Richard Eden's recent articles

When the Sussexes moved to California in 2020 they were expected to become a 'power couple' with their own 'court' of admiring celebrities desperate to share their limelight. Instead - as was evident last night when Meghan did not join Prince Harry on his visit to New York - they are pursuing increasingly separate working lives. He was in the city - his second solo visit in little more than two months - for a party to celebrate the opening of an art exhibition, called Friend, at the Ki Smith Gallery, to raise money for Sentebale, the African charity he founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho. Meghan's absence was notable because Sentebale - which helps children come to terms with having HIV or AIDS - is a cause close to Harry's heart. Nor did she accompany him when he visited Lesotho with the charity in October. Last night, the prince's wife was more than 2,000 miles away, attending the Paley Honors Fall Gala in Los Angeles in support of her friend, filmmaker Tyler Perry. ...read

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Scripted 'reality' television show Made In Chelsea doesn't have a patch on this. I hear that a new book, written by a property consultant based in the wealthy corner of west London, has caused the Chelsea set to splutter on their champagne. Author Michelle van Tulder has socialites in the royal borough quaking in their Louboutins with Table 72: The Girl Without A Filter. It chronicles the life of a school-run mother, Charlotte, as she lunches with her closest friends at The Restaurant in the King's Road, which is based on van Tulder's favourite table at The Ivy Chelsea Garden. The cast of characters includes 'gym-buddy bunny' Azam; 'sexy feline aristocrat' Rose; 'ice-cool maneater' Vanya; and Mary, a 'mildly scandalous ex-socialite fashionista'. Fearful that their dirty laundry is about to be washed in public, locals are trying to ascertain if any of the characters could be based on people they know. 'It's the talk of the town,' artist Ghizlan El Glaoui tells me. 'People around here are worried their secrets are going to be in the book, their dinner party invitations will be cancelled so close to Christmas and coffee morning chat has gone stratospheric. It's all everybody is talking about at the school gates. Even I'm worried I might end up in the book.' Former Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh tells me: 'You want to see if you can spot anyone you know. I don't think I'm in it, but I'm trying to guess who the characters are based on.' One of the husbands in the book absconds to the US after losing the family home and all their savings on the stock market, another has an affair with his nanny, while a third cheats on his wife with his personal assistant. ...read