He invariably seems able to manifest whatever he desires, whether it’s a parliamentary seat, a peerage or a prospective bride – not to mention a brood of children, of which he has six so far.
But Zac Goldsmith – more formally Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, as he’s been since 2020 – has just been reminded that, in the words of family friend Mick Jagger, you can’t always get what you want.
That might sound improbable, given that Goldsmith, 50, has the delightful Hermione ‘Hum’ Fleming – 35-year-old great-niece of 007 author Ian Fleming – lined up to become his third wife when they marry next month in the Cotswolds. But there is, I can disclose, a £6.95million niggle in their residential arrangements.
That’s the new asking price forthe fabulous, 11-bedroom Arts and Crafts manor house in Hampshire that Zac shared with his second wife, Alice Rothschild. The price represents a £1million discount on the £7.95million tag it had when first put on the market last year – despite the fact that, in the words of estate agents Knight Frank, Zac and Alice took ‘great care to keep the house true to its heritage’.
But even with the discount – and such essentials as a tennis court, swimming pool, staff kitchen, library, lake and 65 acres of land – there’s no guarantee that there’ll be a buyer in Keir Starmer’s Britain.
After all, more millionaires are expected to flee this year than any country has experienced in the past decade. So Hum and Zac, pictured, who plan to move to Dorset to be closer to his three children by Alice, may have to slum it in his £5million house in London’s Holland Park for some time to come.
Arts and Crafts Country House, currently owned by Lord Zac Goldsmith but on sale
Lord Goldsmith and Hermione ‘Hum’ Flemming, a descendant of 007 author Ian Fleming
Marisa’s full of love on hen do
In the racy BBC drama Industry about trainees at a City investment bank, Marisa Abela plays an heiress with a taste for drug-fuelled romps.
And in real life the actress, who played Amy Winehouse in the biopic Back To Black, enjoys partying, too – although in a more wholesome way. Marisa, 28, is engaged to fellow actor Jamie Bogyo, 32, and she has been enjoying a raucous holiday with pals before their wedding.
‘Heart-bursting,’ she says online, where she shared snaps including one of her being fed at a restaurant in Malta. ‘Hen do or die.’
Industry and Amy Winehouse star Marisa Abela goes wild on her hen do holiday in Malta
Marisa, centre, is in Malta which she has called ‘heartbursting’
I may have solved the riddle of how Dame Helen Mirren and Celia Imrie managed to glide effortlessly down the red carpet at last night’s London premiere of murder mystery The Thursday Murder Club.
The actresses were, I hear, wearing special shoes for problem feet. They both chose Sole Bliss, the brand favoured by Queen Camilla for its extra cushioning. ‘
When actresses of Helen and Celia’s calibre trust us for major red carpet moments, it validates everything we stand for,’ says Lisa Kay, Sole Bliss’s founder.
Martin: I wouldn’t sing about Devil
Coldplay star Chris Martin refused to sing songs such as the Rolling Stones’s Sympathy For The Devil when he was a teenager because of his conservative religious upbringing.
The singer, 48, attended Sherborne School in Dorset, which is ‘rooted in Christian tradition’, and his father is a devout Christian.
‘There are a couple of songs when I was 15 that I wouldn’t sing,’ Martin tells the #ABTalks podcast. ‘I was in a band and they wanted to do some covers and I said, “I don’t think I can sing that,” because they were about evil or the Devil. Now I realise it was just a song.’
DeGeneres’s horse-mad wife rides out in the Cotswolds
They fled the US even before the old sheriff – otherwise known as Donald Trump – rode back into town.
But now horse-loving Ally McBeal star Portia De Rossi, pictured, is back in the saddle, filmed by her wife, ex-chat show host Ellen DeGeneres. The couple recently moved from the Cotswolds farmhouse they snapped up for £15million last year to a single-storey, 11,000 sq ft courtyard home nearby.
It has what DeGeneres calls ‘a horse facility’ because, she says, ‘Portia couldn’t live without her horses’.
‘Country girl’ Portia de Rossi goes horse riding in the Cotswolds, where they live
Portia, married to Ellen Degeneres, moved to west England before Donald Trump took office
She turned in an acclaimed performance as Lady Caroline Collingwood – ex-wife of Logan Roy – in Succession perhaps, in part at least, because she was brought up in ‘the foothills of the aristocracy’.
But Dame Harriet Walter, 74, says there are other roles actresses her age can play with equal authenticity – not just old ladies ‘in an old people’s home’.
Her generation, she points out, ‘grew up with the Rolling Stones’, and adds that today’s oldies ‘had quite a naughty youth’.
