EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: New laird spikes Royals’ shooting parties’ guns on the Aberdeenshire estate where they have gone hunting and fishing for almost two centuries
Princes William and Harry were such keen shots that their mother, Princess Diana, nicknamed them the ‘Killer Wales’.
And Prince George joined the Royal Family on a grouse shoot in Scotland when he was just five years old.
I hear, however, that the royals have been kicked off the Aberdeenshire estate where they have gone shooting, deer stalking and salmon fishing for almost two centuries.
The new owner of the 11,500-acre Abergeldie Estate has ended an arrangement originally agreed by Prince Albert when he bought Balmoral next door in 1852.
He is Alastair Storey, 70, who founded contract catering company Westbury Street Holdings, unseating Jamie Oliver as the ‘most influential person in the British hospitality industry’ in 2012.
Alastair Storey paid £23 million to acquire the Abergeldie Estate, between Balmoral Castle and King Charles’s (pictured outside Balrmoral Castle) Birkhall residence
He paid £23 million to acquire the Abergeldie Estate, between Balmoral Castle and King Charles’s Birkhall residence.
Storey bought the estate following the death of the Baron of Abergeldie, John Gordon, in 2020.
It was the first time it had changed hands in its 500-year history. Newly published planning documents reveal that the historic deal with the royals has come to an end.
‘For the last 175 years, the Royal Family have leased the sporting rights at Abergeldie but this has now ceased, and will be actively run by the new laird,’ state the papers filed with Aberdeenshire Council. ‘To facilitate the transformation and to effectively run the estate, new facilities will be required.’
The disclosure has been made because Storey wants to transform a farm on the estate into accommodation, from where shooting expeditions would be launched.
In 1999, John Gordon made Queen Elizabeth pay for hunting and shooting rights on his estate. Her Majesty had previously paid just a peppercorn rent for access and shooting rights.
‘The original lease was negotiated with Queen Victoria,’ an estate worker said at the time. ‘If she had offered a penny for the land, she would have got it.
‘It’s different today, of course. People are not quite so servile.’
Lila Moss (pictured) has nevertheless been handed a prize for Breakthrough Model of the Year at the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards in New York
As the daughter of Kate Moss and magazine editor Jefferson Hack, she had distinct advantages in the cut-throat world of modelling.
Yet Lila Moss has nevertheless been handed a prize for Breakthrough Model of the Year at the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards in New York.
She was presented the prize by her mother’s friend Katie Grand, editor of Perfect Magazine. ‘I feel so incredibly honoured to be recognised as breakthrough model of the year, and to Katie Grand for presenting the award and your special words,’ Lila said.
Lila, 20, who, at 5ft 6in, is shorter than the average model, began work at the age of 14. She was signed up by her mother’s Kate Moss Agency and now lives in the Big Apple.
David Gandy, 43, (right) has two children with lawyer Stephanie Mendoros (left)
David Gandy is often described as Britain’s most handsome man, but don’t dare call him ‘nice’.
The model says: ‘It’s a beige word, and when I hear people go, “He’s a really nice person”, I’m, like, “I’m not going to get on with him”. I don’t think I’m nice — kindness is something different.’
Gandy, 43, who has two children with lawyer Stephanie Mendoros, adds: ‘I hear my missus’s friends, if they’re looking for a guy, say, “I just want a nice guy”. I tell them, “No, you don’t. You don’t want a nice guy, you want a kind guy, a loyal guy, but you don’t want nice.” It’s a bit weak.’
Ebullient Radio 2 presenter Michelle Visage has revealed that her husband and daughter have been undergoing ‘ketamine therapy’, using the horse tranquilliser which has been a popular illegal drug on the British rave scene for years.
Ebullient Radio 2 presenter Michelle Visage (pictured) has revealed that her husband and daughter have been undergoing ‘ketamine therapy’
Former Strictly Come Dancing star Visage, 54, who has two daughters with the author David Case, says: ‘My husband and my daughter have just completed ketamine therapy.’
Speaking to actress Kathy Burke on the Where There’s A Will There’s A Wake podcast, the American star of RuPaul’s Drag Race explains of the treatment, which is used to treat severe depression: ‘It is popping up on every corner in dispensaries in Los Angeles.’
Though Visage stresses that recreational drugs ‘have never been good’ and that she has ‘never taken drugs in my life’, she describes the treatment, which her family underwent in the U.S. as ‘a game changer’, adding: ‘It is good.’
Queen star Sir Brian May claims artificial intelligence will soon take over the music business.
‘I think we might look back on 2023 as the last year when humans really dominated the music scene,’ the guitarist says. ‘By this time next year, the landscape will be completely different.
‘We won’t know what’s been created by AI, and what’s been created by humans.
‘Everything is going to get very blurred and very confusing. It could be that serious. It makes me feel apprehensive.’
An AI song featuring vocals copied from pop stars Drake and Weeknd was pulled from streaming services earlier this year for ‘infringing content created with generative AI’.
Alice Dellal, 36, (pictured) was rushed to hospital at the weekend after suffering a severe reaction to a moggy
Her grandfather, ‘Black Jack’ Dellal, enjoyed gambling so much he once blew £1.7 million in a Monte Carlo casino in a single night in 2006. Sadly, his granddaughter appears to have an unlucky streak.
I hear that Alice Dellal, 36, was rushed to hospital at the weekend after suffering a severe reaction to a moggy.
‘I’m allergic to cats,’ explains Alice, the younger sister of shoe designer Charlotte Olympia Dellal. ‘There’ll be no more playing football after hanging [out] with cats.’
Pretenders star Chrissie Hynde was such a fan of The Beatles as a teenager that it became a source of embarrassment later in life when she was a friend of Sir Paul McCartney.
Pretenders star Chrissie Hynde (left) was such a fan of The Beatles as a teenager that it became a source of embarrassment later in life when she was a friend of Sir Paul McCartney (right)
When she was 14, she prayed: ‘Let me meet Jesus, and let me meet Paul McCartney.’
The rock star, 72, says: ‘I’d do things like practise The Beatles’ autographs. I can still do their autographs now.’
On one occasion she demonstrated her skill at Macca’s home. ‘I showed his son James — who then took it right in to Paul,’ groans Hynde.
‘I was really embarrassed that he did that.’
Four Weddings And A Funeral star Simon Callow once told the Daily Mail that he had never ‘got into Winnie-the-Pooh’, finding A. A. Milne’s classic stories ‘childish’.
So could this be why the 74-year-old actor’s signed up to appear in the sequel to cult slasher film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood And Honey?
In the gruesome new film, Callow will play Cavendish, ‘a pivotal character with a dark past somehow tied to Christopher Robin’, for whom the Pooh tales were invented.
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