With 361 million followers on Instagram, and a billion-dollar fortune, Kim Kardashian is used to doors being opened for her, from the White House to royal palaces around the world.
I can reveal that the American model and reality television star was, however, turned away from the Irish castle owned by Dominic West and his aristocratic wife Catherine FitzGerald.
West, 54, who made his name in US crime drama The Wire before playing Prince Charles in Netflix hit The Crown, has let slip that his mother-in-law, Olda FitzGerald, refused to allow Kim to stay at Glin Castle in 2014 while she was on her honeymoon with rapper Kanye West.
‘She rang up my mother-in-law and said: ‘Can we come and stay at Glin?’ ‘ West discloses on the Travel Secrets podcast.
‘She said, ‘I’m sorry, we’re closed.”
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With 361 million followers on Instagram, and a billion-dollar fortune, Kim Kardashian is used to doors being opened for her, from the White House to royal palaces around the world
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Turned down: Dominic West’s mother-in-law refused to allow Kim to stay at Glin Castle (pictured) in 2014 while she was on her honeymoon with rapper Kanye West
When Olda later told her daughter and son-in-law, they were left aghast: ‘We went: ‘Who? You said WHAT?’ ‘
Kim had been looking forward to a honeymoon in Ireland after marrying Kanye in Florence, Italy.
It has been rumoured in the past that they stayed at Glin, in County Limerick.
West reveals that the newlyweds, in fact, stayed at Ballyfin Demesne, a five-star hotel in County Laois, owned by the late American businessman Fred Krehbiel.
‘Ballyfin Hotel is based on Glin and was owned by a wonderful American man, who bought it and restored it on the advice of my wife’s father,’ the Sheffield-born actor says.
‘He was a great scholar of Irish art and architecture and wrote all the books on it.’
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The actor let slip that it was his mother-in-law Olda FitzGerald, who turned down the American celebrity and her rapper husband (pictured: Dominic West, Catherine and Olda in 2010)
Eton-educated West and Catherine, 53, a friend of King Charles, took over the running of Glin after her father, Desmond, the last Knight of Glin, died in 2011.
West is unconvinced that Kim and Kanye enjoyed their honeymoon at Ballyfin Demesne. The couple divorced in 2022.
‘I’m not sure they had a great time,’ he says.
‘They went and watched a film in Portlaoise town, which isn’t really glamorous.’
Strictly avoid, warns Stephanie
Don’t mention Strictly Come Dancing to Stephanie Beacham, who has still not got over her appearance on the hit BBC show with partner Vincent Simone in 2007.
‘I loathed every minute of it,’ the former Dynasty star tells me. ‘It wasn’t for me.’
Beacham, 77, who will be appearing in a forthcoming film called Duchess, warns future Strictly contestants: ‘I would say if you really want to lose 10lb, and work from dawn to dusk, and you don’t mind all your hard work and sweat being filmed — go for it, but it’s not something you’d do for the money.
‘It’s a darn sight tougher than that.’
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Strictly Come Dancing star Stephanie Beacham ‘loathed’ every minute she was on Strictly
Phones strike a sour note for DJ
Queen Elizabeth once lamented to violinist Nicola Benedetti that the digital age meant she faced ‘a sea of mobiles’ rather than a crowd of faces on walkabouts.
Now, one of the world’s top DJs has complained that revellers are more interested in their phones than dancing to music he plays.
Having performed in Greece, Bob Sinclar complains online: ‘Damn, I feel so depressed tonight. It was the worst gig of my entire career.
‘You enter the club, beautiful place in Mykonos, pretty girls. You think it’s gonna be fun.
Ashley’s whitewash has now faded
She plays Mindy Chen, the only Asian character in Netflix’s Emily In Paris. Yet, Ashley Park preferred to see herself as a white actress to further her career.
The American, 33, who is of Korean descent, plays the best friend of Lily Collins’s character Emily.
She says: ‘I grew up in the Midwest and I was the only woman of colour for all four years of musical theatre in college, so I was always, like, ‘If people forget that I’m Asian, if I look and I feel and do everything in the lens of a white person, then that’s how I’ll be happier and be able to get far.’ ‘
She adds that she later embraced her heritage.
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Ashley Park, who stars in Emily in Paris, said she preferred to see herself as a white actress to further her career (pictured: Lily Collins as Emily and Ashley Park as Mindy)
Miranda’s miracle
Comedienne Miranda Hart has revealed that behind her jolly exterior she has been suffering from an unnamed ‘chronic illness’ for three years which contributed to her putting on weight.
Miranda, star of her eponymous BBC sitcom, is publishing an autobiographical book about her struggles, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, in October.
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Miranda Hart has revealed that behind her jolly exterior she has been suffering from an unnamed ‘chronic illness’ for three years which contributed to her putting on weight
The daughter of Captain David Hart Dyke, a former aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth, Miranda says: ‘In my book, you will read the story of why it’s miraculous that I am able to be abroad after years of chronic illness.
‘I have found it incredibly hard not to feel shame from gaining weight.
‘Not because of striving for an aesthetic ideal, but because it doesn’t represent me and who I naturally am. But life happens.’
Nadiya earns a pretty crust
The Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain continues to make plenty of dough.
She’s cooked up £1.6 million in profits at Nadiya J Hussain, the company into which she puts her earnings.
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The Great British Bake Off star has cooked up £1.6 million in profits at Nadiya J Hussain, the company into which she puts her earnings
Newly published accounts disclose its takings — held as at November last year — increased by £350,000 from £1.2 million in 2022.
Nadiya won the sixth series of the hit cookery show and set up her business in 2015.
