The Duke of Sussex is happily married to Meghan, but his close friend who also found love with an American former actress and set up home in California is nursing a broken heart.
I hear that Arthur Landon, 42, has split up with his fiancee, Alessandra Balazs, 35. ‘They parted ways some time ago,’ confirms a friend.
The film producer, who inherited most of his brigadier father Tim’s £200million fortune, plus an enchanting 4,250 acre Hampshire estate, defended Harry after their 2012 trip to Las Vegas when the prince was notoriously photographed at a naked pool party.
He and Alessandra sat at the front of St George’s Chapel for Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018. And Landon remained close friends with Harry after ‘Megxit’ as he has a home in Los Angeles.
Alessandra, who now works as a lifestyle brand consultant, is the daughter of Andre Balazs, owner of London’s fashionable Chiltern Firehouse, whose tenth anniversary party on Thursday was attended by Princess Beatrice. Her mother is former Ford Models boss Katie Ford.
The Duke of Sussex is happily married to Meghan, but his close friend is nursing a broken heart
Arthur Landon, 42, has split up with his fiancee, Alessandra Balazs, 35
Speaking in 2019, Alessandra, who also worked as a model, said Landon had grown up since his Vegas days with Harry. ‘Everyone changes,’ she told the Daily Mail Diary. ‘He’s one of the most genuine, honest, kindest human beings to be around.’
The impeccably discreet Landon, son of an Austro-Hungarian princess, declines to comment.
Aldo tells the teetotal truth
When Aldo Zilli was announced as the brand ambassador for tequila brand Mis Amigos last December, he was pictured holding a shot glass and gushed: ‘I love the product.’
However, I can reveal that the TV chef is, in fact, a teetotaller.
‘Alcohol has been a big issue in my life, and I managed to stop two years ago,’ he quietly admits to me at the Heart UK x Benecol brunch in London.
Since giving up, Zilli has shed a stone and a half and enjoys waking up with no hangover. He reveals: ‘I got my life back.’ They don’t put that on the tequila ads!
Jo Wood is in denial. ‘I turn 70 next year – and it’s just not happening,’ the former model declares at Theo Fennell’s studio in Chelsea. ‘The thought of being 70 . . . I won’t even say those words.’ Her ex, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, reached that age seven years ago.
TV presenter Anna Ryder Richardson has returned to the helm of a zoo she founded, six years after saying it ruined her marriage.
The interior designer, 60, who made her name on Changing Rooms, stepped away from Manor Wildlife Park, in Pembrokeshire, in 2018, after her divorce from Colin MacDougall. ‘I am very excited,’ she says. ‘I am finally back with my beloved animals and incredible team. I have huge plans for the future.’
When Lumley climbed into the King’s bed
She was a close friend of Prince Philip, and now Dame Joanna Lumley has been sleeping in King Charles’s bed. Not when the King is present, I hasten to add. The Absolutely Fabulous star, 78, stayed at the ‘humble’ guesthouse in Transylvania owned by the King, which he stays in when he visits. She was filming her forthcoming ITV series in which she travelled the 1,770-mile length of the Danube River.
‘You can just book it – we had no idea,’ she says. ‘We only stayed a night. It was interesting, as it was quite humble and normal. There is nothing smart about it. It is old bits of furniture and home-cooked food. It was quite lovely.’
It costs €120 (£100) to spend the night surrounded by ‘wild natural beauty’, with proceeds going to The Prince of Wales Foundation in Romania
She was a close friend of Prince Philip, and now Dame Joanna Lumley has been sleeping in King Charles’s bed
Flamboyant TV presenter Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is aghast at the decline in sartorial standards of modern men.
‘I’m terribly embarrassed by my gender: men are so scruffy these days,’ he tells The Lady magazine. ‘It betokens a complete lack of belief in themselves: no tailoring, no seams, fabrics from the laboratory – they are man-babies.’
The Changing Rooms star, 59, adds: ‘My youngest grandchild, Eleanora, who can’t walk yet, wears more complicated clothes than most men.’
How regal feet banish bunions
Queen Camilla has become so enamoured with her bunion-busting Sole Bliss footwear (left), she has inspired five award-winning actresses who have played queens on screen to step into her shoes, quite literally.
Dame Helen Mirren, who played Elizabeth II in 2006 film The Queen, teamed her amethyst gown with the brand’s £199 Premiere patent heels for this year’s Cannes Film Festival (right).
And Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton, who played the late Queen in Netflix’s The Crown, have also worn their shoes on the red carpet.
Dame Judi Dench, who is a friend of Camilla and played Queen Elizabeth I in Oscar-winning film Shakespeare In Love, and Cate Blanchett, who won an Oscar for her role in Elizabeth, are also converts.
Queen Camilla has become so enamoured with her bunion-busting Sole Bliss footwear (left), she has inspired five award-winning actresses who have played queens on screen to step into her shoes, quite literally
Photographer Alison Jackson, who specialises in lookalikes of prominent figures, has found five doppelgangers for Sir Keir Starmer – one of whom is even called Keir – but is struggling to garner enthusiasm for the Labour Prime Minister. ‘I had a collection of Starmer photos, but I couldn’t sell them because he’s not exciting – he’s like a school ma’am,’ she tells me. ‘I binned them all.’
Charles’s not-so wicked whisper
Just hours after Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s separation was announced in 1992, the future King was seen whispering in the ear of actress Frances Barber as they presented an award at the National Theatre.
‘Everyone asked what Charles said to me,’ she tells me at the Ruby Wax stage show, I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was. ‘I said, “He asked for my number.”’
More than three decades later, she has finally revealed the truth. ‘I wore a Versace jacket and Charles whispered in my ear, “Is that a Versace?”.
‘I said, “How did you know that, Sir?” He said: “My wife enjoys clothes.”’
Diana was a friend of designer Gianni Versace, who was shot dead in Miami six weeks before her fatal car crash.
(Very) modern manners
Friend of the royals Basia Briggs is a familiar sight at the best London parties, but she’s sick of guests greeting her with kisses. ‘Men should be educated that it’s NOT all right to grab and kiss women,’ says the former owner of Hyde Park Stables. ‘Unwelcome contact is horrible. Please keep your distance and just say “hello”.’ Surely she’d make an exception for a prince?