Earlier this year she became patron of Borne, a charity dedicated to unearthing the causes of premature birth – just the latest such role that Princess Beatrice has embraced in recent years.
But never assume that the Duke and Duchess of York’s daughter feels able to spurn commercial opportunities. Though married to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who reinvents properties in dazzling fashion for the intensely rich, Bea receives no money from the Sovereign Grant – the public fund for the monarch and working royals.
So I’m intrigued that, in the week her parents’ financial ventures and recreational pleasures were subjected to scrutiny in Andrew Lownie’s biography, she’s going into business with a thrusting performer from the World Economic Forum (WEF).
That’s the Swiss-based organisation which has been in turmoil ever since a series of lurid accusations were made against its founder – and, until April, chairman – Klaus Schwab.
Bea’s new enterprise is called Purpose Economy Intelligence Ltd, a rather impenetrable name which gives little clue to its line of business. Matters aren’t made much clearer by its categorisation at Companies House.
It’s said to embrace ‘business and domestic software development’ and ‘other information technology service activities’, as well as ‘management consultancy activities’.
The princess, who turned 37 yesterday, is listed both as a director and owner of 45 per cent of the company. She has a familiar figure at her side – Olivia ‘Libby’ Horsley, who, since 2020 has been private secretary to both Bea and her younger sister, Princess Eugenie. Horsley is not a director.
The third and final shareholder – who also owns 45 per cent of the business – is Luis Alvarado Martinez, a quadrilingual Spaniard who’s described as ‘head of strategic public-private-philanthropic partnerships’ at the WEF, where he’s worked since 2021.
Earlier this year Beatrice (pictured) became patron of Borne, a charity dedicated to unearthing the causes of premature birth – just the latest such role that Princess Beatrice has embraced in recent years
The third and final shareholder of Bea’s new enterprise Purpose Economy Intelligence Ltd – who also owns 45 per cent of the business – is Luis Alvarado Martinez, a quadrilingual Spaniard
He probably has rather a lot on his plate at the moment. An investigation, whose conclusions were leaked last month, alleges Martinez’s former boss, Schwab, ran up £836,000 in expenses that were insufficiently linked to WEF activities to be justified, spent $50million on a luxurious villa, manipulated political research in a bid to discredit Brexit and put his crotch in close proximity to the face of a female member of staff.
Schwab vehemently denies the allegations. But who wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall when Bea and Martinez compare notes?
Naomi’s kids are little fashionistas
Naomi Campbell, 55, reveals she spends thousands of pounds on luxury fashion for her children
Naomi Campbell is refusing to let motherhood cramp her style.
The supermodel, 55, reveals she spends thousands of pounds on luxury fashion for her children whenever she gets the chance – despite the fact they’re only two and four years old.
‘It used to be shopping for me – and then that got thrown out the window once my kids arrived,’ she says.
Naomi shared a video of a recent trip to Milan where she picked out a £1,140 jacket, a £760 cotton dress, £415 trainers, a £275 pink headband and a £230 blue wool scarf while shopping at Gucci.
Posh’s new green way to spice up your wardrobe
The former Spice Girls singer has launched a facility on the website of her fashion label, Victoria Beckham, called The Re-Loved Archive
Victoria Beckham is trying to keep up with the trend among young people for selling unwanted clothes on websites such as Vinted or Depop.
I hear that the former Spice Girls singer has launched a facility on the website of her fashion label, Victoria Beckham, called The Re-Loved Archive, which gives customers the option to buy second-hand dresses and accessories from her previous collections for a discounted price or sell their older items in exchange for a credit towards new purchases.
‘With The Re-Loved Archive, you can give your pre-loved Victoria Beckham pieces a second life,’ says Sir David Beckham’s 51-year-old wife, pictured left.
‘Every item is carefully checked, authenticated and reconditioned. By selling what you no longer wear, you’re helping to make fashion more circular.’
This week, jeans originally costing £450 were sold on the site for £180, and a £520 jumper for £280.
The move might be a much-needed financial boost for the label, which Posh Spice set up in 2008 and has accumulated losses exceeding £66 million. It did, however, make a profit for the first time last year.
No other choice but Emma’s mini-me for Dame’s younger self
Dame Emma Thompson and her daughter Gaia Wise, 25, attended a screening of The Dead Of Winter at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland
Dame Emma Thompson and fellow producers on her latest film didn’t need to look too far to find an actress to play the younger version of her character.
They cast the Oscar winner’s real-life daughter, Gaia Wise, 25.
And yesterday the pair attended a screening of The Dead Of Winter at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Dame Emma, 66, plays a widow who becomes trapped in a kidnapping plot.
‘Gaia plays her in the “full of love” bit of her life,’ her mother explains. ‘I was in the “my life is over, and I got to say goodbye” piece. She’s grieving and something distracts her, and then she’s back to where she started. It’s such a beautiful circle.’
Miers whips up perfect recipe for good service
MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers, who co-founded the popular Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, knows a thing or two about good service.
And she has a recipe for improving British dining – and national morale: ‘National Service, every single person spends six months in a restaurant kitchen.’
The restaurateur, pictured right, adds: ‘It teaches them the importance of teamwork, turning up on time, what happens when they don’t turn up on time – letting people down – [and] the importance of social cohesion.’
Miers, 49, says she’s ‘lucky’ to have a job where ‘what I do is very physical’, noting that many other workers ‘sit down for eight hours a day’ and, if they work from home, ‘don’t go and see people’.
What did lover leave to Maggi?
Artist Maggi Hambling memorably remarked she celebrated turning 60 by buying ‘a Bentley and having an affair’.
More precisely, another affair, given that a few years earlier she had been entangled with Henrietta Moraes, who was herself in the last year of a rambunctious life which had encompassed three marriages and numerous bedroom adventures, including a protracted one with Lucian Freud.
But, however intense her feelings for various lovers, none mattered more to Hambling than Victoria ‘Tory’ Lawrence, the woman who left her husband, racing commentator Lord Oaksey, to live with Hambling, and who died last October, aged 86.
Tory’s will, just published, indicates that her love for Hambling, 79, never faltered.
Naming Hambling as one of her executors and trustees, it bequeaths her Tory’s share in their Suffolk house, together with ‘all articles of household, domestic or personal use, ornament or consumption’.
Very modern manners
Vogue Williams, preserves her energy for nightclubbing. And the Irish podcaster, 39, has a tip on how to make it through the night: disco naps
Spencer Mathews set a Guinness World Record when he ran 30 marathons in 30 days last year.
But the Made In Chelsea star’s wife Vogue Williams, preserves her energy for nightclubbing. And the Irish podcaster, 39, has a tip on how to make it through the night: disco naps.
‘I’d be in a club and set a timer for 15 minutes,’ she explains. ‘I’d go to the toilet, sleep and wait for the alarm to go off. One night I didn’t wake up…and the bouncers came knocking on the door.’
Quality family time for fledging Labour MP
Being one of the comparatively few contemporary parliamentarians to have been consigned to boarding school – in his case, £60,336-a-year Radley College – fledgling Labour MP Henry Tufnell is inured to being away from home.
But, in a message to supporters, he admits he’s now looking forward to having some ‘quality time with my family at the beach’ in his Mid and South Pembrokeshire constituency.
I trust that won’t be at the expense of giving his parents a helping hand back in Gloucestershire.
Someone’s got to get the harvest in on the 2,000-acre family estate, still run by Henry’s father Mark – a past president of the Country Land and Business Association.
Henry, 33, can no doubt count on the support of his barrister wife – who has the splendidly ripe name of Poppy Rimington-Pounder…
Accessory of the week
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes bemused guests at a recent party when he appeared to be carrying a garish blue cannister of a Finish cleaning product
Guests at a recent London party were bemused that Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes appeared to be carrying a garish blue cannister of a Finish cleaning product. ‘It’s not what it looks like,’ Lord Fellowes, above, tells me.
‘It’s a snazzy mobile phone cover.’
The Oscar winner’s wife, Emma, explains: ‘It was only £30. I bought it in Italy for fun.’
Days after news that a set of ten commemorative Monty Python stamps are being released by the Royal Mail, estranged member Eric Idle is displeased.
Following Python’s official statement on the Royal Mail tribute, which also marks 50 years of the comedy troupe’s movie classic The Holy Grail, the 82-year-old bitterly responds: ‘Nice to know… be nice to be told earlier.’
Idle’s been feuding with fellow surviving members John Cleese, Sir Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam since publicly lambasting the management of the group’s business affairs last year.
Mainly based in LA, Idle returns to tour Britain next month but insists he’ll never again reunite with Python colleagues.
