Meghan Markle might have faced a backlash after the launching her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard, but that hasn’t stopped her friends following in her footsteps.
Sophie Gregoire, the ex-wife of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, has launched her own wellness website, speaking of ‘growing a nourishing community’ and going on a ‘deeply personal journey of knowledge, acceptance and empowerment’.
Ex-TV presenter Sophie became ‘fast friends’ with the Duchess of Sussex while she was living in Canada filming Suits, and has been a guest on her podcast, Archetypes.
Sophie Gregoire, the ex-wife of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau , has launched her own wellness website, speaking of ‘growing a nourishing community’
Rina doesn’t think she’s It
Dua Lipa ‘s sister Rina is very much a 2024 It Girl – just don’t say that to her face
As a model and actress who’s interviewed in this month’s Vogue, Dua Lipa’s sister Rina is very much a 2024 It Girl – just don’t say that to her face.
In fact Rina, 22, pictured right for the magazine in a linen Vivienne Westwood ensemble complete with knee-high yellow Jimmy Choo boots, says she is all too happy to level the label at others but thinks it is ‘cringe’ when applied to her.
Rina is starring in an upcoming film imagining the adult life of Great Expectations character Pip, and described big sister Dua, 28, as her ‘biggest teacher’, adding: ‘I’m so in awe of her work ethic.’
He set the political agenda with his title role in Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, but actor Toby Jones also has a side hustle – as a DJ!
Drinkers at the Prince Albert pub in Brighton were stunned to see the 57-year-old behind the decks earlier this month. He played a three-hour set at the venue, where Fatboy Slim has previously DJed, alongside fellow actor Ben Miles, also 57, together billed as The Plasticons.
Toby and Ben, who played Princess Margaret’s lover Peter Townsend in The Crown, will also be doing a gig at the Jolly Gardeners pub in South London this Friday.
Can Natasha be a pools winner?
Let’s hope fashion designer Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs has an easier ride than pal Pippa Middleton in getting planning permission for a swimming pool. Natasha and husband Rupert Finch, both right, want to demolish their £600,000 Gloucestershire bungalow and replace it with a new home complete with pool and hedgehog shelter. But neighbours complain it’s too big. Pippa had to change plans for her Berkshire home seven times before getting the OK.
TV chef Gizzi Erskine has some specific demands for her romantic partners, ‘seeking someone with primal confidence’ who handles her the way they handle ‘oysters and steak’. Gizzi, aka the Hon Griselda Maxwell Erskine, has become the face of a new dating app called Pure, and the 44-year-old says: ‘I know early on how someone is going to handle me by the way they handle food.’
I’m sad to report that Mr Selfridge actress Sai Bennett, right, has split from her restaurateur fiance Matthew Scott. The pair, who have a two-year-old daughter, got engaged in 2022, and after becoming a dad Matthew named his restaurant Papi. Sai, who also starred in the film Face Of An Angel with Cara Delevingne, told fans on social media that she was starting life as a single mum.
Meanwhile, members are falling out of love with The Lansdowne Club in Mayfair due to its authoritarian approach… to footwear.
The £1,500-a-year venue off Berkeley Square, which counts designer Paul Smith as a member, bans 19 types of shoes and has other near incomprehensible rules about which types of footwear can be worn in certain areas of the club.
One member, who happened to be sporting an inoffensive black shoe, says he was forcefully expelled when he complained about the inflexibility of the rules.
‘I heard the word ‘Taser’ mentioned. Nice way to treat your paying members,’ he tells me.
In response, the club says: ‘It would not be appropriate to comment on our members or disciplinary matters, other than to say we strongly dispute this version of events.’
Dame Joanna Lumley has saluted the King – for never once saying, ‘I told you so’ to those who mocked his warnings on the environment 30 years ago. She told me: ‘He’s just quietly gone on his way. Aren’t we lucky to have him as King?’
Zac Goldsmith and girlfriend Hum Fleming
Don’t jump the gun, Zac
Tory peer Zac Goldsmith seems confident he’s found his other half. The 49-year-old, who split from banking heiress Alice Rothschild last year, was spotted out with girlfriend, Hum Fleming, and his mother Annabel in London last week. As Zac and Hum, both left, strolled hand-in-hand, he told a passer-by, ‘Meet my wife,’ before quickly correcting himself, ‘meet my future wife’ as Hum shot him a look.