EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Family misfortunes as daughter of former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken Petra Khashoggi misses party
When you’re blessed with 17 siblings — full, half or step — it’s probably wisest to let others do the party-planning.
So Petra Khashoggi, who grew up believing billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi was her father, allowed her chum Anna Rothschild to take charge of the 45th birthday bash for Danny Baker Jr, the man-about-Manhattan Petra married last summer.
‘It was a joy,’ a guest tells me, but adds there was a wistful note in the speech given by Petra, who is now 42 but was 18 before discovering her father was, in fact, former Tory Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken. ‘She said, “We don’t choose our families but we can create our own”,’ explains the chum. ‘Sounded like she was missing a hug from home.’
Petra Khashoggi and her father Jonathan Aitken in 2005
‘Tango – A Hot Night at the Royal Academy’ Party at the Royal Academy, Petrina Khashoggi (middle) with Her Half-sisters Victoria and Alexandra Aitken
Aitken, I’m told, recently celebrated the birthday of Petra’s half-sisters, Alexandra and Victoria, by taking them to Harry’s Bar in Mayfair and holding a party for them at his London flat. ‘And he hasn’t done anything to celebrate Petra’s marriage,’ says the chum. Petra was once very close to both sisters.
Just back from voyaging across the Aegean in the nautical path of St Paul, Aitken explains that he has almost always taken the twins – his daughters by his first wife, Lolicia – to Harry’s Bar as a birthday treat, ‘though there was a period when I came out of prison when I couldn’t possibly afford it’.
The party for the twins was, he adds, ‘quite small – about 25 people’. And he is, he assures me, eager to see Petra.
‘I’m going to New York sometime in the early autumn. I wrote saying that I hope to take her and Danny out to dinner.’
Mel Giedroyc’s seven years co-presenting The Great British Bake Off with Sue Perkins seem to have done her a fat lot of good.
‘I still can’t remember how to do bread,’ the actress and comedienne admits.
‘Bread frightens me. Yeast frightens me. It’s a living thing!’
Giedroyc, 55, who quit the show when it moved from the BBC to Channel 4, says she feels it is ‘too weird’ to watch the hit programme, adding: ‘I find it almost impossible to watch anything I’m in.
‘It’s like a dog going back to its own sick.’
Things began to go wrong for Prince Andrew in his school days at Gordonstoun, a fellow alumnus believes. ‘Andrew wasn’t the smartest, but he was popular,’ he tells me. ‘He hung out with the naughty lads like me.’
Now a successful businessman, the former pupil adds: ‘We couldn’t invite him to join us for a few beers because he had 24-hour protection, so we had to drop him as a friend. Sadly, he became rather isolated.’
Perhaps that helped make him such easy prey for manipulative individuals like Jeffrey Epstein?
Things began to go wrong for Prince Andrew (middle) in his school days at Gordonstoun, a fellow alumnus believes (August 2004)
Royal appointment for one of Harry’s critics
Good to hear that King Charles believes in free speech, even when it’s to his son’s detriment.
I can disclose that Lady Violet Manners (left), who publicly scolded Prince Harry in January, has been added to the payroll of His Majesty’s charity, the Royal Countryside Fund.
The Duke of Rutland’s eldest daughter, 29, has been commissioned to make a series of short video documentaries about the reality of rural life.
In the first one, posted online, Lady Violet is seen talking to young farmers about the challenges of raising livestock.
Good to hear that King Charles believes in free speech, even when it’s to his son’s detriment
The charity, which was founded by the King in 2010, receives up to £200,000 a year in donations from supermarket chain Waitrose, thanks to the sales of Charles’s Duchy Organic products.
The fund’s executive director, Keith Halstead, tells me that Lady Violet secured the work through her sister Lady Alice, 28, who is an ambassador for the charity.
He insists that the King was not involved in the decision.
After the publication of the Duke of Sussex’s explosive memoir, Spare, Lady Violet raged, ‘Harry, shame on you’, branding him ‘an angry, petulant, child-like individual’.
Love actually is hard for Curtis
He’s known for writing romantic comedies such as Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually, yet Richard Curtis has never married Emma Freud, though they’ve been together for more than 30 years and have four children.
Now, Freud, 61 has revealed Curtis, 66, did once propose to her, in a most awkward fashion. He was reading Hello!, which he very rarely does. And it said, ‘Kate Moss pregnant [with Jefferson Hack’s child]’.
‘Richard saw it and went, “Oh, I suppose we could get married then”. He’s always loved Kate Moss more than me.’
Curtis explains: ‘It’s best that the person you’re with is only your second favourite, it kind of makes it easier, it takes the heat off them.’ Who says romance is dead?
He’s known for writing romantic comedies such as Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually, yet Richard Curtis (pictured) has never married Emma Freud, though they’ve been together for more than 30 years and have four children
Foyle’s War creator Anthony Horowitz has told of his ‘sadness’ after a meeting with BBC bosses. ‘Years ago, I went to the head of drama and said I wanted to write a series about the SOE,’ reveals the best-selling author and Midsomer Murders scriptwriter.
‘And the person concerned turned round to me and asked, “What is the SOE?”’ Horowitz, whose new novel The Twist Of A Knife came out in paperback this week, tells me: ‘That’s the saddest moment in my writing career.’ Special Operations Executive agents operated behind enemy lines in World War II.
(Very) Modern Manners
SIR Mick Jagger is rumoured to be throwing an opulent 80th birthday party next week at the Chelsea Physic Garden in West London. His American girlfriend, Melanie Hamrick, seems to prefer less lavish celebrations.
The former ballerina turned 36 this week and her birthday ‘cake’ appeared to be a pile of chips topped with cheese and a sparkler. Her name was scrawled out in tomato ketchup. ‘The best cake ever,’ she jokes to friends. ‘A French cake.’
Mick Jagger and Melanie Hamrick American Ballet Theater June Gala Premiere of ‘Like Water for Chocolate’, New York (Jun 22 2023)
Sir Mick Jagger’s girlfriend Melanie Hamrick celebrates her 36th birthday with ‘cake’ that appears to be a pile of chips with cheese on top!
Bernie’s girl puts a £175m price tag on her mansion
House prices could fall by 25 per cent over the next five years, a think tank predicted this week — but Petra Ecclestone and her husband remain bullish about our prospects.
Indeed, so confident is the daughter of billionaire Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone that her husband, Sam Palmer, reveals they have rejected two staggeringly large bids for their West London mansion.
‘We’ve had two big offers at £135 million,’ he tells me, adding, ‘We won’t go under £175 million.’
Petra, 34, bought Sloane House in Chelsea in 2010 for £60 million.
Petra, 34, bought Sloane House (pictured) in Chelsea in 2010 for £60 million.
The heiress did, however, spend a further £26 million on five years of renovations at the 18th century Georgian property, which has eight bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a spa and an indoor swimming pool.
If they had accepted the £135 million offer, they could have bought 470 homes at the average British house price of £285,000.
‘Petra’s very good at interior design,’ says Palmer, 39, an estate agent based in Los Angeles.
The couple, who were married last summer, have a three-year-old daughter. Petra also has three older children with her ex-husband, the gold bullion dealer James Stunt.
However, Palmer insists that the house is technically not on the market but admits nothing is ‘non-negotiable’.
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