Despite the profound shame that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has brought on the Royal Family, his elder brother continues to provide him with free accommodation at Sandringham, as well as servants and an annual stipend to cover his living costs.
King Charles is, I learn, even more generous with his wife, Queen Camilla.
Newly published documents reveal that the monarch spent a staggering £3.75million on buying the house next door to her country retreat, Rey Mill.
That’s even more than was previously thought and a vast increase on the £675,000 paid by the previous owner eight years ago.
The King established a new company to buy The Old Mill in Reybridge, Wiltshire. Land Registry files disclose that it was bought last March by a company called Frisa Nominees Ltd. It was set up the previous month, with Buckingham Palace its correspondence address.
The directors of Frisa Nominees are two royal employees: James Chalmers, Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King, and Catherine James, of the Private Secretaries Office at Buckingham Palace.
King Charles spent £3.75million on buying The Old Mill in Reybridge, Wiltshire, newly published documents reveal
The Old Mill is next door to Queen Camilla’s country retreat, Rey Mill, which she bought in 1996 for £850,000
When it was disclosed by The Mail on Sunday last year that the King had bought The Old Mill, which shares a private lane with Rey Mill, a source said he had used ‘private funds’ amid fears that it would be sold and turned into a wedding venue.
Limited companies are often set up for property purchases to avoid taxes and for inheritance planning purposes.
However, a palace source insists that the new company is ‘standard practice as part of the administrative process for the property’s purchase and ongoing management’.
Earlier this month, I disclosed that ownership of the Queen’s beloved Rey Mill, which she bought in 1996 for £850,000, following her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles, had been discreetly transferred. Its new registered owners are her son-in-law, Harry Lopes, and the financier Jake Irwin. A friend of the family told me that Lopes represented his wife, the Queen’s daughter Laura, and Irwin represented her son, Tom.
The pal explained: ‘It is not best practice in such circumstances for beneficiaries to be trustees themselves.’
A Buckingham Palace spokesman declines to comment.
Will comic Jack get to the church on time?
Jack Whitehall’s mother is increasingly worried that he’ll turn up for his wedding even later than his bride, the model Roxy Horner
As comedian Jack Whitehall’s big day approaches, his mother is increasingly worried that he’ll turn up for his wedding even later than his bride, the model Roxy Horner.
‘Jack will be late, because he always is,’ despairs Hilary Whitehall. ‘He is a nightmare.’
The actress claims Roxy, 34, is just as tardy as her son, 37. ‘They cannot organise time to save their lives,’ says Hilary, who has two other children, Barnaby and Molly.
‘The other two get wound up, particularly Molly, who has two small children,’ she adds. ‘They make an arrangement with Jack… and then Jack and Roxy are half an hour late, if not 45 minutes late,’ explains Hilary, who has a trick up her sleeve.
‘I learned this from Jack’s PA. You give them a time that is half an hour earlier than you want them. So if you want them for dinner at 8pm, you say dinner is at 7.30pm. Sharp.’
Pop star Chesney Hawkes shocked guests at a charity ball in Manchester. While he performed his song Get A Hold Of Yourself, his latest video was played behind him, featuring him stripping naked. ‘I almost couldn’t finish my dinner watching that,’ spluttered one guest. ‘It put me right off.’
Army museum charity’s cash still missing two years on
Does a past association with the former Duke of York inevitably lead to a spell in purgatory?
That would certainly seem to be the case for Lord (Nicholas) Soames, vice patron of the Ogilby Trust and trustees at the military charity which gives financial support to museums across the land.
More than two years after I disclosed that as much as £400,000 had gone missing from the trust’s accounts, no progress has been made in recovering so much as a proverbial brass farthing – still less in bringing the culprit to justice.
But I can reveal that the Army Museums Ogilby Trust – to give it its full name – has parted company with one key member of staff.
The trust – with which Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor cut all ties in the wake of his disastrous interview with Emily Maitlis – says only that the matter ‘remains in the hands of Wiltshire Police’.
Norton leaps to defence of Claudia’s new show
Graham Norton has leapt to Claudia Winkleman’s defence after her new chat show received a ‘mixed’ reception
Claudia Winkleman’s new chat show received a ‘mixed’ reception, with critics variously describing it as ‘mess’, a ‘bore’ and a ‘huge mistake’.
Now, Graham Norton, whose show usually occupies the same Friday night BBC1 slot, has leapt to her defence. ‘What Claudia did was the Claudia Winkleman show, and that’s what she’s supposed to be doing,’ he tells me at the Michael Josephson Farewell Charity Ball in Manchester. ‘She shouldn’t be trying to be me. She should be trying to be Claudia, and she nailed that.’
His endorsement shouldn’t come as a surprise: his production company, So Television, makes the show.
In her heyday, Ruthie Henshall would light up the West End before sipping cocktails at Buckingham Palace with her then boyfriend Prince Edward. But later life has been trickier for the actress, 59, as she says she single-handedly raised her two daughters, Lily, 22, and Dolly, 20, with little help from their father, Mike And The Mechanics singer Tim Howar. ‘I was a single mother for 16 years, entirely on my own in every way,’ she says. ‘They saw their dad very little and, financially, I had to pick up the pieces.’
