Over the past six years they’ve weathered the sort of storms that would have left other families fractured and riven with recrimination.
But such are the intense, if unconventional, bonds between the Duke of York, his former wife Sarah and their two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, that their support for each other seems to grow ever stronger.
It is, I’m sure, a pattern which will endure even now, in the aftermath of the latest – and arguably most distressing – revelation to date: the publication of an email Fergie wrote in 2011 and sent to Jeffrey Epstein, who’d been released from prison for sex offences two years earlier.
In it, she described him as a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’ and, acknowledging that he would feel ‘hellaciously’ let down by criticisms of him she’d voiced in public, she ‘humbly apologised’ to him for having done so.
Since then, eight charities have cut their ties with Fergie. But at least Fergie’s elder daughter, Beatrice, 37, looks as though she’ll have more time in which to comfort her.
That’s because this week, I can disclose, Beatrice’s duties at another charity, the Outward Bound Trust, came to an end – six years after she became one of its trustees in the most trying of circumstances.
Her father, Prince Andrew, had given his ‘car crash’ Newsnight interview to Emily Maitlis, attempting to explain his protracted relationship with Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison cell in 2018.
In the aftermath, Andrew stood down from numerous charities, including Outward Bound, of which he had been patron for three years, having previously been chairman of its board of trustees since 1999.
The previous patron was his father, Prince Philip, who filled the role for 65 years – an epic span reflecting the fact it was, almost certainly, the charity closest to his heart.
Its ethos – of developing character, resilience and self-belief in young people by challenging them in rugged outdoor environments – was one Philip had had instilled in him by the legendary Kurt Hahn, his headmaster at Gordonstoun.
Shelly Phillips, Outward Bound’s head of marketing and communications, tells me Beatrice’s contribution has been ‘greatly valued’.
As to the future, all she will say is that ‘a new role’ for the princess will be announced ‘in due course’.
Never mind sequins, Claudia’s bracelet bling is a Strictly sensation
Forget the hair, make-up and sequins, it was Claudia Winkleman’s £20,000 bracelet stack that was the real showstopper on Strictly Come Dancing’s launch show last weekend.
The 53-year-old, who is paid around £450,000 for her BBC presenting roles, on Strictly and The Traitors, showed off a collection of gold Cartier ‘love bracelets’ on her left wrist, which retail at £6,000 each.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Claudia had doubled her earnings in what was a bumper year of work for the BBC star.
Accounts filed for her company, Little Owl Productions, which cover the year to April 2024, show that her cash reserves almost doubled to £2.1million, with a total equity of £1.6million after tax and creditor payments.
Beware the Blue Coats as the Hurlingham takes on rudeness
Even Britain’s snootiest sports enclave has to take action over yobbishness.
Hurlingham Club, where the Princess of Wales takes her children for tennis lessons, has created a force of ‘Blue Coats’ to encourage its members to behave themselves.
‘The role of the Blue Coats is bedding in well,’ says Michael O’Dwyer, chief executive of the club on the banks of the Thames in Fulham, south-west London.
‘[They] are working hard to explain why manners matter, and to help members understand and comply with the club’s rules and bye-laws.’
He adds: ‘In the vast majority of cases, no further action is required after an interaction with the Blue Coats, but in order to identify and address repeat offending, something members have urged us to do, they may ask for a member’s name and membership number.
‘I would urge members to have the manners to respond positively to such requests.’
Last year, the club’s chairman, Simon Duffy, announced the creation of a ‘conduct committee’, explaining there had been ‘a growing number of instances of unacceptable conduct’.
He warned: ‘If a complaint is made and upheld, sanctions may range from a written warning and a requirement for an apology, to suspension from the club for a fixed term or even permanent expulsion.’
The smart set’s talking about… Trainer sells up for £20m – and doesn’t have to leave
It’s the end of an era in Flat racing. I hear celebrated trainer Henry Candy has sold his stables at Kingston Warren, Oxfordshire, for a rumoured £20million.
‘He’s sold them to a foreigner who apparently wants to turn it into a shooting estate,’ a racing source tells me.
‘They’re letting Henry stay for three years, though, so it sounds like a pretty amazing deal, all in all.’
Henry, 80, who took over the stables from his father, Derrick, in 1973, confirms the sale but says the price is a ‘private matter’.
He tells me: ‘Yes, the buyers are in the process of resurrecting the shoot on the farm, but I do not believe they will change much.’
(Very) modern manners
Gwyneth Paltrow claims hosts should stop overthinking table decorations.
‘A table can look a bit tacky when the flowers are perfectly arranged,’ declares the Hollywood star and founder of lifestyle company Goop.
‘It makes people feel stiff. I like arrangements that are simple and beautiful, as if you went into the garden and picked them yourself, never too studied or overdone.’
The actress, who turns 53 today, is married to writer and director Brad Falchuk, 54.
She adds: ‘I’m getting very, almost worryingly, into table settings as I get older.
‘At our home in Italy, because we’re so deeply in the country, my settings are more casual and relaxed, but we still like to collect beautiful pieces.’
Marco Pierre’s boy loses another eatery
Marco Pierre White became the youngest Briton to be awarded three Michelin stars – aged 33.
His elder son Luciano is, however, struggling to succeed in the restaurant business.
His Surrey venue has gone into liquidation owing £100,000 to the taxman, with just £39 in the bank.
Mediterranean-themed Luciano’s in Woking opened its doors in 2022 with Marco saying he was ‘very proud’ of his son.
Luciano, 31, had already opened two restaurants, in Dorchester and Exeter, but both have closed.
Earlier this year, I disclosed The Rudloe Arms in the Cotswolds, restored by Marco in 2012 to be run by Luciano, had been subjected to complaints over Luciano’s ‘aggression and arrogance’ when dealing with customers.
Younger Hood has diplomatic alliance
When President Trump and the First Lady arrived in Britain for their historic second State visit, they were greeted at Stansted airport by King Charles’s Lord-in-Waiting, Viscount Hood.
Now, the Old Etonian’s son and heir Archie, 32, is doing his bit for international relations.
He’s got engaged to French beauty Clara Deslais, a lawyer for a finance firm.
Archie, an alumnus of £47,000-a-year Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, works for French think-tank Government Tomorrow Forum, whose aim is ‘to make our societies better by improving the complex structures that govern them’.
Wynne’s still in at opera festival
Opera singer Wynne Evans was ditched from the Strictly Live tour for using a crude sexual term.
He was then dropped by Go.Compare after more than 15 years as the price-comparison website’s mascot.
He has, however, received support from Grange Park Opera, for which the Welsh tenor, 53, is still trustee, company director and performer.
‘They’ve stood by him through thick and thin,’ an insider tells me.
Founded in 1998, Grange Park Opera is hosted in the grounds of West Horsley Place, in Surrey.
Many wealthy people are leaving Sir Keir Starmer’s socialist utopia, but former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, currently selling his New York-based media venture Air Mail to subscription newsletter company Puck, has revealed he is contemplating moving to London.
Carter, who has fought a long-standing public feud with US President Donald Trump, was asked at an event in New York if he would stay on at Air Mail once it is sold to Puck.
‘Probably not,’ he replied. ‘I’ve got a bunch of documentaries in progress and my wife and I might move back to either France or London.’
Carter’s wife, Anna Scott, is English, but he lived in Provence for much of President Trump’s first term, saying in 2020: ‘I’m coming back in the middle of this month to America, now that he is safely on his way out of office.’
Lord Swire was in impish mood on Thursday night at the launch party of Sins And Sensibility, a collection of poems by sporting gentleman Rory Knight Bruce.
‘Must be autobiographical in part,’ mused former foreign minister Swire. ‘The sins bit, anyway.’
Others concluded the sins might be those of Knight Bruce’s mother, Sixties TV presenter Gwynneth Tighe – a beauty whose heart, as Knight Bruce recorded in his memoir, was carved from granite.
Walking out on the first of her four marriages, she abandoned her two-year-old son without a backwards glance.
Young Rory found companionship and sanctuary sleeping in the straw with the local pack of hounds.
