Television personality Robert Peston faced profound heartbreak when his wife, acclaimed novelist Sian Busby, passed away from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 51.

Peston’s sorrow was so profound that he admitted to feeling ‘desperately guilty’ when he eventually found love again with fellow journalist Charlotte Edwardes.

Now, Peston is once more dealing with heartache, as he and Edwardes have decided to part ways.

“It’s incredibly sad, but they just couldn’t make it work anymore,” a close friend revealed.

The pair were considered one of the media scene’s ‘power couples’ in London.

Their relationship began after they reconnected at a Christmas party in 2017, having first crossed paths while working at The Sunday Telegraph. Peston once shared, “I kind of initiated things by suggesting we go out for dinner. I was extremely nervous, almost feeling like a teenager again.”

The broadcaster, 65, is ITV News’s political editor and co-hosts the weekly political discussion show Peston. He moved in with Charlotte, 50, in 2018.

She has three children with her ex-husband, while Peston has an adult son with the late Sian and a stepson from her first marriage.

Journalist Charlotte Edwards and novelist Robert Peston have split up. Peston said: ‘Charlotte and I remain very good friends’

He said Charlotte, whose debut novel Trouble Was will be published in July, ‘didn’t have a clue’ about his life before they got together. ‘The interesting thing about Charlotte was that I’m absolutely confident that, of all the women I’ve encountered over the last few years, she is the one who’s not remotely interested in me as a widower or because of what I do for a living,’ he said.

Some other women were ‘predatory’ towards him after his wife’s death, he added. ‘There is a stalky thing that happens and I think women [presenters] talk about it more than men normally, but there is definitely a stalky thing that happens for men as well, and you have to be slightly careful.’

Peston will say only: ‘Charlotte and I remain very good friends.’

She declined to comment.

Sporty Portia comes out fighting

Then husband and wife Ore and Portia Oduba at an auction in 2019. ‘I thought I was going to work in telly my whole life,’ says Portia

Strictly winner Ore Oduba’s estranged wife, Portia, revealed earlier this month that their two young children were ‘really upset’ after being told the family home had to be sold.

Now, the former TV researcher has said she’s training as a fitness instructor amid the couple’s ‘financially horrendous’ split. ‘I thought I was going to work in telly my whole life, but I had to give that up to have kids and support my husband,’ says Portia, 36. ‘I am re-training as a personal trainer. I am sporty, and my personal trainer encouraged me to do it.

‘I need something from which I can earn monthly because those bills are not going to pay themselves.’

The smart set’s talking about… 

Guinness girl’s £468 wake-up ‘biohack’ 

Society model and DJ Lady Mary Charteris’s TikTok video where she detailed her morning gut health routine to ‘biohack’ her body

They say Guinness is good for you, but one of the brewing dynasty’s glamorous scions is taking no chances.

Society model and DJ Lady Mary Charteris has revealed the astonishing £468 worth of supplements she swears by each morning in the name of ‘biohacking’, aka the latest wellness trend of boosting mind and body health.

‘I’m very interested in biohacking,’ explains Mary, 38, in a video shared online. ‘I’d like to think I’m quite healthy – but I love a sandwich, a late night and chocolate, so this is my way of counteracting it all and getting my gut, body and brain ready for the day.’

Her ritual begins with homemade kombucha – which she admits ‘looks gross’ – with warm water, lemon and mushroom powder, followed by vitamin C, nasal spray peptides for ‘hormonal health and fertility’, fibre drinks and electrolytes. Yum.

Meghan’s friend Jameela terrified after fleeing attack

‘A man crept up right behind me and attempted to grab me,’ reveals The Good Place star and friend of Meghan Sussex, Jameela Jamil 

A quick walk to the nearest convenience store ended in a terrifying encounter for actress Jameela Jamil.

‘At 6.30pm I went for a walk to get some tea bags. A man crept up right behind me and attempted to grab me,’ reveals The Good Place star, 40. ‘It was dark. I was alone. Nobody else was on the street. I had to run back to my hotel.’

Jameela, a friend of the Duchess of Sussex, was in Hungary. ‘He followed me all the way back and [I] watched him on camera look at where I was staying,’ she says. ‘I am now too afraid to leave my room because he knows where I live.’

She adds: ‘Being a woman is an insane experience. It’s a daily gamble with your life… It’s so hard to want to share this world with men.’

Anger as woke BBC spikes Goons tribute  

Days after it was revealed the BBC abandoned a planned tribute to the late Bob Monkhouse on The Repair Shop due to a production employee taking exception to ‘sexist’ gags in one of his old joke books, the corporation has snubbed another of its comedy greats.

Spike Milligan’s daughter Jane had hoped BBC bosses would agree to mark the forthcoming 75th anniversary of his legendary comedy series The Goon Show, in which the late Peter Sellers and Sir Harry Secombe also starred. With the first episode having been aired in May 1951, Jane reveals, sadly: ‘Had a word with the BBC about a documentary to celebrate the Goons, but they said no. Dad wouldn’t be surprised.’

Actor James Dreyfus, who starred in BBC comedy hits Gimme Gimme Gimme and The Thin Blue Line, is incensed. He angrily observes: ‘BBC said no to a documentary about perhaps the most influential comic and radio show of all time. Let that sink in.’

She built a career playing one half of television’s most beloved couples, Gavin And Stacey, but Joanna Page admits she’s had quite enough of romance – both on screen and off. ‘Being the age we are, and having been working for so long, the thought now of going, “Oh, God, I’ve got to go in and have to kiss someone?” I can’t be bothered,’ says the 49-year-old. ‘I’m too bloody tired in my own relationship to have to do it, let alone go to work and have to do it with somebody else who’s a stranger.’ Joanna has four children with actor James Thornton.

Lady Clara’s film homage to decadent forebear

Lady Clara Paget, the daughter of the 8th Marquess of Anglesey, has managed to secure a part in a new film about one of her own ancestors

The film MadFabulous is about Henry Cyril Paget, the infamous 5th Marquess of Anglesey, better known as ‘the Dancing Marquess’

In a twist on the normal finger-pointing about nepo babies, actress Lady Clara Paget has managed to secure a part in a new film about one of her own ancestors.

The daughter of the 8th Marquess of Anglesey, 37, features in MadFabulous, about Henry Cyril Paget, the infamous 5th Marquess of Anglesey, better known as ‘the Dancing Marquess’.

He will be brought to life by It’s A Sin actor Callum Scott Howells in the film, which will hit cinemas in June. Known for his outrageous fashion sense and extravagant lifestyle, he blew a multi-million-pound fortune on luxuries such as perfume and pink poodles before his death aged just 29.

Lady Clara, who has appeared in films including St Trinian’s 2 and Fast & Furious 6, says: ‘I loved playing my cameo as Miss Mabel and I can’t wait for you to see it in cinemas.’

Guy Ritchie made his name directing gritty gangster films, but his wife, Jacqui, is forging a path in a more sensitive field.

The former model, 44, who married Guy, 57, in 2015 following his divorce from Madonna, has been longlisted for this year’s prestigious Poetry Society National Poetry Competition after completing a six-month writing course. ‘Feeling incredibly grateful… chosen alongside so many brilliant poets,’ she says. ‘This moment is especially poignant, as my poem was written about my late father, who first introduced me to poetry.’

He’s eschewed fast-lane life since 2023 after concluding Love On Tour, whose punishing 169-show schedule lasted two years.

Harry Styles has instead enjoyed the finer things in life, like his residence outside Rome where, as I disclosed, he’s having a studio built, and his blossoming romance with American actress Zoe Kravitz, 37.

But there’s been nothing sluggish about his performing arts company, HSA Publishing, which, according to newly filed accounts, amassed nearly £20 million in 2024 while Harry, 32, was taking it easy.

It now boasts assets of £37.5million – up from £18.1million in 2023. As I revealed earlier this month, his share-dealing company, Erskine Investments, has nearly £40million tucked away. Sweet music indeed for Styles.

(Very) modern manners

When Joan Collins was made a dame, she said humbly: ‘It wasn’t anything I ever aspired to, I just wanted to be jobbing actress, a working actor and somebody who could still perform.’ 

Nevertheless, her four adult grandchildren, Miel, Weston, Ava and Deia, have found a way to address the Dynasty star incorporating her title. ‘I’m DJ to the grandkids,’ Dame Joan reveals. Their deference seems to have worked a charm on Joanie, 92, who adds: ‘I love to be with them and I pay them a lot of attention.’