EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: TV's Queen of Mean and Camilla's ex husband split

As the fearsome host of The Weakest Link, she would dispose of failing contestants with a cruel, ‘You are the weakest link, goodbye!’

Now, it appears, Anne Robinson may have been on the receiving end of her own dismissal, albeit delivered, no doubt, with more charm.

The television presenter, 81, is understood to have split up with her boyfriend, Andrew Parker Bowles, 86, ex-husband of Queen Camilla.

Having previously lived in the Cotswolds, home to the retired brigadier, Anne has now moved to London.

And she refers to their relationship in the past tense.

Asked if she had been going out with Parker Bowles, she says, ‘I might have done’, adding: ‘It’s very difficult to talk about a relationship where part of it is owned by somebody else, so out of politeness I don’t talk about it.’

Andrew Parker Bowles and Anne Robinson

Indeed, while Anne had said publicly that she was involved in a relationship with the father of the Queen’s two children, he has never said a word about it or been photographed with her.

Speaking on the Experience Is Everything podcast, she says: ‘I believe that real happiness is sharing a life with someone. Joan Rivers said you need somebody to go home to and talk nothing to.

‘I do miss that but, on the other hand, I don’t want to compromise, so that’s where I am, and I don’t think it’s a bad place, I’m 81, do Pilates and run. I’m not sure I can live full-time with anyone.’

Before she met Parker Bowles at a lunch with mutual friends, Anne had been single for 17 years.

The late author Jilly Cooper said the brigadier was one of the three men who inspired her caddish character Rupert Campbell-Black in the bonkbuster Riders.

Princess’s gothic fashion favourite is resurrected 

The Princess of Wales is seen wearing a dress from fashion label, The Vampire’s Wife, in 2020

This will delight the Princess of Wales: Susie Cave is reviving her fashion label, The Vampire’s Wife, which went bust in 2024. 

Catherine is one of the many prominent customers of the brand established by rock star Nick Cave’s wife. 

The princess was pictured wearing Susie’s emerald Falconetti dress on a royal visit to Dublin in 2020. 

‘We are secretly about to embark on something,’ Susie says during a conversation with Bella Freud at Cadogan Hall in Belgravia. ‘The Vampire’s Wife has just been having a little sleep, but it will rise again.’ 

The label, which she co-founded in 2014, is known for its gothic gowns. Its closure after the collapse of Matches fashion, one of its largest stockists, left Susie, 60, bereft. ‘I was thinking, “What am I going to do now?” ’ she says.

Capt Mark on young riders’ funding trials 

For Britain’s aspiring young event riders, the most daunting obstacle may no longer be on the course. 

Princess Anne’s ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips has spoken out about the costs youngsters face in representing their country. 

‘Every time I see the juniors and young riders going off to their European Championship, I’m disturbed that British Eventing’s (BE) financial situation requires our young stars to find upwards of £5,000 each to pay for the trip to represent this country,’ he says. 

Mark, 77, whose daughter is eventing Olympic medallist Zara Tindall, adds: ‘I do understand that some get some philanthropic help, but when all expenses were covered by BE there was a level playing field.’

On her first day of filming Sense And Sensibility, which is released next week, Fiona Shaw prepared to play her character Mrs Jennings, described by Jane Austen in her novel as a ‘fat, elderly woman’. 

Speaking at the Chelsea Arts Festival, the actress, 68, revealed that she told the costume designer: Surely, she’d need a fat suit. Their response? ‘No need.’ Charming!

Strictly Radebe's 'baptism of fire' 

South African dancer Johannes Radebe, 39, at the Olivier Awards earlier this year

Strictly Come Dancing’s new host Johannes Radebe has ruled out returning to the West End after admitting his first experience of musical theatre had been a ‘baptism of fire’. 

The dancer, 39, who completed a gruelling 17-week run as Lola in Kinky Boots at the London Coliseum this summer, says it put him off returning to acting. 

‘After what I experienced in the West End, I have to say that was a baptism of fire. Hard core,’ he says. ‘I respect everybody else that does it... and I’m grateful that it paid off in a massive way. But no, not any time soon.’

Having once memorably announced he was ‘forbidding’ David Cameron from expressing admiration for his 1980s band The Smiths, guitarist Johnny Marr is now happy to profit from his unwanted fan. 

The former prime minister was first criticised by Marr back in 2010 after he’d identified the Manchester band as his favourite group, choosing their song This Charming Man as one of his Desert Island Discs. 

Now auctioning off almost 100 of his instruments, Marr cheekily announces: ‘If a certain person bids for my guitar, we’re talking about some ex-prime minister, then great, I’ll make some money out of you.’

Being married to one of the world’s most celebrated novelists might intimidate another writer, but Sir Salman Rushdie’s fifth wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, insists there’s no rivalry at home. 

'We don’t compete with each other,’ says the American poet and novelist, 47, who married the Booker Prize winner, 79, in 2021. 

'Why would I compare myself to someone who is 30 years my senior, has a whole life story and environment and sensibility? Why would I compare myself in a marriage? That would be a death knell.’