EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Widow Bianca Eliot’s feud with brother-in-law over 4,000-acre Cornish estate leads to an aristocratic bust-up
Port Eliot is the spectacular Cornish estate whose fashionable bohemian arts festival would see Kate Winslet reading children’s stories or artist Grayson Perry charging around on a pink motorbike.
I hear it is, however, now the scene of an equally spectacular aristocratic bust-up.
Eton-educated rock musician Louis Eliot, 53, who grew up on the 4,000-acre estate, has fallen out with former model Lady (Bianca) Eliot, 46, his brother’s widow.
Eton-educated rock musician Louis Eliot, 53 (right), who grew up on the 4,000-acre estate, has fallen out with former model Lady (Bianca) Eliot (left), 46, his brother’s widow
Bianca became the chatelaine of Port Eliot because it was inherited by her son, Albie, at the age of 11 after his grandfather, the 10th Earl of St Germans, died in 2016.
Albie is now 17 and his mother, a former fiancee of Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer, is trying to run the estate as a business with her boyfriend, Mark Tamburrano, 39, a half-Italian chef.
‘Louis and Bianca are strictly on non-speakers,’ one of her friends tells me.
‘Things have got terribly bad between them. There was even a physical confrontation between him and Mark on one occasion when Louis turned up at the house unannounced. Mark gave him a good punch.’
One major cause of tension was, apparently, when Bianca and Mark denied permission for Louis’s daughter to hold her 18th birthday party at the 124-room house. ‘Louis was absolutely furious,’ claims the source.
Port Eliot, ancestral home of the Eliot family, and St Germans Priory Church, St Germans, Cornwall, England
‘He feels hard done by. He is always wanting more money from the trustees. He already has a home in London, but wants another on the estate.’
Louis was previously involved in organising musical events at Port Eliot but he is not taking part in the Tunes In The Park festival in June, when Sir Tom Jones will be the headline act.
‘People are really keen for the return of events’ Mark tells me.
Bianca was left a widow and single mother aged 29 when her husband, Lord Eliot, 40, died in 2006 following an epileptic fit in the bath.
Mark, Bianca and Louis decline to comment on relations between them.
Paul’s secret love gives him a boy – on Gold Cup Day
This could be straight out of a racy Jilly Cooper ‘bonkbuster’.
I can reveal that thrice-married horse trainer Paul Nicholls has a girlfriend three decades his junior.
And she gave birth to their ‘secret’ baby on one of the biggest days in racing’s calendar.
Nicholls (right), who turns 60 next month, is the leading National Hunt trainer of his generation with more than 2,000 victories, including the 2012 Grand National and four Cheltenham Gold Cups. Poppy, 30, left, gave birth to Nicholl’s first son last Friday
Nicholls, who turns 60 next month, is the leading National Hunt trainer of his generation with more than 2,000 victories, including the 2012 Grand National and four Cheltenham Gold Cups.
He’s going out with Poppy Hemmings, 30, a Somerset-born horsewoman.
She gave birth to Nicholls’s first son last Friday. Nicholls tells me: ‘I am pleased to confirm the safe arrival of Henry, aptly born on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day — a day that has been so significant over the years.’
Paul Nicholls is going out with Poppy Hemmings, 30, a Somerset-born horsewoman. She gave birth to Nicholls’s first son last Friday. Nicholls tells me: ‘I am pleased to confirm the safe arrival of Henry, aptly born on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day — a day that has been so significant over the years’
Only close friends knew that Nicholls, who was awarded an OBE for services to horse racing in 2020, was courting Poppy.
The last update on his love life was that he was going out with Philippa Holland, a society jeweller 18 years his junior, in 2017.
Nicholls, who has three daughters, separated from his third wife, Georgina, in 2016.
He left second wife Bridget in 2004 and started stepping out with Georgie, whose marriage to ex-jockey Luke Harvey had broken down after only 16 months.
Movie hardman Ray Winstone hopes to complete another demolition job — at his £1.8 million country home.
The Sexy Beast star wants to bulldoze a games room and snug to make way for a new open-plan living area with a kitchen extension. He also wants a first-floor extension and loft conversion to create an en-suite bedroom.
Winstone, 65, tried selling the late Victorian farmhouse in Essex three years ago. Planners at Epping Forest District Council are expected to make a decision on the proposed development in May. So far there have been no objections from neighbours.
Well, would you stand up to Ray?
Movie hardman Ray Winstone hopes to complete another demolition job — at his £1.8 million country home
The smart set’s talking about… Pop star Delilah’s blue-blooded secret
She’s the cool young pop singer who’s been signed by Sony, has collaborated with superstar DJ David Guetta, and has more than 15 million streams of her music on Spotify.
Delilah Montagu is, however, harbouring a secret: she’s a toff.
Despite a myriad of articles about the 24-year-old, she’s managed to keep secret the fact that she’s an aristocrat.
I can reveal that Delilah’s father is Charles Montagu, 5th Lord Swaythling, scion of the family who created merchant bank Samuel Montagu & Co, now owned by HSBC.
Her mother, Angela, is the daughter of Lord (Peter) Rawlinson, the late Attorney General.
She’s the cool young pop singer who’s been signed by Sony, has collaborated with superstar DJ David Guetta, and has more than 15 million streams of her music on Spotify. Delilah Montagu (pictured) is, however, harbouring a secret: she’s a toff
‘Delilah doesn’t think her posh background will help her in the music business,’ a chum tells me.
Delilah wrote her latest song, Loud, about her girlfriend, and her current partner is film director Florence Kosky, 25. I hear they booked a room at Kettner’s hotel in Soho recently for a romantic weekend together.
Yoga is meant to help you achieve control of the body and mind, but it’s also led to love for the daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. Lady Isabella Somerset, 29, has found new bliss with yoga instructor Philip Lowe.
‘Philip and I are in a loving relationship,’ she tells me. ‘We were set up by friends partly due to our love of yoga and interest in meditation and personal growth.’
Lady Isabella created travel company Bella’s Magic Mountains, while Lowe helps firms cut their carbon emissions.
Parker Bowles becomes a Brit!
A royal biographer once remarked of the Duchess of Cornwall’s first husband: ‘It is said that an English gentleman will always lay down his wife for his country and this was certainly true in the case of Andrew Parker Bowles.’
Now, the brigadier’s niece has made it clear that she too is loyal to the Crown.
Australian journalist Louisa Parker Bowles, 38, revealed yesterday that she had become a British subject, sharing this photograph of her standing in front of a portrait of the Queen and a Union flag as she proudly clutched her certificate after the citizenship ceremony in West London.
‘Sixteen years, two babies and one husband later, it’s time to admit this is more than a gap year,’ she says.
Married to Andrew’s art dealer nephew Sam Parker Bowles, 41, she is a manager at publisher Conde Nast.
Australian journalist Louisa Parker Bowles, 38, revealed yesterday that she had become a British subject, sharing this photograph of her standing in front of a portrait of the Queen and a Union flag as she proudly clutched her certificate after the citizenship ceremony in West London
White Cube’s Jay takes on 16th century manor revamp
They are one of the art world’s most powerful couples, now Jay Jopling and Hikari Yokoyama are taking on a project of equal grandeur.
I hear the White Cube gallery founder, 58, and his interior designer fiancee have bought Wardington Manor, a 16th century manor house in Oxfordshire, which they plan to renovate from scratch.
Hikari, 39, describes the house as ‘a big old beautiful lady who’s seen a lot over the centuries, gaining the layers of her cheeky sense of humour, wisdom and elegance from the people who have loved and laughed inside of her ironstone walls.
It will be a labour of love to deliver her into her next chapter’.
The house was once owned by Lady Wardington, who was rejected by the BBC as a TV announcer in the 1950s for being too beautiful. They worried she might alarm ‘timid men’.
The toxic family feud between former Harrods owner Mohamed Fayed’s children has taken its latest turn.
Businessman Omar Fayed has been ordered to pay legal costs of almost £20,000. He and his sister, Camilla Esreb, who runs fashion label Issa and counts Madonna and Stella McCartney as friends, are due to air their differences in public as Omar claims his sister set up an attack on him.
The allegations are to be tested during a five-day hearing later this year, but the two sides have at least reached agreement over some legal costs.
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