EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Celebrity darling Ottolenghi’s ‘messy’ split from husband

He’s knocked off nearly a dozen effortlessly inventive cook books, hosted a medley of TV shows and now enjoys such influence that it often seems he can reconfigure what’s stacked on supermarket shelves simply by unveiling a new recipe.

But 2026 has not dawned happily for Yotam Ottolenghi, who established a Notting Hill deli in 2002; is adored by yummy mummies who can’t get through the day without a slice of flourless lemon pistachio and polenta cake; and now lords over a dozen restaurants and delis scattered from Islington to Amsterdam.

I can disclose that the brilliant Israeli-born chef, who can do extraordinary things with a kohlrabi or a cucumber, not to mention a fistful of pomegranate seeds, has suffered a heart-wrenching break-up. He has, I’m told, split from Karl Allen, whom he married in 2012.

Barely two years ago, Ottolenghi, whose culinary artistry has been summarised as ‘drama in the mouth’, went into print to describe Karl in adulatory terms, calling him ‘the Irish love of my life’.

But glorious romance appears to have curdled into bitterness. ‘It’s very sad,’ a friend of the erstwhile couple tells me. ‘The split has become really rather messy.’

Ottolenghi, 57, declines to comment. But matters are inevitably made more complex by the fact that, in 2013, he and Allen had paid a surrogacy service, so that a Californian mother of four, named only as Melanie, gave birth to a boy on their behalf.

They’d opted for the Californian service, which cost £65,000, because, in Britain, it is illegal to pay surrogate mothers anything other than expenses – and because an attempt at ‘co-parenting with lesbians from Brighton proved too complicated’. Two years later, Ottolenghi and Allen added another son to the family.

Judging by his website, the great chef felt that life, though busy, was pretty well perfect. ‘When he isn’t testing, tasting and tweaking, he is overseeing the day-to-day running of our delis and restaurants,’ it reads. ‘This involves more testing, tasting and tweaking… so when he’s not at work he tries very hard to do something other than eat. Family life and Pilates tend to do the trick.’

Unlucky in love Lily is top of the shops

Lily Allen’s acrimonious split from the Stranger Things star David Harbour – followed by an acclaimed album chronicling the collapse of their marriage – is yielding untold benefits for her.

The pop singer, 40, who has said she is in therapy to curb her shopping addiction after splashing out on a £120,000 Porsche and £16,500 handbag, was recently browsing gifts for her two daughters, aged 14 and 12, at an American Apparel shop in Los Angeles, only to discover that she didn’t have to pay a single cent.

‘I was absolutely flummoxed,’ Lily admits. ‘I was piling stuff into the trolley for their Christmas presents. I got to the payment and [the shop assistant] rang all of the clothes up.

‘It came to over $1,000, which is crazy, then she handed me the bag and I was like, ‘I haven’t paid’. And she was, like, ‘Don’t worry about it’. I looked at the receipt and it said, ‘Lily Allen discount: 100 per cent’.’

She adds: ‘I have made it.’

As teenager Jay in TV’s The Inbetweeners, he would exaggerate his achievements, but in real life James Buckley is happy to acknowledge his shortcomings. ‘I can’t think of a nice thing I’ve ever done,’ he admits to wife Clair on their podcast The Buckleys. When she points out their support for various charities, Buckley, 38, responds: ‘That’s just us trying to offset the fact that we’re just b******s.’ 

Disgraced Fergie racks up more debt

Sarah Ferguson, who is due to lose her Windsor home Royal Lodge shortly, has suffered a new blow.

The former Duchess of York, 66, has just reported more debt at Ginger & Moss, the private firm through which she hoped to sell teas, jewellery and china.

Accounts filed at Companies House disclose £363,000 worth of bills for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ex-wife, a £321,000 deficit in capital and reserves reported after £43,000 in assets.

Its deficit, for the year to March 2025, is an increase on the £304,000 reported in 2024. Fergie’s business is co-owned with Gate Ventures plc, which went into administration in 2020 owing £24 million. The loan to Ginger & Moss is still outstanding as at the latest insolvency report.

Liquidators report: ‘Discussions have been ongoing during the review period in relation to the outstanding loan due from Ginger & Moss. Liquidators remain hopeful of making a substantial recovery for the estate.’

Ellie and Juliana hold all the aces in partying game

She plays the previously hard-living model Kate Moss in the forthcoming film Moss & Freud, and Ellie Bamber is clearly an ace at partying, too.

The Surrey-born actress, 28, wore a black fringed corset for a circus-themed New Year’s Eve party in the Caribbean, accompanied by Brazilian model Juliana Nalu, who was seen clutching a large ace of diamonds playing card.

Kate, who turns 52 this month, is an executive producer of Moss & Freud.

The film is directed by James Lucas and is a dramatised account of her relationship with artist Lucian Freud, played by Sir Derek Jacobi, 87. Last year, Ellie, who starred in the BBC’s 2018 adaptation of Les Miserables, was seen filming wearing Moss’s famed John Galliano Union Jack blazer in London.

Russell reveals the peril of parenting on the road

Stand-up comedian Russell Howard, whose wife gave birth to their first child last year, takes his son on tour with him. But he does worry about what sort of act has preceded him at each venue. ‘I tell you what is a gamble, when you’ve got an eight-month-old son, and he wants to sit on the green-room carpet, and you’re like, ‘Who was on last night? It was a metal band, was it? Up you get.’ ‘ But if the reply is, ‘It was folk’, Howard’s response is: ‘There you go, it’s fine.’

 Why comic Jack has gone cold on his plunge pool

Jack Dee loves nothing more than a daily cold-water plunge in the pool at his home and was once filmed swimming in a wetsuit, tethered to the side by a cord.

But now the grumpy comic is pulling the plug on the huge ‘eyesore’ paddling pool wrecking the lawn and blocking the views at his historic country home near Chichester, West Sussex.

He wants to build a permanent heated one which he, his wife Susan and their four children can use all year round. He’s applied to the local council for planning permission for the pool at his £1.5 million 18th-century home which is Grade II listed.

‘The applicants have realised the health benefits of regular cold-water bathing,’ his planning agent says. ‘They are aware the pool damages the lawn and has an inappropriately bright appearance which interrupts the views and enjoyment of the lawned area of the garden from their house and other parts of the garden.

‘After careful consideration, the applicants are certain that the adverse impacts of the above-ground pool have been more than outweighed by the exercise, health, relaxation and enjoyment that the applicants and their family have experienced on a daily basis.

‘The applicants have benefited from the quiet enjoyment of their temporary pool over the last few years without their swimming activity causing any noise disturbance to their neighbours.’

Hobbit star Luke is just potty about his puppy

The Hobbit star Luke Evans wears his puppy love on his sleeve – and his chest and his legs! Welshman Luke, 46, spent Christmas in a bespoke onesie festooned with images of his one-year-old blonde mini dachshund, Lala.

The actor owns the pooch with Spanish architect Fran Tomas. ‘It took me 46 years to have a dog,’ Luke said recently. ‘It’s the best thing ever. Here’s to many, many more years of unconditional love and friendship.’

(Very) modern manners

Margot Robbie, Sabrina Carpenter and Ed Sheeran are among the stars to have flocked to The Devonshire in Soho.

But now landlord Oisin Rogers is taking steps to make sure things don’t get out of hand at the popular pub. He’s forbidden revellers from ordering shots.

‘I found in the past that where you’ve got a group of people who order 25 shots, or in my case [when] once somebody ordered 52 B-52s [a shot of three Irish liqueurs], they’re either an idiot beforehand – or they’re definitely going to be an idiot afterwards,’ the Irishman says.

‘So we just don’t do it [shots] and that’s it.’