EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Mayfair gallery owner Tim Jefferies, whose exes include Koo Stark, Elle Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer, faces bankruptcy after petition by HMRC
One of society’s smoothest talkers, Tim Jefferies numbers top models Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer and Sophie Dahl among his ex-girlfriends.
He will, however, need more than a silver tongue to extricate himself from this spot of bother.
I can disclose that the taxman has issued a legal claim against Jefferies, 63, in a bid to make the Mayfair gallery owner bankrupt.
He married Prince Andrew’s ex-girlfriend Koo Stark when he was 21 and she was 28. The same year he received a £500,000 settlement – enough to buy ten London houses in those days – from his grandfather Richard Tompkins, who introduced Green Shield stamps to Britain and founded the Argos chain.
His marriage to Koo lasted barely a year and he went on to have relationships with numerous models as well as pop star Kylie Minogue.
Unusually, he managed to remain friends with his exes. ‘I’ve been very fortunate that there’s never been any ill will or unpleasantness,’ he said.
In 2008, he married Malin Johansson, a Swedish model 15 years his junior, in a ceremony at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and they have two children. However, the couple separated in 2019, as I revealed at the time.
I can disclose that the taxman has issued a legal claim against Jefferies, 63, in the middle, in a bid to make the Mayfair gallery owner bankrupt, writes Richard Eden
He married Prince Andrew’s ex-girlfriend Koo Stark, pictured, when he was 21 and she was 28, writes Richard Eden
He had previously insisted that his raffish past was behind him. ‘I lived a life back then that most single thirty-something men dream of and it was terrific fun,’ he said in 2013. ‘But I have entered a new phase, I am embracing family life; I have two adorable children and it’s utterly blissful, I couldn’t be any happier.’
Jefferies runs Hamiltons Gallery, where he could sell a single photograph for a six-figure sum. Latest accounts for the gallery report that it holds stock worth £4.3million but figures from another of his companies, Hamilton’s Fine Art, showed current assets of just £120 for the last year that accounts are available.
HM Revenue & Customs has filed a High Court bankruptcy application against Jefferies at his home in west London.
His spokesman tells me: ‘Mr Jefferies is discussing the matter with HMRC and is confident that this will be resolved to their satisfaction shortly.’
Danielle and a rather raunchy Widow...
Is the BBC taking drastic measures to avoid future MeToo scandals, writes Richard Eden. Picture: opera star Danielle de Niese
Is the BBC taking drastic measures to avoid future MeToo scandals?
I ask only because opera star Danielle de Niese has revealed that a blow-up sex doll was used instead of an actress in a production of The Merry Widow to be screened on the BBC on Christmas Day.
In one racy scene, a woman is seen romping with a man from behind a frosted window.
On the orders of director Cal McCrystal, the role of the woman was taken by an inflatable. ‘Cal changed it to a blow-up doll because he did not want there to be any question about whether any woman was being manhandled in that way behind the pavilion,’ De Niese reveals at a screening at the Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge.
‘So he said, “Let’s go into straight-out comedy and we will make it obvious”. I think that is really wise, actually.’
I always knew the BBC was full of dummies . . .
Spencer's Strictly 'no'
Queen Camilla is among keen fans of Strictly, but Earl Spencer, pictured, declines to show off his fancy footwork in public
Queen Camilla is among keen fans of Strictly, but Earl Spencer declines to show off his fancy footwork in public.
Princess Diana’s brother tells me he turned down the chance to compete on the BBC One show.
‘I absolutely refused,’ the historian says at Author’s Night at Hatchards, the London bookshop.
‘It took me a nanosecond to say, “No”. I thought I would spare the nation seeing me as a sweaty apparition.’
His friend and fellow podcaster Richard Coles is Down Under competing on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here!
‘I would never do a reality show like that,’ Charles Spencer shudders.
‘For a start, I hate rats and heights.’
Another fashion atrocity in the House of Commons from the new intake of MPs.
Brian Leishman, Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, was to be seen on Monday in brown chinos, brown trainers and jazzy socks.
Leishman is a former golf-club pro. Perhaps he didn’t have time to change after a morning on the fairways?
Meanwhile, a housing minister, Alex Norris, distinguished himself by answering questions at the despatch box with a hand in pocket. A picture of ennui!
Stylish Vick is actually a jolly clever sew and so
TV presenter Vick Hope’s mum has found a way to cash in on her daughter’s fashion sense, writes Richard Eden
The former Strictly star, 35, pictured, tells me that her mother, Adeline Nwosu, has created a lucrative business selling her clothes online, writes Richard Eden
TV presenter Vick Hope’s mum has found a way to cash in on her daughter’s fashion sense.
The former Strictly star, 35, tells me that her mother, Adeline Nwosu, has created a lucrative business selling her clothes online.
‘I had a massive clear-out and my mum will take whatever she can get,’ Vick says at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. ‘I gave her loads of my old clothes for my cousins and nieces in Nigeria, but she’s also put loads of clothes on Vinted. She is earning quite well from it.’
The Cambridge graduate, wife of DJ Calvin Harris, created her outfit, right, for this year’s ceremony: ‘It’s a vintage Chanel dress I chopped up and turned into a pair of knickers and a jumper.’ Surely a stint on The Great British Sewing Bee beckons...
Scarcely has the BBC pulled Gregg Wallace, pictured, from its festive schedules than others are throwing their hats into the ring to replace him as a MasterChef host
Scarcely has the BBC pulled Gregg Wallace from its festive schedules than others are throwing their hats into the ring to replace him as a MasterChef host.
Restaurateur Robert Walton, 68, the ‘godfather of hospitality’, believes he’s the ideal candidate to replace the former greengrocer.
‘I love the idea of working on TV,’ he tells me at the Restaurant Association’s gala awards dinner at The Savoy in London.
‘I can deliver, and I’m a safe pair of hands.’
He adds: ‘I don’t know Gregg, but I know John Torode pretty well.’
