Category Entertainment News

BBC sports presenter Clare Balding has opened up about her home life with wife Alice Arnold, admitting she hates being alone and will rush to their neighbours’ house if Alice leaves her

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Legendary sports broadcaster Clare Balding has made a frank admission about her marriage to wife Alice Arnold, revealing intimate details about their domestic routine.

The 54 year old ranks amongst the BBC’s most dependable and valued presenters, fronting programmes ranging from the Grand National to Countryfile.

She’s set to grace television screens tonight (Wednesday, October 8) as a participant in the first series of Celebrity Traitors alongside stars including Alan Carr, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross and Kate Garraway.

However, despite appearing composed and unflappable when the cameras roll, she becomes rather anxious when left alone at home.

Speaking on the Stick to Rugby podcast, Clare revealed to host Lawrence Dallaglio: “If Alice leaves me at home for 10 seconds, I go next door because I don’t like being on my own. So I’m down to Giles and Rosie’s three doors down within 10 seconds.”

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Clare and her wife Alice live together in Chiswick, amongst London’s most exclusive and sought-after neighbourhoods in the south-west of the capital.

She revealed to local publication ChiswickW4: “I used to live in Putney and when we decided to move in together, Alice said: ‘we can live anywhere you want, as long as it’s Chiswick.’ So that was it really.”

Clare’s never genuinely by herself, mind you, as she and Alice are proud cat-parents to two pedigree British Blues, Eric and Button.

The pair previously owned a beloved Tibetan terrier called Archie, though he tragically passed away in 2020, creating “a dog-shaped hole” in their world, Clare shared with The Times. Before they welcome their next pup, Alice and Clare are considering a move to the countryside – a decision that will make it slightly more challenging for Clare to visit their neighbours when Alice is out.

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Clare is set to experience a different kind of isolation as she embarks on a ‘complete digital detox’ in the Celebrity Traitors house.

She said: “We’ve got to connect with each other, talk to each other and how do you work out who to trust? That’s different from who you like. Who you like is easier, but who you trust is really hard.”

Clare revealed a concerning health scare that she noticed while reviewing some of her past television work.

While watching a clip of herself presenting the Olympia International Horse Show back in December 2008, she spotted an unexpected lump on her neck.

Upon returning home that Christmas, a family member encouraged her to have the lump examined by a doctor.

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Clare recalled: “It was an odd one because I hadn’t really noticed feeling any different and I was (presenting) show-jumping at Christmas when it was at Olympia and I recorded an opening link and I was watching it back on the monitor as I was about to go live, and I’m looking at the monitor and you know that if you don’t really look at yourself in the mirror, you don’t really notice anything?”.

“I was looking at the monitor and I saw this big lump on my neck… like a big lump and I thought that’s really weird. And I felt it and I was like ‘where has that come from?'”.

Clare promptly sought medical attention, and tests confirmed she had thyroid cancer. Despite her diagnosis, Clare was adamant that her treatment would not disrupt her hectic broadcasting timetable.

Shoppers looking to bag a designer fragrance without paying the designer price tag won’t want to snooze on this Boots sale which has beaten Amazon with a mega £51 discount

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Boots is currently trumping Amazon’s Prime Day deals, offering fragrance fans the chance to pick up a luxury fragrance for £51 less than its retail price, bringing the cost down to a much more affordable £50 for 100ml.

While Amazon is selling the Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal Le Parfum (100ml) for £83.59 and Sephora has axed its price down to £60.32, Boots comes out on top with a major 50% off. But you may want to act fast; there’s no telling how long this flash sale will last.

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Described as an intense floral amber fragrance, this scent boasts an alluring blend of jasmine and black vanilla notes, enhanced by the unexpected addition of salted caramel. Sure to turn more than a few heads, this deliciously intense fragrance features intensely bewitching Arabian jasmine, audacious caramel with its sweet-savoury notes, and the melting softness of vanilla.

Reinventing sensuality with such intensity, the Jean Paul Gaultier perfume comes in a smoking-hot red bottle, crowned with stunning golden legs that demand attention, which is sure to stand out and add a touch of luxury scandal to any vanity.

Whether you’re bestowing as a gift or treating yourself, the £101 fragrance has amassed over 300 5-star reviews on Boots’ website, with many singing its praises as their go-to scent.

One thrilled buyer beams: “Gorgeous perfume, I have all the Jean Paul Gaultier perfumes, this is my favourite, smells Divine and lasts for ages.”

More adoration comes from this shopper who shares: “Very nice scent and lovely, I have been receiving so many compliments from people anytime I use it.”

A third chimes in: “I bought this perfume as a treat for myself, and I wasn’t disappointed. The fragrance is lovely and not too heavy, and the bottle is amazing; it’s very eye-catching. I got this perfume in the Boots fragrance 50% off and I’m pleased I purchased it- I got a bargain.”

BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball has revealed that Prince William sent her a touching letter to share with her dying mum, who was in the hospital battling pancreatic cancer

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BBC star Zoe Ball has revealed the touching gesture that Prince William made to her dying mum.

The BBC Radio 2 DJ’s mum Julia Peckham tragically passed away in April 2024 following a gruelling battle with pancreatic cancer.

But as Julia lay in her hospital bed, Zoe was able to read her a touching personal letter from the Prince of Wales himself.

Zoe explained that it brought her mum a great deal of comfort in her final days, and the prince wrote a second letter after her mother passed away.

“Prince William wrote to me when my mum was poorly,” Zoe told co-host Jo Whiley on their Dig It! Podcast.

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Zoe explained: “He wrote the most beautiful letter and he wrote to me again after we lost mum. There was a really amazing moment when mum was really, really poorly, and I went up to see her. My brother was there. I said, Mum, we’ve had a letter.”

Zoe continued: “I read her Prince William’s letter. And at the time he was going through his own difficulties with both his father and his lovely wife going through their cancer journey. And I thought it was so kind of him to take the time to write. And it meant the world to her. She loved that letter.”

She added that she had been reminded of William’s moving gesture whilst watching his relaxed interview with Canadian comedy actor Eugene Levy on Apple TV.

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Zoe explained the only reason the next-in-line to the throne had agreed to the unprecedented one-to-one was because he was a huge fan of bawdy comedy film American Pie. In honour of her late mum, Zoe is set to appear in a celebrity edition of Deal Or No Deal.

She’ll be joined by a “squad” of showbiz mates including her dad, children’s telly presenter Johnny Ball, her son, DJ Woody Cook, and Sally Boazman who handles the traffic and travel updates on her radio programme.

She told Jo: “It’s lucky because I’ve got Woody and my dad. I’ve got Sally Traffic, I’ve got Ian Waite, my lovely dance partner for Strictly Doing It, and Tina Daheley, that’s my squad. And then I’ve got loads of friends and family.

“We’re doing it for pancreatic cancer and the hospice where my mum was. So I’ve got a few of my mum’s friends coming to do it and stuff like that. It felt like a really nice thing to do.”

Pregnant Georgia Harrison is the first Love Islander to get an MBE and was given the honour by Prince William in an investiture at Windsor Castle today

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Georgia Harrison has been awarded an MBE for her services to campaigning for better legislation tackling violence against women. The Love Island star has made history as the first of the show’s contestants to be given the honour.

Georgia appeared on the third season of the hit ITV show and the first of spin-off show Love Island: All Stars. In 2020, in between her two stints, the 30-year-old discovered her ex partner Stephen Bear had shared CCTV footage of their sexual encounter without her consent and both reported it to the police and filed a civil claim for misuse of private information.

In the civil claim, he was ordered to pay £207,900 in compensation to Georgia, which she planned to donate to charities that support victims of image-based sexual abuse. But this was not paid and in March 2024, Chelmsford Crown Court held a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing and gave Stephen a confiscation order of £22,305 that came from profits he made from the video. From this, Georgia was compensated £5000.

In the criminal case, Stephen was found guilty of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films without consent. He was jailed for 21 months in 2023, after he uploaded footage of the two of them to OnlyFans, and was released in January of this year.

During the trial in 2021, Georgia waived her right to anonymity to show other victims of sexually-based offences that she stood with them, and said she hoped “one day, girls can look at me and think ‘She went in there and done, she was strong, we can do it too'”.

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Following this, Georgia kicked off a campaign with the Thames Valley Police to get people talking about consent. While revenge porn was already criminalised, the law stipulated that prosecutors had to prove there was an intention to humiliate the victim, but thanks to Georgia’s campaigning, that clause was removed.

It’s this that she has been honoured for. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Prince William on Wednesday (8 October) in a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

On being made an MBE, Georgia said: “It was such an amazing opportunity, and I’m really grateful, and I’m 100% going to continue to step up in my campaigning. And if anything, this is going to be something that really drives me to continue to evoke change for women everywhere, and I’m really grateful to be given such responsibility.”

She said that while being honoured on Wednesday, the Prince of Wales told her he had followed her story. She said: “I feel exhilarated. I just didn’t realise how magical the moment was going to be. First of all, I was so happy when I found out it was Prince William.

“I really was hoping that he might be one of the people who was giving it and, you know, I had really found when I was receiving the award, that he took such a genuine interest in everything that I’d done, been following my story, and that really meant a lot to me.”

Over the past few years, Georgia, who is expecting her first child, has also campaigned to reduce violence against women and girls, especially for those who have suffered from image-based abuse. Her experiences being the victim of revenge porn sparked a national debate on misogyny in the UK and the star even went on to make two ITV documentaries – Revenge Porn and Porn, Power, Profit.

Speaking in Revenge Porn, she said: “Two years ago, my life changed forever when CCTV footage of me having sex with Stephen Bear went viral. He filmed and shared it without my consent then tried to deny it was me…

“I think I expected some form of empathy, remorse, maybe that he would realise what he had done… what a slap in the face that on top of everything, he thought he could lie his way publicly through this.”

Georgia shared her delight at being recognised by the King’s Honours list on social media. She wrote: “I am beyond honoured to be listed to receive an MBE!!

“I’m so grateful to anyone who has reach out to congratulate me and also to all of you who have shared and continue to share your stories with me along the way. I am continuously reading them all, taking on board your experiences and using them as both fuel and knowledge for my campaigning.

“My experience changed me in many ways but one of those ways was that I became a voice for the women that can’t be heard. I always promise to rise to the opportunities that seek my help within regulating the digital space and do my best to make change where possible”

Prince William spoke out about the huge TV hit that his family are “very much looking forward” to watching as he presented a TV industry figure with his OBE at an investiture ceremony

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Prince William has revealed the runaway hit TV show that his family is “very much looking forward” as it returns to screens tonight.

The Prince of Wales said that The Celebrity Traitors is going to be a “big treat” for him, wife Kate, and their children as he presented TV executive Stephen Lambert with an honour at Windsor Castle. Mr Lambert, the founder and chief executive of Studio Lambert – the production company behind The Traitors, was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) this morning. The Celebrity Traitors launches tonight, with a cast of 19 famous faces, including comedian Alan Carr, retired Olympic diver Tom Daley and actor and TV host Sir Stephen Fry.

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The show, presented by Claudia Winkleman, sees contestants try to detect the traitors in the group while completing a series of challenges to win funds to contribute towards the prize pot.

If, at the end of the series, a traitor is left among the finalists, the faithfuls – those who are not traitors – lose out on the money and the traitor wins the full prize.

Mr Lambert, 66, said: “My award is for services to television, and we started talking about Celebrity Traitors, which launches tonight. He said he and the family were very much looking forward to watching it. It was going to be a big treat for them and probably for the nation, he expected.

“And I told him about the fact that our celebrities have entered into the game with great seriousness. So, they’re not just doing it because it’s a chance for them to be celebrities on television, but because they actually love the game, but also because they are the talented people they are, so they’re also very funny, and I think it’s extremely entertaining television.”

Lambert added he and his team were “blown away by the quality of the people that were interested in doing the first season of Celebrity Traitors”.

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He said: “Quite often when a show is announced as a celebrity version of something, many people haven’t actually heard of the celebrities that take part. In this case, nearly everybody who took part is well known.

“I mean people like Stephen Fry and Alan Carr and Celia Imrie, and list goes on, Clare Balding, Tom Daley, it’s extraordinary. They’re all people that everybody knows about. And so, I think, that if the show is as popular as we hope it is, and people like it as much as we hope they do, then there’s a good chance we’ll get equally good, if not even more famous, people the next time.”

Asked why he thinks The Traitors has been such a hit, he said: “I think it’s a game that people love watching and playing. I think that the players like it because it gives them licence, if they’re the traitors, to lie.

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“Quite often in reality game shows, people end up being good and bad, and the bad ones are the ones that sort of lie and are sort of devious, here, they’re given licence to do that, it’s a bit like playing poker.

“You know, you’re allowed to lie, and so people don’t judge you badly for being a treacherous traitor in not telling the truth. And I think the audience partly love it, because it’s a classic case of dramatic irony. We know what’s going on better than the players.”

Studio Lambert is also behind Gogglebox, Race Across The World and Squid Game: The Challenge. Mr Lambert began his career at the BBC in the early 1980s, producing documentaries from around the world, including many filmed in conflict zones.

In 1994, he became the founding editor of the BBC Two documentary strand Modern Times, before joining RDF Media in 1998 as its first director of programmes, where he was responsible for factual entertainment series such as Faking It, Wife Swap and The Secret Millionaire.

He founded Studio Lambert in 2008 with backing from All3Media. Undercover Boss became the company’s first success, running for 11 seasons on CBS and earning multiple Primetime Emmy Awards.

In 2013, Studio Lambert launched Gogglebox for Channel 4, now one of the network’s most beloved and enduring series and, more recently, The Traitors and Race Across The World, which have become two of BBC One’s highest-rated shows, while Squid Game: The Challenge found global success on Netflix.

Brooklyn Peltz-Beckham has once again found himself in a tense legal battle, this time with a major footwear corporation, relating to his hot sauce firm, Cloud23

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Brooklyn Peltz-Beckham is caught up in another legal war. The entrepreneur has already been in several clashes with his business Buster Hot Sauce Inc, surrounding the name of his condiment, Cloud 23.

It was reported earlier this year that Brooklyn, 26, had faced a legal fight from an alcoholic brand surrounding his business. He later faced issues with his sauce and different brands with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

But a huge footwear brand has taken issue with Brooklyn’s latest business venture, and drafted in hefty lawyers. On Cloud, which produces shoe soles with holes in them, which has been backed by tennis legend Roger Federer, has taken objection to Brooklyn’s trademark.

The company raised an objection against Cloud23 for classifications including food, alcohol, sauces, live streaming and sports equipment. On Cloud had called in Bristows LLP in order to fight their objection.

But the issue was resolved amicably, On Cloud chose not to continue with their objection threat, and the trademark was later registered. Brooklyn previously went up against Becks beers, over his own burger brand – Beck’s Buns, reports The Sun.

However, the issue was resolved when Brooklyn’s brand agreed to remove the two classifications which related to alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars also took aim when Brooklyn tried to register a trademark for a shortened version of its brand, C23.

He also later decided to remove any classifications which related to alcohol. He launched Cloud 23 last year, saying: “It’s been a passion project of mine for the last 2 and a half years, something I’ve literally put everything into.

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“I’ve never worked so hard on anything in my life.” Brooklyn’s famous family attended the launch event, but since then, relations have become strained. This year, he has missed out on huge family celebrations, including his dad’s 50th birthday, his dad being knighted and the birthdays of his siblings.

In a brutal twist, his family were not there when he renewed his vows to Nicola Peltz-Beckham over this summer, reportedly without telling his own relatives. The Beckhams have remained tight lipped on the fallout despite it gripping public attention.

However, Lady Victoria has made a rather cryptic comment about family feuds as she spoke of Liam and Noel Gallagher’s Oasis reunion after years of them not speaking. “I just think their mum must be so happy,” she told The Sunday Times.

“It must have been really tough on the mum, the boys not talking for all those years. And I just think as a mum, that must be… she must feel so happy to see her boys getting on.”

As Victoria’s comment came to light, Brooklyn took to his social media where he shared a loved-up snap with Nicola alongside a gushing comment. The couple posed for a selfie, with Nicola blowing a kiss to the camera.

Brooklyn wrote: “Date night with my girl @nicolaannepeltzbeckham [red love heart].” This week, the Beckhams came together to support Victoria’s fashion show at Paris Fashion Week without Brooklyn.

David and Victoria’s eldest son was notably absent as they were joined by sons Cruz, 20, Romeo, 22, and daughter Harper, 14. Victoria is also gearing up for the release of her own Netflix documentary this week.