He lived a life which, as he rightly observed, ‘most single thirty-something men dream of’, enjoying a cavalcade of girlfriends, supermodels Elle ‘The Body’ Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer among them, before marrying Swedish beauty, Malin Johansson, 15 years his junior, in 2008.
It seemed that the solitary misstep in the gilded life of Tim Jefferies would be his brief marriage to Koo Stark, the most beguiling of the former Prince Andrew’s girlfriends.
They had married in 1984 – the same year in which Jefferies received £500,000 from his grandfather Richard Tompkins, founder of the Argos chain.
At the time, it was enough to buy three substantial town houses in Kensington.
But now Jefferies, who turns 65 next month, is the subject of bankruptcy proceedings, brought against him by a Liechtenstein firm which is part of Crowe Global, a multi-national financial services giant which, in 2024 alone, pulled in £4.37billion in revenue.
That was the year in which Jefferies, who owns Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair, faced another bankruptcy petition – brought, as I disclosed, by HMRC. On that occasion, his spokesman assured me that Tim was confident of a satisfactory resolution.
Since then, Jefferies has moved out of the £7.7million Notting Hill house he shared with Malin, by whom he has a teenage son and daughter.
The couple parted in 2019, as I revealed, and Jefferies now lives in the more affordable environs of Hammersmith.
Last year, after driving his silver Bentley Continental at 25mph on the Cromwell Road, west London, he received a six-month ban. The speed limit was reduced to 20mph by London’s Labour Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who, with Andy Burnham’s Government, is overseeing an unprecedented exodus of London’s rich. Which perhaps explains why Jefferies’ gallery this year reported reserves of just £76,000.
His lawyer assures me that the court action ‘will be resolved’.
Tim Jefferies lived a life which, as he observed, ‘most single thirty-something men dream of’, enjoying a cavalcade of girlfriends, including supermodel Elle Macpherson (pictured in 2011)
Davina hugs her lifesaver pal Caprice
Davina McCall had an emotional reunion with model Caprice, whom she credits with helping save her life.
Caprice, 54, recommended her neurosurgeon to Davina, 58, after her own brain tumour battle in 2017.
He went on to perform the five-hour life-saving craniotomy surgery that removed Davina’s rare benign cyst in November 2024.
‘When Davina had her brain tumour diagnosed, she called me first,’ Caprice tells me at Upstairs at Langan’s in London, where Davina and designer Rachel Jackson held their Choose Love jewellery launch party,
‘And she said, “Listen, this is what’s happening.” And I said, “No, you’re going to go to my doctor.”’
Caprice adds: ‘So she went to my doctor and he got the whole thing out, and now it’s gone forever, and it’ll never come back. But it’s a scary operation, and her other doctor didn’t want to get rid of it.’
Davina McCall had an emotional reunion with Caprice, who she credits with helping save her life. The model recommended her neurosurgeon to Davina, 58, after her own brain tumour battle in 2017
Ooh-arrgh! It’s Johnny Depp…
Most people would be thrilled to receive a call from Johnny Depp. Not Katherine Jenkins’s daughter. The classical singer’s husband, Andrew Levitas, directed Minamata, which starred Depp.
One evening, the actor dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow, his character from Pirates of the Caribbean, to impress Katherine’s girl on a video call from her father.
‘Captain Jack Sparrow appeared on the screen... she was terrified,’ the mezzo-soprano recalls. ‘She slid down the chair. I had to say, “I’m really sorry, Johnny, she hasn’t seen the film.”
Fearne: I'm terrified of David Attenborough
Fearne Cotton admits that having Sir David Attenborough as a neighbour is ‘terrifying’.
The broadcaster, 45, says of the 100-year-old naturalist: ‘I live quite near [him] and I’ve never gone over. I would never dare disturb his peace.’
If Fearne, who lives in Richmond, south-west London, happens to pass him, she adds, ‘I just look away. I’m like, I’m not even going to look at him. I can’t. It’s too terrifying. He’s too revered.
Fearne Cotton admits that having Sir David Attenborough as a neighbour is ‘terrifying’
Axed Sackur rails at 'shouty, cheap BBC'
Stephen Sackur grilled world leaders when he hosted BBC Hardtalk, the current affairs show axed after nearly three decades last year.
He’s appalled by some of the BBC’s current output. ‘I want to see that they’re replacing it with something else of similar journalistic quality, and I’m not seeing that right now,’ he says at the Conduit Club in Lon don’s Covent Garden, where he was promoting his book, Hard Truth.
‘I’m seeing a lot of podcasts. Shouty, opinion-driven output is cheap. Closing a show like Hardtalk seemed to me to be deprioritising serious, well-researched accountability journalism.’ Who can he mean?
Mamma Mia! Here we go again. Amanda Seyfried, who played Sophie in the film version of the hit Abba musical and its 2018 sequel, says producer Judy Craymer is pushing hard for a third movie. ‘She would do anything to get us together,’ Seyfried says. ‘It seems inevitable. I remember us saying, it can’t be another ten years till we do another one. And next year will be ten years, so I’m, like, “What is happening?”’ There is the question of Meryl Streep’s character, Donna, having died in the sequel. ‘We just have to figure out how to get Meryl in there. So if anyone has any ideas, that would be helpful.'
MP Tugendhat salutes Harry
Prince Harry's return to Britain might not be universally celebrated, but he retains the loyalty of old military comrades. ‘I served with him in Afghani stan,’ shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat tells me. ‘He’s a very nice man.’
The MP was speaking at the launch event for Rye Barcott’s new book, Courage Can Save US, at the Tower of London. He was joined by Al Carns, the former Armed Forces minister and decorated Marine, who is attending Harry’s Invictus Games for wounded veterans next year. ‘I’ll be there,’ he says. ‘I’m looking forward to it.'