EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: The Prince William and Kate Middleton matchmaker who’s had to flee China

He played a key role in helping to bring together our future king and queen, but Jake Hall has now sparked fury.

Well-connected Hall, who organised the university fashion show where Kate Middleton first caught Prince William’s eye as she sashayed down the catwalk, has been accused of failing to pay staff at his high-end tutoring company.

He has written to his team of tutors, saying ‘all the money has been spent . . . there is nothing left’.

Pictured: Kate Middleton (right) and Prince William at the No Time to Die premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London earlier this month

The son of City financier David Hall, he hotfooted it from China, where he ran an outpost of Holland Park Education, after the Communist regime brought in strict curbs on the after-school tutoring industry, banning companies from hiring foreigners.

Pictured: Kate Middleton in a university fashion show

Hall’s Shanghai office told local media that clients had paid more than £1million in fees for lessons which will no longer take place after he hastily declared bankruptcy and returned to Britain.

Clients say they have reported him to Shanghai police.

Furious tutors have spoken of their anger at not being paid. 

One, Will Catlin-Hallett, blasted the company, saying: ‘Just a shame you couldn’t pay your tutors for the hard work they’ve done.’

Another wrote: ‘Tutors working for Holland Park Education weren’t paid last month. 

‘They got messages from CEO Jake Hall (addressed to ‘Valued tutor’) saying that resolution was coming. 

It came this morning. 

Holland Park Education are in liquidation. One valued tutor remains unpaid to the tune of £4,000.’

In a letter to the team, St Andrews graduate Hall confirmed the company would not exist, writing: ‘There is no longer anybody who will invest in the company, so the company will stop operating.’

It’s a sad end for the business, which allowed Hall and his wife Florence to travel the world in a bid to educate the children of their well-heeled, international clients. 

Their recent trips include visits to Shanghai, Phuket, Bali and Beijing.

Hall founded Holland Park Tuition in 2004 with his friend William Stadlen, with whom he grew up in London’s Notting Hill. 

William’s the son of Sir Nicholas Stadlen, a High Court judge.

Hall could not be reached for comment last night.

How Queen drummer hit the roof

Queen star Roger Taylor is fed up with the lack of respect he’s accorded.

‘Let’s face facts here,’ he declares. ‘Drummers are the most talented, most humble, best-looking members of any band.

‘They’re the engine that drives the music. Without us, you’ve just got a couple of people in tight trousers jumping about at the front of the stage.’

The musician, 72, adds: ‘Even after all this time, some people still think I’m ‘just’ a drummer. Last week, someone said, ‘Oh, you sing on the Queen records as well.’

‘Yeah, I sing on them. I even bloody wrote one or two of them.’

It’s a kind of magic . . .

Don’t mess with Game of Thrones star!

Despite starring in the worldwide hit Game Of Thrones, Nathalie Emmanuel was refused entry to a building in Budapest this week.

The Londoner, 32, says it took place the day before she started shooting her new film, The Bride.

‘I am rather weepy,’ she says. ‘Some dude tried to block me from entering my accommodation.’

Despite starring in the worldwide hit Game Of Thrones, Nathalie Emmanuel (pictured) was refused entry to a building in Budapest this week [File photo]

Hinting his behaviour might have been motivated by the colour of her skin, she adds: ‘I wonder if he stops everyone and checks if they live there? 

‘It was really symbolic of a lifetime of having your presence in any space questioned. 

‘Are you supposed to be here?’ Well, whether or not one thinks I should or shouldn’t, I f***ing am here.’

First his TV talent show, The X Factor, was axed. Now, Simon Cowell appears to be saying goodbye to another of his passions. 

The music mogul, 61, who broke his back last summer falling from his electric bike, is auctioning off his beloved Vespa motor scooter. 

It’s to raise money for Lasting Life, a charity set up by Seventies sex symbol Susan George.

It’s all going swimmingly for Liz Hurley

Elizabeth Hurley’s penchant for posting swimsuit-clad pictures online hasn’t just buoyed her admirers. It’s also given her finances a much-needed boost.

I can reveal that her eponymous swimwear label made a £97,000 profit last year.

It means the actress’s company — which trades under Simian Productions — is finally in the black. Four years ago, it was £263,000 in the red. 

Elizabeth Hurley (pictured)’s  eponymous swimwear label made a £97,000 profit last year

Hurley set up the company in 1994 with then-boyfriend Hugh Grant, and currently runs it with her ex-husband, Arun Nayar.

With a winning business plan, the 56-year-old has no intention of stopping posting snaps of her bikinis, which sell for up to £168.

‘I think women definitely like that I’m not hiding just because I’m over 50,’ she says. ‘Everybody still goes on holiday or goes to the beach or needs to swim.’

As Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss should be dealing with China, Russia and Afghanistan. Instead, she’s struggling to cope with warring traders in East Anglia.

‘I’m loving being Foreign Secretary, but right now I’m dealing with local warfare,’ the Norfolk MP tells me at the Tory conference. ‘Near my constituency is the Downham Market wars. The old-fashioned market traders, selling things like mobility scooters, are at war with the new traders, who are posh blow-ins selling organic food.’ 

Truss adds: ‘I’m on the side of the old market traders.’ Perhaps she should call in UN peacekeepers?

Rees-Mogg takes on Eton . . . without nanny

While some Old Etonian politicians seem ashamed to have attended the £44,000-per-year school, Jacob Rees-Mogg has always been proud of his privileged education.

And he is delighted that his son, Peter, has started there. ‘My eldest has just gone off to Eton,’ he tells me at a Conservative conference party. 

Pictured: Jacob Rees-Mogg (left) and his son, Peter, in 2018

‘Doing, I dare say, better than me — I had nanny come every week and change my sheets. He doesn’t need anything like that; he’s very independent.’

Rees-Mogg’s wife, Helena, adds: ‘We both went to boarding schools. We wouldn’t force our children to go, but they were so good for us, we’d hope they make the same choice.’