Latest news with #OwenJenkins
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Married At First Sight star announces pregnancy with sweet bump snap
Owen Jenkins and Michelle Walder, who appeared on the 2020 series of Married At First Sight, have announced they are expecting their second child together Owen Jenkins and Michelle Walder, who featured on the 2020 series of Married At First Sight, have delighted followers with adorable news that they're expecting another little one. The pair, who are already parents to daughter Jess, took to Instagram to share the joyful announcement alongside a collection of heartwarming photographs. Little Jess looked picture-perfect as she twinned with mum Michelle, both sporting matching white frocks adorned with delicate blue blooms whilst beaming for the camera. One touching image captured Michelle tenderly holding her growing bump, whilst another revealed an ultrasound glimpse of their unborn child. The loving duo wrote alongside their post: "Trying to match with mummy, but not quite managing the bump...! New addition coming January 2026." Supporters flooded the comments section with congratulatory messages, with one fan gushing: "Congratulations! By far my favourite MAF couple." Another chimed in: "Congratulations! I love your love story, thank you for sharing MAF." A third supporter wrote: "Aw congratulations to you both. I agree you both are my favourite and real couple from MAFS. "You guys are my favourite MAFS family. I'm so excited to meet the newest addition," another follower expressed. The announcement follows closely after fellow Married at First Sight alumna Jess Potter recently welcomed a baby daughter with partner TJ O'Reilly, reports OK!. Following a five-day hospital stay, Jess shared precious snapshots of herself bonding with her newborn via Instagram. She shared the joyous news with a caption that read: "After 5 days at hospital, 4 days in early Labour, 12 hours of active labour..a lot of screaming. I had the birth Ive always wanted... Mia Jane O'Reilly 6lbs 6oz born 4:51am 23rd July. You're perfect in every kind of way." Earlier this year, Jess opened up about her fertility struggles before announcing her pregnancy in January. In an emotional message to her followers, she said: "After almost 3 years, 3 failed IVF cycles, 4 losses, and hundreds of injections... Our journey has been filled with heartache, hope, and resilience," Jess wrote at the time. "But today, we're overwhelmed with gratitude to share with you: Our miracle babe arriving July 2025! This little heartbeat is proof that dreams do come true, no matter how long the road may be. "Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way. For anyone still waiting, we see you, and we're holding space for your story. With love, Jess and Tom. A special mention to @fertilysis whom without none of this would be real."
Times
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Jeremy Clarkson: ‘I want to put Peroni out of business'
It's 1pm on a gloriously sunny Friday and it appears that most of Britain has downed tools and headed to the Farmer's Dog in west Oxfordshire. Children in pushchairs compete for space on the narrow footpaths with hairy bikers and young couples holding hands. 'Goodness me,' says one elderly man navigating the crowds while carrying 12 bottles of Hawkstone lager that he's just bought from the shop in the pub garden. Jeremy Clarkson owns the pub and is Hawkstone's largest shareholder. He also owns a nearby farm, Diddly Squat, and all three feature prominently in his Amazon TV series, Clarkson's Farm. Hence the crowds today. The former Top Gear presenter arrives in good spirits via the staff entrance and pops up the back stairs to an area known as the Farmers' Clubhouse, where Owen Jenkins, the managing director of Hawkstone, and Johnny Hornby, Clarkson's fellow shareholder in the brewery, a friend and a marketing whizz, are waiting. Hornby pours three and a half pints of Bounder, the latest Hawkstone brew. It's a 4.2 per cent Helles golden lager and it tastes wonderfully crisp on a hot day. • Explore the Sunday Times 100 — interviews, company profiles and more The question is: will Clarkson enjoy it too? He's on Mounjaro, the weight-loss drug, and is looking better for it. It has put him off snacking. His approach to a pint, though, is altogether more determined: 'You have to fight it. Don't give in,' he urges Hornby, who is also injecting and is the one sitting with the half pint. Clarkson says he pictures the Danish scientist [Lotte Bjerre Knudsen] whose research led to the development of injectable weight-loss drugs in this battle of wits. 'It's not just enjoying the pint. It's the fact I've beaten [her],' he adds gleefully. He takes a guilt-free glug of Bounder. 'Oh, this is so good. Jaguar should be marketing this as Jags are for bounders — Terry-Thomas,' he adds, referring to the character actor and setting the tone for the interview. Ably assisted by his Bounder, Clarkson tackles the perception that he's really only lent his name to Hawkstone; that it's neither something he is passionate about, nor any good. 'Some people assume it is a Ryan Reynolds-backed, Kylie Minogue-backed liquid. There is a polite look on their faces and they think, I'll take a swig and say 'well done', in a patronising way. But there is always this moment where they go, 'Actually, that is f***ing good.'' Ploughing on, he suggests Minogue's wine may not be a winner. 'You buy Kylie's rosé because you are a Kylie fan — you have it once and then go back to proper rosé. With Hawkstone, it is demonstrably better than anything from Italy, Germany, Spain or America.' The recently knighted David Beckham gets it in the neck next. 'I'm going to betray a loyalty here. This is from David,' he says, reading out an exchange on a messaging app. 'I said congratulations [on Beckham's selection to guest edit Country Life magazine] and he replied, 'Thanks for your message; not official yet, but if it happens I'll have a nice pint of Stella.'' Clarkson pauses for effect, raising a bushy eyebrow. 'You had better f***ing not' was his straightforward reply, before adding his punchline: 'If he is going to drink anything that's not Hawkstone, it should be Beck's.' Hornby joins in. 'Is he Belgian? If he is, then that's fine. Does he come from a long line of Belgian farmers that he's trying to help? If so, that is completely noble.' The glasses are now half empty, but the laughing is getting louder. Having put Beckham and Minogue in their place, Clarkson turns to Hawkstone, the Cotswold brewery in which he acquired his stake in 2021. 'It's the grown-up element of the whole operation,' he says. 'You have the farm shop, the pub and TV show, which are all entertainment. Hawkstone is grown-up as I have to go to board meetings where people talk in a foreign language. We don't even drink in board meetings, we are so busy using acronyms. 'In Q1 with the Ebitda running at 15 and YoY growth of …' YoY do I go to board meetings?' he asks. Later he makes clear that the Farmer's Dog, which now employs 146 people, will be his last 'business'. 'I'm done with business now. I am not starting another business as long as I live. I don't understand it and am not motivated by money. I just want a good craic.' The Bounder we are drinking is a spring special made with experimental hops grown in Britain. Hornby says they hope the demand Hawkstone is creating will help to turn around the industry's fortunes: 'The British hops industry has been in steady decline, but the amount we have now started to do with British hops could add 30 per cent to the size of the industry next year,' he says. The 'grown in Britain' bit is important to them all. Four of the eight beers and ciders on tap at the Farmer's Dog are made from '100 per cent British' ingredients, Hornby says. Clarkson adds: 'Hopefully, everybody benefits from Hawkstone, the Farmer's Dog and Diddly Squat. Whether you are growing black pepper in Cornwall or barley in Scotland, it is all backing British farming. We were stuck on hops, but if we can say to the hop growers of Britain that we have enough demand to make it worth your while expanding your hops business, then that would make me incredibly happy.' Hawkstone is now available in 2,000 pubs, up from 500 last summer, and is also stocked in Waitrose, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Ocado and Majestic Wine. Of the larger pub groups, Young's is trialling it at 30 of its pubs: Simon Dodd, the chief executive, made a point of highlighting it as one of its most exciting new beers, alongside fruit-beer maker Jubel, which is also on this year's Sunday Times 100 (No 47). • The Clarkson's Farm effect: convincing us to buy British produce Hawkstone's sales almost tripled from £7.8 million in 2024 to £21.3 million in the year to this March. The plan for the rest of 2025? 'Sell tons of beer and put Peroni out of business,' Clarkson replies. 'I want the Peroni board saying, 'What the hell has gone wrong? We're selling nothing in the UK.' I want total domination of the British lager market.' He'll allow Carling to continue, an admission that Hawkstone is at the top end of beer pricing — a few pubs have delisted Hawkstone because it is more expensive than other options. To cope with demand, Hawkstone works with partners such as the Glasgow-based Wellpark, home to Tennent's and part of C&C Group, where its Hawkstone Premium lager is brewed. The Herefordshire-based Weston family, makers of Henry Westons Cider and Stowford Press, produce the Hawkstone ciders, which are endorsed by Kaleb Cooper, Clarkson's co-star on Clarkson's Farm. A small Oxfordshire distillery, Wood Brothers, makes Hawkstone gin and vodka. Meanwhile, Clarkson's farm, Diddly Squat, will host a massive event next June, Clarkson says, providing another opportunity to flog more Hawkstone. 'We are hosting Cereals, which will be enormous.' I query what it is. 'I'd never heard of it either, but it's a trade [event] for 25,000, 30,000 farmers. It is usually in Cambridgeshire [it was actually held in Lincolnshire this year], and they go to a farm and they look at wheat and talk about fertiliser. It's coming to Diddly Squat next year.' And then he gets to the point of the story. 'Kaleb is panicking. If every farmer in the country comes and he has done all the farming, they'll be checking his work.' Clarkson then becomes more thoughtful. He's been pondering the role of pubs in towns and villages, given the rate of attrition in recent years. 'It's been playing on my mind,' he begins. 'If you no longer have a village doctor, policeman, school, shop, vicar and if you lose the pub, then what is a village? It is just a collection of houses.' He has a campaign in mind, and already has a slogan: 'Go to your local pub on your way home from work.' His idea is that people can reconnect and perhaps even disconnect, for a moment, from the rush of modern life. It might even make people happier. 'Just have a pint, a chat with someone. It is a bit less time scrolling on social media, a bit less time sitting with your non-communicative children. Go and have a pint. It is a sensible and nice thing to do. It benefits the individual, the pub. Even in London. If you come out of the Tube station, don't go home. Stop off at the pub you walk past every night.' And off he goes into the sunshine, walking the boards of his own pub.
Times
27-06-2025
- Business
- Times
Hawkstone
Rank 23Annual sales growth over three years 134.11%Brewery 'I did a beer,' Jeremy Clarkson announced in 2021 — and so Hawkstone was born. The 65-year-old TV star turned farmer had decided to use his spring barley to make his own lager in the second series of Clarkson's Farm, his TV show about his misadventures running Diddly Squat Farm in Gloucestershire. • How Jeremy Clarkson's Hawkstone beer is going global The brand, led by managing director Owen Jenkins, 44, nearly tripled sales to £21.3 million in the year to March as it expanded into more than 1,500 UK pubs and launched in Waitrose. The brewery's growing range of beers is also available at Clarkson's own Cotswolds pub, the Farmer's Dog. Explore the Sunday Times 100 — interviews, company profiles and more
BBC News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Llanelli special school to be built after Ysgol Heol Goffa U-turn
Proposals to build a new special needs school have been given the go ahead after a "year of torment".It comes after Carmarthenshire council said last year it was not possible to continue with the original plan in Llanelli due to construction 300 campaigners protested in September 2024 claiming the council broke a promise to fund a new building for Ysgol Heol Jenkins, chairman of governors at the school, welcomed the news, adding: "We'll be keeping the pressure on the local authority to make sure that we do get what was promised eight years ago." The unanimous vote comes after multiple U-turns over plans for the school.A replacement school was first proposed in 2017 which was due to be relocated and expanded to meet May 2024, the council said it would not go ahead with plans due to financial pressures which led to protests by council commissioned an independent review of additional learning needs (ALN) provision in the area which was published in February outlining six options for the school and of those were formally proposed to the council on Monday by Glynog Davies, Plaid Cymru cabinet member for education, and both involve building a new special school. During the meeting he said "children's welfare is an obvious priority" along with balancing the costs of the proposals would see a school created for 150 pupils which is estimated to cost £27.3m - £35.4m as well as developing proposals to build one primary and one secondary specialist centre for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) attached to mainstream would see a review and revision of the current proposal to build a new special school and design it to include a provision for pupils with ASC with capacity for 250 pupils costing between £36.2m and £51.2m. After the meeting, Mr Jenkins said it came as a "relief" for the school after a "year of torment".He thanked the community for the "depth of feeling and love" towards the pupils and staff and said he looked forward to a "positive dialogue" with the council moving forward.
BBC News
12-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Norfolk academy's cuts to staff prompts mother to speak out
A parent has said she is worried that cuts to school staff could lead to her daughter, who has autism, distracting other pupils in said she was "angry" and sad about the impact that cuts to teaching support staff could have on her daughter's school in Broad Horizons Educational Trust, which runs 17 schools in Norfolk, has said it needs to cut £1m from its trust chief executive said there would be nine compulsory redundancies at the trust due to the "significant financial pressures". 'Amazing school' When Ellie started at Dussindale Primary School in Thorpe St Andrew on the outskirts of the city, she did not speak and had one-to-one assistance in the classroom, her mother said the school had been "amazing" and had helped her with speech and said she found some lessons in school "really hard" and was "happy" there were people in the room to help the teaching assistant from her class would be "very scary", Ellie mother continued: "She is now going to be in that classroom maybe distracting it, because she needs that extra time with that support worker." The nine compulsory redundancies across the trust are due to be made in time for the summer St Andrew School and Sixth Form and Sewell Park Academy - both in Norwich - are also run by the chief executive Owen Jenkins highlighted rising costs - and funding constraints around special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) - as primary reasons for the financial pressures. "We recognise that this has been a difficult and uncertain time for our staff, parents, and pupils," said Mr Jenkins in a statement."A significant proportion of our budget is spent on staffing, and unfortunately, this has meant we have had to restructure teams across some of our schools."We remain committed to delivering the best possible education for every child."He said there would be a "smooth transition" to support pupils and families through the changes at the various year, five academy trusts signed a joint letter protesting against a cut in SEND funding from Norfolk County Council. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
