Drop out, Major Johnny Thompson!
The king’s equerry, having won a legion of female admirers, may notice that some of them are turning their minds elsewhere.
That’s because Captain Ollie Plunket, Queen Camilla’s new equerry, drew a lot of attention during the Princess of Wales’ Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey.
Ollie, a kinsman of the 9th Lord Plunket, has a robust physique similar to Thompson’s, but at 28 is about ten years younger – and, unlike Thompson, unmarried.
While still a teenager, Plunket, now an officer in The Rifles, embarked on a solo motorcycle ride from Argentina to Alaska, covering 40,000 miles and raising over £100,000 for wounded servicemen. There were some vivid experiences along the way.
“He survived a fall off a rock,” a friend tells me, adding that Plunket also checked into what he thought was a cheap hotel.
The mirrors on the bedroom ceiling, the comrade adds, led him to conclude that it offered other services.
Kate Middleton smiles for the cameras while attending the Royal Christmas concert at Westminster Abbey along with Johnny Thompson (left)
She cemented her status as Prince William and Catherine’s favorite pop singer by crossing the pond to sing Still Falling For You when the royal couple hosted the Earthshot Prize in Boston.
But it’s not just air miles that Ellie Goulding is racking up.
Newly filed accounts reveal that Miss EG Properties, of which Ellie, 35, is the sole director, owns £4 million of ‘investment property’, while Paper Planes Promotions, her media company, also has assets in excess of £4 million.
No problem, then, for Ellie to send a partridge in a pear tree for her true love – husband, Old Etonian art dealer Caspar Jopling, whom she married in 2019.
Kate’s new gym could trigger a seizure!
Banking heiress Kate Rothschild has finally won a years-long battle with neighbors to build a gym in the basement at her £3.5 million home.
Kate, 40, and entrepreneur boyfriend Paul Forkan, 33, got into hot water with residents over fears of flooding.
Half a dozen neighbors of Kate’s in South West London objected to the proposed development, saying they were already paying up to £1,200 a year in home insurance premiums due to a high risk of flooding in the area.
Kate wants to splash out a basement complete with a TV and media room, home office and study on her Edwardian property
Her initial application for planning permission for the basement was rejected last November, but Richmond Council has now given the green light to the project.
Yesterday, a touching tribute was paid to fashion editor Lulu Fry, wife of chocolate heir Cosmo Fry.
Lulu died of cancer aged 60 last month and the funeral took place at St Andrew’s Church in Mells, Somerset, where war poet Siegfried Sassoon is buried.
Mourners, including announcer Mariella Frostrup, heard Lulu’s stepson Orson, ex-boyfriend of model Alexa Chung, read Sasoon’s poem, Idyll, which contains the lines:
“Not from the past shalt thou come, but from that depth, Where beauty murmurs to the sleeping soul.”
Cosmo was previously married to Amanda Aspinall, who was found dead in 2019 at the age of 61. She was the daughter of the late gambling magnate John.
Comedian Peter Kay will laugh at the plight of touts who snagged tickets to his big comeback tour, hoping to commit murder.
After the comic announced its first tour in 12 years, there was an online queue of tens of thousands of fans desperate for tickets. However, Kay extended the first run of 22 dates several times and tickets are more freely available.
The cheapest ones for last night’s gig at London’s O2 – now the first of a monthly residency – were sold on the Viagogo site for £32 – £3 less than their face value. No doubt the touts will be the butt of some of his jokes…
The Duke of Gloucester (centre right) arrives for the ‘Together at Christmas’ Carol Service at Westminster Abbey in London, accompanied by Captain Ollie Plunket (left)
(VERY) modern ways
Her mother, Chica, recently married King Charles’s coronation planner, the Duke of Norfolk, and now Frankie Herbert has a bulletin about her own love life.
“Pansexual and proud, honey,” declares the society model.
To the uninitiated, “pansexual” means someone who is “attracted to all people, regardless of gender identity or gender.”
Frankie, 26, whose father, Harry Herbert, is the brother of the Earl of Carnarvon, explains about her pansexuality: “It’s valid and has given me a deeper understanding of myself.”
She adds, “I don’t find a particular sex or gender more or less attractive, but the person behind it.”
Frankie — who once walked the catwalk for Queen Elizabeth II with her stuff, the only time Her Majesty’s late ever attended a fashion show — was previously romantically linked to rock star Sting’s child Eliot Sumner.
Ade Edmondson seems to be taking his role as Ebenezer Scrooge a little too seriously.
The Young Ones star, 65, can be seen in A Christmas Carol at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon – and his seasonal glee is non-existent when it comes to pupils on school trips entertaining themselves with electronic devices in the stalls.
“To the bored teen on his iPad at today’s matinee,” Edmondson thunders online.
“Next time the school asks if you want to go to the theater, please say ‘No.’ “You don’t want to be there and we don’t want you to be there. It’s a win/win situation.’
Bah nonsense.
The smart set talks about… Dellal’s big step back
Her label Charlotte Olympia created shoes for everyone from the Duchess of Sussex to superstar Taylor Swift, until her Mayfair store closed in 2019 due to financial problems.
And now Charlotte Dellal is taking a step back in style. I hear the 41-year-old granddaughter of the late billionaire real estate magnate “Black” Jack Dellal is relaunching Charlotte Olympia in the new year.
She’s whetted devotees’ appetites by sharing photos of a new jewel-encrusted version of her celebrated £395 Kitty Slippers.
“A litter of Kittys is coming your way soon,” she teases.
