Forlorn and alone – and now exiled from Royal Lodge, his palatial home in Windsor Great Park – Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may struggle to come to terms with the constraints of his new, diminished life at Sandringham.
But perhaps he’ll prove wise enough to count his blessings – especially when he learns the fate of the man who was once routinely described as his best friend.
I refer to Mogens Tholstrup, the ever-charming Dane who, more than 30 years ago, electrified London’s restaurant scene by resurrecting Daphne’s, South Kensington, with a party for 350, fuelled by champagne and fizzing with blondes.
I can disclose that Tholstrup, 64, is in intensive care in South Africa – though he may consider himself lucky to be alive.
His daughter Christy, from his marriage to Scandi model Paola Schlansen, was yesterday urgently trying to get to his bedside. She explained to friends on social media: ‘If I don’t answer you, it’s because I’m organising a trip to South Africa.’
Mogens Tholstrup, pictured with the late Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (left) and Lady Victoria Hervey, ‘survived a plane crash’ in South Africa and is in intensive care
Christy added that her father had ‘survived a plane crash’ and had been taken to intensive care.
It may stir bittersweet memories for Andrew. At the re-opening of Daphne’s it was recorded that ‘at least seven of the blonde bombshells were, as they say, well-known’ to the former prince.
Thereafter, it was perhaps inevitable that Andrew would bond with Tholstrup who seemed incapable of putting a foot wrong, whether with restaurants – he launched the equally fashionable Pasha and The Collection – or party-loving young women , enjoying romances with both Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Lady Victoria Hervey.
‘The two go nightclubbing together and partied at the royal birthday bash at Windsor last month,’ the Daily Mail Diary recorded in spring 2000.
But, by then, Andrew was being drawn into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit. The rest is history…
Louise: I thought I did physics, not Quidditch!
Sherlock star Louise Brealey was so thrilled to land a role in HBO’s multi-million pound Harry Potter remake, due to air next year, that she barely registered who she was being cast as.
‘The phone line was quite crackly,’ says Louise, 46. ‘They said, ‘Lou, you’ve got a part in Harry Potter.’ I was, like, ‘Wow! What part?’ And they said, ‘The physics teacher.’ I went, ‘Oh – lovely!’
Louise Brealey thought she was playing a physics teacher in the new Harry Potter remake, but she’ll actually be teaching Quidditch
The penny dropped only after Louise – who played hospital worker Molly Hooper in Sherlock – rang her boyfriend, fellow actor Ferdinand Kingsley, to share the news: ‘He said ‘Lou, there isn’t a physics teacher. It’s a magic school – there’s no physics.’ Then he went, ‘For f***’s sake – was it the Quidditch teacher?’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah! That was it.’
The role in question – Madam Hooch – was played by Zoe Wanamaker in the original films.
The Oldie magazine’s editor, Harry Mount, didn’t look too far from home when deciding who should win the Oldie of the Year award.
The prize, which was announced at a ceremony at the National Liberal Club in London yesterday, went to historian Lady Antonia Fraser, 93. She just happens to be a first cousin of Harry’s father, the baronet and author Sir Ferdinand Mount.
Lady Antonia is nevertheless a fitting winner. She published The House That Spoke: The History of a Home in 2025 – 71 years after her first book, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, came out.
Why Blondie’s Debbie is not a fan of stylists
Don’t leave Blondie’s Debbie Harry hanging on a photoshoot, as it has been revealed that she once kicked a team of stylists – and their dogs – out of a studio.
Photographer Kevin Cummins recalls fondly how the singer, 80, was unimpressed to arrive on set to find a swarm of people fussing unnecessarily.
‘There was a rack of clothes, a load of makeup, and a stylist with two dogs there,’ he says at an exhibition of photographs of The Cure at London’s Iconic Images gallery ahead of the band’s Isle of Wight festival headline slot.
‘When she came in, she said [to the stylist], ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I’m doing your clothes.’ She said: ‘I wear my own clothes, f*** off.’ And she just threw everyone out.’
Ewan McGregor was called an ‘a***h***’ by his daughter Clara after he was seen kissing his Fargo co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead at a London restaurant in 2017 while married to her mother, Eve Mavrakis.
Clara described Mary as a ‘piece of trash’ at the time. But time has proved to be a great healer, as her 30th birthday in the US was attended not just by her mother, 59, but also by her father, 54, and Mary, 41.
‘New decade unlocked,’ Clara wrote next to a picture with the Star Wars actor. She later apologised for her remarks about Mary, who married Ewan in 2022, saying it wasn’t her ‘finest hour’.
Clara McGregor with her Star Wars actor father Ewan
At Clara’s 30th birthday party (pictured) in the US, guests included her mother, Eve, and her father with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Emerald Fennell is unapologetic about the anachronistic costumes, such as a red latex-look dress, worn in her film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 masterpiece Wuthering Heights.’
If you watch [1967 film] Far From The Madding Crowd, Julie Christie is wearing a Sixties dress with false eyelashes and a beehive, and it’s the best,’ Emerald says at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
‘That suspension of disbelief is important to acknowledge – that’s why it’s so fun.’ The Oscar-winning director adds: ‘Bronte’s work is timeless.’
Tycoon Dame Stephanie’s art to raise £1m for charity
Tech tycoon Dame Stephanie Shirley’s art collection is set to raise £1million for an autism charity, six months after her death.
Her collection of modern art and sculptures, including works by Barbara Hepworth and Ivon Hitchens, will go under the hammer at Newbury-based auctioneers Dreweatts next month.
Proceeds from the sale of the 140-lot collection will go to Autistica. Dame Stephanie, who died last year aged 91, founded the charity in memory of her autistic son Giles, who died aged 35.
At its height, Dame Stephanie’s software firm F International was valued at £2billion and she went on to become one of the UK’s top philanthropists, giving more than £70million to charity.
