Clearly the apple doesn’t fall from the tree in Susannah Constantine’s family…
The daughter of the former What Not To Wear co-host has recreated her mother’s pose for celebrated photographer Terry O’Neill in 1987.
Esme Bertelsen, 23, is seen stretching out her legs in a black dress, just like her mother did, in this picture taken by rising photographer Cleo Leather.
‘Times change but attitude doesn’t,’ jokes Susannah, 61.
She was the girlfriend of Princess Margaret’s son, David Armstrong-Jones, at the time her picture was taken.
Clearly the apple doesn’t fall from the tree in Susannah Constantine’s family after Esme Bertelsen, 23, is seen stretching out her legs in a black dress, just like her mother did, in a picture taken by rising photographer Cleo Leather
Esme, 23, whose father is Susannah’s businessman husband Sten Bertelsen, graduated with a History of Art degree from the University of Bristol and is now working with pop star Robbie Williams and his collaborator, Ed Godrich, to curate and catalogue their art works.
Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey was haunted all her life by witnessing, as a seven-year-old, bailiffs remove furniture from her family home after her father, who had owned a central heating company, went bankrupt.
She went on to make a reputed £80 million fortune from the pallet distribution company she set up in 1996 using money she made by selling her home and car.
There has, however, been an extraordinary final twist in her life story, since she died at her holiday home in Morocco, aged 65, in June last year, following a long illness.
I can reveal that she left not a single penny in her will.
Newly published probate documents disclose that, in the will made in 2021, she left her large diamond cross to a friend, and her personal effects to her trustees — her son, publicist and lawyer.
Born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, Hilary, a one-time chain smoker, had a stroke in 2009 that left her with a paralysed arm.
She gave generously to charity, and sold her business in 2019 to focus on her charity work.
Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey was haunted all her life by witnessing, as a seven-year-old, bailiffs remove furniture from her family home after her father went bankrupt
‘I didn’t want my son to go without so I pushed myself hard to build a life for us,’ she once said. ‘Fortunately, I was always good with numbers and I loved the cut and thrust of business.’
She paid a high price for her success, however. In 2011, she said that she feared her career had been the catalyst for her son Mevlit’s heroin addiction.
‘He has always said that there was nothing that I could have done to have stopped him getting in with the wrong crowd and becoming an addict, but it still troubles me,’ she said. He gave up the drug in 2006.
Hilary was married and divorced three times, and her son came from a relationship with a man she later discovered was already married and had five children. Her mother had similarly discovered that her own husband — Hilary’s father — was married with four children.
After such an extraordinary life, did savvy Hilary really let her money evaporate into thin air?
Celebrated heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, a close friend of Princess Diana, says she impressed upon her son, the Prince of Wales, the importance of empathy.
‘She taught Prince William well — that if he is going to be King he needs to feel the pain of the people,’ Sir Magdi tells me at the launch party for his biography A Surgeon And A Maverick, by Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman, at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, London.
Celebrated heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, a close friend of Princess Diana, says she impressed upon her son, the Prince of Wales, the importance of empathy
‘I think he will be great. He is a sensitive person,’ he says, adding: ‘But, as for the other one [Prince Harry] — no comment.’
An old comrade of Prince Harry in the Armed Forces is helping to evacuate people from Israel. Dean Stott, 46, who attended the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding, flew to the Middle East within 24 hours of the Hamas attacks earlier this month, after Jewish friends rang him. He is helping people leave via Jordan and is looking at chartering boats to Cyprus. ‘The phones are going wild with requests for help,’ he says.
Nigel Farage, who helped win the Brexit vote, has a new target in his sights.
He’s angry that the Welsh Parliament, which is dominated by Labour, has just banned GB News, on which he’s a presenter, from airing on its premises as the channel is ‘offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our Parliament’s values’.
Nigel Farage is angry that the Welsh Parliament, which is dominated by Labour, has just banned GB News, on which he’s a presenter
He tells me: ‘I’m going to have a chat with them.’ Referring to his ‘debanking’ row, he adds: ‘The last people who took me on were NatWest — and I won.’
How times have changed for Lily Allen, who was kicked out of the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in 2008 for allegedly being high on drugs.
Now sober, the pop singer turned actress, 38, won the Theatre Actor gong this year for her roles in 2:22 A Ghost Story and The Pillowman.
How times have changed for Lily Allen, who was kicked out of the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in 2008 for allegedly being high on drugs
‘Back then, I still had anxiety and feelings of inadequacy at events like this and I dealt with those in unhealthy ways,’ Lily, who is married to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, 48, tells me. ‘I’m so glad those days are behind me.’
Boris Johnson became a godfather this week — to a 45-year-old
Boris Johnson became a godfather this week — to a 45-year-old. His ‘godchild’ is Sergei Tikhanovsky, the jailed husband of Belarus’s leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ after standing against its leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, in 2020.
‘Boris Johnson has become godfather to my husband,’ Sviatlana tells me at the launch party for Lord Ashcroft’s book, All To Play For: The Advance Of Rishi Sunak, at the Banqueting House in London.
This gives the former prime minister ‘official sponsor’ status, allowing him to write to Sergei. ‘People in prisons often commit suicide,’ Sviatlana says. ‘But if they get a letter from someone in the UK or U.S., they get more energy — they know they’re being taken care of.’
Could there be a fairytale ending to Prince Christian of Denmark’s lavish 18th birthday celebrations in Copenhagen?
Staff found a gold stiletto apparently abandoned by a partygoer. Rather than go from house to house seeking his Cinderella, the Prince instead asked the Palace to post a photograph of the shoe on social media.
