EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Consuelo Vanderbilt – scion of the prominent U.S. family – up sticks from the Upper East Side of Manhattan for London with her eyes on bagging a duke
Move aside, Meghan Markle! Another American is moving to Britain with an eye on bagging a duke.
And this socialite has an ancestor who did just that.
Consuelo Vanderbilt, a scion of one of the USA’s most prominent families, has decided to up sticks from her abode in the Upper East Side of Manhattan for London. This week, it was disclosed that she had separated from her husband, Rafael Feldman.
‘I love Eaton Square,’ she tells me of her plans to live in Belgravia or Chelsea, West London. ‘That’s definitely an area I’m looking.’
Consuelo, 44, whose ancestor was Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough, grew up in London and would spend weekends with her kinsman the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.
Consuelo Vanderbilt, a scion of one of the USA’s most prominent families, has decided to up sticks from her abode in the Upper East Side of Manhattan for London
Move aside, Meghan Markle (pictured)! Another American is moving to Britain with an eye on bagging a duke
Asked whether she’s ready for romance, she says: ‘If the right person comes along…a duke sounds lovely. I’ve always been a person about character and soul – that is first and foremost.’
Consuelo runs a business, SohoMuse, for creatives to network, and is also on the board of the Vanderbilt Museum in New York.
She was taught to curtsy before meeting Princess Diana when she was seven years old. ‘My mum played tennis with Diana and I was given the honour of being the ball girl,’ says Consuelo, who is also a singer.
‘I was a very gregarious, precocious child, and before meeting Princess Diana, we were taught how to curtsy. We were told you’re not allowed to speak until you’re spoken to – there’s a whole protocol. My mum is looking at me, saying, “Consuelo, do not even think about speaking to her”.
‘I’m sat next to her and after a few minutes I could not hold my tongue. I turned to her and I said, “You know I go to school with your niece”. She was so lovely and kind. She was just the sweetest.’
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: JOANNA BELL
Actress Suki Waterhouse
In TV series Daisy Jones & The Six, Suki Waterhouse plays a feminist 1970s rock star. Off screen, the long-term girlfriend of Twilight and The Batman star Robert Pattinson has been enjoying a more familial role.
Suki, 31, is now an aunt after her artist brother, Charlie, 29, welcomed his first child. ‘Charlie just had a baby,’ she says. ‘It’s gone from us being “the kids” to suddenly he has a kid. The most amazing thing was that first day of meeting my little niece.’
Pattinson, 37, has said he ‘definitely’ wants children, but worries they’ll find him odd: ‘He or she will probably look at me every day and think, “Why is this guy such a funny, quirky oddball?” ‘
Lady Paris: I was bought Scottish title
Made in Chelsea’s ‘Lady’ Paris Smith
When ‘Lady’ Paris Smith won Reality Personality of the Year last month, she attributed her victory to ‘sticking to [her] morals’ since joining the cast of Made in Chelsea in 2020.
The model, 25, has now admitted that her title, which she uses on social media, was bought for her as a birthday present by her friend and co-star Sebastian O’Reilly.
‘I used to joke with Sebastian, saying one day we’ll be Lord and Lady of the Manor,’ she tells me at a London Fashion Week show where heiress Nicky Pietrzak’s Delulu London label made its debut.
‘On my 21st birthday, he bought me a plot of land in Scotland, making me a lady.
‘Titles are almost meaningless these days, but I was grateful to have it and also to differentiate myself from Paris Hilton.’
Comedian Patrick Kielty’s young sons struggled to adapt from the LA lifestyle when he and his wife, Cat Deeley, returned to Britain.
Kielty, whose boys are seven and five, says: ‘We swapped a four-bed house in Beverly Hills with a swimming pool for a three-bed flat with no garden in North London. There was a hotel up the road with a pool and I decided I’d join that gym to bring the boys swimming.
‘The youngest fella, I brought him in, and he’s looking around and he goes, “Dadda, who are these people in our pool?” ‘
High-tech Cressie reveals her artistic ambitions for son Wilbur
Cressida Bonas this week the actress was keen to put on a virtual-reality headset as she attended Zara Muse’s art show at Quantus Gallery in Shoreditch, East London
Cressida Bonas spent two years as the girlfriend of tiresome Prince Harry, so it’s understandable that she should seek out alternative realities.
And this week the actress was keen to put on a virtual-reality headset as she attended Zara Muse’s art show at Quantus Gallery in Shoreditch, East London.
The headset let her see an interactive 3D version of the exhibition. Cressida, 34, who is married to property investor Harry Wentworth-Stanley, tells me: ‘I love her work. I used to paint and draw a lot. My husband is an amazing painter — much better than me.’
She gave birth to their first child, Wilbur, last November.
‘He’s not painting yet, but will be by Christmas. I’m looking forward to all of it. I hope he will go into art.’
This is unlikely to endear her to the #MeToo movement: Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes has revealed that she was touched up by a fellow audience member at the Royal Opera House — and enjoyed it.
‘I was at the opera in Covent Garden, and suddenly I felt a hand on my thigh,’ recalls the actress, 82.
‘It was the gentleman next to me, and it was somehow exciting. I am gay, but somehow the immediacy of it and the danger of it because — and I am embarrassed to say this — his wife was sitting on the other side of him. But it went on, and it became even more inflammable, so to speak.’
Tim Rice swipes at ‘ridiculous’ wokies
Andrew Lloyd Webber recently suggested that he would not have been allowed to compose Evita these days, for fear of being accused of cultural appropriation, but the show’s lyricist Sir Tim Rice refuses to give in to the ‘woke’ crowd.
‘I don’t see why you could not do that again today,’ the triple Oscar winner says. ‘It’s ridiculous to suggest you can’t write about something.’ Sir Tim, 78, adds he is opposed to attempts to rework historical shows to pander to modern sensibilities. ‘I don’t think people should attack a show that has already proved itself.
‘There is a great danger in having people, as it were, adjust things. People have to be tolerant, and I am not sure tolerance is in huge demand at the moment.’
Dan and Strictly pal enjoy a cha-cha-chat
Their chemistry was undeniable when they were partners on Strictly Come Dancing — and Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova have maintained their close bond
Their chemistry was undeniable when they were partners on Strictly Come Dancing — and Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova have maintained their close bond.
The news presenter, 46, who lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, with his wife, Sarah, and their three children, attended the launch of L’Atelier Robuchon restaurant in Mayfair with the Ukrainian professional dancer, 34.
‘We’re good friends and hang out when we can,’ Nadiya tells me.
The pair waltzed to fifth place on the hit BBC show in 2021.
Bychkova, the girlfriend of fellow Strictly pro Kai Widdrington, 28, has not been included in one of this year’s couples.
Until Helena Bonham Carter split up with her long-term boyfriend, Tim Burton, she and the Hollywood film director lived in three conjoined houses in North London, two decorated to each of their tastes and a third for their children and live-in nanny.
Now, the star of The King’s Speech appears to have found domestic bliss with art historian Rye Dag Holmboe, who’s 22 years her junior. I spotted the couple browsing the home furnishings department of Liberty, the West End store beloved of bohemians. Helena, 57, took no chances when scrutinising the goods on display: she wore two pairs of spectacles on her forehead.
No doubt Oscar Wilde, who described Liberty as ‘the chosen resort of the artistic shopper’, would have approved.
Cleric and former Gogglebox star the Rev Kate Bottley is even shorter than Kylie Minogue, who appeared at a Radio 2 event in Leicester last weekend that she hosted.
‘I’ve met Kylie a couple of times,’ she says.
‘Every time, it surprises me that I’m still shorter than she is. I’m 5ft; she’s 5ft 1in.
‘The first time I met her, I curtsied. This time, I put on my super- high heels.’
(Very) modern manners……
You’ll never guess how Nadiya Hussain, mild-mannered winner of The Great British Bake Off, likes to relax.
The broadcaster has revealed that she and her husband, Abdal, visit a ‘rage room’ where they spend 30 minutes letting off steam with baseball bats. ‘I broke up TVs, a toilet, computers, glass bottles,’ says Nadiya, 38, of her recent outing. ‘It was a real release’
Explaining her smashing evening, she says: ‘We used to do “date nights” regularly a decade ago but it was always dinners, and that got boring.’
