Eccentric aristocrat Sir Benjamin Slade, who once placed an advertisement for a wife who could provide him with two sons, appears to have found the answer to his prayers.
I hear the baronet, 75, — a keen shot who has 80 firearms on display in his bar room — has got engaged to a poet/composer 46 years his junior. There are rumours the wedding will take place shortly at Maunsel House, his 2,000-acre Somerset pile.
His fiancee is Sahara Sunday Spain, daughter of Johnny Spain, a member of the Black Panthers who was jailed for murder.
'It's all top secret because Ben's relations are furious,' one of his friends tells me. 'They're very suspicious, because it's all happened in such a hurry.'
Eccentric aristocrat Sir Benjamin Slade, who once placed an advertisement for a wife who could provide him with two sons, appears to have found the answer to his prayers
The usually talkative Sir Benjamin declines to discuss his happy news. But last October he confirmed he had embarked on an unlikely relationship with Sahara.
'We're sort of dating,' Sir Benjamin told me. 'When lockdown happened, one of the people that came to stay was Miss Sahara Spain. She's still here.'
His fiancee is Sahara Sunday Spain, daughter of Johnny Spain, above, a member of the Black Panthers who was jailed for murder
It's a far cry from where she was brought up in the urban desolation of Dogtown in Oakland, on the east shore of San Francisco Bay.
Her mother, Elisabeth Sunday, is a photographer while her father gained infamy in the 1970s as a member of the San Quentin Six, a group of prisoners who attempted a breakout.
While Spain denied killing anyone in the uprising, he was found guilty on two counts of murder.
His daughter has been helping deal with the legal problems of Sir Benjamin, who was ordered to pay more than £150,000 in damages in 2019 to two women forced out of their jobs because they were pregnant.
The baronet's determined to produce a male heir.
'I would like to start a family,' he said. 'My relatives don't want to take on the house. They're very rich and would sell it.'
The usually talkative Sir Benjamin declines to discuss his happy news. But last October he confirmed he had embarked on an unlikely relationship with Sahara. 'We're sort of dating,' Sir Benjamin told me
I hear the 35-year-old, who played Sir Edward Denham in ITV's adaptation of the unfinished Jane Austen novel, has got engaged to singer-songwriter Eleanor Fletcher, 31
An incorrigible ladies' man in costume drama Sanditon, Jack Fox has eyes for only one woman in real life.
I hear the 35-year-old, who played Sir Edward Denham in ITV's adaptation of the unfinished Jane Austen novel, has got engaged to singer-songwriter Eleanor Fletcher, 31.
The younger brother of Lewis star-turned-controversialist Laurence Fox took her to Wimbledon this week and described it as 'a day out to celebrate the soon to be Mrs Fox'.
Like Jack, whose exes include actresses Lily James and Samantha Barks, Eleanor comes from a creative family: her mother was a ballet dancer and her grandfather a violinist and composer.
'She's met the Fox family and they adore her,' says a friend of the couple, who moved in together in London during lockdown.
Eleanor, a member of the electronic music band Crystal Fighters, has performed at Glastonbury and on Later . . . With Jools Holland.
Prince's pal is a comfort to the QueenShe was the only one of Prince Philip's friends to be invited to his funeral, and Penny Knatchbull remains remarkably close to the Queen.
Countess Mountbatten of Burma, 68, was seen sharing a joke with the monarch at the Royal Windsor Horse show.
Penny would regularly attend the equestrian extravaganza alongside the Duke of Edinburgh, her carriage-driving companion.
'The Queen is delighted to be back at the show,' a courtier tells me. The event was cancelled last year because of the pandemic.
Will there be a fairy-tale ending for Cinders star?
She plays a wicked stepsister in Andrew Lloyd Webber's big new musical, Cinderella, but it's Georgina Castle who's found Prince Charming in real life
She plays a wicked stepsister in Andrew Lloyd Webber's big new musical, Cinderella, but it's Georgina Castle who's found Prince Charming in real life.
The 28-year-old daughter of Wimbledon commentator Andrew Castle is being courted by handsome financier Harrison Darling, 28, whom she met on dating app Hinge.
'He's the first boyfriend I've had with a sensible job,' she tells me.
'I don't call him 'darling', but it would be
