EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: King Charles' nephew Peter Phillips launches £5m property venture with his billionaire chum

He has, so far, been something of a jack of several – if not yet all – trades, trying his hand at corporate hospitality and ‘sponsorship management’, as well as establishing his own events company and becoming a director of a firm aiming to cash in on the market for Covid tests.

Most memorably – and excruciatingly – he’s even cropped up in adverts on Chinese television, which showed him drinking a glass of milk brought to him by a butler while he reminisced about being nourished on Jersey milk from the royal herd at Windsor.

Now, I can disclose that, at the age of 47, King Charles’s nephew Peter Phillips has made his first play in the wheeler-dealer world of commercial property. He’s paid just over £5 million to make himself the landlord of a medley of shops, small businesses, bars and restaurants in the glorious Georgian spa town of Bath.

It’s unlikely that he’s dependent on a mammoth loan to fund the deal. His business partner is Danish retail billionaire Troels Holch Povlsen, 75 – although that detail takes a little digging to unearth.

In 2022, Phillips formed a company called Aston Cole Ltd, of which he remains sole director. Aston is itself owned by two companies. One of these, with a 45 per cent stake, is Aston S&I, of which Phillips owns at least 75 per cent. 

The other 55 per cent of Aston Cole is owned by Nine United Properties UK Ltd – itself owned by Holch Povlsen, whose son Anders is Britain’s largest private landowner, with 220,000 acres of Scotland under his belt.

Phillips’s spokesman tells me that he and Holch Povlsen ‘have been friends for a number of years’.

In 2021 Phillips divorced from Autumn Kelly, and he parted from girlfriend Lindsay Wallace earlier this year. His latest girlfriend is Harriet Sperling, an NHS nurse.

Perhaps the property world will enable him to repeat one of his biggest ever paydays – organising the not-for-profit Patron’s Lunch for Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday in 2016. It was a triumph for which yet another of his companies, Sel UK Ltd, was paid £750,000.

Pregnant Bo gives us a peep into life at 40 

Blue-blooded pop singer Bo Bruce has just turned 40, but that won’t be the only milestone on her mind.

I hear the Earl of Cardigan’s estranged daughter, and former finalist on TV talent contest The Voice, is also pregnant – with a new album in the works, too. 

Bo, aka Lady Catherine Brudenell-Bruce, confirmed the happy news by sharing a photo of herself, heavily pregnant, online.

‘New things that currently need birthing... another album, another baby,’ she writes.

The smart set's talking about... How celebrity favourite Soho Farmhouse really is a hotspot! 

Soho Farmhouse likes to be seen as the hottest venue in the Cotswolds, but this Christmas it really is on fire.

I hear that food service had to be suspended after a wood-fired pizza oven sparked a blaze at the private members’ club, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed twice before their wedding, and Meghan held her hen weekend. Firefighters put out the blaze.

‘It’s a bloody nightmare,’ wails a member. ‘Lots of people around here don’t know how to cook and were banking on Soho Farmhouse.’ The incident follows flooding caused by Storm Bert last month that led to the temporary closure of its Asian restaurant, Pen Yen.

A spokesman is keen to play down the most recent incident. ‘There was a small, contained kitchen chimney fire but member and guest experience is not affected, with all eating and drinking spaces open including Pen Yen,’ the spokesman says. 

‘Soho Farmhouse is open and will welcome members and guests over the Christmas period.’

Rushdie girl's dress drama

It's not, by far, the biggest difficulty her family has faced in recent years, but Natalie Rushdie has wardrobe trouble.

The singer, 38, who’s married to novelist Sir Salman Rushdie’s son Zafar, tells me: ‘I always have sagas in trying to find the right dress for performances.’

She wore a white embellished gown (left) by bridal designer Eliza Jane Howell at Blood Cancer UK’s Christmas carol service at

St Paul’s Cathedral, but says it was tricky to find.

‘It’s hard to get a dress that isn’t a size eight or ten,’ she says. ‘I’m not going to conform. I like food so I’m not going to lose weight just to get into a dress.’

JK Rowling conjures up a tidy £11million profit

Harry Potter film stars have, ungratefully, distanced themselves from the books’ author, J.K. Rowling, with Rupert Grint calling her an embarrassing ‘auntie’ because of her trans views.

Yet she continues to laugh all the way to the bank. I hear she conjured up £90 million worth of business from her magical brand’s digital and theatrical activities.

The sales are reported in new accounts filed at Companies House for the year to March. They comprise £49 million in turnover at global digital audiobook and ebook publisher Pottermore, plus £41 million at HPCC Group into which worldwide theatrical box-office receipts are channelled.

After accounting for expenses, an £11 million profit was returned across both firms combined.

(Very) modern manners

He found fame on reality TV show Castaway in 2000, but Ben Fogle doubts whether he would have the right physique to win a place on such a programme nowadays.

The adventurer, 51, says: ‘If you look at what you need to stand out now, you have to have a pretty ripped six-pack. I was very lucky.’

Polo star Rob's stable relationship 

Horse racing pundit Francesca Cumani’s work in Britain led to her divorce from Australian polo star Rob Archibald, who remained Down Under.

Now, I hear, Rob has got engaged to leading horse trainer Annabel Neasham. They became close after Annabel, 34, employed Rob, 40, as her assistant trainer at her stables in New South Wales.

Annabel is British, but moved to Australia after ‘falling in love’ with the country, as she put it.

‘They hit it off right away,’ a pal tells me. ‘They’re very loved-up.’

Rob has an eight-year-old son with Newmarket-born Francesca, 41, the daughter of trainer Luca Cumani.

She went on to have two more children with her boyfriend, Ironman triathlete Max Johnson, 39.

As Sir Paul McCartney prepares to celebrate Christmas, his children are looking forward to one particular cocktail.

‘We are all helping,’ his daughter Mary, a photographer, says of the preparations for the big day. ‘Dad is good at prep and he is in charge of the drinks. He makes the best margarita cocktails. I love them. We call them “Macca-ritas”.’

Gyles Brandeth, who used to amuse Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, has some advice for the festive season. 

‘We’ve stopped playing Monopoly, because it ends in tears,’ admits the presenter and former Tory MP, 76, who has been married to his wife Michele since 1973. 

Their three children include Aphra Brandreth, who was elected as Tory MP for Chester South and Eddisbury this year. 

‘The subjects of sex, politics and religion should be avoided,’ Gyles adds. ‘I know Christmas is a religious festival, but don’t talk about religion. Politics upsets people. And don’t talk about sex – because it could be too exciting for some people, and not exciting enough for others.’