. The princess, who turned 22 this week, has had to wear the brace since a near-fatal road accident last month.

She was taken to hospital in Monaco after crashing head-first into a wall while riding a motorcycle. Carolina is pictured with her mother, Princess Camilla, 51, in matching pink dresses.

My look is Strictly natural, says Jo

She won over Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood with her natural looks, and Jo Wood says women these days have gone too far with cosmetic treatments.

‘I wouldn’t go crazy with cosmetic stuff,’ the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant tells me at the launch party for her debut novel, The Resurrection Of Flo, at London’s Nexus club. ‘It’s really important that women should look natural. We’ve all gone too far.’

Former model Jo, 70, adds: ‘I see photos of women online and I think we’ve lost our way. Beauty should be natural. Young women now especially all look the same because of all the filler.’