Misha Nonoo has often been called the Duchess of Sussex’s best friend, ever since Meghan turned up at the Invictus Games in Toronto in 2017, hand in hand with Prince Harry, in ripped jeans and a £137 shirt known as ‘The Husband’, designed by Misha.
But has Misha, 39, been jinxed by the association – at least where her fashion business is concerned?
I ask only because her eponymous online brand has seemingly been put on hold.
Its website bears the promise ‘Launching Soon’, but a link for would-be subscribers leads only to a bleak notice saying: ‘Page Not Found’.
A similar fate awaits those attempting to find out more via Misha’s Instagram account, which says her brand offers ‘chic, sustainable fashion for Women on the Go’.
My inquiry to the company goes unanswered. Misha may, of course, have decided family comes first.
After divorcing suave Old Etonian Alexander Gilkes, she wed oil tycoon Michael Hess in Rome in 2019, with Harry and Meghan among the guests, and now has two young children.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry appear together at the Invictus Games, Meghan in ‘The Husband’ shirt designed by Misha Nonoo
Meghan Markle and Misha Nonoo attend an award show together in 2015
Has Emma found a love match with childhood friend?
Tennis fans wondering how Emma Raducanu blazed back to British No 1 ranking at Queen’s this week should take a look at her support team.
Roaring her on as she reached the quarter-finals was not just her coach Nick Cavaday (far left) and agent Thomas Houchin, but a dashing former tennis protege close to her heart, Benjamin Heynold.
He and Emma, 22, have known each other since the age of six and have represented Team GB together. Heynold, 24, is a student at the the University of North Carolina in the US and friends suggest that his long friendship with Emma may have turned to romance.
Emma split up with her Harrow-educated boyfriend, Carlo Agostinelli, last year.
Having changed coaches seven times in the space of four years as she tried to recapture the form that saw her win a Grand Slam at the 2021 US Open, perhaps Benjamin is her ace?
Emma Raducanu and Ben Heynold in 2016
I am the gayest straight man you’ll ever meet
Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs tries to explain his love of musical theatre
She’s been a sex symbol since she floated round a spaceship nearly naked in 1960s sci-fi film Barbarella, but Jane Fonda prefers a bit more privacy these days.
‘I don’t get naked in bed with anybody anymore,’ says the 87-year-old actress. ‘If was going to have sex, I would want it to be with a 20-year-old. I like certain kinds of skin. But I don’t want to impose my old skin on somebody else, so I decided to quit altogether.’
It’s fortunate that this meeting wasn’t scheduled for a day later: on Thursday King Charles received the new Iranian ambassador, His Excellency Mr Seyyed Ali Mousavi, at Buckingham Palace.
Just hours later, Israel launched strikes across Iran, targeting its nuclear programme and killing senior military figures and scientists. President Donald Trump said he was aware of Israel’s plans beforehand. Presumably, the King wasn’t?
Anthony Hopkins’s estranged daughter shares cancer battle
Sir Anthony Hopkins won his second Best Actor Oscar for his role opposite Olivia Colman in The Father.
In real life, his performance as a father is less praiseworthy.
He has been estranged from his only child, Abigail Hopkins, for more than two decades.
And now, I can disclose, she has been fighting a brave battle against cancer.
Abigail, 55, pictured with her dad in 1991, is an actress and musician and she documents her private health challenges on her new album, Stardust. ‘Stardust charts my healing journey from bowel cancer,’ she reveals. ‘I was determined to channel my personal pain through creative work.
Anthony Hopkins and his daughter Abigail in 1991
‘While finishing my chemotherapy, I came up with the idea of creating an album with proceeds going to charity. I’ve had side effects which included frozen shoulders, and neuropathy and more, so undertaking an album has required a lot from me.’
Asked which of her songs is the most personally meaningful, she replies: ‘The Corridors of Hospitals.’ In addition to the album, she is planning to publish a ‘memoir about my cancer journey’, she says.
Port Talbot-born Sir Anthony, 87, whose films include The Silence of The Lambs and The Mask of Zorro, is so sensitive about his estrangement from Abigail that he refuses to discuss it with even his closest friends.
An attempt to explain the situation publicly in 2018 backfired so badly that he vowed never to talk about her in interviews again.
‘People make choices,’ he said. ‘I don’t care one way or the other. You don’t have to like your family. Children don’t like their fathers. You don’t have to love each other.’
When told his remarks sounded cold he replied: ‘Well, it is cold. Because life is cold.’
Abigail was born at a time his drinking was spiralling out of control. He walked out on her and his first wife, Petronella Baker, in 1971.
Earlier this year, the £15 million mansion overlooking the ocean in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles where Sir Anthony lived with his third wife Stella, a Colombian, was reduced to rubble in the wild fires.
Bride Basia’s barney with scene-stealing Bond girl
Marilyn Galsworthy (left) wearing a dress more ornate than Basia Briggs’s own
Basia Briggs has marked her wedding anniversary in unusual fashion.
Basia, a close friend of Prince Michael of Kent, has accused a Bond girl of trying to upstage her on her big day.
On the anniversary of her marriage to late property developer Richard Briggs, who owned Hyde Park Stables in London, Basia posted a wedding snap online. ‘On this day a long time ago I married Mr Briggs,’ she wrote. Then she shared a second photograph of her with Marilyn Galsworthy wearing a summer dress more ornate than her own.
‘This horrible woman decided to upstage the bride and turned up dressed in white with flowers in her hair, and hogged every photo,’ Basia commented. Marilyn, who appeared opposite Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me, declines to respond, telling me: ‘Life is too short. It’s very sad.’
The smart set’s talking about…
Party pooper V&A bosses failure over summer bash
So delighted to show the Princess of Wales around the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new East Storehouse in London’s Olympic Park this week, its director, Tristram Hunt, appears to have overlooked another big date in his calendar.
The V&A has failed to organise its traditional summer party, a cherished fixture among the capital’s beau monde.
‘It’s very sad,’ a regular tells me. ‘It was the greatest party, with 1,200 guests. It drew rock stars, prime ministers, creatives, art collectors, tycoons.’
Sources claim the museum could not attract a corporate sponsor.
In the past the bash has been paid for by names such as Harrods, Dior and Chanel.
A V&A spokesman tells me: ‘We won’t be hosting our summer party this year. Our attentions have been focused on the unveiling of V&A East Storehouse.’ Clearly, the V&A is missing the fundraising skills of its party-loving former chairman, Sir Nicholas Coleridge.
