Hers has always been a gilded existence, as she readily acknowledged years ago when her parents, Lord and Lady Bamford, celebrated her 21st with a dazzling, Great Gatsby-themed party at Daylesford, their 2,000-acre Gloucestershire estate, with Joan Collins and the late Duke of Marlborough among hundreds of guests.
‘The stork certainly dropped me off at the right house,’ mused the couple’s only daughter, Alice, profoundly grateful for being born to loving, immensely generous parents, blessed with a £10 billion fortune generated by the family’s JCB diggers empire.
But Alice, 49, never made the mistake of thinking she was invulnerable to the cruel luck that can strike anyone – and yesterday paid an intensely moving tribute to Ann Eysenring, the woman with whom she shared her life at One Gun Ranch on the Californian coast.
Describing Ann, who has succumbed to cancer after a protracted battle, as ‘one of one’, Alice, mother of their three young children, said: ‘We see you in every sunrise, every sunset and so much in between.
‘You are the great wide open, the enormous ocean, the fire lighting, the candle flickering, …the rainbow around the full moon and the powerful symmetry in all the ways we’ve mourned and celebrated you.’
Home on the ranch: Alice (centre), Ann (left) and Cara Delevingne with Joan Collins in front
The couple met nearly 20 years ago after Alice moved to Los Angeles. But it was at One Gun Ranch that they were happiest, running it on biodynamic principles in accordance with the lunar cycle.
It was an achievement which delighted Alice’s mother, Carole, founder of the Daylesford Organic empire, and intrigued a starry array of friends, from the irrepressible Dame Joan to model Cara Delevingne.
Yee haw! Isla’s ready to rodeo for Reese’s 50th
Isla Fisher confidently struts down the street holding a black sequinned cowboy hat
Isla Fisher recently spoke of her newfound liberation following her divorce from Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen in 2024 after 14 years of marriage.
And the Australian embraced that sense of freedom during a girl’s trip to Nashville to celebrate her fellow Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon’s 50th birthday party.
In this picture she posted online, Isla can be seen confidently strutting down the street holding a black sequinned cowboy hat and wearing a black bodysuit adorned with silver tassels and encrusted with rhinestones.
‘This actually is my first rodeo,’ jokes the former Home And Away star.
Before she turned 50 last month, Isla admitted she felt apprehensive. ‘I was so nervous about that… but it has felt so freeing. I feel so liberated.’
Alan Titchmarsh claims that when he collected his MBE from Queen Elizabeth, she told him: ‘You give a lot of ladies a lot of pleasure.’ Now, the television gardener, 76, has revealed what King Charles said when he was upgraded to a CBE last year. ‘He grinned at me and laughed and said, “You’re on your way up.” It was the sweetest thing to say. I didn’t think fast enough to say, “I think I’ve probably peaked.”’
Rege-Jean Page, tipped to be the next Bond, admits that his latest role left him frightened
He’s been a heart-throb since his role as the Duke of Hastings in Netflix bodice-ripper Bridgerton, and is tipped to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond. But Rege-Jean Page admits that his latest role left him frightened.
The actor, 38, stars in new romantic comedy You, Me And Tuscany, alongside US actress and singer Halle Bailey, and at one, nerve-racking point during filming he had to demonstrate his singing ability.
‘There was a scene where I had to serenade Halle, which was terrifying,’ he tells me at the VIP screening at the Ham Yard Hotel in London.
Kate’s jeweller slams Starmer
One of the Princess of Wales’s favourite jewellers, Kiki McDonough, is alarmed at the incompetence of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government.
‘He is absolutely hopeless. I’ve been watching politics since the late 1970s, and I honestly and truly don’t think I’ve come across such a hopeless Government,’ says Kiki, who’s based in Symons Street off Chelsea’s Sloane Square.
‘I find it really scary,’ she adds. ‘There’s no stability, no direction, there’s no security, the 14 U-turns in two years, I mean if you run a business, it is just catastrophic.’
Injured Anthea’s painful new accessory: a sling
Anthea Turner tore the tendons between her shoulder muscle and bone
Having put off her wedding to socialite Mark Armstrong three times, Anthea Turner has a new reason to delay.
The former Blue Peter presenter, 65, has been forced to wear a sling for three weeks after she tore the tendons between her shoulder muscle and bone.
‘Oh, the pain,’ she wails. ‘I’m now home with a “party bag” of killer drugs.’ Anthea came a cropper running down stairs at Christmas but has only just been diagnosed with a rotator cuff tear.
‘Mark is doing a great job, but friends are feeling far more sorry for him than me – I’m a terrible patient.’
She adds: ‘What was my first thought? “How am I going to blow-dry my hair?” I look like Worzel Gummidge.’
Fruit machine bid puts Bianca Jagger in a spin
Alongside her then husband Sir Mick, Bianca Jagger was a symbol of 1970s hedonism, but now she’s a moral campaigner.
Bianca, 80, has sent a four-page letter to Kensington and Chelsea council objecting to plans for a slot-machine venue in Earl’s Court by Silvertime Amusement to replace smaller premises.
‘Silvertime’s existing site is discreet,’ she says in the letter reported by The Chelsea Citizen. ‘The proposed site would be highly visible, with approximately quadruple the window space in a prime location… creating a gambling hub.
‘These locations do attract opportunist crime and aggressive begging, which in turn feeds into the other night-time economy of drug supply.’
A company spokesman tells me: ‘Silvertime have operated a venue in Earl’s Court for many years without any issues relating to anti-social behaviour or otherwise.’
