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Madeleine McCann: where the family are now, from Kate's moving memoir to the brother tipped for the Olympics
Memoirs and Olympic swimming: where Maddie McCann's family are now
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Wales Online
an hour ago
- Wales Online
Tom Daley rules out having more children as he opens up on 'protecting' son Robbie
Tom Daley rules out having more children as he opens up on 'protecting' son Robbie Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black are parents to sons Robbie, seven, and two-year-old Phoenix but the former Olympic diver has ruled out expanding their brood Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black (Image: BANG Showbiz ) Tom Daley has declared that his family feels complete with no plans for additional children. The 31 year-old ex-Olympic diver, along with his partner Dustin Lance Black, 50, find their household perfectly fulfilling with sons Robbie, seven, and two-year-old Phoenix. When asked by Hello magazine about expanding their family, Tom said: "Family of four is good." The boys are regular features on Tom's social media with Robbie showing a penchant for the spotlight. But the former Team GB diver is cautious about exposing them to its drawbacks such as bullying. Tom said: "Robbie's got a lot of personality but there's also a part of me, with everything I went through as a kid, that wants to protect him as much as possible." Retiring post-Paris Olympics in August 2024 with an impressive five Olympic medals, including gold, the diving sensation started his sports journey at seven. Now he is determined to encourage his sons to pursue what they love, insisting he and Lance will back them whatever it might be. Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. Article continues below He said: "I want to be led by what they want to do. The way you can be your happiest is finding something you're passionate about, that you love to do, and then making it something you do every day. That's my hope for them." Tom has candidly shared his struggles with an eating disorder in his documentary Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds. Although he considers himself "fine" nowadays his relationship with food remains complex and he must continually manage his "expectations" following his retirement from competitive diving. He said: "Once you've had an eating disorder you always have a very different relationship with food – you question everything you eat, the amount of exercise you're doing, the calories you're burning.. Article continues below "Rationally when I look at myself I know I'm fine but that's not what the eating disorder sees. "The irrational part of your brain makes you question everything you do, making yourself not eat and then binge-eating. "Now that I'm retired, I have to adjust to not being able to train six hours a day six days a week and alter my expectations of what I need to do to maintain my happiness and health."
Glasgow Times
4 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Royal Mint most valuable 50p coins as 10 rarest 50p revealed
We are all being urged to check our change for these valuable coins which, in some cases, are being sold for more than 400 times their face value on online auction sites such as eBay. The famous Kew Gardens 50p was recently knocked off the top spot of rarest 50p coins in the UK when the Royal Mint released the Atlantic Salmon coin. This coin was released with a mintage of just 200,000, the Royal Mint said, narrowly beating the Kew Gardens 50p which had a mintage of 210,000. Other rare designs include Olympic-themed 50ps minted in 2011. Since moving to pounds and pence in 1971, more than 70 variations of the 50p coin have been minted, including several rare designs which could be worth a lot more than 50p. Rarest 50p coins in circulation the UK? The Royal Mint recently named the Atlantic Salmon 50p as the coin as the rarest currently in circulation in the UK, with just 200,000 copies minted. The coin knocked the 'highly collectable' 2009 Kew Gardens 50p off the top spot for the first time in 15 years, the official maker of British coins said. The Kew Gardens 50p sells for £156.25 on average, but one seller received over £700 for one when they sold it on eBay. The other rarest coins stem predominantly from the 2011 Olympics, with the wrestling, football and judo coins among the most valuable. Only 1.1million of each of these coins were produced. Flopsy bunny and Peter Rabbit designs which were produced in 2018 are also highly valuable. Recommend Reading These coins - 1.4 million of which were minted - depict the characters from Beatrix Potter's novels and celebrate the life of the English writer and these sell for around £5. In 2019, 500 million coins were produced, with three new 50p designs. These included one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Paddington Bear at St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London. What makes a coin valuable? The 50 pence piece has become the most valued and collected coin in the UK, with many collectable designs appearing on its heptagonal canvas. Its 27.5mm diameter makes it the largest of any British coin, and allows space for decorative pictures. It has often been used to celebrate big events over the past 50 years of British history. The rarest coins tend to be of the greatest value, with the mintage (number of coins with each design made) being the fundamental attraction for collectors. Along with the design, other aspects of the coin which increase value are the condition of the coin and whether it has an error in its design. The way in which it is sold can also determine the coin's value - while some coin collectors will bid vast amounts of money on eBay or at auction, others opt for more robust valuations by selling via a coin dealer. Top 10 most valuable 50p coins, according to Royal Mint Here is a list of the top 10 most valuable coins, when they were made and how many were minted:
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'I spent a week holidaying in UK seaside town and came home broke'
There's nothing better than going on family holiday and, after a beautiful but terribly rainy week away to Cumbria last year, my fiancé and his loved ones opted for Norfolk for our annual getaway this year. Seaside towns sometimes get a bad rap but I'm quite the fan of them. As my fiancé and I are saving for a wedding, a holiday abroad is off the cards for the foreseeable future while we save up so we - wrongly - assumed venturing to a local seaside town would help us switch off and relax for a fraction of the cost. I know, we were very silly. There's plenty of gorgeous staycation spots well worth exploring in the UK and while sunshine isn't guaranteed, there's a boatload of beautiful scenery and retro charm on offer. My fiancé's family are big fans of Norfolk, and he spent many childhood summers in Hunstanton over-indulging in fish and chips, ice cream, fairground rides and more. On the quest for some much-needed nostalgia, we planned a family holiday to the popular seaside town. The retro charm of arcade games, the buzz of the Waltzers, the constant sound and aroma of the sea, and the never-ending array of sweet shops had me feeling like a child all over again. Early on, we were keen to visit the fairground and take advantage of the rides my fiancé grew up loving - as well as a stomach-churning, twisty contraption named Insomnia which had my stomach doing more flips than an Olympic gymnast. A word of advice: don't re-watch the Final Destination franchise in the days leading up to getting on fairground rides - especially the third one which begins at, you guessed it, a theme park. I didn't end up going on many rides - and it wasn't because I didn't want to. It was because they were just so expensive. I imagine we were relatively naïve in our assumptions about how much things were going to cost but neither my fiancé nor the rest of the family were prepared to have to spend a minimum of £3.50 per person per ride. Some rides were more costly than that too, so it didn't take long for our holiday fund to be depleted by our desire to chase an adrenaline rush. Add in the cost of drinks (£2.50 minimum for a standard can of Diet Coke?!), ice cream at £3 per scoop (and realistically, who's going to get just one scoop?), and fish and chips being significantly more expensive than I remember, and one day at the fairground became one of the most expensive excursions during our week away. As there were eight of us, we split into two groups of four and stayed near one another in local holiday homes. Ours was far too small for four adults, with a kitchenette not equipped for cooking proper meals. This meant we had to eat out most evenings - and we usually grabbed lunch while we were out and about, too. An ice cream here, a sandwich there, it doesn't take much - at least, in England - before we were spending at least £100 a day. We visited Wells-next-the-sea, which is a beautiful and serene seaside haunt with some gorgeous independent cafes and restaurants, a calming seafront, and beautiful woodland walks. On street parking was a no-go, so we had to cough up £11 to park in a carpark near the thick of the action. We visited the popular Plattens cafe for lunch where my fiance and I got a portion of chips and a vegan sausage each, as well as a can of Pepsi Max (far superior to Diet Coke in my humble opinion) and our bill came to £17.20. The portions of chips were generous and the sausages were delicious, so it didn't seem that outlandish but I am baffled we're living in a world where two portions of chips, two cans and two sausages costs almost £20. Is this the new normal? Where does it end? We quickly realised our staycation was costing just as much as a few days away in Spain might have done. Don't get me wrong, I had a truly wonderful, relaxed time and allowed my nostalgia to really fly free but the steep cost of basic treats like ice cream and soft drinks, and the seemingly ever increasing cost of chips, does make me concerned about how long tourist towns will survive for. Staycations are wonderful, and it's great to explore and enjoy the country you live in, but it's certainly not a cheaper option than going abroad but in the past, it was. I wouldn't be in a rush to revisit a local seaside town - not unless I'd saved up hundreds and hundreds of pounds so buying an ice cream won't fill me with dread and anxiety.
