Tim Horlick takes £255million secrets with him to the grave...

She was the high-flying fund manager who simultaneously brought up six children, earning herself the sobriquet 'Superwoman'. By contrast, Nicola Horlick's husband, Tim, was seemingly content to live in her shadow.

Or was he? Perhaps only now will the dynamics of their 21-year marriage, which ended acrimoniously in 2005, gradually emerge, accompanied by a true insight into the scale of Tim Horlick's ambition. 

For I can disclose that he died this week, aged 65, at London's Royal Trinity Hospice after falling ill earlier this summer. Two of his daughters, I understand, were with him.

His death seems certain to intensify examination of the extraordinary – and controversial – transformation of his personal fortune, achieved in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

That was when his company, Ayanda Capital, was awarded a £255million Department of Health contract for personal protective equipment (PPE), even though it had never previously supplied such goods to anyone, specialising instead in currency trading, private equity and offshore property.

The deal helped Ayanda – whose only directors at the time were Horlick and his son-in-law, Nathan Engelbrecht – to achieve profits of £38million in two years, even though 50million of the PPE masks it supplied were deemed faulty.

When, in 2023, I revealed that Horlick had treated himself to a property in Switzerland, a friend of his assured me that there was 'absolutely no connection at all' with the fabulously lucrative PPE contract which Ayanda had secured. 'It's all funded from Tim's personal assets,' insisted the chum.

HMRC did not agree. In 2024, after Horlick had further beefed up his portfolio – splashing out £8.5million on a three-bedroom flat in Pimlico, south-west London – he was arrested following investigations by HMRC's anti fraud team focusing on income received during the pandemic.

It was reported that millions of pounds in tax allegedly remained unpaid.

Later, a criminal restraint order was imposed on the Pimlico property, blocking any attempt to sell it. Horlick, who, by then, had overseen extensive refurbishment on it, reportedly denied any wrongdoing.

Engelbrecht resigned as a director of Ayanda Capital in 2023. The following year, he paid £7.4million for a house in Kensington.

Horlick's ex-wife, Nicola, does not respond to my inquiries.

She married financial journalist Martin Baker in 2006, but their happiness was cut cruelly short when he died of prostate cancer in 2022. 

Davina gives hairdresser husband a clip!

Davina McCall's husband appears to be in the dog house already, just eight months after their wedding. 

Hair stylist Michael Douglas recently said they both had 'five years' left before bowing out. TV star Davina, 58, clarifies firmly: 'He's thinking about hanging up his scissors – I'm not hanging up the microphone.'

Explaining how the story got out, she adds: 'Michael did somebody's hair and he was saying in five years' time he'd like to stop being a hairdresser.'

Douglas had said: 'We've got five years of hard work left in us. Then it's time for us to relax and enjoy all of that hard work. Davina will be about 62 and I'll be around 58. There comes a point where you think, 'When do we actually sit back and enjoy everything we've worked so hard for?' Probably best to have checked with Davina first! 

Heavy metal cult at heart of power?

Is Westminster home to a secret society of headbangers? Iron Maiden's manager Rod Smallwood recalls the late Conservative MP Mike Weatherley was, 'a huge metal fan who always wore his Maiden T-shirt under his shirt in the House of Commons'. Smallwood hoped a Tory metal alliance would help the band put ticket-scalping websites like Viagogo out of business. 

Mike fixed me meetings with Sir John Whittingdale [then chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee]. John is a Maiden fan with the art for our album The Number Of The Beast on his wall in his office at the House.' Only fitting – Whittingdale used to work as political adviser to the original Iron Maiden, Margaret Thatcher.

Dunbar's girl marks year of sobriety 

Line Of Duty star Adrian Dunbar's daughter Madeleine is a singer and actress who revealed her battle with addiction, ADHD and substance abuse last year in a track she released called Dopamine.

Now, she's celebrating 12 months of sobriety. Speaking online, Madeleine, 37, declares: 'One year no alcohol or mind-altering substances.' 

The singer, whose mother is Dutch-Australian actress Anna Nygh, performs under the stage name MINX. She gave birth to her first child in 2021. 

Kerching… Royal gift shop pays Camilla's sister 

When he controlled the Duchy of Cornwall as Prince of Wales, King Charles made sure to use the services of Queen Camilla's sister, Annabel Elliot, 77, an interior designer. 

Now Prince William is in charge of the Duchy, his sister in-law is being paid instead by the Royal Collection Trust – the charity which looks after the King's private art collection. Trust accounts disclose that Annabel's business was paid £9,000 in the last financial year. A trust spokesman says the payment was for work on a Windsor Castle gift shop. 

In 2022, her company was paid £20,000 for finding and purchasing furniture for properties in the Duchy. Since William took over, it's not received a penny.