EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Meghan Markle’s favourite hairdresser gives Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas striking new look

The Duchess of Sussex‘s hair stylist has turned his attentions to the woman many think Prince Harry should have married.

George Northwood, who toured Australia, New Zealand and Tonga with Meghan in 2020, has, I hear, been tending the locks of Cressida Bonas, Harry’s former long-term girlfriend.

‘Fringe-tastic!’ says the 35-year-old actress, who shared this photograph of her new do online. She has previously worn her hair in a demure side parting.

Northwood has said he became ‘very close’ to Meghan, who flew him out to join her when the former actress travelled to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games in 2022. He also saw Meghan, Harry and their two children when they visited Britain for Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee celebrations that year.

‘So nostalgic and wonderful to be reunited [with] Harry, Meghan and their family in the UK,’ he said at the time. ‘Archie has grown to be the cutest, well-mannered little boy and Lilibet is just beautiful.’

George Northwood has been tending the locks of Cressida Bonas (pictured), Harry’s former long-term girlfriend

George Northwood (pictured) who toured Australia, New Zealand and Tonga with Meghan in 2020

Northwood has said he became ‘very close’ to Meghan (pictured), who flew him out to join her when the former actress travelled to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games in 2022

Keep it quiet! Strict rules for Geri’s pool by church 

Spice Girls star Geri Halliwell and her husband, Formula 1 boss Christian Horner, are told they must keep the noise down if they want to win permission for new swimming pool at their country home

They have, together, weathered a squall of indignities following accusations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ made earlier this year by an anonymous female employee. 

But might Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner, the subject of those accusations, and his wife, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, now have to reconcile themselves to regular monitoring of their private passions – at least when in the grounds of their 15th century manor house in an idyllic village on the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire border?

I ask not because of any further machinations at Red Bull, whose inquiry completely exonerated Horner, but because of the latest development in the couple’s battle to install a 40ft x 16ft swimming pool.

The proposal – the centrepiece of plans involving the introduction of a yew hedge, vegetable garden, raised flower beds and either an apple or rose walk – provoked howls of fury from fellow villagers. 

One, I disclosed, categorised the Horners’ scheme as ‘the height of disrespect’, arguing that the pool would be offensively close to the village church, raising the possibility of mourners at funerals being ‘distracted by screaming, shouting and splashing’ as a loved one was interred.

Now, I can reveal, the local council’s environmental protection officer has leaped in, saying that ‘appropriate safeguarding conditions’ must be met. 

She recommends that, from midnight till 7am, there should be no ‘overall noise’ above ‘background levels’. For the rest of the time, the overall noise should be less than five decibels above those levels.

Spice Girls star Geri Halliwell and her husband, Formula 1 boss Christian Horner , are told they must keep the noise down

Christian Horner and his wife Geri Halliwell’s Grade II-listed mansion in an idyllic village on the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire border

To put that in context, a whispered conversation would usually peak at 25 decibels, while the sound of rustling leaves equates to 10 decibels. 

The Horners’ respective vocations have, by contrast, taken them to a completely different sonic sphere, with Formula 1 routinely reaching 140 decibels, while a Spice Girls concert would be just 10 decibels lower.

Hand-held sound meters can be had for £100 – a price which some of the Horners’ neighbours may feel well worth paying to check that the couple are reining in their whoops of poolside pleasure.

Geri is, of course, well versed in coping with all manner of unsolicited advances, having done a stint as a dancer in a Majorca nightclub, and could almost certainly neutralise even the most antagonistic critic with a dazzling smile and an invitation to hop over the churchyard wall and help her skewer something sizzling on the barbecue. But her husband…? Would I be wrong to fear a more abrasive outcome?

Time – and the decibel count – will tell…

Princess Beatrice’s friend Alice Naylor-Leyland introduces surrogate baby to Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon

Having surprised friends by announcing that she and her husband have had a child using a surrogate mother, Princess Beatrice’s pal Alice Naylor-Leyland has been introducing their baby to Hollywood royalty.

First to meet their daughter, Margot, was Oscar-winning actress and film producer Reese Witherspoon, who is pictured cradling the tot.

The Legally Blonde star, 48, who has three children of her own, gazes adoringly at Margot as she feeds her formula milk.

Alice, 38, already has three children with Tom Naylor-Leyland, who is heir to a baronetcy and the £176million Fitzwilliam landowning fortune.

‘I’m aware it was greedy to have this burning desire to complete our family,’ she explained. ‘But due to too many complications, setbacks, miscarriages and then being told I was no longer able to carry, we decided to venture down the world of surrogacy.’

The Legally Blonde star, 48, who has three children of her own, gazes adoringly at Margot as she feeds her formula milk

Look out crisps salesman Gary Lineker! Domestic goddess Nigella Lawson is bitter over the allegedly changing taste of snacks.

‘Salt and vinegar crisps now are not painful enough as they used to be, as the vinegar they use is too mild,’ wails the television chef. ‘Hula Hoops salt and vinegar are my favourite, but again the vinegar is mild.’

Nigella is known for serving bowls of Twiglets at her dinner parties. ‘I am a salt person, more than a sweet, so it is Twiglets mostly but if you take Twiglets with you, you have to take wipes because you look like you have smoked 50 Woodbines.’

The Who is not a band says Pete Townsend 

Rock legend Pete Townshend wants to make some personnel changes before he agrees to another tour with The Who.

‘The interesting thing about Roger [Daltrey, singer] and I now is, it’s not a band. It’s a group of musicians that Roger has chosen.

‘I have not chosen any of the musicians I tour with — not even Zak [Starkey, drumming son of Ringo],’ the 78-year-old says. ‘I’m not 100 per cent happy, but it’s me celebrating my life and music. They’re still great musicians.

‘It just feels easy and safe. The Who are a brand and a friendship, but it’s not a band.’

Bad news, perhaps, for The Who’s touring guitarist Simon Townshend, Pete’s younger brother.

Pete Townshend wants to make some personnel changes before he agrees to another tour. Pictured, The Who singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend

Prize-winning author Anne Somerset cut an arresting sight at The Oldie lunch at the National Liberal Club yesterday, masking her hands inside what she described as ‘black gauntlets’.

But this was no Gothic fashion statement. Acknowledging they looked ‘rather sinister’, she explained they were orthopaedic gloves she’s obliged to wear since a gruesome fall at Badminton House, her family’s ancestral seat in Gloucestershire. ‘I slipped on a bottom stair and put both hands out behind to save myself,’ Anne tells me. She succeeded — but at the cost of two broken wrists.

‘I’m always breaking things,’ adds Anne, who was promoting her latest tome, Queen Victoria And Her Prime Ministers.