Latest news with #Southampton-born
Belfast Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
‘Goodbye La La Land': Former BBC Ireland correspondent Emma Vardy bids farewell to Los Angeles
Former BBC Ireland correspondent Emma Vardy has bid an official goodbye to the United States as she moves on from her role as LA correspondent within the organisation. Last week, the Southampton-born journalist, who was the BBC's Ireland correspondent and regularly in Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2023, shared a photo on social media of her presenting on the BBC News channel for the first time.
Daily Mirror
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Chelsea star's two-word outburst to Virgil van Dijk had him immediately regretful
One unfortunate Chelsea player saw his relationship with Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk get off to a poor start – all because of a two-word outburst when they first faced off Levi Colwill managed to get one over on Virgil van Dijk after a two-year wait as Chelsea beat Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. The defeat may have smarted for Van Dijk after the Reds defender was left unimpressed by the Blues star in their first clash together. Sunday's result saw Colwill finally get the better of Van Dijk almost two years after an uncomfortable encounter with the Reds skipper. The 22-year-old played the full match as Enzo Maresca 's side secured three crucial points in their quest for Champions League qualification. Premier League champion Van Dijk had a day he'd likely prefer to forget despite scoring a consolation goal. That's after the Liverpool defence conceded three at Stamford Bridge – including one own-goal after Van Dijk's clearance cannoned into the net off Jarell Quansah. Colwill first tasted victory over Liverpool back in January 2023 while making his senior debut against the Merseysiders while on loan at Brighton. However, Sunday's result marked the first time he had come out on top in a match where Van Dijk was also playing. The Southampton-born star would have been a marked man after a rocky start to their rivalry. And it all began when Colwill provoked his rival with a two-word jibe during his Chelsea debut in August 2023. "I remember marking him in the box," he told TNT Sports (via last year. "He said something to me and I might have told him to 'shut up', accidentally. "He looked at me like, 'Who is this little boy?' I thought, 'Ahh I've just disrespected him.' But that is what it is, my bad. It was [crazy]. I was just looking at him thinking I want to be like that or better when I'm older if I could, but he's a baller." Chelsea and Liverpool played out a 1-1 draw that day at Stamford Bridge, with Axel Disasi earning a point for the Blues after Luis Diaz's opener. Colwill played the full match on that occasion, too, and remains unbeaten in three home games against the Reds. It must be highlighted Liverpool travelled to the capital slightly light in their XI after capturing the Premier League crown with time to spare. Harvey Elliott, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas and Jarell Quansah each earned rare starts at Stamford Bridge. Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez scored along with Quansah's own goal to seal a 3-1 home win. Chelsea are sat in fifth, but Nottingham Forest are still breathing down their neck and can go level on points with the Blues if they win their game in hand at Crystal Palace on Monday night. While Trevoh Chalobah shone in Chelsea's defence, Colwill also impressed with a steadfast display as Liverpool dominated possession for long periods. He won every tackle he attempted, completed 89.8% of his passes, and made five clearances in a solid day's work. In an alternate universe, Colwill could have been lining up alongside Van Dijk at Liverpool this season. The Reds were reportedly keen on the versatile defender last year, but Chelsea managed to fend off any interest and retain their star. The youngster is still striving to regain the form that made him a Premier League sensation during his loan spell at the Amex Stadium. Despite this, he has become a crucial part of Chelsea's defensive line, which has conceded just 41 league goals this season. Although he may rue his initial encounter with Van Dijk, Sunday's result gives Colwill a bit more leverage in their rivalry. It also sets the scene for another fiery face-off next season, when Chelsea will aim to challenge Slot's team for the Premier League title.
Daily Mirror
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Holly Valance now - billionaire husband, far-right horror, and millions in legal fees
Holly Valance broke into music with her raunchy videos after appearing on Neighbours, but now the conservative mum is more likely to be spotted at a Reform UK rally than a Hollywood bash British-Australian star Holly Valance started out as a model when she was just a teen, following in the footsteps of both her Southampton-born mum and her Serbian dad. After a few years of modelling, the star soon had her lucky break, and joined the long-running soap Neighbours when she was 16. The actress left her strict Catholic school and joined the show as Felicity 'Flick' Scully in 1999, winning over a legion of fans before quitting the show and moving to the UK in 2002 - when she was 18 - to focus on building her music career. Holly, now 41, was an instant hit, and went straight to the top of UK charts with her first song Kiss Kiss. At the same time as her star was rising, however, her net worth was dropping. When she was 19, her former manager Scott Michaelson accused her of firing him over the phone 15 months before his contract was due to end. Michaelson sued Holly and won, with the starlet ordered to pay him £150,000. Her plans to buy a house for her mum were dashed, and she also lost her heart for music after her second album State of Mind didn't even make it into the top 50. READ MORE: 'I tried Whisker's Litter-Robot 4 to see if it could end the daily cat litter nightmare for good' Holly said of her huge legal case to the Sunday People: "The case also cost millions of dollars in lawyers' fees. I was not all that wealthy, either. I had to think of it as a new beginning. I thought, 'It is just a number in a bank account - now you see it, now you don't.' "I would have been really disappointed had I already bought the house for mum then had to give it back. But I did not grow up with money so knew I could live without it." Determined to start over, Holly decided to take a leaf out of the book of Australian actresses Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts and try her luck in Hollywood. With no work lined up, she bravely booked a flight and vowed to say 'yes' to every opportunity that came her way. She explained: "When I talked about moving to Hollywood, Mum said, 'Yes, go for it.' So I got on a plane to LA. I hired a car, looked at a map and drove myself to a place I'd rented. "I thought, 'Get to know your way around.' I decided to accept every invitation for functions, dinners and balls and threw myself in the deep end." Her bold move paid off and the film and TV roles started coming in. Holly appeared in CSI: Miami, Entourage, Prison Break, and Liam Neeson's hit 2008 movie Taken while enjoying the anonymity of Los Angeles. But a chance meeting with British billionaire Nick Candy in 2009 changed everything. When the pair first crossed paths at a dinner party, the Melbourne-born star had no idea who the property tycoon was. "I didn't know anything about him. I just thought 'Corr, if I didn't fancy you so much, we'd be the best of friends. Instead, I just want to make out with you all the time'," she told the Daily Mail. And she 'freaked out' and almost ended things when she discovered just how wealthy he really was, admitting it was 'just too much'. In a panic she rang her mum, who convinced her to give Nick, now 52, a chance, and she moved back to London to be with him. "I was used to razzle dazzle and meeting lots of famous people, but I wasn't used to super-yachts and private jets," she said of adapting to Nick's lifestyle. For one birthday he gifted her a £20,000 Rolex Daytona watch. "I am a spoilt brat. My friends and my sister say: 'I hate you!' when I show them what he's bought me," she added. But on top of the homes in Monaco and London and the private plane, it was Nick and his brother Christian's £50million super-yacht Candyscape II that really blew her mind. She added: "When I saw the boat for the first time, I was stunned and said 'Oh dear God! It's a mansion on water. It's incredible." After Holly finished in fourth place on Strictly Come Dancing in 2011, Nick whisked her off to the Maldives and popped the question on the beach in front of flaming torches that spelt out 'Will you marry me'. They tied the knot in a lavish outdoor ceremony in Beverly Hills in 2012, at a reported cost of £3million. The happy couple apparently paid Katy Perry £1.2million to perform for guests that included Simon Cowell. The following November, Holly gave birth to their daughter Luka, followed by her little sister Nova in September 2017. These days, Holly and her family still call London home. They're friends with royalty and were guests at Princess Eugenie's wedding. Holly seems to have shelved her showbiz career since getting married, with her last proper filming occurring in 2013 aside from a brief cameo appearance in Neighbours in 2022. Instead, she's become deeply embroiled in right-wing politics. The former actress first announced her support for the Conservative Party, and in February was spotted on the front row of a right-wing Tory event by the Popular Conservatism group. The Aussie star was seated alongside MPs like Lee Anderson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the failed former PM Liz Truss. Holly explained of her politics at the event: "I would say that everyone starts off as a leftie and then wakes up at some point after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home and then realise what c**p ideas they all are. And then you go to the right." When asked who her favourite speakers were, she added: "The speakers were fantastic. I thought Liz [Truss] was really interesting to listen to, Jacob [Rees-Mogg] for prime minister, the MP for Ashfield [Lee Anderson] was awesome, love a northerner, straight to the point and very sensible." Her billionaire husband was also a prominent Conservative party supporter and donor. He backed Tory Shaun Bailey's unsuccessful campaign to be Mayor of London in 2021 - and was pictured at the notorious lockdown rule-breaking Christmas Party held in Conservative HQ that December. In 2022, Nigel Farage shared a picture of him and Holly having dinner with the former UKIP leader and Donald Trump. Last summer, Holly and Nick went even further right, developing their friendship with Farage and throwing their support behind his party Reform UK. During a rally in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex after announcing he would stand for election in the constituency, Holly insisted she encouraged him to run. She told GB News: "I have been whispering in his ear for a long time. He is the face of Reform. Richard [Tice] has done a great job and they are a great team." Last December, Nick took a job as Reform UK's treasurer, and pledged to bring in "more money than any political party in the UK has ever raised". Holly has helped in the task, attending plenty of Reform UK events and helping to raise £1.5million within the first days of Farage's return to leadership - £100,000 of which came out of her own pockets. During an appearance on GB News, she also slammed the climate crisis and called Greta Thunberg a "demonic little gremlin high priestess of climate". Alongside her controversial politics, Holly has also become more conservative in her dress after admitting that Nick nearly 'had a coronary' when he saw some of her raunchy pop videos. However, she's not giving up on the perfect figure. Having fluctuated between a size 8 and size 14 over the years, the star recently revealed that as a busy mum, she relies on exercise to stay balanced. She told the Made By Mammas Podcast: "[I do] very little, but gym has become something I have to do for my mental health. My husband doesn't understand if I get upset if I can't go to the gym - it keeps my energy up, it keeps my endorphins going, and I panic a bit if I can't get to the gym."
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I'm the abortion campaigner name-checked by JD Vance. I'm glad he exposed UK censorship
Adam Smith-Connor had no prior warning before JD Vance name-checked the Southampton-born physiotherapist in an address to the world's political elite. The 51-year-old army veteran was convicted in October for praying silently outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic in November 2022. He was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £9,000 for breaching a ban on protests within a legal buffer zone around the clinic in Bournemouth, Dorset. When the US vice-president invoked his case at the Munich security conference in a speech hitting out at European nations for clamping down on free speech, singling out Britain as the 'most concerning' case, Mr Smith-Connor was 'deeply moved'. He said he was 'delighted' that Mr Vance was 'exposing the reality' of censorship in Britain. 'I am tremendously grateful that the vice-president is showcasing the deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the UK and… holding the UK accountable for prosecuting innocent people,' Mr Smith-Connor said. 'The UK is a democracy founded on deep respect for fundamental freedoms. 'It is right and good that the US should be exposing the reality of what is going on,' he added, claiming that Britain was 'undergoing a crisis of censorship'. While the US is 'recommitting to free speech', he fears that the UK under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer is slipping further and further away. The court was told during Mr Smith-Connor's prosecution that he bowed his head and clasped his hands outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service in Bournemouth, in a silent vigil that lasted just three minutes. He had been praying for his unborn son, who had been aborted 22 years ago, which the 51-year-old now regrets. 'My son Jacob's life was brief, but it mattered and I'm deeply moved that the value of his life is being acknowledged by others,' Mr Smith-Connor said. 'As a fellow Catholic I assume like me [Mr Vance] acknowledges that every abortion is a tragedy not just for the baby whose life is lost but also for their family.' In his Munich speech, Mr Vance picked up on a policy change instituted by the UK Government, which banned protests, including silent prayer, within 150-metre buffer zones around abortion clinics from the end of October last year. A similar ban was introduced in Northern Ireland in 2023 and another came into force in Scotland on Sept 24. Mr Smith-Connor was prosecuted under a public spaces protection order, which was introduced in 2022 by the local council to cover the Bournemouth clinic as it had been previously targeted by protesters. The order created an area around the clinic so women visitors and staff members could come and go without being harassed and subjected to verbal abuse by pro-life campaigners. Labour's legislation goes further in creating legally enforced buffer zones around abortion clinics. It is already sparking fresh confrontations in the battle between 'free speech' and protecting women's rights to abortion. This week, West Midlands Police moved on another woman engaging in silent prayer outside a local clinic. Mr Vance noted in his speech that Mr Smith-Connor's case was not a 'fluke' or a 'one-off'. Mr Smith-Connor said the vice-president's intervention 'showcases what is at stake if Britain does not change the law imposing nation-wide 'buffer zones around abortion facilities'. 'These laws do nothing to protect women,' he claimed. 'They are targeted to go after peaceful expression. Now it is up to Britain to heed his words and set about changing the law.' Both men are veterans of overseas wars: Mr Smith-Connor was deployed to Afghanistan, while Mr Vance served in the United States Marine Corps in Iraq. Mr Smith-Connor said the experience had made him 'deeply grateful for the freedoms we are promised as citizens of Britain' and warned that 'those freedoms are slipping away'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
I'm the abortion campaigner name-checked by JD Vance. I'm glad he exposed UK censorship
Adam Smith-Connor had no prior warning before JD Vance name-checked the Southampton-born physiotherapist in an address to the world's political elite. The 51-year-old army veteran was convicted in October for praying silently outside a Bournemouth abortion clinic in November 2022. He was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £9,000 for breaching a ban on protests within a legal buffer zone around the clinic in Bournemouth, Dorset. When the US vice-president invoked his case at the Munich security conference in a speech hitting out at European nations for clamping down on free speech, singling out Britain as the 'most concerning' case, Mr Smith-Connor was 'deeply moved'. He said he was 'delighted' that Mr Vance was 'exposing the reality' of censorship in Britain. 'I am tremendously grateful that the vice-president is showcasing the deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the UK and… holding the UK accountable for prosecuting innocent people,' Mr Smith-Connor said. 'The UK is a democracy founded on deep respect for fundamental freedoms. 'It is right and good that the US should be exposing the reality of what is going on,' he added, claiming that Britain was 'undergoing a crisis of censorship'. While the US is 'recommitting to free speech', he fears that the UK under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer is slipping further and further away. The court was told during Mr Smith-Connor's prosecution that he bowed his head and clasped his hands outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service in Bournemouth, in a silent vigil that lasted just three minutes. He had been praying for his unborn son, who had been aborted 22 years ago, which the 51-year-old now regrets. 'My son Jacob's life was brief, but it mattered and I'm deeply moved that the value of his life is being acknowledged by others,' Mr Smith-Connor said. 'As a fellow Catholic I assume like me [Mr Vance] acknowledges that every abortion is a tragedy not just for the baby whose life is lost but also for their family.' In his Munich speech, Mr Vance picked up on a policy change instituted by the UK Government, which banned protests, including silent prayer, within 150-metre buffer zones around abortion clinics from the end of October last year. A similar ban was introduced in Northern Ireland in 2023 and another came into force in Scotland on Sept 24. Mr Smith-Connor was prosecuted under a public spaces protection order, which was introduced in 2022 by the local council to cover the Bournemouth clinic as it had been previously targeted by protesters. The order created an area around the clinic so women visitors and staff members could come and go without being harassed and subjected to verbal abuse by pro-life campaigners. Labour's legislation goes further in creating legally enforced buffer zones around abortion clinics. It is already sparking fresh confrontations in the battle between 'free speech' and protecting women's rights to abortion. This week, West Midlands Police moved on another woman engaging in silent prayer outside a local clinic. Mr Vance noted in his speech that Mr Smith-Connor's case was not a 'fluke' or a 'one-off'. Mr Smith-Connor said the vice-president's intervention 'showcases what is at stake if Britain does not change the law imposing nation-wide 'buffer zones around abortion facilities'. 'These laws do nothing to protect women,' he claimed. 'They are targeted to go after peaceful expression. Now it is up to Britain to heed his words and set about changing the law.' Both men are veterans of overseas wars: Mr Smith-Connor was deployed to Afghanistan, while Mr Vance served in the United States Marine Corps in Iraq. Mr Smith-Connor said the experience had made him 'deeply grateful for the freedoms we are promised as citizens of Britain' and warned that 'those freedoms are slipping away'.
