2 days ago
EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Anger as Middletons' friend and former Reading FC chairman Sir John Madejski's name is stripped from school he gave £3million to
His life and career have followed an epic trajectory, from a grim start – illegitimate and taken into foster care – to a knighthood, immense riches and an invitation to a royal wedding in 2011, when Prince William married Kate Middleton, whose parents were by then among his closest friends.
But, for all his commercial success and his extraordinary acts of philanthropy, which earned him the name 'Mr Reading' in his Berkshire hometown – not to mention his transformation of the fortunes of Reading FC – Sir John Madejski has reflected that 'the greatest accomplishment' of his life was financing and creating The John Madejski Academy.
Yet I can disclose that his name is now to be erased from the school, opened by Tony Blair in 2008, after Sir John had donated what insiders tell me was as much as £3million for its new building, which was shortlisted for an award at that year's World Architecture Festival.
The decision – taken after a 'consultation' by the Greenshaw Learning Trust which assumed control of the Academy earlier this year– has caused dismay and disgust among Sir John's friends, including Judy, Lady McAlpine, who tells me that she's 'not upset but livid'.
Insiders are similarly appalled by the treatment of Reading's greatest living benefactor and by what they allege is a lack of transparency. 'The local governing body was asked for its opinion but the ultimate decision was taken by the Greenshaw Trust's governing body for all the 50 or so schools it controls,' one tells me. 'It's lamentable and disrespectful. He's been a great friend to Reading and to education.
'He was asked to build a school in London, but he wanted to build it in Reading, where his heart is.'
The change of name – due in September – will not, adds the insider, 'have a remarkable beneficial effect', and flies in the face of Reading's history, where many schools bear benefactors' names, such as George Palmer School – 'named after George Palmer, of the famous biscuit factory'.
'Sir John's name is written in stone on the outside of the school. Taking it off will be expensive. And the change of uniform will be an expense to the Trust, which I understand will be paying, not parents.'
The Greenshaw Trust does not respond to inquiries, but Sir John, 84, tells me that he wishes it and all at the school – teachers and students alike – 'every success for the future'. He adds: 'I personally believe that the resources spent on the name change could have been directed toward more impactful initiatives for the school.'
Might be worth listening to. He did, after all, go from being an encyclopaedia salesman to an entrepreneur with a fortune of a few hundred million.
Joanna: My battles with 'vile' Mitford
Actress Joanna Vanderham was left lost for words while playing Diana Mitford, the socialite who married Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, in forthcoming television drama Outrageous.
The six-part UKTV series is based on the lives of the six aristocratic and rebellious Mitford sisters.
Vanderham, 34, says she was uncomfortable at having to use the 'vile' language of Diana (pictured below). 'It was very difficult to deliver those lines,' Vanderham tells me at the show's premiere at Picturehouse Central in London. 'I usually try and get myself into the headspace of why someone does something. That's why I love my job, the psychology of it.
'But, with this, it was like I couldn't get the lines out. We had to do take after take after take, because it was like my brain had a mental block of, like, this is horrible.'
Stone me! Jo bumps into ex Ronnie in Bahamas
Rolling stones star Ronnie Wood divorced his wife, Jo, back in 2009, but it's proving hard to escape her.
Former Strictly contestant Jo, 70, tells me that she had a shock when she went on a recent holiday to the Bahamas – and ended up staying in the same hotel as the guitarist, 78.
'I'd only been there a day and I walked into the hotel restaurant and there was Ronnie with his wife and kids,' she says.
'You should have seen his face when he saw me.'
Ronnie is now married to theatre producer Sally Humphreys, 31 years his junior, with whom he has twin daughters. Jo adds: 'I'm no stalker.'
Predatory men in showbusiness have a new method of targeting attractive young women, claims The Inbetweeners Movie star Jessica Knappett.
'I really worry about podcasting now,' the actress says. 'A man can say, 'Come and record my podcast with me', and you turn up and it can just be you and him.'
Knappett, 40, adds: 'That's happened to me, not in a violent way, but I was recording someone's podcast the other day, in his flat, just me and him, and I thought, 'If you're a predator, this isn't a safe space for women'. It's the wild west.'
Love is a friend with benefits for Courtney
At the age of 60, Courtney Love has settled for a 'friend with benefits'.
The widow of Nirvana star Kurt Cobain says: 'I'm a libertine, and the person that I most do my romantic crap with is also a libertine, so we are really more friends with benefits.'
Singer Courtney won't name her famous lover. 'I don't like talking about them because there's jealousy around that person.'
She has lived in London for five years and admits to previously finding herself in a love triangle from which she was eventually rejected.
The Fast Show star Paul Whitehouse says married friends are jealous that he and his wife have separate houses.
The comic, 67, and academic Dr Mine Conkbayir, who's 22 years his junior, choose to live near each other in London.
'A lot of married people go, 'What? You live in separate houses?' The gleam in their eye. 'If only,'' he says. 'It works for us.'
However, Whitehouse's man pad has been disrupted because Mine, with whom he has a daughter, is currently living with him. He explains: 'She's having some work done so she's living with me.'
Hollywood's Loo rule
Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood is approached in the strangest places.
'I was using the loo in Switzerland and a Brazilian bloke came in and recognised me straight away,' says the 59-year-old baker from Wallasey, Merseyside. 'He asked if I would speak to his wife. I said I would, but could I just finish what I was doing.'
At least he didn't ask for a Hollywood handshake.
