EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Scandal as £400k goes AWOL from a top army charity that dropped the Duke of York as a patron in the wake of his car crash Emily Maitlis interview

Scores of charities and organisations hurried to distance themselves from the Duke of York in the wake of his car-crash interview with Emily Maitlis, lest they were tainted by association.

But now it’s Prince Andrew’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief that he’s ceased to have anything to do with one of them.

That, I can disclose, is because of the crisis engulfing a military charity — of which he was patron until 2020 — which is reeling from the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of pounds from its coffers.

The charity, the Army Museums Ogilby Trust, whose website names former chief of the defence staff Lord Richards and former defence minister Lord Soames among its Vice Patrons, declines to say exactly how much cash has gone missing.

But I’m told that the amount may be as much as £400,000 — a devastating loss for a charity whose total expenditure in 2021, the most recent year for which accounts have been published, was £2.2 million.

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: It’s Prince Andrew’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief

Scores of charities and organisations hurried to distance themselves from the Duke of York in the wake of his car-crash interview with Emily Maitlis (pictured)

‘We were all shocked and concerned when this was discovered,’ a senior source at the charity tells me.

That’s entirely understandable. The Trust, which was instrumental in establishing the National Army Museum, annually hands out thousands of pounds to regimental and other military museums – all of which were badly hit by repeated lockdowns — for ‘the stimulation and education of the public’.

I understand the loss of funds is not thought to be the result of an accounting error, still less of poor investment, but is instead a case of alleged theft and has, so far, resulted in the suspension of one member of staff.

In the meantime, the Trust must soldier on without Lord (David) Richards, who tells me that, contrary to its website’s claims, he is not one of its Vice Patrons and has, in fact, never even attended any of its meetings or events.

He explains that, approached by the Trust three or four years ago, he agreed to become a Vice Patron ‘in principle’. But he heard nothing more until a few months ago when one of the Trust’s officers emailed him about the missing cash.

‘He apologised that no one had ever been in touch with me.’

Richards says that, given the silence which had elapsed, he did not see himself as one of the Trust’s Vice Patrons. ‘But I thanked him and hoped he could resolve what is clearly a very difficult and sensitive problem.’

Not, for once, one of the Duke of York’s…

(Very) modern manners… 

Are dinner parties a thing of the past? Hotels heiress Nicky Rothschild seems to think so.

The wife of British banking scion James Rothschild, who turned 40 on Thursday, reveals she’s scrapping the ‘boring’ set-up for her milestone birthday bash.

‘I’m going to have a party in New York. People are, like, ‘Oh, are you going to do, like, a seated dinner?’ And I’m, like, ‘No, I find that boring’.

‘Who wants to be at a seated dinner? I’m going to have all my friends and family and have a big dance party — and have fun.’

Nicky, who has three children with James, 38, says her older sister, Paris Hilton, will DJ.

Are dinner parties a thing of the past? Hotels heiress Nicky Rothschild seems to think so

The smart set’s talking about… Cambridge Uni’s terrifically poised new lady Provost

She’s the author of Fool’s Gold and three other books and has a PhD in social anthropology. But Gillian Tett, newly installed as Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, is much more than a blue-stocking brimming with brains.

She’s also an alumna of the Lucie Clayton Charm Academy, the London finishing school which was the springboard for the careers of Dame Joanna Lumley, 1960s model Jean Shrimpton and lively baronet’s daughter Vicki Hodge.

It had, by Tett’s day, ceased readying girls for modelling duties, offering instead lessons in poise — ‘how to get out of a sports car with your knees together,’ as one devotee puts it — and deportment.

‘It was actually my time at Lucie Clayton which sparked my interest in anthropology,’ Tett, 56, tells me. 

‘I began to see that all cultures have social patterns. From there I went on to volunteer at for a medical charity in Pakistan and later to study anthropology at Cambridge.’

Gillian Tett, newly installed as Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, is much more than a blue-stocking brimming with brains

Lady D’s ex remarries in rather more relaxed style

When former sheep shearer and builder Gary Lewis married the Duke of Gloucester’s daughter Lady Davina Windsor in 2004, left, he looked dapper in a suit and tie as they exchanged vows at Kensington Palace chapel in a lavish ceremony attended by royalty, including Princess Anne.

Now Lewis, 53, has married again, but this time in a crumpled shirt, shorts and a pair of dusty shoes, at a register office in the West Country.

While Lady Davina, 45, is a great-granddaughter of George V, Lewis’s new bride, Pauline Cox, 44, right, is a divorced nutritionist with whom he runs a restaurant, takeaway and health food store in Clevedon, Somerset. 

‘My heart is so full,’ Cox says. ‘Feeling so grateful. Crazy in love.’ Lewis later donned a battered straw hat as he and Pauline, inset, cut their wedding cake.

He and Lady Davina, who have two children together, divorced in 2018.

Gary Lewis has married again to Pauline Cox (right) after his former marriage to Lady D in 2004 (left)

Lewis, 53, has married again, but this time in a crumpled shirt, shorts and a pair of dusty shoes

His life has been one of scarcely believable extremes, in which he has ricocheted from Alpine ski slopes to the ritziest parties in London and New York — and then to a three-month stretch in Pentonville in 1984 for possession of cocaine.

All the while, Greek playboy Taki Theodoracopulos, 87, has written a ‘High Life’ column for the Spectator magazine, every single week since 1977.

But I hear that he resigned yesterday following his conviction on Thursday for an attempted rape in 2009, for which he received a 12-month suspended sentence in Switzerland — a conviction which he says he’ll appeal.

‘Mr Tinder’ finds Ms Right… in A&E!

He acquired the nickname ‘Mr Tinder’ after it was disclosed in 2017 that he was the most ‘right-swiped’ man on the popular dating app Tinder, yet Stefan-Pierre Tomlin despaired earlier this year that he was unable to find lasting love.

Now, however, I can disclose that the reality television star has a new girlfriend — and he didn’t meet her online.

She is NHS nurse Leanne Noakes, 34.

‘We met while I was being treated for a minor football injury at the hospital where she works,’ he tells me at the premiere of Bikeriders at Royal Festival Hall in London. ‘She is an A&E nurse who whisked me off my feet and back to health.’

She and Tomlin, 33, who runs dating agency Celebrity Love Coach, wore matching black leather outfits to the premiere, right.

‘Mr Tinder’ has found love in NHS nurse Leanne Noakes, 34

Georgia’s unbelievable figures

Georgia May Jagger spoke recently of her jet-set lifestyle, zipping between the Venice Film Festival, Cote D’Azur and New York on fashion assignments.

Yet the 31-year-old model, daughter of Sir Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, may have to switch her focus to her skincare range which, I can reveal, has amassed losses of almost £500,000. Newly filed accounts for her business, Catfish Soup Ltd, show the company founded six years ago is still leaking cash.

Creditors are owed almost £1.5 million. If it wasn’t for £866,000 owed by debtors, the losses would be much bigger. Paperwork says Georgia, the company’s sole director, is ‘satisfied she can continue to support the company’.

Georgia’s skincare range, I can reveal, has amassed losses of almost £500,000

As Sir Keir Starmer measures up the curtains in 10 Downing Street, the astonishing scale of Tony Blair’s influence has been laid bare.

Documents published this week reveal that the grandly titled Tony Blair Institute for Global Change boasted a huge turnover last year of $121 million (almost £100 million). The accounts report that turnover increased by £33 million compared with 2021.

The former Labour leader’s not-for-profit organisation now employs 514 people, 177 more than in 2021. Its income includes £91.1 million from ‘advising political leaders in countries worldwide’.

Critics accuse Blair of using the institute to advance his own ideological views as well as the causes of its corporate backers.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are among donors to the institute, which came under fire this summer when it emerged that it had continued to accept donations from the government of Saudi Arabia after it was implicated in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

Source: Read Full Article