While most of us are going to seed during lockdown, Baroness Mone of Mayfair is determined to keep up appearances.
The Ultimo lingerie co-founder, known as Baroness Bra, presents segments on shopping channel QVC but has had to film at home without the usual team of hair and make-up artists.
Michelle, 48, revealed what it takes to get camera-ready as she shared a picture online with her hair in rollers. Lady Mone is engaged to the Scottish billionaire Doug Barrowman, 55, but they have postponed the wedding until after the coronavirus crisis.
Michelle Mone, 48, revealed what it takes to get camera-ready as she shared a picture online with her hair in rollers (left) and a picture of her ready for action (right)
The smart set’s talking about… Marchioness’ shipshape baby
Coronets aloft! The Marquess and Marchioness of Bristol are celebrating the birth of their first child, Lady Arabella Hervey — two years after they married at London’s Brompton Oratory.
No one is more delighted than Fred Bristol’s older sister, former ‘It girl’ Lady Victoria Hervey. ‘They’re so happy about becoming parents,’ she tells me. ‘I’m going to be a godmother. I’m so excited.’
So, too, will be all admirers of the Hervey family — possibly the aristocracy’s liveliest dynasty. The newborn’s grandfather was Victor, the 6th Marquess, who was thrown out of Eton before being sentenced to three years in prison for theft and burglary.
His eldest son, John, the 7th Marquess, who followed his father to prison, blew £30 million on drugs, forfeiting Ickworth, the family seat in Suffolk, in the process.
Fred, 40, and his Marchioness — American art consultant Meredith Dunn, 38, left — will hope to have a son and heir in due course.
Otherwise, the title passes to Fred’s fourth cousin, Tim Hervey, 60, a tax adviser. ‘Congratulations to them,’ he tells me from his home in Eastbourne. ‘It would be lovely to meet up sometime.’
The Marquess and Marchioness of Bristol are celebrating the birth of their first child, Lady Arabella Hervey — two years after they married at London’s Brompton Oratory. Pictured: Meredith Dunn, 38
Since I disclosed earlier this year that Eighties pin-up Emma Samms had found love with Simon McCoy, she’s managed to convert the waggish BBC news anchor into a veritable domestic god.
Emma, 59, who played fiery heiress Fallon Carrington Colby in Dynasty, is being waited on by McCoy as she recovers from coronavirus symptoms at her home in the Cotswolds.
‘Simon appears to have filled his days —when he wasn’t looking after me — by ironing everything from socks to pants and even towels,’ Emma trills. ‘And when he ran out of things to wash and iron, he dug down so deep into the laundry basket that he uncovered an archaeological treasure trove of old clothes that I only vaguely remember.’
Talk about News In Briefs.
No big day for M&S Rosie’s brother
M&S model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley accepted Hollywood hardman Jason Statham’s marriage proposal four years ago, but they never wed.
Her brother and fellow model Toby won’t beat her to the altar — he has split up with his fiancee, yoga instructor Cicely Brown. ‘They wanted different things,’ a pal tells me. ‘Toby is busy in London and Cicely has moved to Melbourne.’
The couple declined to comment but, in that very modern way, have stopped following each other on social media. So look away, Toby, as I can report that Cicely has been sharing videos of herself singing in bed with a handsome new chap.
Model Toby Huntington-Whiteley has split up with his fiancee, yoga instructor Cicely Brown. Pictured: Toby and Cicely at the second Bright Young Things Back In London party, February 11, 2016
Chef Marco gets a Blanc roasting
HIDE those kitchen knives! This will have fiery Hell’s Kitchen star Marco Pierre White boiling over.
His former mentor Raymond Blanc claims the forthcoming film about White, to be written, directed and starring Oscar-winner Russell Crowe, is just an ego-trip.
‘I wouldn’t want a film about my life,’ Blanc tells me. ‘Oh, come on, I’m not self-centred. I’m vain — but not that vain.’
Blanc — whose Oxfordshire restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, has two Michelin stars — adds: ‘I shouldn’t say bad things because I know Marco is doing one, but I don’t want a film. It’s not all about me.
‘There’s the team, the gardens. It’s about how it all comes together.’
(Very) modern manners
When the great and the good get married, they might pay for an announcement in a paper or send a wedding snap to the local rag.
But what to do when they split up?
Small Business Minister Paul Scully has come up with an unusual way to make public his separation from his better half, Emma: he’s quietly slipped the news into the House of Commons Register of Members’ Financial Interests. In his newly updated entry, the Conservative MP, who is also Minister for London, describes Emma as ‘his wife until 27 March 2020’.
She confirms they have divorced after 30 years of marriage. They have two grown-up children.
Scully once described Emma as his ‘political widow’ because he was away so much, adding: ‘I have always thought that behind every great man, there’s a woman rolling her eyes.’
Quote of the week
‘Attenborough is a wonderful guy, but he can be a bit gloomy’
Actor Brian Blessed wishes Sir David Attenborough would be more positive about the future