Just months after the first chairman of the Duke of Sussex’s ‘eco’ firm Travalyst quit, having served only a year-and-a-half in the role, his chief executive has handed in her notice as well.
Sally Davey has informed Prince Harry that she will step down in December. ‘This is a huge blow to Travalyst,’ a source tells me. ‘Sally has been crucial in its development.’
Harry launched Travalyst in 2019 to make tourism more environmentally friendly. However, he and his wife, Meghan, soon faced accusations of hypocrisy because of their use of gas-guzzling private jets.
That year, the couple reportedly made four journeys by private jet in the space of 11 days.
King Charles’s younger son defended himself at the time, saying ‘no one is perfect’ and that what is important is ‘balance’.
Sally Davey, the chief executive of Prince Harry’s ‘eco’ firm Travalyst has informed him she will step down in December
Harry and Meghan have lost so many senior staff since they married in 2018 that former employees reportedly describe themselves as part of the ‘Sussex Survivors Club’
Davey, who has been chief executive for five years, says her dramatic move follows much soul-searching. ‘This is not a decision I’ve taken lightly,’ she admits. ‘After months of deep reflection, I’ve reached a point in my journey where I know I need to give more time back to my family, and to myself.’
She adds of Harry: ‘I will always be grateful for your support, including as my confidant and guide during this personal decision to step back. I’m proud of what we’ve built together. And while I’ll be stepping down as CEO, I remain as committed as ever to Travalyst’s mission.’
In January, I reported that Travalyst’s first chairman, India Gary-Martin, had resigned. ‘Frankly, it’s no surprise,’ reflected one observer of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s business activities, which had seen at least 19 senior members of staff leave at that point.
Last summer, I disclosed that Josh Kettler had suddenly quit his job as Harry’s chief of staff after scarcely three months.
Harry and Meghan have lost so many senior staff since they married in 2018 that former employees reportedly describe themselves as part of the ‘Sussex Survivors Club’.
He made his name playing Mr Pink in Quentin Tarantino’s blood-fest Reservoir Dogs and now stars in ghoulish Netflix drama Wednesday, yet Steve Buscemi has no taste for terror on screen. ‘I’ve never done a horror movie – I don’t know if I could,’ admits the American actor, 67. ‘I’m pretty squeamish, and I don’t like prosthetic make-up, sitting in the chair.’
Rayner’s £1,000 gay Pride freebie
Rayner snaffled five tickets for last month’s Brighton and Hove Pride parade for free. They’d have cost anyone else £1,100
She enjoys a rent-free, grace-and-favour property in the splendour of London’s Admiralty House, for which the taxpayer picks up her council tax. But who can doubt that Angela ‘three homes’ Rayner’s heart is really in Hove, East Sussex, where she’s snapped up a three-bedroom property for £800,000 – simultaneously trimming £40,000 from her stamp duty bill by declaring it her primary residence rather than the £650,000 house in Manchester she shared with her ex-husband?
Indeed, such is Rayner’s passion for seaside life that she snaffled five tickets for last month’s Brighton and Hove Pride parade. They’d have cost anyone else £1,100. However, an update to the register of MPs’ financial interests discloses that Rayner got them free.
They starred in Dynasty as warring cousins Alexis and Sable Colby and it appears there is no love lost between Dame Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham in real life. ‘She’s a bit of a diva, but those of us with enormous experience are not going to lower our standards,’ Beacham, 78, sniffs of Joanie, 92. ‘It simply means there are two lionesses on their hind legs. ‘We hardly have a relationship now. She’s been so very busy and I’ve been so busy with my own life.’
Now Poppy’s ex reveals baby joy with new love
Poppy Delevingne’s ex-husband James Cook, 46, has announced that he’s about to become a father. Pictured with fiancée Lauren Brown
Cook captioned this photo of Lauren’s growing baby bump: ‘Wife and baby bump on holiday’
Model Poppy Delevingne and James Cook are still in sync – even after their divorce. Just months after Cara Delevingne’s sister, 39, gave birth to a girl with boyfriend Archie Keswick, 44, her ex-husband James, 46, has announced that he’s about to become a father for the first time. Cook’s fiancée, Lauren Brown, a photographer’s agent who looks remarkably like Poppy, is pregnant. Next to this photo of Lauren’s growing baby bump, taken on the couple’s trip to Spain, Cook says online: ‘Wife and baby bump on holiday.’
Barrister-turned-TV personality Robert Rinder admits that his ‘posh’ public persona is a fiction. ‘I know I sound terribly “Mitford”,’ the Judge Rinder presenter says. ‘But I grew up around the corner from Amy Winehouse in Southgate, so how I sound was invented at the age of five.’ Rinder, 47, who currently features in Channel 4’s The Inheritance with Elizabeth Hurley, says he suffers from imposter syndrome.
Bridgerton star’s Open romance
Simone Ashley was spotted kissing and holding hands with a bespectacled man, believed to be Australian-born restaurateur Tim Sykes, at the US Open tennis in New York
Ms Ashley plays Kate, the demure wife of Viscount Bridgerton in the hit Netflix costume drama Bridgerton
Here’s a sight that would have Lady Whistledown’s quill flowing!
Simone Ashley, who plays Kate, the demure wife of Viscount Bridgerton in the hit Netflix costume drama, was spotted kissing and holding hands with a bespectacled man, believed to be Australian-born restaurateur Tim Sykes, at the US Open tennis in New York.
The Surrey-born actress, 30, declared in February that she was in her ‘single era’ after revealing she had split from her boyfriend of three years, high-powered lawyer and petrolhead Constantin ‘Tino’ Klein.
‘I’m focusing on me and focusing on my work and my inner confidence,’ she said at the time. ‘It feels like a different chapter from when Bridgerton came out, where things were just so crazy.’
