He accumulated a stupendous personal fortune – perhaps as much as £10billion – and treated himself to such trophies as a £100million superyacht and champion racehorses, while simultaneously funding numerous educational, architectural and medical initiatives, the last of which at one time cared for more than 1,500,000 outpatients a year.
But for the Aga Khan, a friend of King Charles and lauded for his philanthropy following his death this week aged 88, charity did not begin at home – nor, says his female first cousin, did manners or common courtesy.
In an excoriating denunciation, Kiloran Murrell describes Karim Aga Khan’s behaviour towards his mother, Joan, as ‘despicable’, and his attitude towards his aunt – Kiloran’s mother, Denise – as beneath contempt.
‘My mother used to find my aunt crying on many occasions,’ she tells me. ‘Karim paid a pitiful amount of attention to her unless it suited him. So high days and holidays would go by and not a word would be said by him.’
Charmless though that was, it was almost incidental by comparison with her billionaire cousin’s response when, decades later, Kiloran sought his help. By then she was caring for her own mother who, in her final years, suffered from dementia.
‘Karim was absolutely less than sympathetic,’ reflects Kiloran, 78. ‘In fact, he couldn’t care less.’ No financial help – ‘not a jot’ – was forthcoming, even though, says Kiloran, her cousin was entirely aware that her mother had been left penniless when she fled her marriage in the mid-1950s.
‘My father used to get drunk,’ explains Kiloran, adding that her father, the 5th Lord Ebury, decorated for wartime bravery, then became terrifyingly violent.
Their divorce – conducted quickly so as to avoid public scrutiny – left her mother close to penury. ‘My father didn’t pay her any money whatsoever,’ adds Kiloran, explaining that her mother took any work she could find – including in an egg-packing factory – to make ends meet.
Ebury, who was trying his luck as a racing driver, remarried in the same year. Three years later he died at the wheel of his Jaguar C-Type competing in the Prescott Speed Hill Climb in Gloucestershire. He was 43.
His ex-wife never remarried, dying at 88 in 2005. The Aga Khan, having refrained from aiding her in her declining years, remained consistent to the end. He sent no letter of condolence ‘nor a flower for her funeral’, recalls Kiloran. ‘Not a daisy. And that was for his aunt.’
Why Chinese New Year’s a month of fun for Dara
While her former fiance, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and his wife, Princess Beatrice, have been celebrating the birth of their second child, Athena, Dara Huang has been enjoying festivities of her own.
The architect and television presenter, 42, has been celebrating Chinese New Year, which she says can last for up to four weeks.
Dara, 42, shared a photograph of her wearing a traditional red satin dress called a Qipao, designed by Sau Lee, during a night out at the Canton Red restaurant at The Peninsula London.
‘The Chinese got it right when they decided to celebrate for an entire month instead of just one night (not to mention a ton of food and gifting money),’ said Huang, who was born and grew up in America.
Her maternal grandfather emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. She was granted British citizenship in 2022.
Lady Amelia shows she has bags of eco design talent
King Charles has in the past backed sustainable fashion brands including Vin + Omi – so he will be delighted to hear that the Duke of Kent’s granddaughter has taken a leaf out of their book and created her own eco-friendly range.
I hear Lady Amelia Windsor has collaborated with Spanish brand Laia Alen to design two tartan-inspired bags called the Noulli, which cost £225. ‘Loved creating two fabulous bags with Laia Alen,’ says Lady Amelia, pictured carrying the pink version of the design.
Joanna really is an Ab Fab taxi tipper
Don’t argue with Dame Joanna Lumley! A London cab driver tells me he recently picked up the Absolutely Fabulous star and Annette Crosbie, the One Foot In The Grave actress, together with their husbands, to take them from south London to Mayfair.
‘The journey was ordered by her husband [Stephen Barlow] via the app, but Lumley gave me a £20 note when I picked her up,’ he says. ‘I tried to explain to her that the trip had already been paid for but her husband cut me short saying, ‘When my wife offers you money, take it!’
‘I’m sorry I told Dad he was an Everage artist’
There is one thing that Oscar Humphries regrets about his relationship with his father, the Dame Edna Everage creator Barry.
‘I wish I’d been nicer about his painting when he was alive,’ the art curator says of the comedian, who died in 2023 aged 89. ‘I always used to be a bit mean about it. He hated it…it really annoyed him.’
His stepmother, Lizzie Spender, and the family are now selling some of Humphries’s creations at Christie’s auction house. ‘Lizzie potentially was faced with a choice to create a shrine to Barry with all these things and 6,000 books and every inch of wall with a picture on it, or do you celebrate him as a collector and make room in your life for the next life?’ Oscar explains. ‘Because, who would want to live in a museum? Apart from Dad.’
Screen smoothie Nigel Havers admits his charming persona disappears when clashing with cyclists. ‘I get wound up about bicyclists who nearly kill me on the pavement,’ the Eighties heartthrob complains.
‘I have this thing about them, because they don’t obey any rules of the road.’
Admitting to ‘bellowing’ at them, the actor, 73, who is about to embark on a one-man show about his life and times, adds: ‘My wife says, ‘Don’t do that, because one day someone will turn around and thump you’. Which they nearly have, actually.’
Naked Attraction presenter Anna Richardson has revealed all about how she managed to stay on good terms with her ex-husband, TV director Charles Martin, as well as with her former girlfriend, Sue Perkins, the comedienne.
‘I think it’s forgiveness, and not holding on to grudges,’ she says of her secret to remaining friendly with an ex.
‘I know so many people who have gone through divorces, and they still slag off their ex-spouses. I’ve managed to stay friends with both Sue and Charles. The key is to let any anger and resentment go, because otherwise the only person you’re punishing is yourself.’
King Charles is seeking a cyber-security chief to protect The Firm’s secrets. For £50,000 a year, the successful candidate will have to manage investigations ‘of any data-related breaches’.
The advert on the royal website says: ‘As data protection expert for this diverse organisation, you’ll lead our data protection strategy across the lifecycle of all digital… No two days will be the same and the unique nature and diversity of our information will challenge you. But you’ll have the opportunity to make an impact at the heart of this fascinating organisation.’
Tara Douglas-Home, great-nephew of the former prime minister Lord Home, has been left bereft after the death of his daughter, Selina, at the age of just 19. ‘It’s a very tragic and sad story,’ a friend tells me.
A family spokesman says Selina ‘died peacefully’ on January 24 and describes her as a ‘greatly missed granddaughter, niece, cousin and friend’. A memorial service will be held next month in Chelsea, West London. Selina’s grandfather, Charles Douglas-Home, succeeded Harold Evans as editor of The Times.
Royal roll costs a King’s ransom!
Visitors to King Charles’s Gloucestershire retreat have been surprised to be charged £15 for a sausage roll.
Tourists have taken to travel website Tripadvisor to complain about the prices at Highgrove House, which the King retained after ascending the throne.
Visitors booking a tour of the gardens can eat in the Orchard Room Restaurant following their visit. A pork and leek sausage roll with coleslaw, and piccalilli mayonnaise is £15.25. ‘The restaurant is very expensive,’ complains one visitor.
They could always buy a sausage roll at the nearest Greggs for £1.45.
New romance for Spandau?
This much is true: it’s no longer frilly shirts at dawn between singer Tony Hadley and his former Spandau Ballet bandmates.
The group’s leader and songwriter Gary Kemp has thrown an olive branch to Hadley, the group’s lead singer, to return, admitting the band made a ‘terrible mistake’ in hiring a replacement in 2017 (Ross Wild) who toured with them after Hadley stepped down.
Wild left the band within a year and later was convicted as a sex offender in 2021.
Kemp says: ‘We made a terrible mistake trying a new singer, but we were frustrated because Tony didn’t want to do it at the time.
‘It was going to be Seal, but he pulled out at the last minute and we ended up choosing the wrong person. So if we were going to do it, it would have to be with Tony. When he wants to do it, then I’ll be up for getting in the rehearsal room, 100 per cent.’
(Very) modern manners
Bonding with the sons of his lover Dr Cat Jarman, Earl Spencer, pictured with his latest squeeze, reveals his surprisingly down-to-earth table manners have been a cause of amusement.
‘I know Cat that your sons found it hilarious that I have my elbows on the table,’ admits father-of-seven Charles Spencer, currently involved in a bitter divorce from third wife Karen. Speaking on the loved-up pair’s Rabbit Hole Detectives podcast, archaeologist Cat playfully adds: ‘They were surprised by that. Shocked!’
