EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Maggi Hambling, the original 'bad girl of British art', mourns lover who left horse racing commentator Lord Oaksey for her

The intensity of their first encounter has remained an indelible memory. 'People thought I was ill...I was so smitten I couldn't say anything,' recalled Maggi Hambling, the ebullient artist most popularly known for her giant scallop shell sculpture – a tribute to composer Benjamin Britten – on the shingle coast at Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

But today Hambling is in mourning. Victoria ' Tory ' Lawrence, who inspired such feelings of longing in her – and with whom she would share four decades of her life – has died, aged 86.

The couple's romance was a cause of joy to their many friends, as well as, in time, to Victoria's two children, Patrick and Sara. But, given that Tory Lawrence was married when Hambling met her – and given, also, that her husband was Lord Oaksey, known to millions as acclaimed racing commentator John Oaksey – the early days of their love affair inevitably attracted widespread attention.

Indeed, even after her marriage to Oaksey had ended in what was described as 'unhappily public fashion', there were after-shocks which neither Hambling nor Tory could have envisaged.

While Tory moved to Hambling's farmhouse near Saxmundham in Suffolk, Oaksey turned to friends for support – among them, Frank Crocker, a farmer, and his wife, Rachel, known as 'Chicky'. Months later, Chicky left Frank and their two children and moved in with Oaksey. The following year, 1988, Chicky and Oaksey married, causing Oaksey to be denounced for 'ungentlemanly behaviour'.

Hambling and Tory were spared similar opprobrium – and proved capable of weathering occasional squalls of their own. The untameable Hambling had an affair with Henrietta Moraes, who'd enjoyed three marriages and a number of affairs, including one with Lucian Freud and another with Princess Margaret's great friend Lord Glenconner, with whom Moraes had a son.

That affair lasted the final year of Moraes's life. Six years later, Hambling celebrated her 60th birthday by buying 'a Bentley and ha[ving] an[other] affair'.

But there was never any question of her leaving Tory, for whom she cared devotedly as Tory, in her final years, stoically endured an inoperable brain tumour.

Life's going swimmingly for Holly and Adam Adam Peaty's ex-girlfriend Eirianedd Munro gave Holly Ramsay her blessing when the Olympic swimmer proposed to her in September, saying: 'I couldn't wish for a better stepmother for my son.'

Indeed, Holly, the podcaster daughter of potty-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay, appears to be bonding well with four-year-old George, Peaty's son with Eirianedd.

During a holiday in Greece, Holly, 24, was snapped sitting with Peaty, 29, and George on a paddleboard.

'Grateful,' Holly wrote alongside this picture she shared online.

She met Peaty when he was competing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 in the same series as her sister Tilly.

King Charles will no doubt have had some warm words for former spook Andrew Parker during their talks at Buckingham Palace on Monday.

The ex-MI5 boss has stepped down as Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the Royal Household, and 'delivered up his wand and insignia of office'. He has been a useful extra pair of eyes and ears for the King.

It may have been pure coincidence, but Lord Parker was seated directly behind Prince Harry and Meghan at St Paul's Cathedral for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee service.

The missing ingredient in One Day? Sex His best-selling 2009 novel One Day was turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway and, more recently, a hit Netflix series. Yet author David Nicholls now believes it has something missing: sex scenes.

'I'd try to be more frank about sexual relationships because it is a love story – there are things to say,' reflects Nicholls, inspired by Irish novelists Sally Rooney and Anne Enright.

'I'm reading Intermezzo [by Rooney] and The Wren, The Wren [by Enright]. These are people who are smart about sex and love. I would give myself the note to be more frank on that.'

Tom Parker Bowles tries 'lucky' snake blood shot Queen Camilla's son Tom Parker Bowles has gone to extraordinary lengths to find the best aphrodisiac.

'I found myself in Kowloon's "Snake Alley",' he recalls of one trip to a Hong Kong backstreet in Country Life.

Referring to a restaurant, he says: 'Once I'd selected my dinner, the furious serpent was removed from its home and proffered before me.

'The bile duct and blood were drained into a shot of baijiu, which I had to down. "Your lady very lucky tonight," the owner whispered with a grin. There was, I hasten to add, no effect whatsoever.'

Celebrated chef Skye Gyngell wept earlier this year as she predicted that she would lose her sense of taste while undergoing radiation therapy for a recurring skin cancer. And, sadly, her worst fears have now been realised.

'Terrible for me as a chef,' reflects the Australian, 61, who, turned the Petersham Nurseries in London into a Michelin-starred restaurant.

She is, however, being comforted by her daughters Holly, 34, and Evie, 27. 'They've been an amazing support,' she says.

Bea's got a bump buddy Society nutritionist Gabriela Peacock is delighted to be pregnant at the same time as her chum Princess Beatrice.

'I'm so excited for Beatrice. It's fun to share my pregnancy with my friend,' says Gabriela, 45, godmother to the Princess's daughter Sienna, three.

The Czech model is expecting her fourth child with hedge fund manager David Peacock.