Bonos Pal Paddy Faces Jail Over Hotel Fraud

At the age of 66, Bono can certainly count any number of blessings.

From his mouthwatering portfolio of properties – including his Temple Hill estate overlooking the Irish Sea, a New York penthouse and a beachside villa in the south of – to his enduring marriage with childhood sweetheart Ali, U2’s frontman enjoys all the freedoms life has to offer.

He can even boast of cheating death in 2014, when the private Lear jet in which he was flying shed a tailgate door at 8,000ft yet managed to land safely.

But will Bono now have to acquaint himself with the prison system, albeit as a visitor?

I ask because of a legal action which has one of his close pals and sometime business partner very firmly in its sights.

I can disclose Paddy McKillen – with whom Bono and his U2 bandmate, The Edge (real name: David Evans), bought Dublin’s Clarence Hotel in 1992 – is alleged to have colluded with others to defraud London’s most prestigious hotel group of £1.2million.

No members of U2 are understood to be involved with the lawsuit.

The explosive claim has, I understand, been filed in Aix-en-Provence in France by Maybourne Hotels.

That might sound perplexing. But the alleged fraud concerns the submission of approximately 50 invoices for building work which was supposedly undertaken at hotels owned by the Maybourne – whose collection includes Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley. However, the work was actually undertaken at Chateau La Coste – McKillen’s estate in Provence, which encompasses a vineyard, hotel and no fewer than six restaurants.

If the Aix-en-Provence court finds that McKillen did indeed commit fraud, it can impose a sentence of five years’ imprisonment plus a fine of €375,000 (£320,000).

That would mark a staggering fall from grace for Belfast-born McKillen, 71, who headed the Maybourne Group for several years, during which he acquired Chateau La Coste.

Aside from his longstanding alliance with Bono, he counts shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst among his admirers.

Describing McKillen as ‘a genius and great friend and wonderful human’, Hirst declares on Chateau La Coste’s website that he was ‘thrilled and excited’ to be the first artist to have his work ‘exhibited across the whole estate’.

McKillen may currently be experiencing different emotions. But it’s impossible to be certain, as he declines to comment.

Pandora: The sweetest saviour 

Her daughter Cara is one of the world’s most famous models.

But her greatest reward comes from the Bela Vista Project, the charity she founded to improve the lives of those in Mozambique.

And it seems Pandora Delevingne, 67, has a lifelong passion for coming to the rescue – as film-maker Amanda Eliasch discloses.

‘I was being bullied and hit,’ says Amanda, who aged five was the youngest girl at Flexford House, in Berkshire. She tried to buy off her tormentors – until Pandora, then aged seven, ‘told me to stop giving them sweets, and went to the headmistress. [She] was the boss’.

It's a tango with the past for Bruce Forsyth's widow

Sir Bruce Forsyth’s widow, Wilnelia, is about to lift the lid on her 34-year marriage to the much-missed Strictly Come Dancing host.

The former Miss World, 68, who was married to Brucie until his death aged 89 in 2017, reveals she has written an autobiography chronicling their relationship behind closed doors.

‘I’ve written it in Spanish, but it’s coming out in English later this year,’ the ex-model from Puerto Rico tells me. ‘I still miss Bruce every day. Writing it has helped process my grief.

‘Sometimes it was very sad, but it also made me realise how lucky I was to have the most amazing marriage with Bruce.’ Speaking at a party in Mayfair, Lady Forysth adds: ‘The book is called Wilnelia: In Between Two Worlds – because I live in England half of the time, and half I’m in Puerto Rico.

‘It’s really a tribute to Bruce and my mother, who died from Alzheimer’s three years ago at 87.

‘I talk about family and Bruce – the funny things that happened to us, how we met and our age gap.

‘When you marry someone 30 years older than you, there’s a lot of talk.

‘So it’s nice to write how I felt about that and everything.

‘I never really thought I would marry somebody like that.’

Gym visits are giving Lily lots to Smile about

Lily Allen appears to be spending more time in the gym than the recording studio.

The Smile singer showed off her chiselled muscles in a black bralette at the Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Awards’ 50th anniversary do at the Royal Albert Hall.

Lily, 41, who collected the Icon Award, tells me: ‘I’ve been going to the gym every day. It’s so annoying, but it has to be done.’

The pop star had a bitter split from Stranger Things star David Harbour – followed by an acclaimed album chronicling the collapse of their marriage.

With her award on stage, Lily says: ‘Where sometimes words fail, music begins, allowing us to tap into the most human, most vulnerable, most fallible parts of ourselves, safe behind the protective armour of a drumbeat or some strings, a few chords.

‘I’ve only really made it to being an icon because my life has been made and saved many times over by being lucky enough to make music.’

Duke's daughter suffers a Great Train Robbery

Lady Alice Manners was relieved when she managed to track down the thief who stole her suitcase, but bitterly frustrated when police refused to arrest him.

The Duke of Rutland’s daughter, 31, was travelling on an LNER train when her luggage was taken.

It contained several outfits and a white handbag once owned by her great-grandmother, the late Margaret, Duchess of Argyll.

Lady Alice describes the bag, which is monogrammed with an M for Margaret, as ‘priceless and irreplaceable’. The duchess was played by Claire Foy in the 2021 BBC drama A Very British Scandal.

‘I know exactly where it is and where the guy is who stole it,’ she says. ‘The British Transport Police have a photo of the man that stole it. But they would not share with me the CCTV footage of the guy who stole it.’

She begged the police online: ‘Why won’t you send someone to retrieve it?’ The police cannot enter a property without a warrant, for which more evidence than just tracker data is required.

There was one clear royal winner in a week in which the integrity of His Majesty’s courts was called into question by Prince Harry, after he and six others comprehensively lost their High Court privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

King Charles’ younger son called Mr Justice Nicklin’s meticulous findings ‘a complete and obvious whitewash’.

Two days later, a horse owned by Charles and Queen Camilla raced to victory at Newmarket, taking home a prize fund of £113,000.

Its name? Point of Law.

This afternoon, another of Their Majesties’ horses will race at Salisbury.

The three-year-old filly has an equally apt name: Food for Thought.

The smart set's talking about... Architect Quinlan Terry retiring at 88 years old

Looking forward to retiring in your 60s?

Well, celebrated architect Quinlan Terry has finally decided to quit his studio at the age of 88.

‘It is with sadness for the family that my father Quinlan Terry has needed to retire from practising architecture due to poor health,’ says his son Francis, who hails him as ‘the best classical architect of his generation’. 

A favourite of King Charles, Terry is known for his classical Palladian styles. His grand designs include London’s Regent’s Park villas and the Richmond Riverside development in London.

When Charles wrote to Qatar’s PM in 2009, asking him to scrap plans for steel-and-glass flats at Chelsea barracks, he proposed a traditional scheme by Terry.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor used to sneak in guests to Buckingham Palace, including young women and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Now the Royal Household is advertising for a manager to screen visitors to residences and highlight ‘complex, high-risk or sensitive cases’. The job description on the royal website says applicants to the £35,000-per-year position should have ‘experience in security screening, vetting or intelligence-led environments’.

Getty girl is after picture-perfect wedding day

Wedding bells are certainly ringing for Isabel Getty.

I can reveal the 32-year-old great-granddaughter of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty – once the richest man in the world – is to marry handsome British financier Faris McKinnon, 41.

The daughter of businessman Christopher Getty and film producer Pia Getty runs the The Graduate Gallery in London’s Fitzrovia and is the lead singer of the rock band, Jean Marlow. She gave birth last year to her first child with Faris, a boy, Viggo.

Isabel had her hen do last weekend in Copenhagen.

‘Some people bring a prejudice beforehand about meeting me – socially, professionally,’ she has said. ‘Which is fine, but after a while hopefully that goes. It’s just my family.’

(Very) modern manners

Standards of dress reached a new low this week in the Commons, where Lloyd Hatton MP sneaked in wearing grubby training shoes with his suit.

He surely knew how scruffy he looked, for he made sure Speaker Hoyle, a stickler for sartorial standards, could not see his feet.

In 2024, Labour careerist Hatton narrowly took South Dorset from the Tories’ Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle Drax, who was often seen in a Savile Row suit and brogues.