Her family once boasted a brace of duchesses – her grandmother, the Duchess of Leinster, and her aunt Lydia, the Duchess of Bedford – and two billionaire cousins, the 8th Earl Cadogan and the late Aga Khan, though little good it did her or her own mother, both of whom took menial jobs in a bid to make ends meet.
Yet none of it ever broke Kiloran Murrell, who, as a child, witnessed her father, Lord Ebury, assault her mother and leave her penniless following their divorce.
Now, I can disclose, she’s summoning up the same spirit in a battle against the vets who, she says, caused her 11-year-old Welsh Terrier, Martha, to die in agony after they made a series of misdiagnoses – before presenting Kiloran and her husband with bills totalling £26,000.
One vet will not ‘get a penny’. ‘We owe them £2,000. I’m not paying,’ Kiloran, 79, assures me with a vehemence which will strike a chord in pet owners who fork out £4billion-a-year on veterinary fees, many levied by corporate firms whose charges are being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Kiloran Murrell says her vets caused her 11-year-old Welsh Terrier, Martha, to die in agony after they made a series of misdiagnoses
‘I told them this morning: ‘You’ll see me in jail first’,’ Kiloran told Richard Eden
‘I told them this morning: ‘You’ll see me in jail first’,’ adds Kiloran, explaining that the vet didn’t ‘even bother to pick Martha up to examine her’ but simply handed her to a ‘receptionist’, who apologised, saying the vet had had ‘a bad night with his children’.
By then, Kiloran had already visited one vet after Martha developed a bloated stomach, began vomiting repeatedly and suffering from severe thirst. ‘The vet diagnosed stomach cramp. She was put on tablets.’
Her condition worsened. A recommended bran diet made no difference. ‘Then they had her on a drip overnight,’ remembers Kiloran. ‘Then, suddenly, they realised that they had not diagnosed her properly; she had pyometra.’
It’s an infection of the uterus – fatal unless treated promptly. ‘So they gave her a late spay [removed her uterus]. But by that time the poison had run round her.’
Martha was then moved to a vet near London. ‘She’d had so many pipes down her throat that she kept gulping, but they thought this was an illness.’
Martha died soon afterwards.
‘We owe that vet £1,000. They’re not getting a penny out of us – not a penny.
‘All any of them had to do was give her a blood test, as my new vet has explained. It would have immediately highlighted what was wrong.’
Down-to-earth Kate’s family birthday lunch
When Harry and Meghan dine out in California, the whole world seems to know about it. The Princess of Wales, by contrast, was able to celebrate her birthday in peace.
I hear that when Catherine turned 44 last Friday, the future queen enjoyed lunch with her mother, Carole Middleton, and sister Pippa at a tiny French restaurant, The Funghi Club, in Hungerford, Berks. ‘We had the enormous pleasure of welcoming a rather extraordinary guest,’ confirms a restaurant spokesman.
‘She was utterly charming, gracious and every bit as radiant in person as you’d imagine.’
They add that it was ‘a little moment of magic for our small bistro – and one we won’t forget’.
Gingers have more fun, says Georgia
Georgia May Jagger made a name for herself as a blonde bombshell, but deep down she’s always wanted to be Ginger Spice.
The model, who turned 34 this week, proved it by emulating Geri Halliwell’s on stage alter ego — complete with a fiery ginger wig and a Union Jack mini dress.
‘My favourite Spice Girl was always Geri – I was always stuck being Baby, though,’ Georgia once lamented, adding her Spice Girls obsession ran deep. She made dad Sir Mick Jagger take her to the Spice World movie premiere in 1997.
Ellie comes out fighting for female fans
Pop star Ellie Goulding has yet to reveal the sex of the baby she’s expecting with actor Beau Minniear, but if the child’s a girl, she’ll be punching as well as kicking before long. Ellie, 39, has urged women to take up self-defence classes.
‘To all my girls, please take up boxing, martial arts or a self-defence class at least once a week,’ she tells her fans online. ‘If you do a workout class or gym session once a week, make learning how to fight a priority over that. To my followers with daughters, please encourage them to do the same.’
Hiddleston’s real undercover role…
He plays spy Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager, but Tom Hiddleston is just as skilled at concealing his identity off screen, admitting he tests how long he can pass unnoticed.
‘Sometimes… I’m at the gas station, filling up the car, it’s late, and the context is entirely normal,’ he says. ‘I’ll go and pay, and I’ll get a snack or whatever, and the guy behind the counter will go, ‘Has anyone ever told you, you look just like Tom Hiddleston?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I get that all the time.’
‘Eventually they are like, ‘But are you?’ I go, ‘No, but people say I do look like him.’
Jen’s marital tip? Wiggle room
Romance isn’t what keeps Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence’s marriage alive. Instead, it’s the 15-minute grace period on timekeeping her husband gives her.
‘I married someone who is the opposite of me,’ says the Oscar-winning actress, 35, who has two sons with art gallery director Cooke Maroney, 41.
‘The schedule of our kids, I get it now, but they are on a very strict schedule… it’s, like, breakfast at 7.30am.
‘He’s good at keeping it, but we’ve learned, to keep our marriage alive, I have a 15-minute wiggle room.’
Guy Ritchie’s hit Netflix show The Gentlemen helped the director earn a £20.7million windfall. Newly published figures for his business, Toff Guy Films Ltd, revealed that it made a massive £19.5million profit in the year to last March on the back of the show, which stars Theo James and Ray Winstone. Such was the success that it boosted overall reserves in Ritchie’s firm to £29.5million, even after the company had paid a whopping £3.5million corporation tax bill.
