Keely Hodgkinson ended her 800m season with victory at the all-female Athlos meet in New York on Friday evening.
The Olympic champion, who won bronze at the World Championships last month, cruised to an impressive win in one minute 56.53 seconds in what was only her sixth race in a season blighted by a hamstring injury.
Fellow Briton and world silver medallist Georgia Hunter Bell was second again in 1:58.33, while St Vincent’s Shafiqua Maloney (1:58.57) was third.
“I’ve barely raced this season so it was probably less of a struggle for me to go out there and want to give it something,” said Hodgkinson, 23.
“The atmosphere out there is crazy so it was really, really fun.”
The women-only meet packed Icahn Stadium in its second year, bringing a party atmosphere to traditional track, with live music and Tiffany & Co. crowns replacing traditional winners’ medals.
The 23-times tennis major winner Serena Williams, who is married to Athlos founder Alexis Ohanian, was on hand to present the winners with their crowns.
Last year’s winners took home $60,000 (£44,603) – one of the largest prize purses in athletics.
The event also attracted some of the sport’s biggest names, as Kenya’s three-time Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Faith Kipyegon won the mile, crossing the finish line in four hours 17.78 minutes.
With autumn well and truly here, shoppers can now claim £167 for less as Victoria Beckham releases a new autumnal-themed makeup gift set stocked with three brand new products
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Victoria Beckham launches new autumn-inspired set including celeb-loved eyeliner(Image: Getty)
Autumnal makeup is all the rage this season, with shades of brown, orange and red becoming the must-have hues to add to your beauty regime as we head deeper into the colder months. And the beauty queen herself, Victoria Beckham, has delivered the ideal set for makeup enthusiasts seeking to achieve the perfect fall look.
Having just landed on the Victoria Beckham Beauty site, this The Cocoa Collection Holiday Set indulges in the brand’s iconic deep brown Satin Kajal Liner in Cocoa, their most-loved shade, creating a gorgeous four-piece limited-edition collection worth £167.
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Described as a must-have for all the ways you can imagine a rich chocolate-y brown eye — matte, lustrous, delicate, or daring. This makeup set is everything you need to create warm and rich brown eyeshadow looks this autumn.
The Set Includes:
Eye Wardrobe in Cocoa – NEW
Future Lash in Cocoa – NEW
Satin Kajal Jewel Liner in Cocoa Pavé – NEW
Satin Kajal Liner in Cocoa
The new Eye Wardrobe is touted as the ultimate shadow palette, delivering exquisite performance in buttery-soft powder formulas and luxurious finishes. Boasting a collection of stunning and balanced colours, this palette blends fashion-forward undertones, ingenious complements, and irresistible hero shades, all edited to inspire, in the perfect autumn shades. This palette is worth £71 when bought alone.
The set also comes with two of Victoria Beckham’s celebrity-loved Satin Kajal Liner, in two fall-ready colours. Described as a creamy, smudge-free and waterproof eyeliner, these Satin Kajal liners boast vivid, high-performance colours that simply demand attention. Infused with skin-loving ingredients for long-lasting wear, these liners promise effortless application that glides on smoothly for gorgeous colour and eye-calming comfort in a single swipe. These eyeliners sell for £32 a piece.
The fourth item in the set is the Future Lash Mascara, in a brand new reddish-brown colour. Designed to deliver silky lashes that defy gravity, Future Lash is set to lift, strengthen, and condition with every swipe. Promising to lift and lengthen from morning ’til night, with zero smudging or flaking, this mascara defines even the tiniest lashes with Victoria Beckham’s signature Micro-Bristle brush, for an uncompromising, elevated lash look. This mascara costs £32 when bought solo.
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Cheaper alternative eye makeup sets to consider include the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Dreamy Eye Duo, which currently retails for £28, and the Laura Mercier Crème de la Crème Mini Caviar Stick Eye Shadow Trio, also priced at £28.
Victoria Beckham’s new Netflix documentary signals a massive departure for the Spice Girl-turned-designer – now, she’s not fighting anymore and simply telling her truth, claims an expert
As Victoria Beckham opens up about a “dark, dark time” in her life which she says pushed her to breaking point as she battled to save her ailing fashion business, a PR expert exclusively tells OK! that her new documentary, which she consulted King Charles on, marks a ‘turning point’ for the star as she decides to just be ‘real’.
The former Spice Girl recalls going to work in tears as the stress of trying to establish her style empire amid spiralling debts took its toll. Speaking in her new three-part Netflix docuseries, simply titled Victoria Beckham, she says, “I almost lost everything. I used to cry before I went to work every day because I just felt like a firefighter.
“It was like a snowball that was going down the mountain. We were millions of pounds in the red. I didn’t know what to do and I was so desperate to save this business that I cared so much about. I felt, if I’m being completely honest, like I was breaking down myself.”
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Posh, 51, admits husband David frequently had to bail her out financially – reportedly to the tune of £30 million on one occasion – putting pressure on their relationship behind closed doors.
“Yes, I’m going home to my husband, but I’m going home to my business partner as well, and so I would talk to him about it,” she recalls. “I had to – he was invested. And I hated it. I absolutely hated it.”
Even Sir David, 50, confesses to feeling the pressure as his wife’s passion project swallowed up cash. “I was panicked by it, because I never saw anything coming back,” he admits. “And eventually I was like, ‘This cannot continue.’”
But Victoria managed to turn things around – in August this year it was reported that her company, Victoria Beckham Holdings, had grown by 22% over the previous 12 months. “I was constantly told I wasn’t good enough in my youth and as a young adult, so I’m proud of what I’ve achieved,” she says.
Elsewhere, Victoria opens up about struggling with an eating disorder at the height of her Spice Girls fame, explaining how a lack of control over her career led to her making unwise decisions with food.
“I could control my weight and I was controlling it in an incredibly unhealthy way,” she admits. “When you have an eating disorder, you become very good at lying. And I was never honest about it with my parents. I never talked about it publicly.”
According to talent agent and PR expert Dermot McNamara, we are seeing a “very different side to Victoria” in her new documentary. “She’s finally letting the mask slip a little and has opened up about struggles she’s faced behind the polished facade,” he says.
“For years, she’s been seen as this unshakable, picture-perfect woman, but what comes across this time is how much she’s had to fight to keep everything together. She talks about the darker moments. It’s easy to forget how much she risked to reinvent herself from pop star to designer and she has been refreshingly honest about the sacrifices along the way.”
Victoria also reveals how falling for David – and having children Brooklyn, 26, Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20 and Harper, 14 – wasn’t initially part of her plan.
“I was never the young girl growing up that dreamt of getting married and dreamt of being a mum. It wasn’t until I met David that those things even occurred to me,” says the star, who began dating the former Manchester United legend in 1997. “When I met David, I’d never felt that connection with anybody before.”
For David, 50, those intense feelings were immediately reciprocated and he admits he “fell hard and fell quick” for the then-pop superstar.
“When I met Victoria, I couldn’t find one thing about her I didn’t like, not one thing,” he says. “I mean, I could find a few now! Back then she was this mythical person. I wanted everyone to know I was dating Posh Spice. And within two years of being together, we were married with one kid.”
What’s particularly touching, continues Dermot McNamara, is how husband David’s support “shines through it all”. “The two of them seem stronger than ever after everything that’s been said about their marriage over the years,” he says. “They seem to be each other’s anchors – she’s finally allowing people to see that softer side of their relationship.”
While there’s no mention in the show of the Beckhams’ alleged fallout with eldest son Brooklyn, he and wife Nicola are pictured, fleetingly, as they arrive at Victoria’s Paris Fashion Week show just over a year ago. In contrast, daughter Harper takes centre stage as she is filmed trying to teach her mother how to dance.
There are plenty more lighter moments in the show. Quizzed about her reputation as a “miserable cow that doesn’t smile”, she jokingly blames husband David.
“I’ve looked miserable for all these years, because when we stand on the red carpet, this guy [Becks] has always gone on the left. Now, I didn’t realise that when I smile, which I do, I smile from the left – because if I smile from the right, I look unwell. So consequently I’m smiling on the inside, but no one ever sees it, so that’s why it looks so moody.”
Dermot believes the documentary “captures Victoria at a turning point”. “She’s been through so much heartache privately, particularly with the distance that’s grown between her and Brooklyn, but instead of shutting down, she’s showing a side of herself that’s more open than ever.
“Victoria has spent the past 30 years being increasingly guarded and it’s refreshing to see her lean into that vulnerability. The message seems clear, she’s done trying to prove herself, now she just wants to be real.”
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And while you might expect Posh to have found baring her soul a challenge, she describes making the Netflix doc as “like a year’s therapy”. She jokes, “I feel that I went into this process calling myself a control freak and I’ve come out the other end a reformed control freak.”
The Paris video posted by Meghan Markle close to the spot where Princess Diana died might cost her dearly, experts reveal, and could threaten to derail any reconciliation between Harry and the royals
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The couple found themselves embroiled in more drama after Meghan made a ‘very bad mistake’(Image: Samir Hussein/WireImage)
The backlash from the Duchess of Sussex’s Paris video – filmed near the spot where Princess Diana died – has become the latest event to overshadow any positive talk of a royal family reconciliation, reports OK!. Meghan, 44, videoed her view of the city from the backseat of her car shortly after attending the Balenciaga fashion show on Saturday 4 October.
Her footage included the Pont de l’Alma bridge, which leads to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, the site of the car crash that killed Diana, her partner Dodi Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul in August 1997. The video, which ended with a blurry shot of Meghan’s stiletto-clad feet on the seat of the car, trended on social media shortly after going live, with many commentators slamming the former Suits actress as “insensitive”.
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Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams says while Meghan simply made a genuine mistake, it’s unlikely the clip and subsequent fallout has gone down well at home. “I suspect Harry will be horrified and extremely angry, because the video links to the most traumatic period of his life,” he told OK!. “He would be aghast, because even though it wasn’t intentional, it was a very bad mistake.”
“Meghan simply cannot afford to behave like that, because of who she is and the fact she has made herself into a brand. Her airily filming part of Paris, while it wasn’t intended to offend anybody and was clearly a mistake, was grossly insensitive, and these mistakes hold weight.”
Meghan’s solo visit to the French capital was her first trip to Europe in two years, while Prince Harry remained at home in California with Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
She was there to support her friend, Balenciaga’s new creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, and was photographed mingling with Vogue icon Dame Anna Wintour, as well as film director Baz Luhrmann.
But it was the video she posted after the glitzy fashion show that became the talk of her trip online. One person wrote on X, “I’m speechless. This doesn’t show love or respect for Harry. I feel for Prince William. This is beyond insensitive”. Others called her post “tasteless”, suggesting she had “disrespected” Diana’s memory.
The video also reportedly went down badly with Harry’s relatives. One source was widely quoted as saying Prince William, 43, was “livid beyond words”.
Richard, a former editor of The International Who’s Who, agrees that the older royal sibling won’t have been impressed with the clip, telling us he suspects William “would regard it as an ill-judged and self-centered mistake”.
He adds that the fallout could put Harry in a difficult position when it comes to publicly supporting his wife.
“He is unable to shield Meghan from the repercussions of her mistake, it cannot be undone,” he said. “If the average person filmed a video like that, it wouldn’t matter. But every single thing Meghan does is scrutinised, by friend or foe.”
However, her trip undeniably boosted her profile in the fashion world, especially after photographs of her stepping out in eye-catching pieces from Balenciaga’s new collection were printed on the front pages of newspapers around the world.
Jennie Bond, the BBC’s former royal correspondent, says the Paris Fashion Week trip was a clear sign of where Meghan is heading.
“You can see from the interest in her at the show, including a greeting from Anna Wintour, that the fashion world values Meghan,” she told OK!. “And she is likely to become more interested in the fashion world with all the collaborations and commercial opportunities it can offer. And that’s fine. She’s a pretty woman and is now free to do as she pleases.”
Jennie also agreed that upsetting Harry with the video would have been “the last thing Meghan meant to do”, adding, “She could have thought about it harder, but, like so many people these days, it’s all about sharing your life instantly without considering the implications.”
Despite Harry and King Charles, 76, meeting in person last month, the path to mending their relationship has been far from smooth since.
Following their private tea at Clarence House on 10 September, Harry’s office accused “sources intent on sabotaging any reconciliation between father and son” of leaking details about what happened between the pair.
While Meghan’s Paris trip might have been deemed a success – in terms of press coverage – had it not been for the video, Richard says the social media post is just the latest in a series of blunders that has potentially further delayed an end to the royal family feud.
On Harry’s recent trip to Kyiv to promote his Invictus Games Foundation in Ukraine, the duke spoke to a journalist about his current family predicament.
As well as saying he wanted to spend more time in the UK and for the focus to be on his father in the coming years, he also addressed some of the personal disclosures in his memoir Spare.
Harry denied he “aired his dirty laundry in public” and said he wrote a “series of corrections to stories already out there”.
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While maybe well-intentioned, Richard says his words likely did more harm than good. “There was much talk about his meeting with King Charles, and then Harry had a few good days with WellChild and his trip to the Ukraine,” he explained.
“But then he sabotaged himself, saying he regretted nothing. It is beyond belief. I don’t imagine there will be another meeting between the King and Harry for a long time now.”
Despite being one of the most recognisable women in the world, the Princess of Wales was once mixed up as a member of William’s staff – but she had a sassy response to the case of mistaken identity
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Kate had a brilliant comeback when she was mistake for her husband’s assistant during a trip to a care home(Image: (Image: GETTY))
The Princess of Wales is one of the most recognisable women in the world, but despite her royal status, she was once caught in a hilarious case of mistaken identity.
It came when Kate joined her husband, Prince William, for a visit to the Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff, Wales, in 2020, where they mingled with elderly residents including the outspoken Joan Drew-Smith, who made the hilarious quip to the royal couple.
Joan had previously made headlines the last time she encountered the royals, for her refreshingly honest critique of their royal bingo skills, which according to Joan, were severely lacking.
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Upon being reintroduced to Joan, Prince William said: “Hello Joan, do you remember we did the bingo with you? You said we weren’t very good!”
“Yes,” Joan replied bluntly. “You did a bloody s****y job.”
During their visit, both William and Kate wore face masks due to the early days of the Covid pandemic, making communication a little challenging.
“We have to wear masks because of the virus, but it’s difficult to hear sometimes when you can’t see someone’s mouth,” the Prince explained to Joan.
The unfazed OAP then pointed at Kate and asked William: “Is that your assistant?” But Kate handled the situation with a deft touch, laughing and saying to William: “Well, I am your assistant”. She added: “I have been for a long time!”
Later, Prince William fondly remarked to staff of the care home: “I love Joan, she’s brilliant. If only everyone was as honest as her.”
William and Kate have been stepping out on more and more royal outings together , as just last month they visited the National Federation of Women’s Institute (WI) on the three-year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s passing.
The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the engagement in Sunningdale to commemorate the extraordinary life of the late monarch, making the special trip to a place which holds a special connection to the late Queen.
The WI is the largest women’s organisation in the UK and is a safe place for women to come together and engage in a range of activities, share experiences and work together to influence positive change in their local, national and global communities.
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The organisation holds a special connection to Her Late Majesty as she was a member for 80 years, joining in 1943 and serving as President of the Sandringham WI from 2003 until her death in 2022.
Kavana was a huge pop star in the 90s, but the singer ended up battling a drink and drugs addiction and has been open about his battle to come back from the brink in a new book
Nineties pop sensation Kavana has told how he once drank AFTERSHAVE at the height of his drink and drugs addiction. The 47 year old star, has openly documented his battles in an autobiography that lifts the lid on his days of fame – and the horrors that followed.
The I Can Make You Feel Good singer, whose real name is Anthony Kavanagh, was just 20 years old when he stormed the charts with his Top 10 1997 smash hit, which was succeeded by MFEO (Made For Each Other) and Crazy Chance. He subsequently featured in E4’s Hollyoaks: In The City in 2006 and competed on the reality television programme Grease Is the Word in 2007, where he finished as runner-up.
In 2014 he tried out for ITV’s talent competition The Voice, but didn’t make it beyond the audition stage, with no judges turning for him in their chairs. He also secured seventh place in the 2015 series of Celebrity Big Brother.
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But few people knew of Kavana’s personal battles, which have been laid bare in his tell-all autobiography, Pop Scars. The singer’s self-deprecating book also relates how his nose bled in front of Boyzone’s Ronan Keating after snorting cocaine. And how he was slapped with a lifetime ban from ITV’s Loose Women after turning up drunk and quizzing one of the hosts on her sex life.
The singer, who revealed he was gay in 2014, also confesses to a secret romance with the late Boyzone vocalist, Stephen Gately.
And the tale of how he came to be drinking aftershave comes in a chapter about preparing to attend his first AA meeting but is craving alcohol. He remembers: “There’s a cabinet I haven’t checked yet, which I open to reveal quite the selection, from Tom Ford to Dior, but each one has a spray nozzle on top which is pointless. Then at the far back I see a half empty bottle of Joop, no spray attached and totally drinkable.”
He continues: “I wait for a second, imagining how this would look in a movie: the tragic alcoholic downing aftershave in a posh LA bathroom. I laugh at my reflection, what a joke, except the punchline is my life. The taste is beyond description, like someone’s melted a plastic Christmas tree with battery acid and marzipan. I immediately gag, my body repulsed against yet another foreign liquid, but I force it down.”
But despite Kavana’s troubles, he finally chose to transform his life during the summer of 2023. Posting images captured over an 18-month period, he appeared dramatically transformed from his lowest point and expressed gratitude for seeking assistance.
Now he looks a picture of heath, continuing to post on his Instagram page to his 13,000 followers. Alongside one recent image of him brushing his teeth, he said: “Just wanted to capture the miracle of me waking up fresh on a Sunday morning and doing a live radio interview at 8.30 a.m. Three years ago at this time I’d be on my way to the off license and I must remind myself of these things and be grateful.”
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Fans rushed to support him, with one saying: “Looking fresh, well done, you have done amazing.” Another commented: “You look great Kav, you are smashing this….keep going and enjoy every moment.” And a third added: “Wahooooo! Count all the wins.”
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