EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Lady Victoria Hervey claims ‘there is hope’ for disgraced socialite
Lady Victoria Hervey has been outspoken in her support for Prince Andrew and his old friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison in the U.S. for enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls.
But as a result, Lady Victoria claims, she had to flee the United States — her home for two decades.
‘It all started getting scary when I got involved with a new documentary about Ghislaine,’ the Marquess of Bristol’s sister tells me. ‘I pretended to be on a whistleblower’s side to get evidence to support Ghislaine.
‘I have been working undercover and it’s dangerous. The powers that be over there know all about me, I even thought I was being followed. I was glad to get back to the UK. I just want this to be over and stop looking over my shoulder and get back to normal.’
The socialite adds: ‘I’ve been writing to Ghislaine in prison and am in touch with Prince Andrew, but I can’t discuss him, although the Palace is fully aware of what’s going on.
‘It is delicate, but I think there is hope for Ghislaine.’
Back in UK: Lady Victoria Hervey attends Vogue World
Ghislaine Maxwell attends the 9th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation’s ‘An Enduring Vision’ benefit
The Duke of York, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell
Singer Robbie Williams seems determined to unsettle visitors at his home. I hear he’s bought an artwork emblazoned with: ‘Raising My Awareness, becoming a better person and trying not to punch you in the throat.’
The £9,000 work, called Mindfulness, is made by artist Mr. Controversial. ‘I like to create art that speaks to the inner you, the non-PC thoughts that you have but are afraid to say aloud,’ the London-born artist tells me at a private viewing of his latest collection at Old Sessions House in Clerkenwell in the capital.
Apple stars in Cotswolds
It can sometimes feel a challenge getting through the Cotswolds without stumbling into Kate Moss, the Beckhams, Blur’s Alex James — or becoming entangled with Amanda Holden, Sir Patrick Stewart, or, of course, Jeremy Clarkson.
But now the rich and famous are setting up there in pairs. I hear that Sir Jony Ive, mastermind of so many Apple devices, and his friend Marc Newson, whose Lockheed Lounge chair sold for £2.4 million — a record for a work sold at auction by a living designer –— have snapped up houses in the same honey-stoned village. Ive, 56, who designed Charles’s Coronation emblem, has dipped into his £200 million fortune to pay for a gabled gem dating from 1590.
Newson has bought an even grander Jacobean pile. Sir Jony helped to create the iPhone and iPad. He hired Newson, 59, to work for Apple in 2014. Their company, LoveFrom, is collaborating with Ferrari as it prepares to launch its first electric model. Just the thing for humming over to Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm for a pint of ‘cow juice’.
New Kidd on the block to rival Stella’s range
Stella McCartney released an organic beauty range last year with a serum costing £110.
But now the designer will have to compete with a new Kidd on the block. I hear model-turned-pub landlady Jodie Kidd is about to launch her own organic range.
‘Ours won’t be like Stella’s,’ Kidd tells me at a private view of Zara Muse’s artworks at the Grove Gallery in London’s Fitzrovia. ‘It will be very affordable. Her products’ design is very plain.’
New Kidd: Jodie Kidd attends F1 Arcade watch party for the Bahrain Grand Prix
As September ebbs away and winter beckons, artist Gail Lilley remains serene.
The secret, explains the wife of former Cabinet Minister Lord (Peter) Lilley, is transcendental meditation each morning for 15 minutes in the shower. ‘I started when we bought a house with a walk-in shower,’ says Gail, who adds that the practice yields ‘nice ideas’ as well as inducing a sense of calm — so much so that they have inspired her to create tapestries for an exhibition next year ‘on the theme of transcendental meditation’.
Alas, her husband, she says, becomes less serene.
‘It does,’ she concedes, ‘use a lot of hot water.’
The smart set’s talking about… Lady Violet’s bid to take on ‘woke’ National Trust
Her younger sister’s one-time boyfriend Otis Ferry inveigled his way into the Commons to protest against a ban on hunting.
However, Lady Violet Manners, 30, eldest of the Duke of Rutland’s three daughters, prefers a more decorous approach to campaigning.
Bidding to help rid the National Trust (NT) of its ‘woke’ agenda, Lady Violet (left) is standing for election to its council, backed by Restore Trust, a group of members sickened by NT’s virtue-signalling. ‘I believe the Trust has become distracted by a political agenda that detracts from its mission,’ she says. Lady Violet adds that it should ‘not view its history through the political lens of today when conserving the past’. Very measured Manners indeed.
But that’s not all. Violet grew up at Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire. ‘As a child, I worked at Belvoir’s gift shop and café on weekends and holidays,’ she recalls, and adds that listening to the castle’s visitors taught her about ‘the world’s love for the UK’s houses and landscapes’.