EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Actress Samantha Barks, 29, star of Disney’s West End production of Frozen, splits with US actor Ryan Watkinson, 35

Having won the role of Elsa in Disney’s West End production of Frozen, Samantha Barks should feel like a princess.

In fact, she’s nursing a broken heart after losing her knight in shining armour.

The 29-year-old has split up with U.S. actor Ryan Watkinson, 35, whom she met while living in New York, where she starred in Pretty Woman on Broadway.

‘It was too hard with their work schedules,’ one of her pals reveals. ‘They remain friends. Sam is very upbeat as she has lots of exciting things coming up.’

———————————————————————————————————————

Friel’s Deep Water drama sinks before second series

Set in the Lake District and starring Anna Friel, Deep Water was the flagship drama of ITV’s autumn schedules. But, I can reveal, it will not be returning for a second series.

And Friel — who has a daughter, Gracie, 14, right, with ex-boyfriend David Thewlis — seems relieved. ‘Filming took me away from Gracie for four months. I found it heart-wrenching. I really don’t want to miss out on her vital years,’ she says.

Deep Water was based on Paula Daly’s Windermere novels.

An ITV spokesman tells me: ‘Sadly, we’ve decided there won’t be a second series.’

———————————————————————————————————————

The Duchess of Cornwall has managed to stay on remarkably good terms with her former husband, Andrew Parker Bowles. 

I hear Camilla raced back from Norfolk, where she spent Christmas with the Royal Family at Sandringham, to attend the former brigadier’s 80th birthday party in the West Country. 

‘It was a very jolly occasion, with all the family there,’ one of the guests tells me. 

After marrying Prince Charles, Camilla retained her Grade II-listed Wiltshire house, Ray Mill. 

———————————————————————————————————————

The smart set’s talking about…Prince Harry’s potter ex Flea 

Prince Harry’s calls for us all to speak more openly about our mental health have been heeded by his former girlfriend Florence Brudenell-Bruce.

‘Flea’, as the aristocrat is known to pals, reveals she suffered the baby blues after giving birth to her five-year-old daughter, Iris.

The former lingerie model — a descendant of the 7th Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade — turned to ceramics to help her through her illness.

‘I started pottery when I was 29 after a diagnosis of post-natal depression,’ says Flea, 34, who also has a son with her banker husband, Henry St George.

‘Motherhood is wonderful, but with it came this hideous paradox. Pottery began as a hobby, and I soon realised it filled a void and made my life happier. The clay took hold in a way I’d never imagined possible — the healing, the flow, the energy it gave me was unreal.’

Flea, who went out with Harry in 2011, will appear in the new series of Channel 4’s Great Pottery Throw Down, which starts next weekend. She says: ‘It’s a nurturing, gentle show.’

——————————————————————————————————————— 

Pop star Robbie Williams — whose wife, Ayda, joined him as a judge on The X Factor — has been receiving some marriage guidance from Oscar winner Don Black.

The lyricist, whose beloved wife, Shirley, died in 2018, tells me: ‘When we worked together recently Robbie said, “I always remember what you said to me. I asked what was the secret to your long and happy marriage?” I’d said to him that Shirley and I had both wanted the same things from life. Robbie said, “Now that I’m married with three kids it makes so much sense.” ’

Black adds: ‘Robbie came through a bad period, but it’s great to see him looking so well.’

———————————————————————————————————————

Lady Kitty to wed £80m tycoon five years older than her dad  

Eyebrows were raised among Lady Kitty Spencer’s social set when she started going out with Michael Lewis, a fashion tycoon nearly 32 years her senior.

But Princess Diana’s niece has proved their relationship is anything but a passing fancy. For I hear the 29-year-old society model has agreed to become the South Africa-born businessman’s second wife.

‘Michael proposed to Kitty before Christmas,’ one of her friends tells me. ‘She’s been in Cape Town for the holidays and told her mother and the rest of the family. Michael is loved by all of them. Despite his wealth, he’s very humble and low key.’

Lewis, who has an estimated fortune of £80 million, turns 61 this month and is five years older than Lady Kitty’s father, Earl Spencer.

Lewis has three adult children with his first wife, Leola, 59, whom he is understood to have married in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in 1985. Leola signed a prenuptial agreement, but it’s not known if Lady Kitty will be asked to do likewise.

She has been seen attending synagogue with Lewis in London and could convert to Judaism before their wedding. Her cousin Prince William is, of course, future Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Lewis is a generous philanthropist whose family foundation pledged £3 million to Oxford University in 2011 to fund the appointment of a Professor of Israel Studies.

The couple are understood to have met through their mutual friend Dr Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary. Lady Kitty is patron of a charity he founded, Give Us Time, which donates holidays for soldiers in need of R&R. Lewis donated thousands of pounds to Fox’s defunct Atlantic Bridge organisation.

When not at Lewis’s £19 million mansion in Central London, the couple have been enjoying a series of holidays in romantic locations including Capri in Italy and that playground of the rich, The Hamptons, in New York state.

Although their age difference might put off some women, Lady Kitty does like older men. Her last boyfriend was Italian property magnate Niccolo Barattieri di San Pietro. He’s 48, so a mere slip of a lad.

———————————————————————————————————————

Boys on film: Duran star’s movie plans 

With money still rolling in to the surviving members of Queen from the blockbuster success of the film Bohemian Rhapsody, which band will be next for the big-screen treatment?

Duran Duran keyboard player Nick Rhodes tells me: ‘We’ve been talking about a biopic for more than a decade. If we did one, I would want ours to be different to what’s out there.’

For starters, he would like to be portrayed by a woman. ‘Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan [in I’m Not There] and she was very good, so Cate could play me any day. I love Tilda Swinton, too, but she’s definitely taller than me.’

——————————————————————————————————————–

King Lear is considered one of the greatest roles in theatre, but Poirot star David Suchet reveals he’s rejected the chance to play Shakespeare’s tragic hero three times in the past year.

‘I was offered [it] at a big London theatre and two provincial ones, but I turned them down,’ Suchet, 73, tells me. ‘I always think, “If I don’t play a role, will I miss not playing it?”

‘I don’t think I wouldn’t get the chance again if I turned down Lear, but I don’t care.’

Suchet, a member of the RSC for 13 years, adds: ‘Maybe one day the right production and the right venue will present itself, but it hasn’t yet.’

One to tax ze little grey cells . . .  

———————————————————————————————————————

(Very) modern manners…

Once a mark of rebellion, tattoos are now used for middle-class bonding.

Best-selling novelist Victoria Hislop reveals that her daughter, Emily, 29, paid for her to be inked as a Christmas present before she moved to Colombia.

‘My daughter gave me a fantastic gift,’ says Victoria. ‘We got matching tattoos — a tiny hexagon. Now, when I glance at it on my wrist many times during the day, it makes me smile — because she might be looking at hers, too.’

———————————————————————————————————————

 Snapper Bailey’s stocking sparkler

During his illustrious 62-year career, photographer David Bailey has taken the snaps at only three weddings: those of gangster Reggie Kray in 1965, Bailey’s younger son Sascha in 2015, and Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch in 2016.

Now, there will be a fourth, as older son, fellow snapper Fenton, 32, has got engaged to events co-ordinator Sarah Stanbury, 25 (pictured above with Fenton). ‘Fenton proposed on Christmas morning just after we finished opening our stockings,’ she tells me. ‘He had the ring made as a surprise.’

Fenton’s mother is former model Catherine Dyer. His father was previously married to film star Catherine Deneuve, model Marie Helvin and typist Rosemary Bramble.

———————————————————————————————————————

Baddie Berkoff gets his teeth into TV’s Dracula 

Best known as a scary ‘baddie’ in blockbusters such as Beverly Hills Cop and Octopussy, Steven Berkoff has been left horrified by the BBC’s new adaptation of Dracula.

‘I fear Bram Stoker will be joining the undead, writhing and twisting in his coffin, after the criminal abuse of his iconic novel,’ Berkoff thunders. ‘To rewrite Stoker’s very finely written text, replacing it with cheap sub-Noel Coward dialogue is barbarism.

‘To add gross CGI effects more appropriate to Alien movies cannot but reinforce the thought that there is little artistic sensibility left in the contemporary British soul.’