EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Wedding woes as Sir Sean Connery’s granddaughter calls off engagement 

Sir Sean Connery’s granddaughter Saskia was understandably left devastated when the James Bond star died in October 2020, aged 90. However, just months later it appeared she’d found happiness by getting engaged to banking heir Phillip Thomas Muhr.

Sadly, I can reveal her joy has been short-lived as she has called off her engagement to the 35-year-old. ‘Saskia ended up asking why they were getting married at all,’ a close pal of the former couple informs me.

The insider adds: ‘She was hoping to stay friends and have an amicable break-up but due to his behaviour post-break-up, it’s made it very difficult for her to have him in her life.’ Friends and family of the exes were overjoyed last April when Saskia accepted Phillip’s proposal with a diamond ring at the Lyford Cay enclave in the Bahamas.

Saskia was understandably left devastated when the James Bond star died in October 2020, aged 90

Phillip, meanwhile, who stands to be the beneficiary of the Austro-American Muhr banking and bottled water dynasty, says he has fond memories of their four-year relationship

The insider says the union between the 26-year-old fashion designer — who also works as special projects manager at the Sean Connery Foundation, and whose father, Stephane, was Connery’s wife Micheline’s son — and Phillip was ‘not meant to be’. Despite declining to comment on the reasoning behind the couple’s split, the insider says: ‘She did her best to make their relationship work until the very end. She’s happy to be single now. She’s dating a lot. She’s worlds happier. She wishes him the very best and hopes he finds his happiness.’

Phillip, meanwhile, who stands to be the beneficiary of the Austro-American Muhr banking and bottled water dynasty, says he has fond memories of their four-year relationship.

‘Unfortunately, it didn’t work out,’ he confides. ‘We had a wonderful time with each other and we thought it was for the best that we remain as friends.’

The Austrian, who splits his time between London and the Bahamas, insists there were no third parties involved. He added: ‘Lyford Cay is a very small community so we ended on good terms.’

The irony in Emin’s new title

She previously claimed to have ‘slept with half the town,’ but now Tracey Emin has been made an Honorary Freewoman of Margate.

She previously claimed to have ‘slept with half the town,’ but now Tracey Emin has been made an Honorary Freewoman of Margate.

The former enfant terrible of the art world, who was brought up in the Kent seaside resort, has been bestowed with the honour ‘in recognition of her international acclaim as an artist’.

Dressed like Dick Turpin for the occasion, Emin did manage to pair her outfit with more modern Croc shoes.

But the 59-year-old said she does see a certain irony in earning recognition from somewhere she once longed to leave. ‘I felt trapped at the age of 15 . . . but now, Margate really is the place my spirit feels truly free.’

Florence is pretty in pink 

Pugh played the role of college student Dani in the 2019 horror film Midsommar which sees her character in the clutches of a pagan cult at a Swedish mid-summer festival

Seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses was clearly top priority for Hollywood star Florence Pugh over the weekend.

‘Grab your friend, grab a field, frolic in pink and sing stupid silliness,’ says the 26-year-old actress.

‘And also put a load of flowers in your hair like Dani did,’ she added.

Pugh played the role of college student Dani in the 2019 horror film Midsommar which sees her character in the clutches of a pagan cult at a Swedish mid-summer festival.

Eerily similar to Dani’s attire, she donned a floral crown at a festival of her own this weekend, which she paired with a pink sheer bodysuit, white bikini and pink-tinted sunglasses.

Thankfully, she did at least manage to avoid being indoctrinated into a cult on this occasion.

As he bows out of broadcasting aged 78, Australian cricketer Ian Chappell insists there’s still no love lost between him and Ian Botham.

Asked what he’d include if writing about Lord Botham, Chappell snaps back: ‘Why would I write anything about him?’ The pair’s feud started almost half a century ago in a bar in Melbourne in 1977 where, according to the former England captain, he ‘flattened’ the Aussie. Lord Botham then insisted Chappell ‘fled the scene’, while the latter is adamant he left ‘in a calm and dignified manner’. Who to believe?

What could’ve been for Lulu… 

When Lulu married then unknown hairdresser John Frieda in 1975, it seemed she’d gone off grid – pictured when she attended the My Old School screening at BFI Southbank in London

Having gone from dating David Bowie to marrying a Bee Gee, it was generally perceived that Lulu stuck to singers when it came to her love life.

So, when she married then unknown hairdresser John Frieda in 1975, it seemed she’d gone off grid. But it turns out her 16-year-marriage to the man she calls the ‘love of her life’, and with whom she has son Jordan, was written in the stars more than initially thought.

‘I wanted to be a hairdresser and sing in clubs at night,’ the Shout songstress, 73, said as she attended the My Old School screening at BFI Southbank in London. 

 ‘I never had highfalutin ideas about being famous.’

Celebrated film-maker Terence Davies feels like a fish out of water.

‘I’m no good in the modern world,’ says the 76-year-old director of films including Distant Voices, Still Lives. ‘I can’t see contemporaneity as interesting. If I were asked to make The Fast And Furious 29, it would come out as The Slow And Slightly Irritable.’

When Rob Brydon discovered his childhood scrapbook devoted to Sylvester Stallone while clearing out his loft, he thought his sons might appreciate seeing something from when he was growing up.

Unfortunately, it just led to Tom, 13, and ten-year-old George, who he has with wife Clare Holland, questioning his sexuality. The 57-year-old Gavin And Stacey star explained: ‘My kids said to me: ‘Dad, were you, you know…?’ 

Ahead of her Strictly debut, Loose Women’s Kaye Adams probably expected reassurance from former contestant Vanessa Feltz, who instead warned: ‘The entire world is watching. You look at yourself in the mirror and you look like an absolute oafish idiot.’