Latest news with #SundayPeople
Daily Mirror
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Green Wing star Sophie Alexander's former partner dies after successful career
Veteran stage and TV performer Gerald Harper - who was in a brief relationship with an actress 40 years his junior - has died. Gerald made his name on British TV in the 1960s and 1970s, starring as the lead role in the adventure drama Adam Adamant Lives! and then as the main character in Hadleigh. He then went on to forge an illustrious career on the stage, featuring in various West End shows, including Crucifer of Blood and A Personal Affair at the Haymarket Theatre. Although he was also in popular films, such as 1979 mystery comedy The Lady Vanishes, Gerald will also be remembered for his relationship with Coupling and Green Wing star Sophie Alexander. He was in his early 70s when Sophie, then aged around 30, became lovers. Sophie was at the height of her own fame at the time, as she was a regular in sitcom Coupling and had been in Smack the Pony for four years. Speaking at the time, a source who saw the couple together told our sister title, the Sunday People: "They were super-glued together! They were all over each other and didn't care who saw them. Funnily enough, the young lady was making a lot of the running and kept grabbing him to French kiss him – it was quite a display." But Sophie, who has since been in Hollywood film I Could Never Be Your Woman, ended things with Gerald in 2002. She left Gerald for actor Peter Serafinowicz, whom she since married. Gerald died on Wednesday, his agent confirmed yesterday. CDM Talent Agency posted on social media: "It is with great sadness that Gerald Harper has recently passed away - he was a valued client before he went to Spain to enjoy his retirement." It is unclear where the actor died. He leaves behind two grown-up children, one from each of his two marriages before he met Sophie. Gerald, who also a radio presenter, was married to actress Jane Downs from 1957 until they divorced in 1975. In 1976, he married Carla Rabaiotti, a former Pan American air stewardess; they were divorced in 1983. He had a daughter with Heartbeat star Jane, who herself passed away in 2015, and a son with Carla. Yet it is the fling with Sophie, long after the marriages, which caused the stir in Notting Hill, central London, where Gerald lived. Sophie reportedly moved in with the star, some 42 years her senior, which was believed to have raised eyebrows in the affluent area. It is said, though, Gerald was "absolutely bereft" when Sarah left him for Amandaland star Peter in 2002. Since then, Gerald's TV work declined and he focused more on plays and radio presenting. The charismatic performer presented The Sunday Affair for Capital Radio in the 1970s, and a series of Saturday afternoon shows for BBC Radio 2 in the early 1990s, in which he played classic songs from the past and gave away bottles of champagne and chocolates. Speaking to the Daily Express in 2006, dad-of-two Gerald, who grew up in Barnet, northwest London, said: "I was a TV star on my own terms and for the best part of 20 years I virtually didn't have a day off."
Daily Mirror
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Holly Valance now - billionaire husband, far-right horror, and millions in legal fees
Holly Valance broke into music with her raunchy videos after appearing on Neighbours, but now the conservative mum is more likely to be spotted at a Reform UK rally than a Hollywood bash British-Australian star Holly Valance started out as a model when she was just a teen, following in the footsteps of both her Southampton-born mum and her Serbian dad. After a few years of modelling, the star soon had her lucky break, and joined the long-running soap Neighbours when she was 16. The actress left her strict Catholic school and joined the show as Felicity 'Flick' Scully in 1999, winning over a legion of fans before quitting the show and moving to the UK in 2002 - when she was 18 - to focus on building her music career. Holly, now 41, was an instant hit, and went straight to the top of UK charts with her first song Kiss Kiss. At the same time as her star was rising, however, her net worth was dropping. When she was 19, her former manager Scott Michaelson accused her of firing him over the phone 15 months before his contract was due to end. Michaelson sued Holly and won, with the starlet ordered to pay him £150,000. Her plans to buy a house for her mum were dashed, and she also lost her heart for music after her second album State of Mind didn't even make it into the top 50. READ MORE: 'I tried Whisker's Litter-Robot 4 to see if it could end the daily cat litter nightmare for good' Holly said of her huge legal case to the Sunday People: "The case also cost millions of dollars in lawyers' fees. I was not all that wealthy, either. I had to think of it as a new beginning. I thought, 'It is just a number in a bank account - now you see it, now you don't.' "I would have been really disappointed had I already bought the house for mum then had to give it back. But I did not grow up with money so knew I could live without it." Determined to start over, Holly decided to take a leaf out of the book of Australian actresses Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts and try her luck in Hollywood. With no work lined up, she bravely booked a flight and vowed to say 'yes' to every opportunity that came her way. She explained: "When I talked about moving to Hollywood, Mum said, 'Yes, go for it.' So I got on a plane to LA. I hired a car, looked at a map and drove myself to a place I'd rented. "I thought, 'Get to know your way around.' I decided to accept every invitation for functions, dinners and balls and threw myself in the deep end." Her bold move paid off and the film and TV roles started coming in. Holly appeared in CSI: Miami, Entourage, Prison Break, and Liam Neeson's hit 2008 movie Taken while enjoying the anonymity of Los Angeles. But a chance meeting with British billionaire Nick Candy in 2009 changed everything. When the pair first crossed paths at a dinner party, the Melbourne-born star had no idea who the property tycoon was. "I didn't know anything about him. I just thought 'Corr, if I didn't fancy you so much, we'd be the best of friends. Instead, I just want to make out with you all the time'," she told the Daily Mail. And she 'freaked out' and almost ended things when she discovered just how wealthy he really was, admitting it was 'just too much'. In a panic she rang her mum, who convinced her to give Nick, now 52, a chance, and she moved back to London to be with him. "I was used to razzle dazzle and meeting lots of famous people, but I wasn't used to super-yachts and private jets," she said of adapting to Nick's lifestyle. For one birthday he gifted her a £20,000 Rolex Daytona watch. "I am a spoilt brat. My friends and my sister say: 'I hate you!' when I show them what he's bought me," she added. But on top of the homes in Monaco and London and the private plane, it was Nick and his brother Christian's £50million super-yacht Candyscape II that really blew her mind. She added: "When I saw the boat for the first time, I was stunned and said 'Oh dear God! It's a mansion on water. It's incredible." After Holly finished in fourth place on Strictly Come Dancing in 2011, Nick whisked her off to the Maldives and popped the question on the beach in front of flaming torches that spelt out 'Will you marry me'. They tied the knot in a lavish outdoor ceremony in Beverly Hills in 2012, at a reported cost of £3million. The happy couple apparently paid Katy Perry £1.2million to perform for guests that included Simon Cowell. The following November, Holly gave birth to their daughter Luka, followed by her little sister Nova in September 2017. These days, Holly and her family still call London home. They're friends with royalty and were guests at Princess Eugenie's wedding. Holly seems to have shelved her showbiz career since getting married, with her last proper filming occurring in 2013 aside from a brief cameo appearance in Neighbours in 2022. Instead, she's become deeply embroiled in right-wing politics. The former actress first announced her support for the Conservative Party, and in February was spotted on the front row of a right-wing Tory event by the Popular Conservatism group. The Aussie star was seated alongside MPs like Lee Anderson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the failed former PM Liz Truss. Holly explained of her politics at the event: "I would say that everyone starts off as a leftie and then wakes up at some point after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home and then realise what c**p ideas they all are. And then you go to the right." When asked who her favourite speakers were, she added: "The speakers were fantastic. I thought Liz [Truss] was really interesting to listen to, Jacob [Rees-Mogg] for prime minister, the MP for Ashfield [Lee Anderson] was awesome, love a northerner, straight to the point and very sensible." Her billionaire husband was also a prominent Conservative party supporter and donor. He backed Tory Shaun Bailey's unsuccessful campaign to be Mayor of London in 2021 - and was pictured at the notorious lockdown rule-breaking Christmas Party held in Conservative HQ that December. In 2022, Nigel Farage shared a picture of him and Holly having dinner with the former UKIP leader and Donald Trump. Last summer, Holly and Nick went even further right, developing their friendship with Farage and throwing their support behind his party Reform UK. During a rally in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex after announcing he would stand for election in the constituency, Holly insisted she encouraged him to run. She told GB News: "I have been whispering in his ear for a long time. He is the face of Reform. Richard [Tice] has done a great job and they are a great team." Last December, Nick took a job as Reform UK's treasurer, and pledged to bring in "more money than any political party in the UK has ever raised". Holly has helped in the task, attending plenty of Reform UK events and helping to raise £1.5million within the first days of Farage's return to leadership - £100,000 of which came out of her own pockets. During an appearance on GB News, she also slammed the climate crisis and called Greta Thunberg a "demonic little gremlin high priestess of climate". Alongside her controversial politics, Holly has also become more conservative in her dress after admitting that Nick nearly 'had a coronary' when he saw some of her raunchy pop videos. However, she's not giving up on the perfect figure. Having fluctuated between a size 8 and size 14 over the years, the star recently revealed that as a busy mum, she relies on exercise to stay balanced. She told the Made By Mammas Podcast: "[I do] very little, but gym has become something I have to do for my mental health. My husband doesn't understand if I get upset if I can't go to the gym - it keeps my energy up, it keeps my endorphins going, and I panic a bit if I can't get to the gym."
