
Dua Lipa confirms long-speculated engagement to actor Callum Turner
LONDON, June 14, (AP): Dua Lipa has confirmed her engagement to the English actor Callum Turner, months after speculation began.
She went on the record about the engagement in a cover story for British Vogue's July issue, published Thursday, calling it "very exciting.' The 29-year-old said she was obsessed with the ring Turner had made for her.
"It's so me. It's nice to know the person that you're going to spend the rest of your life with knows you very well,' she told the magazine.
Fans had theorized the ring Lipa began sporting in photos at the end of December signaled an engagement, but the pair did not publicly confirm the rumor for months, even after appearing together at last month's Met Gala. Lipa says they haven't set wedding plans yet - she's still on tour and Turner is filming, "so we're just enjoying this period,' she told British Vogue, adding that they try not to spend more than 2 ½ weeks apart.
Images of Lipa and Turner, 35, together began surfacing in January 2024. She told British Vogue that they had initially met at a London restaurant, before reconnecting during a dinner in L.A., where they learned they were both reading the same book: Hernan Diaz's "Trust,' a Pulitzer Prize winner. (Lipa runs the influential Service95 Book Club.)
The London-born, British Albanian powerhouse is credited with revitalizing a kind of energetic disco-pop sound in the mainstream, beginning with the release of her 2017 self-titled album and carrying throughout 2020's "Future Nostalgia' and 2024's "Radical Optimism.'
"Dance music has such a long history of creating such a safe space. And I just want to embody that,' she told The Associated Press last year.
Across her career, Lipa has won three Grammys and boasts five top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: 2017's "New Rules,' 2019's "Don't Start Now,' 2020's "Levitating,' 2021's "Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)' with Elton John, and 2023's "Dance the Night,' from the star-studded "Barbie' soundtrack.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Arab Times
14 hours ago
- Arab Times
Ananda Lewis, who publicly shared breast cancer journey, dies at 52
LOS ANGELES, June 14, (AP): Ananda Lewis, the former MTV and BET host who became a beloved television personality in the 1990s with her warmth and authenticity, has died. She was 52. Her sister, Lakshmi Emory, confirmed Lewis' death in a Facebook post Wednesday. Lewis had been battling breast cancer. "She's free, and in His heavenly arms,' Emory wrote. "Lord, rest her soul.' Lewis, a San Diego native, made a name for herself as a host on BET's "Teen Summit,' which tackled issues facing Black youth and featured community leaders, entertainers, and politicians. She landed big interviews with Kobe Bryant, Tupac Shakur, and Louis Farrakhan and then-first lady Hillary Clinton, which earned her an NAACP Image Award. After a few seasons, Lewis took her talents over to MTV in 1997. She was a host and veejay on "MTV Live.' "Hot Zone' and "Total Request Live," a daily top 10 video countdown show. Lewis told The Associated Press that she felt some backlash after moving from BET to MTV. "I wouldn't say in a strong way because I think most people who were in my fan base at 'Teen Summit' understand that growth is necessary,' she said. "One of the main things we dealt with on a consistent basis, like the underlying theme of all the shows is you've got to get out there and live your life. The bottom line is this is about you, so how do you want to grow and whom do you want to develop into? My justification is that I say to kids: 'be your best and take advantage of every opportunity,' so I couldn't sit in a place of not taking advantage of an opportunity." In 2001, Lewis told the AP that she wasn't trying to reinvent daytime talk with her new syndicated series, "The Ananda Lewis Show.' "There's only so much different you can do in daytime, which is what I'm learning. There's a certain way, I guess, people are used to doing things and that way's not going to change for a while,' she said. "I think there's a formula, and some cases have proven that formula works. So the objective isn't to reinvent the wheel but to make it spin a little more smoothly.' Lewis' show lasted only one season. But a few years later, she became a correspondent for "The Insider,' a spinoff of "Entertainment Tonight." Lewis was open about her cancer journey since she publicly shared her diagnosis in 2020. At that time, the disease was initially stage 3 before it advanced to stage 4 last year. She had been living with breast cancer for six years. Lewis said doctors recommended a double mastectomy, but she opted for alternative methods. She eventually realized that was the wrong measure, becoming an advocate for being up-to-date with mammogram checkups. "I need you to share this with the women in your life who may be as stubborn as I was about mammograms, and I need you to tell them that they have to do it,' Lewis said in her announcement. "Early detection, especially for breast cancer, changes your outcome. It can save their life.'


Arab Times
14 hours ago
- Arab Times
Dua Lipa confirms long-speculated engagement to actor Callum Turner
LONDON, June 14, (AP): Dua Lipa has confirmed her engagement to the English actor Callum Turner, months after speculation began. She went on the record about the engagement in a cover story for British Vogue's July issue, published Thursday, calling it "very exciting.' The 29-year-old said she was obsessed with the ring Turner had made for her. "It's so me. It's nice to know the person that you're going to spend the rest of your life with knows you very well,' she told the magazine. Fans had theorized the ring Lipa began sporting in photos at the end of December signaled an engagement, but the pair did not publicly confirm the rumor for months, even after appearing together at last month's Met Gala. Lipa says they haven't set wedding plans yet - she's still on tour and Turner is filming, "so we're just enjoying this period,' she told British Vogue, adding that they try not to spend more than 2 ½ weeks apart. Images of Lipa and Turner, 35, together began surfacing in January 2024. She told British Vogue that they had initially met at a London restaurant, before reconnecting during a dinner in L.A., where they learned they were both reading the same book: Hernan Diaz's "Trust,' a Pulitzer Prize winner. (Lipa runs the influential Service95 Book Club.) The London-born, British Albanian powerhouse is credited with revitalizing a kind of energetic disco-pop sound in the mainstream, beginning with the release of her 2017 self-titled album and carrying throughout 2020's "Future Nostalgia' and 2024's "Radical Optimism.' "Dance music has such a long history of creating such a safe space. And I just want to embody that,' she told The Associated Press last year. Across her career, Lipa has won three Grammys and boasts five top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: 2017's "New Rules,' 2019's "Don't Start Now,' 2020's "Levitating,' 2021's "Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)' with Elton John, and 2023's "Dance the Night,' from the star-studded "Barbie' soundtrack.


Arab Times
14 hours ago
- Arab Times
Men who stole $6 million golden toilet sentenced to prison terms
LONDON, June 14, (AP): Two burglars who plotted the heist of a $6.4 million golden toilet, a fully-functional 18-karat piece of contemporary art that was ripped from the plumbing of an English mansion, were sentenced Friday to more than two years in a British prison. The satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled "America,' by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, had only been on display for a couple of days when five burglars swiped it from Blenheim Palace - the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born - in September 2019. The purloined potty was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold. "This bold and brazen heist took no more than 5 1/2 minutes to complete,' Judge Ian Pringle said in Oxford Crown Court. "America has never been seen again.' James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property, was sentenced to four years in prison. Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months. The toilet weighed just over 215 pounds (98 kilograms) and was worth more than its weight in gold. The value of the bullion at the time was 2.8 million pounds ($3.5 million), but it was insured for 4.7 million pounds (more than $6 million). The piece by Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $6.2 million at auction in New York, poked fun at excessive wealth. It had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum in New York. When U.S. President Donald Trump asked the museum to loan him a Van Gogh painting during his first term in office, the Guggenheim cheekily offered the toilet instead. The White House did not accept the offer. The toilet had just gone on display when Jones visited the museum twice, booking a viewing the day before the theft to take photos, check out the lock, and have his own private session on the golden throne. He deemed the experience "splendid' during his testimony. The next morning before dawn the gang of thieves crashed through the wooden gates of the palace in two stolen vehicles and tore across well-tended lawns. They pulled up to the estate's courtyard and smashed a window that Jones had photographed the day before. The thieves used sledgehammers and a crowbar to wrench the toilet from its foundation, causing considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year. Surveillance footage showed one of the men, whose face was hidden in a black mask, walking from the palace with a golden toilet seat in his hand. Two other men appeared to lift something golden into the trunk of a waiting car, and the suspension sagged under the weight. Sheen's DNA was found on a sledgehammer left behind at the scene of the crime indicating he was among the burglars. Investigators also found hundreds of gold fragments on a pair of sweatpants at his home, which had come from cutting up the spoils of the caper. Sheen had sent a relative a photo of 520,000 pounds in cash, which a prosecutor said was for the sale of about a fifth of the gold. None of the gold or money has ever been recovered and no one else was charged with the theft. Detective Superintendent Bruce Riddell of the Thames Valley Police said the investigation is ongoing and could include recovering luxury goods that were purchased with proceeds from the crime. He said investigators are confident they know at least two of the other culprits but don't have the evidence yet to charge them. Another convict, Frederick Doe, 37, also known as Frederick Sines, who tried to help Sheen find a buyer for the gold was spared a jail term when Pringle sentenced him last month to a suspended sentence for conspiracy to transfer criminal property. Pringle said the thieves had taken advantage of him. Both Sheen and Jones had lengthy criminal records, prosecutor Julian Christopher said. At the time of the burglary, Sheen was on parole for a firearms conviction that involved a running gun battle with another car that injured passengers in a third vehicle. He was arrested for additional crimes while on release and has since been sentenced to serve more than 19 years in prison. Jones had a record dating back to the age of 13 that included burglary, several car thefts, and robbery. Almost six years ago, on the eve of the heist, Jones did his reconnaissance work testing out the toilet. It was a Friday the 13th, a day many consider unlucky. For several years it appeared that fortune had favored the burglars. They avoided charges for more than four years, and several thieves have not been brought to justice. But Sheen and Jones ultimately paid a price for their roles - on Friday the 13th.