Friday 13 May 2022 11:49 PM EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Earl of Snowdon, 60, steps out arm in arm with his new love trends now

When the Earl of Snowdon announced his separation from his wife, Serena, in 2020, friends blamed the amount of time that the Queen's nephew had to spend working abroad.

It seems that he has, however, now managed to find love again — at the office. I hear that Princess Margaret's 60-year-old son is enjoying a touching romance with a colleague, Isabelle de La Bruyere.

Isabelle, who's believed to be in her 50s, is a director of Christie's, while he's the honorary chairman of the London auction house.

David and Isabelle could have been teenage lovebirds as they strolled hand in hand through Belgravia, where he has a branch of his furniture shop, Linley.

The pair walked arm in arm as they carried shopping bags from posh cake shop Peggy Porschen.

They could later be seen dining à deux on a restaurant terrace.

'They looked like they were happy to be seen together and didn't have a care in the world,' a passer-by tells me. 'It was rather sweet.'

French-born Isabelle, who's fluent in at least three European languages, has been employed by Christie's since 1999.

She joined as head of Oriental Art studies before working her way up to becoming a senior director.

She also launched the auctioneer's Dubai branch in 2006 before moving to London in 2013 to join the chairman's office.

David, who's the son of celebrated late photographer Lord Snowdon and a godchild of the Queen, was first appointed to the board of Christie's in 2005 before becoming chairman of its British branch a year later.

In 2015, he became honorary chairman for the auctioneer in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India.

It would be the first known romance for David since he separated from Serena, 52, after 27 years of marriage. She's the daughter of the 12th Earl of Harrington.

The pair have two children, Charles, 22, Viscount Linley, and Lady Margarita Armstrong-Jones, who was a bridesmaid at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding.

The smart set's talking about...Woman who could be first trans peer 

This could be a first for the ancient House of Lords: I can disclose that a transwoman called Matilda Simon, 67, wants to join the red leather benches.

What makes Matilda's petition unique is that she was born Matthew Simon, only son of the 2nd Lord Simon of Wythenshawe, who died in 2001 aged 87. She would be known as Lord — not Lady — Simon.

Educated at St Paul's School, London, Matthew graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, before becoming a senior lecturer at Manchester University.

The Lord Speaker's communications adviser, Lucy Dargahi, tells me that the matter will be referred to the Lord Chancellor 'to make sure the claim is legitimate'.

If it is, Matilda's name will be added to the list of candidates for the Lords' by-elections — held when one of the 92 hereditary peers dies.

Matilda, adds Dargahi, would then 'be the first transgender person, as far as we are aware, eligible to stand in the by-election'.

Free speech comic bans ex from detailing his 'infidelities' 

He had his own Channel 4 show before becoming a Radio 4 stalwart, presenting his eponymous series, Mark Thomas: The Manifesto, one of whose proposals was that Britain should have a 'USA-style 1st Amendment to protect free speech'.

But the activist-comedian, 58, evidently believes that some subjects are off-limits — his treatment of Jenny Landreth, an award-winning writer whom he married more than 30 years ago, perhaps foremost among them.

The couple, pictured, used to share a £1.5million house in South London, but no longer.