Kelli Hollis, who portrayed Ali Spencer in the soap, left her acting career to open her own “weed bar” in south-east Asia, which gained unanticipated spiritual rewards.
Content Editor: Lindsay McInerney
EastEnders star Bobby Brazier is reportedly leaving the glitz and glamour of showbiz to move to India and embrace the Hare Krishna faith, but he’s not the first soap actor to pack up and head overseas.
Former Emmerdale actress Kelli Hollis, known for her role as Ali Spencer, also found that life can be more fulfilling elsewhere. After departing England, she now runs her own “weed bar” in south-east Asia. In an exclusive chat with the Daily Star, she previously opened up about her unexpected new life in Pattaya, where her partner Martin assists her in managing the La Choza Pratumnak bar.
She explained her decision to permanently leave her previous life behind, saying, “I am never going home, never going home. I do miss England, and there are things I do there, including having two grown-up kids at home and having a grandson.
However, you only get one life, and I’ve learned that through my friend’s passing and friend’s passing, which only gives you access to a lot of things in your life.
You simply have to follow your own instructions because you won’t be promised anything tomorrow, right? I’m almost 50, and my current mindset is that it will do it. It is useless to have the attitude, “Oh God, I can’t do this and I can’t do that.” I have had the opportunity to pursue my life because I’ve had such a good fortune. “
Kelli played the mum of Sean and Amelia in Emmerdale (Image: ITV)
Kelli, best known for her roles in Shameless and Emmerdale, shared some of her most cherished memories from her time on the soap, including meeting Daisy Campbell, who played her on-screen daughter Amelia.
In a strange turn of events, Kelli has relocated to Bangkok after receiving a job there for her partner Martin.
The couple was given a license to sell marijuana after the “total accident” resulted from the couple’s description of the incident.
Kelli remarked on this unanticipated career path, saying, “This would probably have been more likely than being an actress.” “
Kelli discovered that Thailand’s religious and spiritual differences had an unexpected benefit despite not moving for spiritual reasons like her former co-star Bobby did.
She said, “You have to always see the positive and the positive, and while it’s true that I’m not a religious person, it’s a Buddhist country.” “
Kelli herself doesn’t get high, despite the fact that her bar primarily serves older expats and sells marijuana among other products.
She also found fame on Shameless but her life now is completley changed (Image: Getty Images)
She acknowledged that she occasionally smoked occasionally but never heavily when she was younger. She added that she never liked the sensation of being stoned.
Continue reading the article below.
Kelly, who currently has 307,000 followers on TikTok, said, “I don’t know if it’s because I’ve always worked and I’ve always had kids, so I suppose it’s like something you can have a little cheeky glass of wine but you’re not going to drink the entire bottle.
With Love, Meghan, a previously canceled Netflix series from Meghan Markle, has been cancelled, and in this article, we look at some of the highlights of the second season.
Meghan Markle’s panned lifestyle show has returned to Netflix for a second season – and it looks set to get tongues wagging all over again.
The second series of With Love, Meghan, has dropped on the streaming platform this morning and follows on from the first season, which sees Meghan share cooking, crafting, and hosting tips with a range of pals and experts.
Among the celebrity guests this time are US model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen and Queer Eye star Tan France, as well as podcaster Jay Shetty and his cookbook author wife Radhi Devlukia. While chefs joining Meghan include Clare Smyth, who runs Core, a three-Michelin star restaurant in London, and Jose Andres, who set up the World Central Kitchen.
READ MORE: William and Harry’s shock realisation with one thing still in commonREAD MORE: Prince Harry’s secret letter sends ‘painful’ message to royals after William ‘gut punch’
Meghan with three Michellin star chef Clare Smyth(Image: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
The show comes on the back of Meghan and Prince Harry announcing a new watered-down deal with the streaming giant, in contrast to their reported 100 million dollar (£74million) contract five years ago.
And as fans prepare to delve deeper into the details of the series, we take a look at the new episodes, which include a lone A-list singer’s performance, a crude joke about Meghan’s former TV show, and more insight into her private life…
Prince Harry mystery
Prince Harry made a fleeting appearance in the final episode of the first season of With Love, Meghan, despite the fact that it is Meghan’s show.
In the final ten minutes, he appears at a garden brunch that Meghan throws together for her family, including her mother Doria, and friends. She introduces Harry to the camera at the brunch party, and he awkwardly waves.
Harry does not appear in this series of the Netflix show(Image: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
He does not appear in any of the episodes that have just started running. In fact, the only glimpses of him are in photos, such as one that shows him and Meghan with Clare Smyth, who appears in the sixth episode of the latest series.
But Meghan does talk about Harry in the show, telling Queer Eye star Tan France how the Duke of Sussex first told her he loved her on their third date in Botswana, with him being the first to say it.
Meghan shows the camera a navy baseball cap with the slogan “PH 40” on it in the seventh episode as part of a trip she says was made for Harry and his friends for his 40th birthday.
A-lister surprise
Despite Harry not making a camera appearance, two other very well-known husbands make two cameo appearances.
Chrissy Teigen is invited over to make crackers and flower jewelry in the second episode. They reveal they first got to know each other when they both worked as briefcase girls on the US version of the show Deal or No Deal.
Meghan with Chrissy Teigen(Image: JAKE ROSENBERG/NETFLIX)
And as Chrissy shows up at Meghan’s rented farmhouse, her husband, three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Legend, makes an appearance. “I would have told H to come,” she tells him.
The All of Me hitmaker also makes another appearance at the end of the episode to try cheesy crackers the two women have made with Meghan telling him: “Thanks for being so patient”.
gaffe on birthday
In the same episode, Meghan and Chrissy press flowers from the garden to create jewelry, specifically those that correspond to the birth months of their children.
But Chrissy admits she would have to look up her children’s birthdays and shows Meghan her tattoo of her kids ‘ date of births on her arm, as she doesn’t remember. Even so, she stumbles on Miles’ birthday, unsure whether it was May 16 or May 18.
Thankfully, husband John, who is not on camera, can be heard assisting and letting her know that their oldest son was born on May 16, 2018. Meghan jokes: “You’ve got a husband and a tattoo to make you stay on top of all the things”.
Flower sprinkles jibe
In the third episode of the third season, Queer Eye star Tan France joins Meghan and the pair to make French toast and create small aprons for their children to cook with.
Meghan with Queer Eye star Tan France (Image: JAKE ROSENBERG/NETFLIX)
After making some French toast, Meghan adds her signature flower sprinkles and icing sugar to the plate to complete the look.
Tan asks her, “What did you just add?” as she adds the sprinkles. To which Meghan replies: “Flower sprinkles, I love them”. Before the pair giggle and Meghan says, “But I really like things looking beautiful,” Tan teases her and says, “Wow, that’s the gayest s*** I’ve seen in a long time.”
Admission for children
In the third epsiode, Meghan also reveals how spending nearly three weeks away from her children left her “not well”.
She declined to provide further details about the dates, but there is now speculation that she was talking about when the Sussexes unavoidably remained in the UK following Queen Elizabeth II’s 2022 passing.
Meghan reveals what she misses most about the UK, admits she dislikes baking, and describes how she made a “truly terrible” roast chicken the day Harry asked her to marry him.
The former Suits star was sympathising with Queer Eye star Tan France who explained he gets heartbroken if away from his two young children for more than a couple of days.
Harry and Meghan in the days after the Queen’s death(Image: Getty Images)
Meghan nods and looks up at the ceiling in response, “Oh I know. The longest I went without being around our kids was almost three weeks”. Before stopping, she says, “I was…not well.”
In his memoir Spare of the “difficult days” following the Queen’s death, the duke described how, for “longer than we’d ever been,” he and Meghan were separated from Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet as well as their reunification in California, where they “couldn’t stop hugging the children and couldn’t let them leave our sight.”
The King and the royal family were mourning the loss of Elizabeth II, the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, in September 2022, against the backdrop of a troubled relationship with Harry and Meghan.
Harry said later in an ITV interview that there was a “really horrible reaction from my family members” when the Queen died, with “the briefings and the leakings and the planting”.
Suits dig
Meanwhile, another playful dig comes in episode seven, when Meghan and her friend Heather Dorak go on a girls ‘ trip to Malibu, in an episode dedicated to those who fought the California wildfires at the beginning of the year.
They are given a 50/50 martini by mixology expert Payman Bahmani-Bailey, who also serves them a cocktail making lesson.
Meghan and pal Heather take part in a cocktail making lesson(Image: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
As he mixes the vermouth and gin, Meghan asks him how he got into mixology. Meghan asks, “Did you watch Suits?,” and he replies, “I used to be a lawyer in New York.”
However, he laughs and says, “No, no, I don’t watch basic cable,” and then replies, “I like shows with curse words.”
Archie and Lilibet wish
Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, their children, are not included in the series, either.
But in the second episode, Meghan reveals the one thing her children wished they could have at home. As she talks to Chrissy Teigen, who tells Meghan they have both dogs and cats at home, the Duchess of Sussex says her children wish they had a cat.
In the first episode of the season, Meghan reveals that two unusual “silie” chickens, called Jill and Phil, are among her home chickens as she prepares eggs with chefs Christina Tosi and David Chang, as well as make-up artist pal Daniel Martin. The fluffy plumage of this type of chicken is renowned.
UK life
Meghan does mention her time as a working royal on several occasions, though never specifically.
They discuss the variations in the names of various herbs in the UK and the US with chef Clare Smyth, who practices in London.
And when she chats to Tan France, who originally hails from Doncaster, Meghan reveals what she misses most about UK life – UK radio stations.
Continue reading the article.
She says, “To be honest, what I miss most about the UK, the radio stations, and Magic” And Tan says: “Magic Fm? Wow . Sorry to say this so openly, but “that’s a grandma station!” And Meghan says: “I’ll be that grandma”!
In al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis, an Israeli air attack struck a residential building. Despite Israel’s designation as a “safe zone” and obpressing Palestinian displaced people there, the area has been repeatedly bombed.
Venue: Zandvoort Dates: 29-31 August Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday
Formula 1’s summer break is nearly over with the season resuming with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort this weekend.
Ten races remain in 2025 with Oscar Piastri holding a nine-point lead over McLaren team-mate Lando Norris at the top of the drivers’ championship.
Are Red Bull interested in getting Alex Albon back because his superiority over Carlos Sainz suggests he is as fast as Charles Leclerc? – Peter
This question raises all sorts of follow-ups about whether it is possible to compare drivers as they move around teams.
On the one hand, there is no other option, but sometimes there is no other conclusion than to think it can’t be that simple.
To take Sainz as an example, he was slightly quicker than Max Verstappen on average in qualifying when they were team-mates at Toro Rosso. He was a little slower than Nico Hulkenberg when they were teamed at Renault. He was pretty equal with Lando Norris at McLaren, and then slower again than Leclerc at Ferrari than he was Hulkenberg at Renault.
And now, at Williams so far, Sainz is on average a little slower than Albon, but slightly closer to him than he was on average to Leclerc.
Comparing just Sainz, Leclerc and Albon, then, yes, that suggests that Leclerc is the quickest, with Albon between him and Sainz.
But if all that is immutable, then it also means Verstappen is slower than Leclerc and only very slightly faster than Hulkenberg.
And how does that make any sense given Verstappen was more than 0.5secs quicker than Albon when they were driving the same car at Red Bull?
It gets even more confusing if you throw Daniel Ricciardo’s relative performances against many of those drivers into the mix.
That’s a roundabout way of saying that just because Albon has had the measure of Sainz so far at Williams, it doesn’t necessarily mean Red Bull would be interested in having him back.
Generally, unless a driver is a generational talent, how he does at a team is about more than just natural speed in a car set up ideally for him.
Other factors also come into the picture, such as the way he fits into the team, the way the car fits his natural driving style, how hard it is to adjust to the style the car demands, and so on.
At the same time, how Red Bull are going to operate in the driver market in the future is unknown at the moment, as Christian Horner has gone, and Laurent Mekies is now working alongside motorsport adviser Helmut Marko.
Getty Images
As the Belgian Grand Prix is set to be put on a rotation year-by-year, what track will Spa rotate with and may that venue even rotate? – Toby
This topic centres on two inter-related factors – the demand for new races, and the fact that European countries find it increasingly hard to find and/or justify the funds to pay for a grand prix.
Earlier this year, Formula 1 signed a new contract with Spa-Francorchamps that runs until 2031, but which does not include 2028 and 2030, when another race will appear on the calendar instead.
This is likely to be another European event. The prime candidates are other events in a similar situation.
For example, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which is losing the Spanish Grand Prix to Madrid but still has a slot on the calendar for next year, is interested in staying on the calendar beyond 2026.
Imola has already lost its slot next season and could be in a similar position in the future. Another name doing the rounds at the moment is Turkey.
With the power units being made simpler next year, will they generate more noise than presently (I accept they will never sound like they did up until 2013)? I consider it an embarrassment for the sport that the F3 cars (and Porsche Cup cars) that also race on the F1 weekends are louder than the main event – Raffi
The impression might be that the new engines being introduced next year should be louder because they will no longer have an MGU-H – the device that recovers energy from the turbo.
But I am told that while they might be a little louder than currently, they won’t be that different, because they still have turbos, which is the overriding impact on the sound.
As you may have read, there is a push from governing body the FIA at the moment to return F1 to older-style naturally aspirated engines, and that’s partly because of the noise.
Initially, this seems to have come from a whim of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, with influence from Bernie Ecclestone and Christian Horner, rather than a reasoned opinion based on thorough research of the desires of the audience.
However, it does chime with concerns that exist about how F1 will look next year because of the energy-recovery demands of the new engines, which have close to 50% of their total power output coming from the electrical part of the engine.
From what I’m told about fan surveys done by F1, there is no widespread agreement on whether louder engines would be a positive.
Some – like Raffi – obviously think they would be.
But the F1 fanbase has changed a lot in recent years, and inside the sport there is concern that newer members of the audience – more women and children now come to races, for example – would not welcome engines that made so much noise as to be virtually deafening, that made ear defenders an absolute necessity, that stopped people having a comfortable conversation when the race was on, etc. Likewise the guests in the corporate boxes.
Equally, city races such as Miami and Las Vegas would be threatened if the cars suddenly became much noisier than was promised to residents when discussions about the races took place.
It would highly likely revive the complaints that used to take place in Melbourne about this, too.
The world has moved on in many different ways since the first decade of this century, and it’s far from clear that effectively turning the clock back 20 or 30 years would be a good idea, even if it was with the addition of a token hybrid element to the engines and sustainable fuel.
Talks are ongoing on the future direction of engines from 2030 or so onwards, but they are a long way from reaching a conclusion.
The talk is all of tyres and climate conditions but do different circuits have different asphalt and does it impact on the tyre performance which ones are the most abrasive? – Derek
Yes, different F1 circuits have different track surfaces and, yes, it does have a major impact on tyre performance.
In simple terms, the smoother a surface, the less demand it makes of the tyres. A lot of the newly resurfaced tracks – such as Silverstone – have a high bitumen content in the asphalt, and that reduces the strain on the tyres, and with it overheating.
Think of the stones that make up the asphalt, and how much black stuff (bitumen) there is smoothing out the gaps between them – generally, the older the surface, the less bitumen, the more abrasiveness.
At Spa, there are even two different parts of the track – some of it was resurfaced before the 2024 grand prix, and some of it remains the old asphalt.
There is not space here to go through all the different track surfaces on the calendar. But one of the extremes of abrasiveness would be Bahrain, which has very old asphalt, and by consequence causes a lot of tyre overheating and degradation.
When a driver is asked to come into the pits, why do they say on the radio “box, box, box?” – David
This is to do with clarity of communication. “Box” is an easier word to understand clearly in the noisy and demanding environment of an F1 cockpit than “pit”.
“Box, box, box” is simply using the word three times to emphasise the urgency of the command.
Amnesty International is spearheading calls for a probe into Israel’s systematic destruction of civilian property in southern Lebanon, arguing that war crimes must be brought forward.
The human rights organization reported on Tuesday that Israel had used hand-held explosives and bulldozers to “devastate civilian structures, including homes, mosques, cemeteries, roads, parks, and soccer pitches, across 24 municipalities.”
Amnesty’s senior director Erika Guevara Rosas claimed in the statement that the destruction had “ruined countless lives and rendered entire regions uninhabitable.”
A ceasefire was reached in November 2024, which saw the end of more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of open war in which Israel sent ground troops and launched a significant bombing campaign. Since violating the ceasefire, Israel has almost daily done so.
Amnesty claimed that “more than 10,000 structures were severely damaged or destroyed during that time” from October 1st, 2012, to the beginning of Israel’s ground offensive. According to the statement, “a large portion of the destruction occurred after November 27 when the ceasefire began.”
Soldiers “filmed themselves singing and cheering” the destruction in some videos, according to the statement, adding that the majority of the destruction was “avoidable by urgent military necessity and in violation” of international humanitarian law.
Amnesty claimed to have emailed Israeli authorities about the destruction in late June but had not received a response.
Many residents of southern Lebanon have nothing to return to, Rosas said, “Given the scale of destruction the Israeli military has carried out.” According to the Israeli government, “All victims of international humanitarian law and war crimes, both individual and collectively, must receive prompt, full, and adequate reparations.”
Additionally, Amnesty urged states to end Israeli military support and weapons transfers.
War crimes, losses, and devastation
Israel’s most recent conflict with Hezbollah was previously accused of war crimes by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW claimed that Israeli attacks on Lebanoni doctors were allegedly war crimes in October 2024. It claimed that between September and November 2024, Israel carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
Israel claims to target Hezbollah affiliates and sites, but attacks in Lebanon from October 2023, the day before the ceasefire, resulted in the deaths of nearly 4, 000 people, many of them civilians.
The World Bank estimated Lebanon’s total economic cost in March at $ 14 billion, including $ 6.8 billion in physical damage damage.
The Lebanese army deployed to the south and destroyed Hezbollah’s infrastructure there in accordance with the November agreement, which the new government has already started.
Carlos Alcaraz defeated Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the second round, which is a new buzz cut that Carlos Alcaraz is wearing at the US Open. Despite the cropped style creating a mixed response online, the Spaniard’s spectacular tennis is making no room for discussion.
The second seed made an impressive start on Monday in his quest to win his second Grand Slam of the year despite having removed his all-over pretournament appearance.
“I have to ask the people whether or not they like the new haircut.” Guys, did you like it? In response to a question about whether his new appearance was making him move more quickly on the court, Alcaraz responded in response.
He continued, “Today was a really challenging one.”
With that serve, he is a truly outstanding and formidable player. I struggled to find the rhythm during the match, but I’m really happy with everything.
“One of the best things ever happened was the return,” he said. I made an effort to concentrate on the serve while playing my best tennis. I performed really well today overall.
[Kena Betancur/AFP] Alcaraz makes a forehand return to Opelka during their men’s singles first-round encounter in New York, US, on August 25, 2025.
The 22-year-old, who won his fifth major award in New York three years ago, posed as championship contender against the 2.11-meter (6 feet 11 inches) Opelka, who led 3-2 in the first set with ease.
Alcaraz stuttering on serve for the first time in the second set when he sent down two consecutive double faults, but Opelka was unable to convert both of his break point opportunities.
Alcaraz turned up the heat in the ninth game of the third set, breaking again thanks to a foot fault and a wayward serve by his opponent, after breaking Opelka in the 11th game.
Nothing depends on you, really. Alcaraz referred to the difficulty of playing the towering Opelka as “it always depends on him.”
You just need to be focused, put as many returns in, and try to be in the rally and get the points he allows you to win, he says. “The way he serves, the way he plays from the baseline.
“It’s just challenging when you play with someone who won’t let you play your game.” The first round was very challenging.
Alcaraz won the match and set up a second-round meeting with Mattia Bellucci, who won after Shang Juncheng, his Chinese opponent, retired earlier in the day.
Alcaraz greets Opelka following their first-round men’s singles encounter [Elsa/Getty Images via AFP]
