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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The morning after! Grinning Orlando Bloom enjoys a hotel breakfast after he was spotted wrapping arm around mystery woman on the eve of Bezos' £20m Venetian wedding
An excitable Orlando Bloom has enjoyed brunch after he was spotted embracing a young woman in the back of a Venetian water taxi on the eve of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding. The British actor, 48, is among a number of the world's most eligible bachelors in Venice for the VIP nuptials, having just split from fiancée Katy Perry. Orlando was pictured smiling in workout clothes and cap on the terrace of the Gritti Palace Hotel - one of five of the city's most luxurious hotels have been booked out by the Amazon billionaire to host his 250 influential guests. The star, whose former partner is putting on a brave face while touring Australia with their daughter Daisy, four, spoke to guests as he ate a late breakfast and drank cappuccinos in the Veneto sunshine. Orlando also laughed wildly while speaking to an immaculately dressed waiter and drank his coffee while looking out on one of the city's canals. MailOnline can reveal that one of the mystery women spotted with Orlando in Italy last night for the wedding of the decade was Roman Abramovich 's Russian-American ex-wife. In a set of pictures described as heartbreaking for his Katy Perry's heart, newly-single Orlando was all smiles as left Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's lavish pre-wedding celebration with Dasha Zhukova. The British actor and Dasha boarded a Venetian water taxi as they jumped in to shelter from torrential rain last night. Orlando, was then photographed embracing a younger brunette friend in the back. Bloom and other guests had to brave the heavy rainfall as the party's VIPs exited the historic venue to catch a boat ride back along Venice's famous canals to the luxurious five-star Aman Hotel. Ms Zhukova and Mr Bloom are just good friends. Orlando and his ex Katy Perry have grown close to Dasha and her new husband Stavros Niarchos III, who both live in California. Dasha shares three children with her shipping scion husband, a Greek professional kiteboarder and the heir to the Niarchos shipping fortune. The couple married in 2019 - after she found love again when her marriage to Russian oligarch Ambramovich ended in 2017, after nine years of wedlock. They have two children. A year ago Rupert Murdoch, 94, became her stepfather after he and Zhukova's mother Elena, 68, married. Fresh off his shock split from popstar Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom enjoyed a night with a mystery woman at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez 's lavish pre-wedding party in Italy on Thursday. The British actor, 48, was spotted leaving the Madonna dell Orto cloisters with a glamorous brunette after guests were forced to end the night early following a freak thunderstorm in Venice. It marked a rocky start to the billionaire couple's three-day $20million wedding extravaganza, with Bezos and Sanchez set to say 'I Do' on Friday in front of the likes of Kim Kardashian and Ivanka Trump. News of Bloom and Perry's breakup was confirmed by sources on Thursday after weeks of rampant speculation. The couple first got together in 2016 before splitting up and getting back together in 2018. Bloom proposed to Perry in 2019 and they welcomed daughter Daisy Dove, now four-years-old, in August 2020. Rumors of 'tensions' between Perry and Orlando began to surface earlier this month. Several outlets alleged that the singer's poor-performing album 143 and the mocking she faced following her Blue Origin space trip — as well as her ongoing Lifetimes Tour — put 'stress' on the relationship. The Teenage hitmaker has also recently been seen without her engagement ring in recent weeks. Furthering the speculation, it was confirmed that Bloom would be attending Sanchez and Bezos' wedding without Perry, who is on tour in Australia. Neither Perry or Bloom have spoken publicly on the split reports. Bloom arrived in Venice, Italy on Wednesday afternoon along with the likes of A-list wedding guests like Kim Kardashian, Tom Brady and Leonardo DiCaprio. He shared a kiss with Kim, 44 — who he once famously 'checked out' while at an event with Katy last year — as he caught up with her and her sister Khloe just before the festivities began. Bloom and Brady, who are among the wedding's most eligible bachelors, grabbed a water taxi together while heading to Sanchez and Bezos' doomed pre-wedding soiree at Madonna dell Orto on Thursday. Also in attendance were Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Kris Jenner, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. The star looked to be in high spirits despite the recent news of his and Perry's split As the thunderstorm moved in, guests ran for cover under the vaulted cloisters as lightening bolts flashed across the sky and thunder rumbled overhead at the end of what was a torridly humid day with temperatures nudging 96.8° Fahrenheit. Torrential downpours and a strong wind left guests soaked as they then dashed for water taxis which had been scrambled a good 45 minutes ahead of the midnight finish time. The strong gusts of winds whipped table cloths away and sent waiters scurrying for umbrellas to protect the VIP attendees. Bride-to-be Lauren was surrounded by tuxedo-clad gentleman carrying blue umbrellas over her as she exited the party venue amid the downpour. The TV personality, 55, had on a striking off-the-shoulder dress with a dramatic gold corset cinching in her already tiny waist. One onlooker said: 'It just goes to show you can have all the money in the world but you cant control the weather - although an Italian saying says a wet bride is a happy and lucky bride.' Bezos, 61 — who popped the question in 2023 with a $3 million engagement ring — was seen following closely behind Lauren with an umbrella over his head. In footage obtained by Lauren appeared to be in high spirits despite the rain ending their soiree early. Bezos and Sanchez are set to tie the knot on Friday, June 27 in Venice, Italy after a two-year engagement. The Amazon billionaire and his bride-to-be are said to have invited 200 people to their three-day Italian wedding. Along with Kim Kardashian, Ellie Goulding, Khloe Kardashian and Ivanka Trump, the star-studded guest list includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom and Tom Brady. Earlier this week, a copy of the couple's invite was leaked with one very specific request made on behalf of the couple. They've asked guests not to buy them any presents and told them they'll be making donations to multiple charities working to stop Venice from sinking on attendees' behalf instead. Bezos is thought to be spending roughly $15 to $20 million on his and Sanchez's Italian nuptials. On Thursday, a source closely connected to the organization of the week's events revealed to exclusively that Bezos and Sanchez are already legally married. 'They have been married for at least a month, more than a month. The marriage is fully legal and took place in America under American law,' the insider revealed. They added: 'When they were planning the wedding, they were clear about the fact that they were already secretly married. 'There is no application for a wedding license from the couple because it was not required. 'Whatever happens at the wedding on Friday, it will not be a wedding. Under Italian law, it will not be a wedding celebration, any vows said or rings exchanged will have no legal meaning.' The source also claimed that Jeff had personally confirmed that he and Lauren are already legally married, and that they had also signed a pre-nuptial agreement to protect his $244 billion fortune. Greenpeace and the UK-based collective Everyone Hates Elon have joined protests in Venice attempting to disrupt, or even prevent, the planned wedding celebrations of Amazon founder Bezos this week. ' Jeff Bezos is the second-richest man in the world yet is reported to pay a 1.1 percent true tax rate,' the two groups said in a joint statement. 'The multi-million-dollar wedding is reportedly happening over three days, with the wedding ring alone worth as much as $5million.' A spokesperson from Everyone Hates Elon said: 'As governments talk about hard choices and struggle to fund public services, Jeff Bezos can afford to shut down half a city for days on end just to get married.' 'If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax,' one gigantic banner read in St. Mark's Square. Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro and regional governor Luca Zaia have spoken out in favor of the nuptials, which have been dubbed, 'the wedding of the century,' pointing out that the celebrations are expected to bring $23-34million to local businesses. 'This is a city that handles 150,000 people a day,' Zaia told Italian daily Corriere della Sera. 'George Clooney, François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek, Alexandre Arnault, Elton John and many others got married here.' Bezos has also pledged to make sizable charity donations, including $1.16million to Corila - an academic consortium dedicated to studying Venice's lagoon ecosystem - according to Corriere della Sera and Italy's ANSA news agency. Earlier this month, anti-Bezos banners were hung in Venice from St. Mark's Tower with 'Bezos' in blue capital letters and a red X over it as part of a 'No Space for Bezos' campaign, a play on Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight venture. More outrage was sparked Thursday as Bezos and Sanchez's wedding guests descended upon the Madonna dell Orto for the rain-soaked pre-party. The chaos caused by the star-studded event reportedly forced canals to shut down and tourists to cancel reservations in Venice. According to one business owner who runs a kayak renting service in the area, the bridges were 'closed off' to make way for Lauren, Jeff, and their guests, leaving customers unable to reach them. 'We had a party of clients booked for Thursday night. But they were unable to get through to us because the bridges were all closed off,' they shared. 'Despite them having booking, the police wouldn't let them pass. It was party of five Americans, and they had booked an hour and a half for $100 each and so we had to cancel. 'The party involved was on a tight schedule and couldn't rebook so we will have to refund them and so we have lost money.' In addition to the bridges, the Venice local claimed that the canals were also shut gown and that police on jet skis turned them around when they tried to get through. They added that there was 'no real notification from the council that the canal would be closed.' 'I don't begrudge [Jeff and Lauren] for getting married, but this has cost us money and of all the places in Venice they had to choose the one by us,' they added. Photos also showed police presence all over the Italian city, including officers on jet skis in the canals, as water taxis went back and forth taking Lauren and Jeff's guests from their hotels to the event. Around 20 activists were seen protesting hours before the pre-wedding party in St Mark's Square, the iconic heart of Venice. Protesters held signs that read, 'We are the 99 percent we have the power,' 'the planet burns,' while someone even waved an extinction rebellion flag. Sanchez and Bezos arrived in Venice for their wedding on Wednesday. They were photographed outside the luxurious five-star Aman Hotel — where some suites cost nearly $14,000 per night — after being dropped off by a water taxi along with 50 of their 200-something guests. They hosted a drinks reception with a playlist of romantic music, blasting More Than A Woman by the Bee Gees. They then continued to play tunes like Nina Simone's I'm Feeling Good, Lovely Day by Bill Withers and Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. Earlier that day, in the private garden of the hotel, which is surrounded by a 10ft brick wall, staff could be heard working to erect marquees, ready for a weekend of celebrations. Oprah gave a glimpse at her smaller frame as she attended a party later on Thursday while sporting a purple and white-colored ensemble with small cutouts on the sides Her hair was parted in the middle and effortlessly flowed down past her shoulders in light curl; seen above with Gayle King Some of the celebrity guests that landed a spot on the guest list include Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio and the Kardashian/Jenner clan They also put a VIP jetty up outside the Aman Hotel for guests to use when they arrived. Days before their Venice arrival, Sanchez and Bezos kicked off their wedding-week by throwing a rowdy foam party on board his $500million superyacht Koru on Sunday. Read More BREAKING NEWS Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom 'split' after seven years as insider reveals how singer is coping Pictures obtained by of the lavish celebration show the loved-up couple covered in little more than soap suds as they relished in the summer sunshine. Bezos proposed to Sanchez on the same superyacht more than two years ago in May 2023. While it's unclear when exactly they started dating, Lauren and Jeff's romance was first exposed by the National Enquirer in January 2019, while they were both married to their now-exes. Soon after it was revealed, the billionaire businessman divorced his wife of more than 25 years and the mother of his four children, Mackenzie Scott, while Lauren left her husband, Patrick. At the time, the bombshell report from the Enquirer claimed that Lauren and Jeff had been involved in an eight-month affair, which involved him 'whisking his mistress off to exotic destinations on his $65 million private jet, sending her raunchy messages and erotic selfies, and having secret rendezvous at palatial private estates.' The outlet said that it had tracked them 'across five states and 40,000 miles, tailing them in private jets, swanky limos, helicopter rides, romantic hikes, five-star hotel hideaways, intimate dinner dates and 'quality time' in hidden love nests.' Following the Enquirer's accusations, Jeff fired back by writing a lengthy essay to the publication's CEO, David Pecker, in which the mogul accused the company of blackmailing him. 'Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,' he wrote. '[After] intimate texts messages from me were published in the National Enquirer, I engaged investigators to learn how those texts were obtained, and to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer. 'We were then approached with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn't stop our investigation.' He shared alleged emails sent to him by Enquirer staffers, in which they described the racy images they had 'obtained during their newsgathering' in detail. 'If in my position I can't stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?' Jeff continued. While Jeff and Lauren are set to say 'I do' in front of guests on Friday, a source revealed to this week that the couple are already married; seen in 2021 The A-list couple got engaged more than two years ago in 2023 'Of course I don't want personal photos published, but I also won't participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.' As for how Jeff and Lauren met, it was said that it was Lauren's husband Patrick who was the first to introduce the two at an Amazon studios party for the movie Manchester By the Sea in 2016. Her production team was then hired to film footage for Jeff's rocket company, Blue Origin, in 2018. 'Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years, because both [former] couples have houses in Seattle,' a source told Page Six after their affair was brought to light. 'Then Lauren was hired to work on one of Jeff's projects, Blue Origin, a space-launch company. She has been shooting aerial shots for Jeff.' Despite the start of their romance being shrouded in accusations of blackmail and extortion, cheating allegations, and an explosive affair, the couple did not let it defer them. In fact, after splitting from their respective partners, Jeff and Lauren didn't wait long to start flaunting their love all over the globe. They were seen for the first time together publicly in May 2019, when photographers caught them enjoying a romantic date night in New York City, and they made their first official appearance as a couple at Wimbledon that July. Since then, the couple has not tried to hide their romance, and for the last five years, they have continuously jetted off on a slew of lavish getaways together, shared tons of adorable, PDA-filled photos together on social media, gushed over one another nonstop in interviews, and attended a slew of star-studded events side by side.
Telegraph
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘She had no clue about art': How Dasha Zhukova went from oligarch's wife to saviour of culture
She's been a Russian immigrant to the US, the wife of an oligarch and the wife of a shipping magnate, an It Girl, a magazine editor and a patron of the arts. But Dasha Zhukova's new role is rather surprising: building affordable housing. The former wife of Roman Abramovich has set up a company called Ray, an ambitious live-work venture which aims to combine art exhibition space, artists' studios and affordable living space. The first projects recently opened in Philadelphia and Harlem, with a new home for the National Black Theatre. And there are further developments in the pipeline for Phoenix and Nashville. Presumably the Moscow-born, Los Angeles-raised 44-year-old was looking for something to keep herself busy after the closure of her Moscow-based gallery Garage in 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Two days after Putin's forces marched into Ukraine, Zhukova paused all exhibits, to protest what she described on Instagram as 'the brutal and horrific invasion'. But while she's emphatically condemned Russia's actions, she's been remarkably tight-lipped about her ex-husband's links to Putin. And since she separated from the former owner of Chelsea FC in 2016, Dasha has appeared to distance herself from him. She now has three children with her second husband Stavros Niarchos, a Greek shipping magnate whose late father had a fortune of £12 billion. Well, she certainly has a type. 'The idea that she has nothing to do with Roman any more is far-fetched,' says Elisabeth Schimpfössl, an associate professor of sociology and policy at Aston University, and author of the book Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie. 'They have two children together, she received nearly $100 million in New York real estate from him in the divorce settlement. But she's rearranged her assets and remarried.' When she first arrived on the scene, Zhukova seemed to fit the cliché of the billionaire's wife merely dabbling in art and philanthropy as a hobby. But she has been able to turn herself into a respected force in the art world. 'At the beginning she had no clue about art,' says an art world insider who met with Dasha in her early days of collecting. 'She had a very scattergun approach and didn't know what she was doing, she seemed a bit clueless. But once she got into international contemporary art she'd clearly found her passion and was very driven.' During their time together Abramovich amassed one of the world's biggest private art collections, worth an estimated $963 million, including Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, Paula Rego's The Policeman's Daughter and David Hockney 's Beverly Hills Housewife. 'That was all Dasha's doing,' says Mark Hollingsworth, author of Londongrad: from Russia with Cash. 'Abramovich had zero interest in art. They were known for throwing parties in London, New York and St. Barth's, the Caribbean island where Abramovich owns a sprawling mansion and docked his $700 million yacht, Eclipse, at the harbour. He spent most of his time jet skiing. Dasha wasn't your typical socialite, she was very serious, not flakey. She had a lot of celebrity friends and was quite understated considering her position and wealth. She's glamorous, but not by Russian standards. She's not bling.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dasha Zhukova Niarchos (@dasha) Zhukova counts Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and the model Karlie Kloss among her close friends. Guests at her and Abramovich's legendary New Year's Eve parties (which reportedly cost £5 million a pop) included Beyoncé, Demi Moore, Orlando Bloom and Kanye West. 'There's something of the diligent school girl about her,' says a New York socialite who attended one of Dasha's parties. 'She speaks perfect English with a hint of a Russian intonation and a Californian lilt. She's very beautiful and interested in people and sociable. Roman was always different – quiet and in the background, no one was surprised when they split up.' 'When I first met her, I thought she was very curious, very quick, and she doesn't forget things,' says Klaus Biesenbach, formerly curator-at-large of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 'It's a good combination: If you ask, you learn, and if you remember, you can make something out of it.' Daria 'Dasha' Zhukova was born in Moscow in 1981, the only child of molecular biologist Elena and Alexander Zhukov, a businessman who began selling personal computers in Russia in the 1980s before making his fortune in oil in Ukraine. In 2001, he spent several months under arrest on suspicion of being engaged in arms smuggling from Ukraine to the states of former Yugoslavia. Her parents divorced when Dasha was three years old and in 1991, she moved with her mother to Houston, USA. 'When the Soviet Union collapsed, my mother found it very difficult to be in this quite aggressive environment and she couldn't really handle the abrupt changes,' Zhukova said in a rare interview. 'So we didn't actually emigrate to America, we thought we were just going for a year or two and then, I guess, she decided to stay. You know, I can't imagine what it takes to get up in your 30s, with a child, and say, 'OK, now I'm leaving and going somewhere I don't know.'' After their time in Houston, Elena was offered a teaching position at UCLA and enrolled her daughter in Pacific Hills, a small, sporty private school in West Hollywood whose alumni include the actor Jason Bateman and Monica Lewinsky. Although she tried her hand at modelling, a teenage Dasha preferred volleyball. After high school, she enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, where she took up Slavic studies and literature. It was this time in the US which allowed the Russian heiress to later seamlessly slip into American high society. As her friend, the writer Derek Blasberg, put it: 'How many 'oligarch's wives' worked at Mrs. Fields Cookies in the mall?' He has also called her 'incredibly hands-on' with her business projects. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dasha Zhukova Niarchos (@dasha) 'Because Dasha was from a wealthy background and had grown up in America she immediately set herself apart from other oligarch's wives,' says Elisabeth Schimpfössl. 'She is a quick learner and she knows all the right people. The word I've heard used about her is 'enchanting' – she puts a spell on people.' At 22, she moved to London to study homeopathic medicine but became obsessed with contemporary art instead, never finishing her course. 'If something captures my attention, I am completely absorbed,' she has said. 'I am very determined; I tunnel-vision straight to where I need to go. I guess that's the thing I really know how to do.' She lived in one of her father's luxurious apartments in Knightsbridge and dated Marat Safin, a Russian tennis player. In 2005, Dasha met Abramovich at a dinner in Moscow – a friend of her father's from his oil-trading days. The couple had very different upbringings – Abramovich was born into a poor Jewish family and orphaned at the age of four. Yet when Zhukova met him in 2005, his wealth was estimated at $10 billion, after he bought an oil company from the Russian government in an allegedly rigged auction in 1995. Abramovich's lawyers denied that there was any criminality involved. But Dasha wasn't going to be content with a life of spas, parties and shopping. She launched a fashion label, Kova & T, and briefly edited the style and music magazine called Pop. With art dealer Larry Gagosian as her mentor (the couple bought a property across the road from him in New York) she became a powerful player in the modern art world. In 2008, she and Abramovich set up the Garage Contemporary Art Museum. For the 2008 opening, Zhukova, then 27, installed Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Pulse Spiral – an enormous light sculpture that blinks in sync with the heartbeat of each viewer – in an abandoned 1920s bus depot and hired Amy Winehouse as post-dinner entertainment. She founded Garage Magazine, a glossy fashion and art journal, which she sold to Vice Media in 2016. The first issue, in 2011, had a model sporting a Damien Hirst butterfly tattoo on her vulva, and was banned by WH Smith. She was appointed to the boards of the Metropolitan Museum, the Shed and the Los Angeles County Museum and uses her connections to throw lavish parties for the institutions she's involved with. For LACMA's 30th-anniversary gala, she helped bring the Bolshoi Ballet from Moscow to Los Angeles to dance for Lady Gaga as she played on a Damien Hirst-designed piano while wearing a custom-made Prada chandelier dress. After Dasha's split from Abramovich – which her spokesperson describes as amicable – she married Stavros Niarchos in a celebrity-packed 2020 wedding in St. Moritz. Guests included Princess Beatrice and art dealer Vito Schnabel. They have three children together and Dasha regularly posts pictures of the family on Instagram – posing at luxury hotels, art exhibitions and attending this year's Met Gala. In 2024, her mother, Elena, married the media mogul Rupert Murdoch. With Dasha's real-estate venture, Ray, she says she is aiming to bring art to everyday life. At least for those who can afford it. At Ray Harlem, which Zhukova says reached its first month's target for new tenants in the first two weeks, the apartments range from $2,700 per month for a studio to $4,800 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, which would be out of the price range of most New York artists. But presumably like everything else she tries, Dasha will make it more than a vanity project and achieve commercial success. 'I don't know what drives me,' she told an interviewer in 2012. 'But I wake up in the morning and I want to participate in the creative cultural conversation.'
