Category Entertainment News

The ex wife of Hollywood actor Colin Firth was forced to close down her fashion firm after an employee stole £500,000 from her business forcing it into financial ruin

Colin Firth’s ex wife Livia Guiggioli was left with no choice but to close down her once lucrative fashion firm after her Head of Finance stole £500,000 in a fraud plot. Stavros Pavlou, 64, is now facing prison for his crimes after stealing the money from Livia’s sustainable fashion consultancy brand called Eco-Age Lt, over a period of two years.

The consultancy firm, which was based in west London, advised well known fashion retailers on how to make their products more sustainable as part of combating an issue that is taken seriously across the entire world. The business was founded in 2007.

Last July, just three months after Pavlou stopped taking money from the company, Livia, who was married to the actor for 22 years until 2019, announced that the firm was “tragically” closing down due to a “financial crisis.”

At the time, she reportedly explained that the crisis was “targeted by criminals” and it has now come to light that she was subtly referring to her former employee.

According to the Daily Express, a court heard yesterday that head of finance Pavlou admitted the fraud when interviewed by police after his arrest in May.

He is now facing a prison sentence for his act of fraud. Prosecutor Edward Aydin told Highbury Corner Magistrates: “Whilst working as head of finance, he stole around £500,000 from his employer. The fraud involved large amounts of documents and files.”

Appearing in court wearing a grey suit, Stavros admitted to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

His defence solicitor Paul Oliver explained: “This is clearly a matter which needs to be sent to the Crown Court for sentence. He was released under investigation in 2024, and I ask to grant him bail. There have been no attempts by him to contact the employer. He is a man of previous good character.”

However, Magistrate Rod Barr told Mr Pavlou: “You have pleaded guilty to this charge, but this matter is too serious to be sentenced in the magistrates’ court. We are sending your case to the crown court where you will be sentenced. You are free to leave the court today, but you must go to Wood Green Crown Court on the date you are told to.”

He added: “If you don’t come back to court at the time, you will be committing a separate offence, and a warrant will be issued for your arrest.”

Stavros Pavlou was given unconditional bail and is set to appear at Wood Green Crown Court when a date has been arranged by court officials.

Speaking about the closure of her much-loved company, she explained last year: “We began 17 years ago with a family shop in West London selling the latest in eco lifestyle products. Nobody would have predicted our trajectory.”

She added: “We are incredibly grateful to those who supported us from the beginning and proud of the work that took us to become a globally recognised consultancy and communication agency and for the role we played to change the landscape of sustainability globally.”

Despite her split from Colin, Livia claims that they have maintained a “wonderful relationship.”

In an interview with Hello! magazine, she said: “We’re always together. Colin and I have a wonderful relationship. We have worked a lot on that, and on keeping the family together. I have a partner, he has a partner and we’re all together all the time. It’s an extended, crazy family.”

READ MORE: Lenovo slashes more than £115 off ‘powerful’ laptop in back-to-uni offer

Scottish singer Lulu has said that her first two relationships didn’t progress past kissing after the way she was raised made her see sex as ‘shameful’

Lulu has opened up about her complicated relationship with intimacy, admitting she was “afraid of sex” while rising to fame in the 1960s.

The singer, now 76, looks back on her early years in a candid extract from her upcoming memoir If Only You Knew, which will be released on September 25 to coincide with her latest tour.

In it, she explains how her upbringing and family dynamics left her uncomfortable around the subject of sex around the time when she became a household name after the success of her 1964 hit Shout.

“I wasn’t a fan. I was a musician. But, the truth is, I was also afraid of sex,” she wrote. “It had never been openly discussed in my home and Betty [her mother] had made it seem almost shameful, one of the many threads that coursed through the black rage between my parents.

“I wanted love, I wanted romance. I was just scared of the reality, so I spent my time wrapped up in fantasy, in love with the idea of love.”

Despite her fears, Lulu makes it clear she never went through negative experiences in the bedroom. She says her fear stemmed from the taboo surrounding sex during her teenage years.

She wrote: “There was one area in particular which made me feel very self-conscious: sex. It felt like a black hole pulling every-one around me in while I floated around in deep space watching them get swallowed up, which fed my feeling of being a step apart.”

She added that while she had boyfriends – including Alex Bell from her band The Luvvers and Herman’s Hermits frontman Peter Noone – she kept things PG.

“None of it went much further than a goodnight kiss because I’d skipped so much school that human biology had completely passed me by,” she said.

“And, in those days, we didn’t do the teenage conversations that you see in Hollywood films today which might have started to reveal its secrets. I didn’t have a clue.”

Her memoir also touches on her youthful crush on Eric Clapton, admitting she once threw a party for the chance to see him. “My crush on Eric, however, still burned strong and I remained desperate to see him.

“So, one night, I threw a party and invited everyone – the Beatles, the Who, the Animals and Cat Stevens – hoping he’d come too,” she confessed.

“Nervously waiting for him to arrive, I kept an eye on the door until he finally walked in… But, late that night, we ended up outside smoking and, heart palpitating, I tried to act cool.”

On a professional level, Lulu has recently been busy championing mental health awareness. Earlier this year she launched Lulu’s Mental Health Trust, which recently held its first sponsored walk.

She told The Mirror: “The process of writing my memoir opened my eyes to the role that mental health has played in my life. When I was first coming into the industry we didn’t talk about it! But it’s so important, and I want to give back.”

Legendary actor Terrence Hardiman, who played an iconic and terrifying headteacher in the hugely popular children’s CBBC series The Demon Headmaster, shared his nerves at returning to the role just a few years before his death

He was the stuff nightmares were made of and scared the life out of a generation of children in the late nineties when he portrayed an evil school principal with terrifying green eyes.

Despite his horribly menacing portrayal of the spooky school leader with a lust for power in CBBC’s The Demon Headmaster and his numerous other roles throughout his lengthy career as serious authority figures, Terrence Hardiman was known to be a true gent in real life.

A highly respected talent in the British entertainment industry, he starred in many hit shows such as Prime Suspect, Casualty and Doctor Who. He also toured with the Royal Shakespeare Company in principal roles but his extensive acting experience and success didn’t mean he had lost his humility.

READ MORE: Where BBC Broom Cupboard’s Simon Parkin is now – from weather man to film starREAD MORE: Former Blue Peter star Yvette Fielding backs ex colleague’s appeal for BBC to revive children’s TV

He was offered a cameo to reprise his part in The Demon Headmaster when it returned to screens over 20 years after he first sent shivers down the spines of the nation’s kids and he humbly spoke of his nerves beforehand. “I thought, well, it’s 22 years since I played that part on television,” he told the RadioTimes in 2019.

“Are people going to say, ‘What the devil is he doing that for? Doesn’t anyone else want him to do anything else?’ No, it wasn’t quite like that, but I was slightly nervous about meeting new people. I didn’t want them to start saying, ‘Why have we got this old chap in again?’.”

Assuring fans he wouldn’t be scaring them too much, he revealed he would just be making a cameo as the head who loved to be mean and control his pupils. “I just make an appearance for a while,” he explained. “So it’s not about me. It’s the new lot and that’s lovely. I’m not there for long. So I won’t frighten you for too long!”

The return to the BBC series came just a few years before Terrence’s death which was announced in May 2023, aged 86. He was described as a “beloved client and much-loved stage and screen actor” by his agent in a statement at the time. His passing sparked many tributes from his legions of fans who he both delighted and petrified in equal measure.

“Goddammit, we’ve lost Terence Hardiman. I honestly can’t think of anyone who could have played the Demon Headmaster better,” one fan wrote on Twitter as the news broke.

“To this day I struggle to think of a more terrifying figure from my childhood,” another added, referring to Hardiman’s iconic portrayal of the wicked headmaster who hid his eerie eyes behind dark glasses which he only took off to hypnotise his victims as he demanded, “Look into my eyes”.

A third added: “Terribly sad news of Terrence Hardiman passing away. He was supremely terrifying in The Demon Headmaster, but I had the pleasure of meeting him once at one of my school’s fetes, It took a bit of convincing to go up to him, but he was absolutely wonderful and kind. RIP.”

Another mourning fan mused how the actor was so synonymous with the part that many didn’t even know his real name. “Sad news, as he was a big part of my childhood,” they began. “But also, I can’t believe how this is the way 90% of people my age are finding out the name of the actor who played The Demon Headmaster.”

Based on the children’s books by Gillian Cross of the same name, the children’s drama premiered on CBBC in 1996 and ran until 1998. The 2019 sequel starred Nicholas Gleaves as the titular character.

Born in 1937 in Forest Gate, Newham, London, Terence studied English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he got the acting bug. He would go on to become an icon to a generation of kids and performed for The Marlowe Society and the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club, alongside many of his future screen co-stars such as Derek Jacobi who he starred in the long running historical murder series Cadfael with.

Joey Essex showed off his extravagant side just days after his dire financial situation emerged as he shared with fans a number of pictures of his lavish holiday

Joey Essex is never one to shy away from sharing his extravagant lifestyle. And so it comes as no surprise that he was quick to post a series of pictures from his latest summer break to Ibiza on social media.

But his most recent jaunt to the Spanish party island comes just days after it emerged that he has racked up an eye-watering amount of debt.

In an exclusive by the Mirror, it was revealed that he had amassed £1.3million of debt through his performing arts company after he “failed ” to repay a £780,000 loan from his company Joey Essex Management Ltd.

Documents which had been obtained by the Mirror show that liquidators have been left unsure if he will pay back the director’s loan, despite signing a Declaration of Solvency in August last year.

At the time, the document stated: “I have formed the opinion that this company will be able to pay its debts in full together with interest at the official rate within 12 months.”

But his director’s loan is not the only financial strain for the former reality TV star turned boxing champion.

According to reports, he has other debts of £497,246. He reportedly owes £442,303 to HMRC which is for outstanding VAT, PAYE, corporation tax and court costs.

The former TOWIE star was taken to court last year due to his outstanding debts and was served with a “winding up petition.”

So you’d think that the TV personality would be more humble when it comes to splashing the cash.

Posting to his Instagram stories, in one picture Joey is seen sat with a pal drinking a beer.

Dressed in all black with matching shades, Joey, who recently won his boxing debut, looked relaxed and content.

In another picture, he shared with fans the enviable sea view.

And it seems he is also sharing his trip with his new girlfriend Leila Soper. The couple were spotted kissing while frolicking in the sea.

With their arms around each other, the pair seemed oblivious to those around them.

Leila is the daughter of British racing driver Steve Soper.

Leila is a photographer and her career focuses on editorial and fashion photography.

Away from his budding relationship, Joey’s financial strain also includes £39,942 to Coutts bank and £15,000 to Companies House.

Joey is reportedly the company’s only director as well as shareholder and the company was set up in 2011. This is the same year he joined TOWIE.

READ MORE: Sleep coach raves about parent-approved hack that makes bedtimes less stressful for kids

In light of Prince Harry’s recent trip to the UK, royal expert Jennie Bond has revealed how the Duke of Sussex has shown exactly want he wants to do now when it comes to his work

Prince Harry has concluded his rare four-day trip to his home country, accomplishing a series of charity engagements and a 55-minute private tea with his estranged father King Charles.

While Harry has maintained his life in California with his wife Meghan Markle and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, since they quit the Firm in 2020 before relocating to the US, the Duke of Sussex has continued to invest his time into his philanthropic efforts around the world.

After finishing his final engagement in London on Thursday, Harry then made a surprise trip to Ukraine to meet with veterans of the war-torn country and offer his support on rehabilitation for those gravely injured in the years-long battle raging in the nation.

READ MORE: Former royal butler lifts the lid on King Charles’s ‘excessive’ demandsREAD MORE: Kate Middleton sends clear message about her priorities with powerful hidden detail

And with the prince still supporting causes close to his heart that were forged during his time as a working royal, royal expert Jennie Bond believes that the Duke of Sussex has carved out his own rules when it comes to his work.

The former BBC royal correspondent told the Mirror : “Harry never ceases to surprise us these days! Everyone assumed he was flying straight back to California and now there he is in Ukraine. You have to hand it to him, he is finding the halfway house the Palace refused to allow him— and he’s doing it on his own terms.”

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the Firm in 2020, it was claimed he was force to pick between remaining in the UK and being a working royal, or severing ties completely and living a private life.

However, Jennie claims that despite this ultimatum, Harry has found a way to make both options work for him, as he charmed his way around the UK on his brief visit before returning to his life in America with his family.

She said: “Could it not have worked, half in half out? He is the spare, he isn’t going to be King, so why couldn’t they have worked out some sort of compromise?”

Jennie went on to say that while undertaking his charitable work on his UK trip, Harry seemed to be in his element, proving what a “great loss” his presence in the royal family, and his home country, has been.

“He is so damned good at the job and this week he really seemed to be enjoying himself,” she said. “He’s a natural with the crowds: funny, informal, charming. This week has shown what a great loss he is. But as far as the Palace is concerned, it seems the basic conundrum remains: how can a working member of the royal family, even a part-timer, also operate in the commercial world?”

Despite juggling the expectations of his family, his philanthropic work, and the ongoing tension with the royal family, Jennie believes that Harry has managed to find the solution to seemingly have it all.

“Perhaps Harry has now come up with the answer: short, busy trips like the one he’s just done on his own terms and with his own security, and then back to his celebrity life in California with the wife and family he loves so much.”