Prince Harry and Meghan remain ‘proud’ of their decision to quit royal life amid bitter disputes with the Firm, but at least one aristocratic family has found that even the deepest of rifts can be healed.
William Seymour, the Earl of Yarmouth, was evicted from his family’s £85 million estate two years ago by his parents after they fell out with his wife, City high-flier Kelsey Wells.
But amends are now being made following the birth of their child last month, and they have even named him after William’s father, Lord Henry Seymour, 9th Marquess of Hertford.
William Seymour, the Earl of Yarmouth, was evicted from his family’s £85 million estate two years ago by his parents after they fell out with his wife, City high-flier Kelsey Wells
The Countess of Yarmouth, 36, and her husband, 28, have called him Jocelyn Seymour in honour of William’s father, who bears the same middle name.
‘Both sides want to move on. This touching tribute is an olive branch and the first step in bringing the family back together,’ a friend of the family tells me.
‘There have been years of bad blood, so it won’t be smooth, but there is hope at long last.’
When Kelsey and William married in 2018, his aunt, Lady Carolyn Seymour, mocked their invitation, saying they had not used the family shade of blue and that it was in the incorrect font, adding that her nephew was ‘pompous’ and ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’.
Amends are now being made following the birth of their child last month, and they have even named him after William’s father, Lord Henry Seymour, 9th Marquess of Hertford
Privately educated Kelsey, whose father is a management consultant and mother a former dance teacher, told how she was ostracised by William’s family due to her alleged social faux pas, including calling the butler by his first name and using her mother-in-law Lady Hertford’s bathroom without permission.
A year after they married, the couple, who co-run a liqueur company, were booted out and made to live in a cottage beyond the boundary of the family’s 6,000-acres while Kelsey was pregnant with their first child — a son, Clement Andrew Seymour, the Viscount Beauchamp.
The family’s 110-room Warwickshire seat, Ragley Hall, is due to be inherited by William, who descends from Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour.
‘You could fit the entire square footage of this cottage into the Great Hall at Ragley,’ he sighed at the time, admitting he ‘regrets’ the bitter feud because his siblings were no longer speaking to him.
The smart set’s talking about…The latest royal romance
He’s one of the most eligible royal bachelors, and now the Duke of Cambridge’s cousin, Prince Achileas-Andreas of Greece and Denmark — known as Archi — has got a girlfriend
He’s one of the most eligible royal bachelors, and now the Duke of Cambridge’s cousin, Prince Achileas-Andreas of Greece and Denmark — known as Archi — has got a girlfriend.
She is fashion royalty Isabella Massenet, model daughter of Dame Natalie, who founded the online retail giant Net-a-Porter.
‘They’re a perfect match,’ says a friend of the couple. ‘Archi’s family love Bella so much they took her on their family holiday to Greece this summer.’
Brains-and-beauty Bella, 21 — whose father is Natalie’s ex-husband, financier Arnaud Massenet — was educated at the French Lycee in South Kensington in London before moving to the U.S. to get a degree in English Literature at UCLA. She is now studying at NYU where Archi, 21, is also enrolled.
Described by Tatler as ‘a Greek God’, Archi grew up in London and attended the £28,420-a-year Wellington College in Berkshire, before moving to New York with his parents — Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece — four years ago.
If distance makes the heart grow fonder, Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden must be very fond of her husband, Paul.
Deborah, 62, admits they go for long periods without talking.
‘If I’m filming for two weeks we don’t speak to each other,’ she says. ‘Both of us are very independent and I think it has worked with Paul because we both need our space.’
The couple married in 1993 after Paul gave career-minded Deborah an ultimatum.
I can reveal the petite 21-year-old actress will make her catwalk debut by opening the Julia Clancey show on the first day of London Fashion Week this month
Dame Emma’s daughter cuts it on catwalk…
As Dame Emma Thompson’s actor husband, Greg Wise, limbers up for the new series of Strictly next month, their daughter Gaia Wise is preparing for her own time to shine.
I can reveal the petite 21-year-old actress will make her catwalk debut by opening the Julia Clancey show on the first day of London Fashion Week this month.
‘When Gaia was suggested, I was like, ‘Yes!’ She is beautiful,’ designer Julia, a favourite of Madonna, tells me.
‘Not everyone is 5 ft 10 in and size 6. It doesn’t make sense to be putting them on the catwalk any more.’
Nigel Kennedy adds a string to his bow
Watch out! Punk violinist Nigel Kennedy, a favourite of Princess Diana, is about to ruffle some feathers with a tell-all autobiography.
The enfant terrible of classical music will take aim, in ‘politically incorrect style’, he says, at the BBC and ‘other self-appointed wielders of power’.
Uncensored will be published next month and in it, Kennedy, now 64, is also expected to shed light on claims that he gave violin lessons to William and Harry.
There will also be a chapter on ‘Kitchen Golf’, a risky variant of the sport conjured up with close friend and mischief-maker Gary Lineker during a ‘messy late night kitchen session’.
Sounds like a dangerous read.
Royal confidant Guy Pelly will soon give Prince Harry and Meghan a playmate for their daughter, Lilibet.
The former nightclub owner’s wife, Holiday Inn heiress Elizabeth Wilson, is pregnant — and due very soon.
‘We are expecting Pelly number three and could not be more excited,’ she tells me.
She and Pelly — a godfather to Prince Louis — own a vineyard in Virginia, Merrie Mill Farm, where they live with their daughters, Willow and Clementine.
They visited Harry and Meghan at their Californian mansion last year to help them settle into life in the States.
Bake Off host Prue Leith is one of the nation’s authorities on food and drink, but even she breaks the rules sometimes.
The 81-year-old admits to falling foul of dining regulations at the Chelsea Arts Club recently, by taking a photograph of her meal to share on social media.
‘It took ten years to persuade the club that cooking and writing are arts so it should accept me as a member — it prefers painters and sculptors,’ explains Prue. ‘I love the place.’
She went there recently with her husband, John Playfair, and says their full English was so good ‘that I broke the only club rule and fished out my phone to Instagram my fry-up’.
Kate Moss’s model daughter Lila is fast rising up the ranks in fashion, but it was her oratory skills that made an impression this week
Lila waxes lyrical for dad’s 50th
Kate Moss’s model daughter Lila is fast rising up the ranks in fashion, but it was her oratory skills that made an impression this week.
The Marc Jacobs Beauty campaign star, 18, captivated the room at her father Jefferson Hack’s 50th birthday party in London with a heart-felt speech.
Having clearly inherited her mother’s playful style, the lissom blonde wore a flared-sleeve lilac crop top and hot pants teamed with a red belt and fishnets.
Guests at the bash for Dazed magazine chief Jefferson — who dated Kate for three years until 2004 — included his old friend, photographer Rankin, and socialite Lady Mary Charteris.
‘Beautiful speeches. Heavenly people,’ Lady Mary said of the night. ‘It was so fun celebrating.’
Cheers! Guinness girl to wed
Cheering news for handbag designer Lulu Guinness, whose mother, Lady April Rivett-Carnac, died at Christmas 2019 aged 82 — three weeks after her brother, Simon Rivett-Carnac, 53, killed himself.
Her daughter, cooking instructor Tara, has just got engaged.
The 29-year-old is to marry Eton-educated financier James Kelway-Bamber, 29, a descendant of dukes of Devonshire and Leeds. ‘We are thrilled,’ says Tara, elder daughter of Lulu and Valentine Guinness, heir apparent to the barony of Moyne.
No word yet on the dress designer, but I’m sure her mum’s colourful accessories — loved by the likes of Alexa Chung and Jerry Hall — will make an appearance on the big day.
Artist’s new love puts him on a pedestal
Artist Marc Quinn divided opinion when he put a sculpture of Black Lives Matter protester Jen Reid in Bristol where the statue of slave trader Edward Colston used to stand.
While some accused him of a ‘quick-fix reactionary gesture’, 26-year-old TV art historian Aindrea Emelife praised it as ‘a call for action, for a new world.’
Clearly that caught his attention as she and Quinn, 57, are now dating.
Emelife, who has been appointed to the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity, boasts of his ‘art-god wisdom’.
While some accused him of a ‘quick-fix reactionary gesture’, 26-year-old TV art historian Aindrea Emelife praised it as ‘a call for action, for a new world.’ Clearly that caught his attention as she and Quinn, 57, are now dating