SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: It’s a full house as Phillip Schofield keeps business in the family 

He made headline news when, live on breakfast television, he came out as gay. But, a year on, I can disclose that This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield remains in bed with his wife, Stephanie — in a financial sense, at least.

The couple, who married in 1993 and have two daughters, Molly, 27, and Ruby, 25, have just made one of the most demonstrative gestures of their continuing partnership — by buying a house together.

The acquisition was made via Fistral Properties, the company they jointly established in 2019 and which takes its name from Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall, close to where Schofield grew up and where his ‘amazing’ mother, Pat, still lives.

Financial records show that the new property cost £839,428 — easily affordable for Schofield, who has enjoyed a lucrative career since his early 20s, when he became the first continuity presenter for Children’s BBC. 

Two decades later he signed a two-year deal, reputedly worth £5 million, with ITV, for whom he has presented This Morning since 2002. 

With a personal fortune now estimated at £9 million, he and Stephanie own a £2.6 million marital home in Henley, Oxfordshire, as well as an idyllic property in the Algarve, Portugal, described as ‘every family’s dream’. 

And these days Schofield even produces his own Italian wine, including an award-winning white Falanghina.

Many assumed that his very public acknowledgement of his sexuality would shatter all this, as well as the burgeoning professional partnership he and Stephanie have forged in Fistral Properties, of which they are the only two directors.

But the couple have confounded expectations. Far from separating, still less divorcing, they were together throughout the first of the repeated lockdowns and were joined last summer by both Molly and Ruby, enjoying ‘murder-mystery’ parties and barbecues.

Schofield, 58, declines to comment on whether he’s eyeing up the new property as a bolthole for himself or whether, instead, it’s a rental investment. But he has previously emphasised that Stephanie still comes first in his life. ‘Is it possible to come out and not hurt your wife? No of course it isn’t,’ he said. ‘My greatest concern is that she is OK.’

Jo Malone, whose eponymous fragrance company was requested by Kate Middleton to scent her wedding to Prince William, attributes the smell of her success to list-making. ‘I make a list every day and the top ten things have to be done. I’m very focused,’ she says. ‘I like to think, at 6 o’clock in the evening when I pour myself a glass of wine: “That was a good day, I worked hard.” I always do the things on my list that I don’t want to do first, because otherwise they’re always in the back of your mind and it draws away your energy.’ 

Diamonds really are a girl’s best friend when she’s down

Socialite Amanda Eliasch confesses she had to sell the £100,000 diamond ring given to her by ex-husband, Swedish businessman Johan Eliasch, last year after someone stole £3 million from her.

The 60-year-old, who got a substantial chunk of Johan’s £400 million fortune when they divorced in 2006, said it was ‘a very beautiful 1950s design by Verdura’.

Amanda, an erstwhile lover of Oscar-winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice, was devastated when she had to flog it. ‘Last year I had my money stolen — Bitcoin — and it was the only thing I had in the drawer that saved my bacon for the next three months. I have to thank my ex-husband because that present saved my life.

Sting and Trudie Styler’s actress daughter, Mickey Sumner, who was Pippa Middleton’s contemporary at Marlborough College, admits her time at Parsons School of Design in New York was a welcome contrast to her £38,955-per-year boarding school in Britain.

‘I think it really opened me up and liberated me from my very British education,’ says Mickey, 37. ‘What I lacked was a sense of community and collaboration. It was hard for me to work by myself and it was lonely.

‘Storytelling through acting is so collaborative, and I found it deeply satisfying.’

Moves like Jagger! Keef’s Patti turns 65 

It’s not quite the legendary Studio 54 where she met her future husband, Rolling Stone Keith Richards, on the night of her 23rd birthday, but U.S. model Patti Hansen still managed to turn 65 in style this week.

The former face of Calvin Klein, who has two daughters, Alexandra and Theodora, with 77-year-old Keef, opted for a Hawaiian celebration as she slipped into a blue bikini top and green Hula skirt with matching pompoms and earrings.

Sharing a video of herself dancing by a swimming pool in an undisclosed location, Patti — who resides in Connecticut, in the U.S. — joked: ‘Signing up for Medicare.’

Gervais laughs all the way to the bank with £8m 

No wonder Ricky Gervais is having a laugh.

Accounts just filed by the comedian’s television production company, Red Lion 100, disclose that it holds £8 million in cash — and that was despite shelling out a £505,000 dividend to Gervais last year.

The 59-year-old, who lives in North London with partner Jane Fallon whom he first met at the University of London, is worth an estimated £55 million.

He has previously observed of his wealth: ‘I know it sounds a lot, but remember, I donate a lot of this to good causes (the Inland Revenue mainly).’

Claire is out of arm’s way in Gothic horror 

It’s a long way from Homeland! American actress Claire Danes, best known for playing angst-ridden CIA officer Carrie Mathison in the American TV series, was all smiles on the set of her latest TV show, The Essex Serpent, and was pictured enjoying the company of Harry Potter star Frank Dillane.

Danes, 41, was a last-minute addition to the Apple TV Gothic costume drama after Keira Knightley pulled out because of the pandemic. She plays Cora Seaborne, who quits 19th-century London with her young son to begin a new life in Essex after leaving an abusive marriage. Cora soon becomes intrigued about rumours of a mythical serpent that is said to have returned to the area.

Danes will also be joined on screen by The Night Manager’s Tom Hiddleston, 40.

Comedian David Baddiel has decided that, at the age of 56, he is now too old to wear blue jeans.

‘Frank Skinner, my friend, about four years ago decided that — on telly, at least — he was going to wear suits,’ explains Baddiel. ‘He thought: “I’m too old to dress casually; that’s a young person’s thing.”

‘I don’t think I can wear suits the whole time because that’s just not me, but I knew what he meant. And now I don’t wear blue jeans any more. I wear black jeans every day.

‘That’s my age‑appropriate fashion statement.’

Budding mum Camilla is in full bloom 

Scrummy soprano Camilla Kerslake, wife of former England rugby captain Chris Robshaw, is blooming in more ways than one.

Due to give birth to their first child in May, the 32-year-old displayed her heavily pregnant belly in a £45 JoJo Maman Bebe floral dress while standing in a florist in Nevada, Las Vegas, where she and Chris, 34, are currently living.

‘I got dressed up and had tea and cake for the first time in yonks,’ says the mother-to-be.