It’s certainly not the place you’d expect to find a major American pop diva, but yesterday singer Janet Jackson was seen emerging from the Big Yellow Storage Unit in London’s Battersea toting three large bags, one of them containing Frette luxury bed linen.
Jackson, 52, who is worth £200 million and is based in the capital, announced her split from her third husband, billionaire Qatari businessman Wissam Al Mana, last year — just four months after their son Eissa was born.
Jackson’s brother Randy said of his sister’s marriage: ‘No pregnant woman needs to go through what she went through.’
Janet Jackson was seen on a rainy Saturday in London at a Storage facility
An assistant was seen loading some bags into the storage and Janet was seen taking out 3 large bags
Jackson is embroiled in a battle with her ex for full custody of their child.
Jodie, 40, still a kid at heart
Ex-model Jodie Kidd embraced her inner child at her 40th birthday when her boyfriend, former Royal Marine Joseph Bates, threw her a party at The Mandrake Hotel in central London.
Presented with a chocolate caterpillar cake (right) — a popular treat among children — she was greeted by former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson (inset), who reached out for a hug. Perhaps he was giving the birthday girl — a favourite to replace Matt Le Blanc on the BBC’s motor show — some inside info?
Jodie Kidd’s 40th birthday party with Perrier-Jouet at The Mandrake
Jodie Kidd embracing Jeremy Clarkson at her birthday party
My love scenes aren’t that racy, says Prue
Bake Off judge Prue Leith, 78, reveals she plans to retire from fiction writing in two years.
‘There will be one more [book] before I am 80,’ she says. ‘They are not that racy, come on!
‘If a man writes a book with a love scene it is literature, but if a woman writes a book with a love scene, it’s either romantic or racy. I will get one out before my next big birthday and then I will stop.
‘I want to get the TV adaptation of my book done before I’m 80 — and my real ambition is to stay at Bake Off, if Bake Off lasts, for as long as Mary Berry.
‘She is wonderful.’
Boris picks up on his quill to finish £500k book on bard
Faced with an impending expensive divorce from his wife Marina, Boris Johnson clearly needs to supplement his income.
So I am intrigued to discover that the former Foreign Secretary has resumed writing his biography of the Bard. His publisher Hodder & Stoughton has now relisted the book for publication in 2020.
‘I am working on the Shakespeare book every day and hope to finish it soon,’ he tells me.
Boris Johnson and his wife Marina Wheeler pose after he won his seat in Uxbridge, west London
BoJo signed a £500,000 deal with Hodder & Stoughton to write the biography which was to be published in 2016, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
But it never materialised, owing to Boris’s political and personal shenanigans. He had to devote much of his time campaigning for Brexit ahead of the 2016 referendum and was then unexpectedly promoted by Theresa May to the post of Foreign Secretary. The MP reportedly had to hand his advance back when he shelved the project.
Just two weeks ago, Boris, 54, announced that he and wife Marina Wheeler, also 54, were divorcing after 25 years of marriage. The couple (pictured) issued a joint statement: ‘We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way. As friends, we will continue to support our four children in the years ahead.’
He was subsequently linked to 30-year-old PR executive Carrie Symonds, the former Conservative communications director.
Boris is now set to find himself at the centre of a battle over his and Marina’s estimated £6.5 million fortune.
The couple had been living together at his £20 million grace-and-favour home in Carlton Gardens, the official residence of the Foreign Secretary, until the end of July. They jointly own a £4 million townhouse in Islington as well as a country home in Oxfordshire.
Boris wed first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987 after they met at Oxford. He married Marina, now a QC, in 1993. But a string of affairs followed and Marina kicked him out twice, only to take him back — first in 2004 over his affair with writer Petronella Wyatt. The second time came six years later, when he was suspected of having a lovechild with art consultant Helen Macintyre.
Some grandmas hate being called ‘Nana’ because it makes them feel old, but actress Sienna Miller’s former stepmother, interior designer Kelly Hoppen, resists the moniker to avoid being confused with the family dog.
Kelly, 59, whose daughter, food writer Natasha Corrett, gave birth to son Rudy last year, tells me at the Cool Earth and Lima Floral party in Covent Garden: ‘We have a dog called Nana, which we inherited from Sienna, but Rudy said ‘Nana’ the other day, and I said: ‘I will not answer to that!’
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason is planning a brand extension. ‘I had an idea for a cookbook, based on the recipes tour caterers do for different bands — so you’d have Keith Richards’s shepherds pie, and so on,’ he says. ‘It would make a good charity book. But someone stole the title — Dark Side Of The Spoon — so that rather set me back
Jagger’s love gets the chop
Sir Mick Jagger has always remained faithful to his hairstyle, sporting the same shaggy mane for decades. Unlike his girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick, who has just undergone a radical makeover.
The raven-haired ballerina, 31, surprised friends when she showed off her new fringe at the weekend. ‘Went for it!’ she captions this picture online.
Mick Jagger’s girlfriend Melanie Hamrick has kissed goodbye to her long locks and is sporting a dramatic new look
The transformation comes just one week after Mel, who has a 20-month-old son, Deveraux, with the 75-year-old Stone, sported a sleek centre parting (inset) on a night out with Jagger in New York. Let’s hope the old roue approves.