William and Kate’s discreet visit to India that left locals shocked… and joy for the new Lady Goldsmith-to-be: RICHARD EDEN’S DIARY
After losing an appeal over the levels of taxpayer-funded security that he and his family are entitled to while in Britain, Prince Harry whined to the BBC last month: ‘I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point.’
His brother and sister-in-law, the Prince and Princess of Wales, take a more robust approach to security threats. Someone involved in one of their visits overseas has revealed that the couple insisted on shedding their protection officers on a particularly sensitive engagement.
Sanjoy Roy, co-founder of the Salaam Baalak Trust, took Prince William and Catherine to meet children at its centre in New Delhi railway station in India, where the charity provides food, education and healthcare to the needy.
‘When William and Catherine came to see this project, [representatives] called saying, “They’re happy to come without security,” ’ Roy tells me at a cocktail reception for Jaipur Literature Festival London at the British Library, at the Anise Bar in Cinnamon Kitchen.
The Princess of Wales meets children at the Salaam Baalak Trust centre in New Delhi railway station in India, where the charity provides food, education and healthcare to the needy
‘I tried to dissuade them, saying, “No can do – it’s too dangerous. Just don’t come.” But Will and Kate said, “No, we really want to.” ’
Roy’s concerns were partly due to a previous visit by British VIPs. ‘We’d had Tony and Cherie Blair come before, they did this whole thing with our street kids,’ he says. ‘It was just a circus. I didn’t want a circus for the kids. The Press came. It was just not nice. But here, William and Catherine, they were so wonderfully respectful.’
The children whom the couple met at the centre during their 2016 tour of India were largely victims of physical and sexual violence as well as trafficking and gang exploitation.
Zac’s third bride-to-be sparkles at her hen do
Hem Fleming at her hen party in west London and, right, with her husband-to-be Lord Goldsmith
Hum Fleming is not due to exchange vows with former Tory minister Zac Goldsmith for another three months, but she’s already begun the celebrations.
PR executive Hum, 35, great-niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, was left shaken and stirred by her hen party with pals in west London at the weekend. She wore a cream, sequinned jumpsuit, bride-to-be sunglasses and a floral headdress designed by her twin sister, Chloe.
Hum and twice-married father-of-six Lord Goldsmith, 50, plan to wed in the Cotswold town of Stow-on-the-Wold in September.
Nude selfie takes the biscuit for MasterChef star
Celebrity MasterChef winner Angellica Bell is a familiar face on television, but she wished she wasn’t once while topless sunbathing when a father asked for a selfie – for his son.
‘Lying there, just enjoying the moment, and all of a sudden I see this guy and his son walking in my direction,’ she says.
‘I was, like, “They can’t be coming to talk to me?”. Yeah, dad comes over, “Hi Angellica, this is my son.”
‘I thought, I’m either going to have to stay on my back, but my baps were out anyway, or I’m going to have to sit up and let the baps fall to the floor.
‘I slowly rise. “Can I have an autograph for my son?” So I had to sign an autograph with my baps out – and I had to do a picture. It was the most cringe thing ever.’
Celebrating Elaine Paige’s damehood, her former lover Sir Tim Rice enthuses: ‘So good that Elaine Paige is now Dame Elaine. The only mystery is why she had to wait so long.’
Oscar winner Sir Tim, 80, who had an 11-year affair with Elaine, 77, even credits her for his and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s subsequent success.
Dogged Forsyth’s final fight for vengeance
The Day Of The Jackal author Frederick Forsyth, who died last week aged 86, was devastated when Dixie, a friend’s dog he was looking after, was mauled.
‘Dixie was viciously attacked by a white husky,’ its owner, Countess Alexander of Tunis, reveals. ‘An angry and distraught Freddie rushed her to an emergency vet, and she survived. He had her admitted to a veterinary hospital for nearly three months, insisting this be at his own expense, saying that Dixie was “on my watch”.’
Lady Alexander adds: ‘Freddie was not going to let this rest, and he fought for more than a year with lawyers and the police to have the dog owner prosecuted under the Dangerous Dogs Act – unsuccessfully, as the victim was a small dog and not a small child.
‘He called this his Dogs Of War battle.’
Royal model calls out pervert on Tube
Model Frankie Herbert has taken a stand against sexual predators, daring to confront a culprit on the London Underground
Model Frankie Herbert – whose stepfather, the Duke of Norfolk, organised King Charles’s Coronation – has taken a stand against sexual predators, daring to confront a culprit on the London Underground.
Frankie, 29, who strutted down the catwalk in the only fashion show ever attended by the late Queen Elizabeth, says she was left feeling ‘scared’ and ‘shaken’ after being harassed on the Tube. ‘I was just on the Underground in London and I had a man that was staring at me and licking his lips and rubbing himself and no one intervened.
‘So, what did I do? From being frozen in fear, I looked at him and said, “Can I f***ing help you?” And he goes, “Oh, no, no, no.”
‘Because they think we’re vulnerable, therefore they do it because the vulnerability is clearly the thing that gets them off, and I’m just really sick of it.’
The Duchess of Kent is the oldest member of the Royal Family and retired from public duties, but Katharine still seems to have some influence at Buckingham Palace.
Buried away in the King’s Birthday Honours list was an OBE for Nicholas Robinson.
With the duchess, 92, he founded Future Talent, a charity that supports gifted young musicians from low-income backgrounds.
‘This award is not mine alone,’ Robinson says.
‘I share it with Katharine, without whose vision and passion Future Talent simply wouldn’t exist.’
