Asked how he managed to father daughters by three different women in the same year, Lucian Freud dismissively retorted: ‘Don’t you realise I had a bicycle?’
But perhaps only now are the consequences of the artist’s utter contempt for convention becoming fully apparent.
Two of his 14 acknowledged children came to blows in 2022 when, as I disclosed, Paul McAdam Freud – one of his two sons by Katherine McAdam – thumped Alex Boyt – Freud’s only son by Suzy Boyt – in a London pub.
Paul, like his brother, David, and both his sisters, Jane and Lucy, had been omitted from Freud’s £42million will – unlike all ten of their half-siblings.
Now, in the rarefied surroundings of Hatchards, London’s oldest bookshop, it has been left to Annie Freud – the elder of Freud’s two daughters by his first wife Kitty Garman – to speak of her own psychological bruises and how, at the age of 76, she is at last at peace.
Annie Freud, the elder of Freud’s two daughters by his first wife Kitty Garman
Asked how he managed to father daughters by three different women in the same year, Lucian Freud (pictured) dismissively retorted: ‘Don’t you realise I had a bicycle?’
After reading from Hiddensee, her latest collection of poems, Annie, who posed naked for her father at the age of 14 for an unsparingly graphic portrait, revealed how ‘childhood trauma’ caused her to spend years in psychoanalysis – the treatment pioneered by her great-grandfather, Sigmund Freud.
But it hadn’t prevented her from sinking into a pit of alcoholism while living a seemingly idyllic life in Dorset with her late husband, Dave.
‘I was on at least two bottles of wine a day,’ recalls Annie, who, at the age of 27, had been shattered when, lunching with her father in Soho, she met one of her half-brothers. She had no idea that he – nor any others – existed.
Annie, who was never given her father’s telephone number, subsequently had a nervous breakdown.
Her husband’s death, from lung cancer at 73, was heartbreaking. But perhaps it saved her. ‘I had to give up alcohol – or I’d be dead,’ says Annie, who’s moved to Suffolk and now, she says, finally ‘enjoys good mental health’.
She’s played a string of frosty mothers in TV dramas such as Lady Caroline Collingwood, mother of Logan Roy’s children in Succession, and Dame Harriet Walter, 74, has a theory why: ‘A lot of writers have come to an age where their mothers have died, and they can say nasty things about them.’
Dominic’s birthday delight
When Dominic West was pictured embracing co-star Lily James on a private jaunt in Rome, he admitted the situation ‘was deeply stressful for my wife and kids’.
West, who played Prince Charles in The Crown, appears however to be firmly back in the family fold, with daughter Martha, 26, sharing a video online of his 55th birthday celebrations.
The actor, married to aristocrat Catherine FitzGerald, is pictured with Martha and younger daughter Dora, 18.
‘Cake and candles’, Martha captioned the video, in which the actor smiles ear to ear before placing a kiss on Martha’s cheek.
The actor is pictured with Martha and younger daughter Dora, 18
Wyman’s tears over Blitz poverty
Known as ‘The Quiet One’ in the Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman reduced guests at The Oldie magazine’s literary luncheon to stunned silence yesterday when he broke down in tears.
The bassist, 87, was giving a speech about his memoirs, Billy In The Wars, at the National Liberal Club off Whitehall when he recalled the severe poverty he suffered as a London schoolboy during the Blitz. ‘I was so hungry, Mum sent me to a bomb site to get dandelions to eat between bread,’ he said, breaking down.
‘You would have to scrape around for anything edible. It was f*****g horrible and I was so cold.’
He apologised to guests, saying: ‘I’m sorry, I get so emotional.’
I feel safe now I’m in my 40s, says Natalie
Natalie Portman, who shot to fame in the film Leon: The Professional at the age of 13, said last year that she believed children should ‘play and go to school’, not work on film sets.
Now, the Oscar winner (left) has said it’s taken her until her 40s to come to terms with having been sexualised as a child. The 43-year-old actress, who divorced her husband this year, said: ‘It’s been liberating to be now in my 40s, as I don’t feel that threat any more. I don’t feel like I’m sexualised by other people, I feel safe in my own adulthood and my ability to manage situations.’
Natalie Portman said last year that she believed children should ‘play and go to school’, not work on film sets
Vanessa: single life is ‘ghastly’
Vanessa Feltz was devastated when she split up with her fiance, Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu, after 17 years together following his infidelity.
Now, the broadcaster, 62, admits she is struggling with loneliness. ‘I’m living at Feltz Towers alone, which is my utter dread in life, and I can’t bear it,’ she tells me at the Wimbledon BookFest, where she was promoting her memoirs, Vanessa Bares All.
‘I have this utter fear of being stuck on the singles table at bar mitzvahs or weddings. It’s the worst possible thing that can happen.
‘I found myself going to a wedding on my own in June and, as I walked in the door, I thought, ‘I’m going to end up on the singles table’.’
She adds: ‘I felt absolutely ghastly. All I could do was count the minutes till I could get out of there. Why do I need a really horrible, unresponsive, ghastly, parasitic boyfriend to make me feel normal?’
Alice Naylor-Leyland, pictured, said: ‘Sometimes one’s body misbehaves. I am totally fine – it was just a small infection’
Socialite Alice Naylor-Leyland whose friends include Princess Beatrice and Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, felt the need to apologise to pals after having to spend much of a recent trip to New York in hospital.
Alice, 38, whose husband Tom Naylor-Leyland is heir to a baronetcy and the £176million Fitzwilliam land-owning fortune, has a popular ‘Mrs Alice’ business creating themed dining sets.
She says: ‘Sometimes one’s body misbehaves. I am totally fine – it was just a small infection – but I couldn’t be more sorry to those I missed.’