Charles Spencer gets emotional as he talks about Princess Diana after Harry’s peace summit
Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has released an emotional statement as he talks about ‘lovely memories of my much missed sister.’
He shared the statement on his social media handles including X, formerly Twitter.
Prince William and Harry’s uncle tweeted, “Althorp is open throughout July & August, attracting people from all over the world.”
He further said on Saturday he met lovely international visitors from: Arkansas, Baton Rouge, Brisbane, Colombo (SL), Cork, Los Angeles, Manila, New Jersey, Pretoria (SA), and Riga – as well as Brits from Chelmsford, Dudley, North Yorkshire, Taunton and Rugby.
“My father used to keep a map, with pins to mark where Althorp’s more distant visitors haled from. It’s amazing that this old patch of Northamptonshire attracts so many charming people – to see the house,” Charles Spencer continued.
He also got emotional while speaking about sister Princess Diana, saying “while many have such lovely memories of my much missed sister. With thanks to all who kindly choose to come here.”
Charles Spencer statement came days after reports Prince Harry’s aides held a peace summit with the representatives of King Charles.
However, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s representatives did not join.
Tom Cruise ditches VIP perks to enjoy Oasis reunion concert
Oasis has been drawing A-listers to their historic reunion tour with the latest big name joining the list is Tom Cruise.
After nabbing a huge number of tickets, the Mission: Impossible star chose to enjoy the show with the crowd of 90,000 attendees rather than joining many celebrities in a hospitality box at Wembley Stadium.
In a video shared by rapper Goldie from the Friday, July 25 concert, Cruise, 63, was seen with her rumoured love interest Ana De Armas.
Reportedly, while millions of fans scrambled for tickets to the reunion with many limited to just four per person, the Top Gun actor reportedly pulled some strings.
It’s said that he managed to secure up to 20 tickets so he could bring a group of friends along.
“Tom is excited to see the gig, and his friends were thrilled he was able to offer them tickets too,” a source told the Mirror.
While Cruise enjoyed the concert with friends on Friday, Dua Lipa and her fiancé Callum Turner attended the show the following day.
The Grammy winner and the Masters of the Air star were spotted singing their hearts out to one of the band’s most iconic tracks, Don’t Look Back in Anger, during the band’s concert on Saturday, July 26.
Selena Gomez has shared an early look at her wedding menu preferences, revealing both her dessert choice and what she plans to avoid when she marries fiancé Benny Blanco.
In a new video clip released by her beauty brand Rare Beauty, Gomez said, “I do know I don’t want a big cake,” when asked about the wedding food she envisions.
The singer and actress explained she prefers a more modest option: “I think I’d want a mini one for just us that we can freeze.”
Gomez also named her preferred dessert — her grandmother’s biscuits and gravy. “My Nana’s biscuits and gravy,” she said. “That sounds like dessert to me.”
Gomez and Blanco announced their engagement in December 2024. However, the couple have not yet begun detailed planning for their wedding, as confirmed by Blanco during a July 10 appearance on the Therapuss with Jake Shane podcast.
He cited conflicting work schedules, stating they have been “working on so many things that we hadn’t even had time to get into it.”
Blanco added that they may set aside time over the summer to begin planning. As for the overall tone of the event, Blanco said he believes it “will be, like, chill.”
Gomez and Blanco have often spoken publicly about their shared interest in food. Blanco previously told PEOPLE that he often creates personalised meals for Gomez and advises others to cook for their partners as a sign of affection.
Prince Harry pal gives positive update about King Charles reunion
Prince Harry and King Charles are finally making progress in their ongoing rift after five years on constant back and forth.
As Buckingham Palace and Montecito commence negotiations to finally end the rift, Harry’s close friend expressed optimism about the much-anticipated reunion between the father and son.
In a report published by Mail on Sunday, it was revealed that Harry has offered to share his diary engagements with the royal family in a bid to build trust and “deconflict” the situation.
Sources shared that there is also hope that Harry and his cancer-stricken father could be meeting face-to-face in the near future. A close pal of the Duke of Sussex shared affirmed it to the publication.
“Harry hopes to see his dad later this year, or next year,” the friend said about Harry’s upcoming UK visit in September. “Things are moving in the right direction but, as always with the Royal Family, they are doing so at a glacial pace.”
They continued, “But at least all is going in the right direction and that meet up will happen eventually. “The right people are still talking to one another with that in mind.”
Prince Harry will coming back to London for three days in late September to promote the children’s charity WellChild, which he has continued to support despite his exit from the royal family.
Travis Kelce has posted multiple images of Taylor Swift to Instagram, signalling a new phase in their relationship. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end shared 13 photos in total, seven of which included Swift.
According to a source speaking exclusively to PEOPLE, the post was “intentional” and “his way of showing how serious things have become.” While the couple began dating in September 2023, this marks the first time Kelce has included Swift in his Instagram feed.
“They’re in a really solid place and more in sync than ever,” the source added.
The images feature the couple in various settings, including a boat, a restaurant in matching outfits, and during a trip to Montana with friends. One of the photos shows Kelce’s phone lock screen, a black-and-white image of the couple.
The caption read: “Had some adventures this offseason, kept it 💯,” with appearances from family members, including his brother Jason Kelce and mother Donna Kelce.
Swift previously posted a photo including Kelce on June 22 2024, from her Wembley Stadium performance, which also featured members of the British royal family.
The post has drawn supportive comments from figures such as teammate Patrick Mahomes and entertainer Flavor Flav.
Ghanaians are mourning one of the country’s best known singers, Charles Kojo Fosu, known as Daddy Lumba, who has died aged 60.
A statement from the family of the legendary highlife artist said he died in hospital on Saturday after a short illness.
Daddy Lumba, whose musical career spanned almost four decades, “was a cultural icon and his music touched countless lives”, the statement said.
Kofi Okyere-Darko, director of diaspora affairs at the office of the president, described Daddy Lumba as “the greatest from Ghana in the last 100 years”.
Daddy Lumba inspired many young Ghanaian musicians to pursue highlife music – a genre synonymous with the country.
He is credited with 33 albums and more than 200 songs over his long career, touching on themes such as love, forgiveness, beauty, money, death and other social themes.
President John Mahama paid tribute to him on Sunday with a post on Facebook.
“Lumba’s unmatched musical genius provided the soundtrack to our lives, carrying us through various phases of life,” he wrote. “The beats to his memorable songs may have died down, but his enduring legacy will echo through the ages.”
Meanwhile former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said “his passing is indeed a huge blow not only to the music fraternity but the entire country”.
Fellow artists such as Sarkodie, Guru, Sista Afia, M.anifest were among the first to send condolences to the bereaved family, eulogising the “incredible talent he shared with the world”.
Lumba last held a public concert to mark Valentine’s Day on 15 February 2025 to celebrate love, sharing the stage with some of Ghana’s brightest musicians, with many of the country’s politicians and influential people in attendance.
Earlier this month, he met President Mahama at an event organised for senior citizens at the seat of government as part of celebrations to mark the Republic Day holiday.
He had been due to go on tour to the US and Canada later this year.
His most celebrated albums include Sika Sem, Aben Wo Ha, Wo Ho Kyere, Awosoo, Give Peace A Chance and Ahenfue Kyinkye.
His most recent song, Ofon Na Edi Asem Fo, was released in December 2022.
Lumba, born on 29 September 1964 in the town of Nsuta in Ghana’s Ashanti region, began his music journey in the early 1980s.
He got his stage name Lumba when he composed the song Lumba Lumba, which he dedicated to the freedom fighters of South Africa, according to his official website.
Daddy Lumba travelled to Germany and teamed up with fellow highlife musician Nana Acheampong and the duo became known as the Lumba Brothers.
They released their first official album, Yee Ye Aka Akwantuom, in 1986 – the song of the same name captures the struggles of Ghanaian immigrants in Europe searching for a better life.
After the pair fell out and split, Daddy Lumba launched a solo career and released his first album Obi Ate Meso Bio in 1990 and never looked back.
His family has requested privacy “as they navigate this profound grief”.
Details of funeral arrangements will be made public in the coming days.
Voting record Labour for many years. He didn’t vote for Brexit, but voted Conservative in 2019 to “just get it done and let all the crap happen”. He has voted Green because of climate change, and most recently for Reform
Amuse bouche His hobby is paragliding. A few hours before meeting Oliver he was flying over the Yorkshire Dales
Oliver, 39, Leeds
Occupation English-language examiner and Labour councillor
Voting record Labour
Amuse bouche He was hit by lightning when he was a toddler, indoors, standing by a metal sink. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t remember it
For starters
Andrew It was nerve-racking, like a blind date. You don’t want to appear to be the arsehole, but you do want to get your point across. I had two veggie bao buns to start, and a tomato linguine. We shared a fruity bottle of white wine, and had coffee afterwards.
Oliver I arrived feeling curious. I had a bread and olives platter and a poke salad, and we had a potato rosti on the side. A carb overload!
The big beef
Andrew Our disagreement on immigration concerned the small boats. We agreed that one of the drivers of immigration is the need for low-paid workers to do jobs that people don’t want to do. You can pay £2,000 a week for dementia care, and yet the person looking after the patient is paid the minimum wage. It’s easier for corporations to lobby for higher levels of immigration than pay a fair wage.
OliverPeople can feel undercut if unscrupulous employers basically use people as cheap labour. Andrew wasn’t blaming individuals. He could see why people would do it. But, equally, I can absolutely see why somebody who’s working in a lower-paid job or who’s got a particular trade can feel undercut.
Andrew My point was: why don’t people use the legal routes? I didn’t realise that, even when someone does apply through a legal asylum process, it can take five years to get settled in the new country. Some of the situations people are in mean they’re going to be dead in about a year. So I don’t blame them for coming over that way. I’d do the same.
Oliver Immigration and refugee protection systems, nationally and internationally, are struggling to keep up with criminal gangs, which have identified a clear demand and make vast amounts of money.
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Andrew I have concerns about the treatment of women and gay people in Muslim-majority countries – it’s completely out of kilter with how we do it. Before meeting Oliver, I assumed that if you’re found out to be gay in Saudi, you die.
Oliver I think Andrew would want to see more Muslim figures publicly stating their support for LGBTQ+ rights. As a gay man who has worked for five years in Saudi Arabia and for three years in Kurdistan, Iraq, I feel that it’s more nuanced. It depends on the particular community – there’s no such thing as one Muslim ideology, just as there’s no such thing as one Christian ideology.
For afters
Oliver We talked about Lucy Connolly, the Tory councillor’s wife who was jailed for calling for asylum seekers’ hotels to be set on fire after the Southport killings. What she wrote was horrific, and caused real terror to people inside hotels, who had already had pretty traumatic experiences. There should be consequences for things that people post online, if it incites harm or hatred against people.
Andrew A sentence of 31 months seems a bit harsh. I’m not saying she’s innocent; she deleted her tweet after four hours and it had a quarter of a million views. But they’ve not left themselves any wiggle room. Kneecap allegedly said “Kill your local MP” during a show, and MPs have been killed in the past – they didn’t face charges, but should they then have been given 31 months?
Takeaways
Andrew The biggest thing I’ll take away is that the legal route to claim asylum doesn’t work. I hadn’t appreciated how long it takes and how difficult it is.
Oliver It’s really important to have respectful conversations with people with different perspectives – and to listen to the emotion and the experience behind their opinions, not simply jump to a conclusion about what kind of person holds it.
Additional reporting: Kitty Drake
Andrew and Oliver ate at The Lock Kitchen, Bar and Terrace in Leeds
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One morning in February last year, I received an urgent call from the journalist Paul Burston, alerting me to alarming recent social media posts by a mutual friend, the poet and former model Max Wallis.
It seemed he had left his London flat in deep distress and was headed to a bridge. Our best guess was the Millennium footbridge by St Paul’s Cathedral. Then we heard that Max might have taken refuge inside the cathedral. While I scanned gaggles of tourists in the nave, he was intercepted and removed by ambulance. I was relieved to get a message later that evening that he was safe.
We’d met more than a decade before at an event on the South Bank for the Polari prize, set up by Burston to showcase new LGBTQ+ writers. I and the other judges had shortlisted Wallis’s collection Modern Love. Though the eventual winner was John McCullough, we stayed in touch, going on regular excursions: to Wilderness festival, to readings, to a rooftop art installation in Shoreditch. And always talking about poetry – writing it, reading it, thinking about it, critiquing it.
Now, he tells me about the poetry magazine that emerged from the dark period of addiction that followed his early success. “I lost 12 years of my life, maybe more,” he says over a video call. “The magazine came about from me saying: ‘I have to do something this year; my brain is on fire and it’s running like a hamster wheel.’ I wanted to corral the chaos: how can I find meaning from the ruins of my life?”
After his breakdown, he retreated home to Lancashire. “I had moved in with a friend because I messaged my parents before I went into hospital, saying never talk to me ever again. Instead they opened their arms. My parents were just phenomenal.”
The first imperative was to become clean and sober. He was diagnosed with ADHD and complex PTSD, and gradually rebuilt his life: the first trip into town, getting on a train, taking a driving lesson. But during this period he also rediscovered his craft, channelling his trauma into a memoir and new poems.
“I was a poet all this time but I’d forgotten, essentially. I’m 35 but I almost feel like I’m 21. I have had to learn everything again. In order to be sober, and to get better from PTSD, you sit with the awful emotions that you feel, and you don’t drink or take drugs; you get through the day and move on.”
He started submitting to magazines, but since the new work was themed around breakdown and recovery, Wallis thought only a few poems would get published. With energy to spare (at least on the good days), he began to imagine what a space specifically for trauma poetry could look like. If poetry saved his life, perhaps it could help others. The idea of The Aftershock Review was born.
A poet friend, Anna Percy, had experience of publishing poetry zines in the lively Manchester scene. “No disrespect to those,” Wallis says. “I love zines, but I was thinking bigger, nationwide, book-sized.” Rather than photocopying, he started researching printers. Percy and I joined the magazine as contributing editors and sounding boards, and Wallis put the word out for submissions. Work poured in: from poets who were disabled, disadvantaged, ill, excluded in various ways. The reference anthology was Al Alvarez’s electrifying The New Poetry, which launched Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton to an enthralled readership; Bloodaxe’s Staying Alive series was also hugely admired. “It’s not a pity project,” Wallis insists, calling it “literature forged from survival”.
Established poets were eager to submit, alongside rising stars and unknown writers. Inua Ellams’s “Fuck” poems meld rage, wit and social commentary; Rhian Elizabeth’s Amsterdam states baldly “girl loses her father, girl loses her mind”; Golnoosh Nour’s Burnt Divinities celebrates her heritage: “the glorious / mixture of glitter and garbage”.
The Faber poet and Spectator poetry editor Hugo Williams contributed a sardonic and atypical piece, The Art Scene, which mocks glib responses to trauma in contemporary art. “Max called me up and we had this instant connection,” Williams says. “He seemed different from the average literary type. This kind of writing seems to me to be improvised on the spot and kept like that. People of my generation work so hard to make it perfect, and you wish they wouldn’t!”
Aftershock, he observes, represents a jolt to the mainstream. Contributor Pascale Petit agrees, calling it “a raft to all of us suffering trauma in troubling times. Poetry this open is necessary, and I don’t think any other magazine has dared to address our personal ills so candidly.”
Gwyneth Lewis, a former national poet of Wales, points out that for ages raw, confessional poetry was looked down on as “feminine”: “I’m coming out of a long period of reckoning with lifelong maternal emotional abuse and then chronic illness. I find it deeply encouraging [to realise] that I was in the darkness with so many brilliant poets.”
In the few months of its existence, Aftershock has made an impact – with sales over £3,000, and 360,000 views on Instagram. A giant billboard on Manchester’s Deansgate is seen by thousands daily, and much more is planned for the Aftershock universe: further issues, poetry pamphlets, outreach, events. Perhaps what’s so exciting is that it has tapped into the huge energy and enthusiasm for poetry felt by young writers and readers, who recognise it can be a comfort and release. “Aftershock has given me everything,” Wallis says. “It’s proof that you can take an awful few years and make them into potentially the most astonishing year. Having not wanted to live at all … what it is to choose life over and over again. It’s incredible.”
The Aftershock Review issue one (£12.99) is available from aftershockreview.com
When I moved back to New York City, I had a series of lunches with Jackie at ‘21.’ The waiters all knew her favorite, fish Florentine, and for dessert, pistachio ice cream. We were both more relaxed now that my novel was scheduled to come out in July. Jackie talked about her children, Caroline and John. She was distressed I didn’t value motherhood more. While she admitted that of course she hadn’t been “chained to the dishwasher,” she said that motherhood was the most creative and joyful part of her life. Conversation often came back to my character Emily, a single mother raising a teenage son. Jackie was interested in Emily’s passionate nature and how it affected her parenting.
I myself am now a single mother struggling to meet my daughter’s needs as well as my own, and I realize Jackie, too, had to balance romantic relationships with motherhood. Her advice on the seriousness of parental stewardship is never far from my mind. “If you mess up your children,” she once said to me, “nothing else you do really matters.”
Not long after my book came out, I was walking down Madison Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I felt at loose ends. Jackie had told me she hoped we’d work together again but that she was busy now with next season’s authors. A postpartum depression set in; no matter how good the reviews, I felt my novel hadn’t fulfilled its promise, and to begin a new project seemed exhausting. As I ambled down the avenue I glanced into a bookstore and saw a dozen copies of Up Through the Water in the window. I went inside and asked the lanky college boy at the register about my book.
“It was totally trippy,” he told me. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had come in wearing her big black sunglasses and left a note for the manager. The manager, an older man in khakis and a blue oxford shirt, rushed over. Did I want to see it? I nodded. He returned with the familiar blue paper covered with Jackie’s long loose cursive script. “Up Through the Water is a fine first novel, which I edited myself. A case of books is winging its way to your store.”
“Of course,” the manager said, “we set up the window display as soon as the books arrived.”
I was, while grateful for the exposure, a little disappointed Jackie’s celebrity status was behind the bookstore’s enthusiasm. I didn’t identify myself as the novel’s author, just smiled, thanked the manager, and left.
Back on the street I walked to the subway station for the train that would take me back to Brooklyn. My life after publication hadn’t changed that much; I was still waitressing and worried about paying the rent. Jackie had been like a fairy godmother: Her attention was magical, but now she was off sprinkling fairy dust on somebody else. I thought of her in her dark sunglasses as she got into the back of her chauffeured sedan. Jackie’s life was both privileged and tragic, but she’d become neither jaded nor fearful. I needed to be careful. I didn’t want to be one of those unhappy people who made all the trouble in the world. I wanted to be like Jackie: a little bit imperious, endlessly enthusiastic, and full of grace.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten’s daughter Ella gets engaged
King Charles’ cousin, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, has a very special reason to celebrate his eldest daughter, Ella Mountbatten, is officially engaged.
The proud father, who recently won over international audiences as the surprise champion of The Traitors US season 3, took to Instagram to share the exciting update with royal watchers and fans alike.
Ella is a Brand Partnership Manager at the luxury Peninsula Hotels in Hong Kong, is set to marry her long-time boyfriend, Fergus Wright, a Marketing Manager at Sky Sports Racing.
Sharing a sweet snapshot of the happy couple, Ivar penned a heartwarming and a message to mark the occasion.
“I couldn’t be happier to announce the engagement of my eldest and most precious daughter Ella @ellamountbatten to her fabulous boyfriend Fergus,” he wrote.
He couldn’t resist poking fun at his future son-in-law, adding: “Ferg is not one to be rushed so I am incredibly pleased that he has finally put us all out of our misery! I know he will look after my daughter to his dying day — they couldn’t be better suited.”
The post concluded with well wishes for the bride and groom-to-be, “Enjoy this special time in your life. Much love to you both.”
Lord Ivar, who shares close ties with the British Royal Family and has been spotted alongside senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony during events like Trooping the Colour, boasts a royal lineage deeply woven into history.
He is the great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a second cousin to King Charles III.
Born to David, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, and Janet Bryce, Lord Ivar carries a noble heritage but has also made headlines for breaking new ground in royal circles.
In 2018, Lord Ivar made history as the first openly gay member of the royal family, marrying James Coyle, a director of airline cabin services, in a private ceremony that was hailed as a milestone for LGBTQ+ representation within the monarchy.
