EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: This won’t go down well in Montecito! One of Prince Harry’s oldest friends appears in Clarkson’s Farm with Jeremy Clarkson, who wrote notorious article about Meghan

Anyone who doubts the depths of the Duke of Sussex‘s rift with some of his oldest and closest friends need look no further than the new series of Clarkson’s Farm.

Jeremy Clarkson, you might recall, was condemned by Prince Harry last year after he wrote a notorious article in The Sun, pointing out that he hated the Duchess of Sussex on ‘a cellular level’ and adding that he wanted to see Meghan paraded through the streets, naked, while people threw excrement at her.

The Grand Tour star later apologised, but Harry’s spokesman declared: ‘What remains to be addressed is his long-standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories and misogyny.’

Yet, who should appear in episode seven of Clarkson’s Farm than one of the Duke’s oldest and previously closest friends.

Described on the programme by Clarkson as simply ‘Hugh’, he is Hugh van Cutsem, who is seen stalking deer with the star of the hit Amazon Prime show.

Jeremy Clarkson , you might recall, was condemned by Prince Harry last year after he wrote a notorious article in The Sun

Who should appear in episode seven of Clarkson’s Farm than one of the Duke’s oldest and previously closest friends

Prince Harry speaking to his childhood friend Harry van Cutsem at a requiem mass for his late father, a Cambridge pal of Prince Charles, in September 2013

After Clarkson’s comments about Meghan, Hugh’s appearance alongside him would have been unthinkable were they still pals.

Hugh, 49, whose late father, also Hugh, was one of King Charles’s oldest friends, has known Harry and Prince William all their lives. William was senior usher at Hugh’s wedding, when he married Rose Astor in 2005, and is godfather to their daughter Grace.

Grace was a bridesmaid at William and Catherine’s wedding six years later and almost stole the show when she covered her ears on the Buckingham Palace balcony because of the noise of the cheering crowds as the newlyweds kissed.

Hugh and Rose did their bit to make Meghan feel at home after she moved here, having her and Harry to supper at their house in West London. They also attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018.

The first indication that all may not have been well between the Van Cutsems and the Sussexes came in 2020 after the dramatic announcement that Harry and Meghan intended to ‘step back’ as senior members of the Royal Family.

Hugh’s wife, Rose, publicly mocked the dramatic announcement. ‘I am standing back as a senior member of my tax return,’ she joked on social media, ‘because I’d rather drink coffee, see my friends, love my family and do yoga.’

Rose, 44, explained that these activities were infinitely preferable to keeping receipts and ‘do[ing] maths which I swear is bad for my health’.

Princes Harry and William smiling with Hugh van Cutsem (left) at the wedding of his brother Edward van Cutsem in November 2004

Hugh, 49, whose late father, also Hugh, was one of King Charles’s oldest friends, has known Harry and Prince William all their lives 

Hugh van Cutsem and his wife Rose at Prince Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding in May 2018

Princes Harry and William have been friends with Hugh van Cutsem (centre) since childhood

She later declined to discuss her comments, explaining: ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t say anything. I’m sure you understand. I’m going to be in so much trouble.’

Rose headed the membership committee of Soho Farmhouse, the exclusive Oxfordshire club, where Meghan held her hen party and where she and Harry periodically escaped during the early months of their marriage.

Harry confirmed his rift with the Van Cutsems in his 2023 memoirs, Spare, revealing that Hugh’s mother, Emilie, and one of her four sons had contacted him to voice their fury after his explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Duke wrote: ‘Several close mates and beloved figures in my life, including one of Hugh and Emilie’s sons, Emilie herself, and even Tiggy [Pettifer, his former nanny], had chastised me for Oprah. How could you reveal such things? About your family?’

Clearly, that rift has not healed.

Why Poppy still needs a leading man…

Poppy Delevingne is enjoying a passionate romance with Archie Keswick, scion of the multi-billion-pound Jardine Matheson empire, as I disclosed on Saturday.

On screen, however, the Chelsea property developer’s daughter, pictured in London this week, is yet to find her leading man. Although the model and actress, 38, has been cast in U.S. film The Gun On Second Street, its director, Rohit Karn Batra, is still searching for an actor to star opposite her.

‘She’ll be doing the role with an American accent,’ Batra tells me at the DDA Cocktail party on Carlton Beach at the Cannes Film Festival. ‘I wanted to cast someone who was posh but with a West Virginia twang.’

Poppy Delevingne, 38, (pictured) has been cast in U.S. film The Gun On Second Street

When Noel Edmonds hosted Deal Or No Deal, contestants could win up to £250,000, but caterers at the presenter’s New Zealand vineyard may be nearing the 1p Club. 

Edmonds’s venue, River Haven, which includes a pub, cafe and restaurant, has closed, with its 17 employees given just 24 hours’ notice. 

‘We lost our jobs with no warning,’ complains one worker. ‘I cried,’ says another. Edmonds tells me: ‘The team always knew it would close for winter. October 1 is the projected date to open for next summer.’

Queen of the jungle on reality of being a mum

I’m a Celebrity winner Giovanna Fletcher says the rich and famous are dishonest about the reality of being a parent.

‘When people, especially people in the public eye, are on those daytime [television] sofas talking about parenthood, they are there to promote something,’ she says at an Advertising Week Europe event in London.

Giovanna, 39, who has three children with her husband, McFly singer Tom Fletcher, adds: ‘All you ever get on those sofas is, ‘It’s amazing, it’s great, it’s the best thing ever’.’

When the Princess of Wales appeared on Giovanna’s parenting podcast, Happy Mum, Happy Baby, in 2020, Catherine admitted that she often suffered ‘mum guilt’ as she juggled family life, which could leave her feeling fraught with insecurity.

Giovanna, 39, (pictured) has three children with her husband, McFly singer Tom Fletcher

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps recounts that on the morning he heard the Treasury was going to put another £75 billion into defence he spotted that the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, was doing a sponsored run. 

Shapps sent him a message to say that, by way of thanks, he was sending him £100 for the charity effort. Hunt replied: ‘I’m pretty sure you got the better end of this financial deal.’ 

Baroness’s broadside for ‘malign’ peer

Only weeks ago King Charles appointed her to the Order of The Thistle — Scotland’s highest order of chivalry — but Baroness Kennedy is now being treated to a less agreeable stint in the spotlight.

Labour peeress Helena Kennedy has, I can disclose, been named as the ‘subject of an inquiry’ by one of the House of Lords’ Commissioners for Standards after allegedly failing to register an interest.

Kennedy storms to her own defence, telling me she was reported by ‘a politically motivated and wholly malign Conservative peer’ after failing to declare that she’d become a trustee of the Sigrid Rausing Trust charitable foundation.

‘I receive no remuneration whatsoever,’ Kennedy adds. ‘It was a complete oversight which has now been rectified.’