Sam Palmer, the husband of Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone, has raised concerns about his health, revealing a troubling dependency on a ‘magic pill’ that helped him maintain a slim figure despite indulging in alcohol and junk food.

The 42-year-old property developer was taken aback when medical assessments indicated he was on the brink of a heart attack, even as a diabetes ‘wonder drug’ kept his weight in check.

“At 42, with four children, I can’t afford to take risks with my health,” Palmer confessed. “I’ve been relying on Metformin, this so-called magic tablet, which has allowed me to bypass the consequences of an unhealthy diet.”

Prescribed to manage his pre-diabetes, Metformin seemed to offer Palmer a false sense of security about his lifestyle choices.

“I’ve been able to overindulge without my weight fluctuating much,” he explained. “However, taking testosterone means I regularly need blood tests, and the results are alarming. I’m dangerously close to a heart attack, with skyrocketing cholesterol levels.”

Petra Ecclestone’s husband of nearly four years, Sam Palmer, says the pill he was prescribed for diabetes – Metformin – allowed him to get away with eating unhealthily

Since moving from Los Angeles to Dubai with his family two months ago, Palmer admits he has been in a perpetual ‘holiday mode,’ a lifestyle that has taken a toll on his health. His marriage to Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter last year marked a new chapter for the Essex native, but it also seems to have heralded an era of unchecked indulgence.

The West Ham fan adds: ‘I don’t drink most days. When I drink, though, I am a binge drinker. Sometimes I’ve gone to watch the football, but I’ve watched three games. In the space of six, seven hours, I’ve probably had ten, 11 pints.’

Sam, who has a four-year-old daughter, Minnie, with Petra and is stepfather to her three children from her marriage to James Stunt, says the health scare has forced him to confront his mortality.

No way in hell! Elba’s girl gives Love Island bosses the elbow

Her father, Sir Idris Elba, was knighted in King Charles’s New Year Honours list.

But one ‘honour’ Isan Elba was quick to reject was the chance to compete on Love Island.

‘For the past few years, without fail, I have been invited to go on Love Island,’ says the actress, 24. ‘They have even offered for me to skip the line and go straight to the final interview. That is exactly why I would never go on Love Island.’

Isan Elba, pictured this month in New York, says she has been repeatedly invited to go on Love Island for the past few years

Sir Idris Elba’s daughter Isan is an aspiring actress, but says she would be ‘too awkward’ to kiss someone on camera in front of millions – as other Love Island stars do

Isan, who grew up in London and is the daughter of the actor’s first wife, make-up artist Hanne Nørgaard, explains: ‘Those challenges are a humiliation ritual. There is no way in hell I could be practically naked, making out with multiple people in front of millions of viewers…

‘I am too awkward to kiss somebody on camera, let alone give lap dances.’

She adds: ‘Number two, I’m a man hater. There is no way that I’d be putting up with the BS that the men do on that show. I would be cussing everybody out, and that is not good for the brand.

‘It takes a certain type of personality to go on that show.’

While the BBC’s broadcast of a racial slur dominated headlines after the Bafta awards, actress Jameela Jamil is alarmed by something else at the ceremony.

‘The women at the Baftas were scarily thin… it’s a specifically fragile type of thin,’ she says. ‘I resent this beauty standard being pushed on everyone, I resent the obedience of my industry, and fear the impact on impressionable people at home thinking that this is the only way to be accepted.’

Olympic hero Daley Thompson’s gym business faces a knock-out blow from the taxman.

I hear that HMRC is seeking a winding-up order against Daleyfitness Weekenders, a business he registered in 2013. Latest available accounts show that the firm owed almost £120,000 in 2022. 

The decathlon star, 67, who called some fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestants ‘rats’ after he exited last year, won gold at the Olympics in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984.

Thompson’s remembered as one of the greatest all-round athletes in the world with his demanding sport showcasing ten different disciplines including a 100m sprint, shot put, long jump, discus throw, pole vault and javelin.

Poldark star: I grew up with addict mum

Poldark star Gabriella Wilde has revealed that her childhood was blighted by her mother’s battle with addiction.

Actress Gabriella Wilde revealed she had a challenging childhood, due to her mother’s ongoing struggles with mental health and addiction

Her mother, Vanessa Hubbard, did not get sober until Gabriella was 15

The actress, 36, is the daughter of model Vanessa Hubbard and businessman John Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe. Vanessa, pictured right, was previously married to ‘Seducer of the Valleys’ baronet Sir Dai Llewellyn.

‘My mother really struggled,’ says Gabriella. ‘She felt lost and found it difficult to find her path in the rules that exist in the world and she struggled with addiction and mental health problems throughout my childhood. 

‘She finally turned the corner and got sober and well when I was 15.’

Gabriella, who has three sons with husband Alan Pownall, spoke on the podcast Lessons From Our Mothers, hosted by half-sisters Cressida Bonas and Isabella Branson.

Time to wield the axe – that’s Queen Camilla’s view as she contemplates the future, briskly concluding that matters would be improved if the dead wood were cut out once and for all.

Anyone doubting her intentions should keep an eye on proceedings at Ray Mill, the house she bought in 1996 for £850,000, following her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles. It’s there that the Queen is plotting the chop for a thick-girthed thing which is ‘showing signs of deterioration’ – not to mention overshadowing the younger generation. I refer, of course, to a cypress tree. Eager to topple it but aware that it’s in a conservation area, HM is now seeking permission from her local council – while wishing that all life’s problems could be so simply resolved?

She shed a staggering 11 stone despite eschewing weight loss drugs. But The Great British Bake Off and This Morning presenter Alison Hammond, 51, is now piling on the pounds. Nothing to do with her culinary regimen – it’s her company bank balance which has swollen. 

I can disclose that she now has more than £1 million tucked away in Alison Hammond Ltd. Newly published accounts report that its takings topped £1.3million before accounting for bills in the year to last May.

Quite a rake-off.