EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: After finding his Midas touch with £253million PPE contracts and buying his own place in the Alps, has Tim Horlick now supplanted his ‘superwoman’ City boss ex-wife?
During the two decades he was married to ‘superwoman’ Nicola Horlick, Tim Horlick seemed content to play second fiddle to his wife, who somehow juggled a high-octane City career while bringing up no fewer than six children.
But now, 18 years after their acrimonious divorce, would it be fair to say that their respective positions have been reversed?
I ask because while Nicola, 62, contends with the hard grind of steering her latest venture Glentham Capital to success, Tim appears to have discovered his own Midas touch.
He was propelled to prominence during the pandemic when his firm, Ayanda Capital, won contracts worth £253 million to supply the NHS with PPE. Now he has, I’m told, snapped up a place in the Alps.
It marks a joyful advance in his residential arrangements, which at one point saw Tim, 61, renting a house from his former wife.
Tim declines to comment. But a chum tells me that the Alpine acquisition is very much a place to be lived in, not a property investment. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be let,’ he tells me.
Tim appears to have discovered his own Midas touch after he was propelled to prominence during the pandemic when his firm, Ayanda Capital, won contracts worth £253 million to supply the NHS with PPE
Nicola, 62, is currently contending with the hard grind of steering her latest venture Glentham Capital to success
And on one point in particular, the friend is emphatic. There is, he assures me, ‘absolutely no connection at all’ between this dazzling addition to Tim’s property portfolio and the lucrative PPE contracts which Ayanda were awarded — and which helped the company to achieve profits of £37 million in two years.
‘It’s all funded from Tim’s personal assets,’ explains his pal.
This will be reassuring to those monitoring Ayanda, of which Horlick and his son-in-law Nathan Engelbrecht are sole directors.
Its PPE deal was brokered by an adviser, Andrew Mills, who was also an adviser to the Board of Trade. But Tim went on television to say: ‘There was no cronyism involved. It was a very rigorous procurement process, so my conscience is absolutely clear’.
These days, the company has no telephone number or email address. Nor does it occupy the address listed on its website.
‘Ayanda? They haven’t been here for years,’ the receptionist at the office block in Hammersmith, west London, tells me when I pop in. Perhaps Tim now works from his — Alpine — home?
Booming-voiced Brian Blessed would like one more go at guest-hosting Have I Got News For You. And — surprise, surprise — he doesn’t plan on going out quietly.
The 86-year-old actor, who has hosted the BBC show twice, tells me: ‘I do want to do the show once more and I’ve got a big stunt lined up. I’m going to backflip off the stage through the screen behind the contestants’.
Why celebrity feud stirred up chefs’ success
The feud between top chefs Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay started simmering when they both worked at Gordon’s swanky London restaurant Aubergine in the 1990s.
The feud between top chefs Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay started simmering when they both worked at Gordon’s swanky London restaurant Aubergine in the 1990s.
But now MasterChef: The Professionals star Marcus, 52, suggests their row was the making of both of them.
The father of three says: ‘It was the best thing that ever happened to both of us. I wanted to be in his shoes and I can’t be in his shoes — they’re too big. I knew I couldn’t fill them and I think I had another ambition and I had another goal. So I had to try.’
Having paid little attention to her age before, Dame Helen Mirren was made painfully aware of her advancing years on the set of her latest film.
The 77-year-old, who stars as goddess of immortality Hespera in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, says: ‘The challenge for me was that the young actors were so good and inspiring but I could never understand a word they were saying.
‘It was the moment I realised that life has moved on in a way that I couldn’t quite grasp.’
How BBC star struck gold with her girl
She’s starring in programme of the moment The Gold and it would appear British actress Stefanie Martini has struck gold in the relationship stakes, too.
The 32-year-old actress plays Marnie Palmer, wife of real life criminal John Palmer, in the BBC dramatisation of the £26million Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983.
The 32-year-old actress plays Marnie Palmer, wife of real life criminal John Palmer, in the BBC dramatisation of the £26million Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983
Away from the small screen, the Bristol-born star has been in a relationship with model and photographer El Wood since 2021.
Stefanie and El attended a pre-Bafta film-makers dinner at Alfred Dunhill’s Bourdon House in Mayfair, which was once home to the Duke of Westminster.
Just when you think you’ve heard it all from Dame Joan Collins, the 89-year-old comes out with another corker.
Asked to reference a stand-out moment in her life, Dame Joan says: ‘Being on a friend’s yacht in France, next to Mohamed Al-Fayed’s yacht where Princess Diana and her lover Dodi were vacationing.
Somebody from our boat zoomed up to them on a jet ski to invite them for dinner and was greeted by three security guards, brandishing Uzi guns and telling him to “go away”.’ We’ve all been there.
Downton lady back out on the town
She was never far from the spotlight as rebellious aristocrat Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey.
And Jessica Brown Findlay was back on the red carpet this week — just three months after giving birth to twin boys.
Jessica Brown Findlay was back on the red carpet this week — just three months after giving birth to twin boys
The actress, 35, swapped her corset for a camel-coloured crop top, mini skirt and blazer as she attended the Miu Miu Women’s Tales screening in Mayfair.
Jessica, who is married to actor and writer Ziggy Heath, gave birth on Bonfire Night after undergoing IVF treatment. On International Women’s Day, she spoke candidly about her struggle to conceive, writing on Instagram: ‘Your body is not the enemy. Love it. No matter what.’
Can anyone think of a way to describe Bill Nighy with a word that doesn’t begin with L? The Love Actually star can’t understand why, up until now, that appears to always be the case. ‘All the words that people use to describe me begin with L,’ moans the 73-year-old. ‘Languid. Louche. Laid-back. Lanky.’ And those are only the ones he knows about.
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