Table of Contents
New-look Kelly is unrecognisable at summer party
The Serpentine Gallery’s summer party is one of the highlights of the London social season and attracts famous faces from around the world.
One of those faces was, however, almost unrecognisable this year.
Kelly Osbourne, the television presenter, actress and singer, astonished fellow party-goers with her dramatic weight loss and taut skin.
And Kelly, the 40-year-old daughter of Black Sabbath star Ozzy Osbourne and The X-Factor judge Sharon Osbourne, is not happy about the attention.
‘It’s insane,’ she tells me. ‘People are always making comments about my weight. Now, it’s, “I’ve lost too much weight”, or before it was, “I weighed too much”.
‘If it’s not about my weight, then it’ll be a comment about my age. Can’t I just be a human?’
Kelly, who wore a strapless Rebecca Vallance dress, was accused last month of ‘taking Ozempic too far’ with her newly slim figure.
However, she has been coy about whether she has used Ozempic or other weight-loss drugs.
Kelly Osbourne at The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party, London. The television presenter, actress and singer, astonished fellow party-goers with her dramatic weight loss and taut skin
Kelly Osbourne pictured arriving at the BRIT Awards in 2005
‘Anything that I’ve done, there is no secret,’ she insists. ‘I tell everyone everything. I’ve never had a facelift, but I wouldn’t say no to one.’
Kelly, who featured heavily in American reality TV show about her family, The Osbournes, had previously become addicted to painkillers at the age of 13.
After spending time in a sober-living facility in 2017, she remained substance-free but admitted to replacing the drugs with food due to being ‘an emotional eater’.
Her mother has been open about her own use of Ozempic and Kelly has supported her decision to take it. ‘There are a million ways to lose weight — why not do it through something that isn’t as boring as working out?’ Kelly once said.
Kelly has lost up to six stone, following gastric bypass surgery in 2020 and a strict diet of no sugar and carbohydrates.
She maintained her slender figure after giving birth in 2022 to her son, Sidney, whose father is American rock star Sid Wilson.
Speaking about her new-found confidence, she tells me: ‘I’ve never been one to show off my body, but I have been one to show off fashion, because I love dressing up and getting to become something different every night by what you’re wearing. It’s the fun of fashion.’
A moment of farce at PMQs yesterday when Hilary Benn’s mobile telephone started ringing. Northern Ireland Secretary Benn was unable to turn it off, so had to jump to his feet and try to run from the chamber. As he did so, he lost his balance and fell against one of the Speaker’s assistants, who let out an audible ‘oufff!’. All this time the mobile kept chirruping with the ring-tone of the sort of suburban ‘ding-dong’ doorbell favoured by Hyacinth Bucket.
Sir Tim Rice is mourning his friend and fellow cricket fan John Fingleton, who died yesterday aged 76. ‘He was a larger-than-life character and will be missed.’ Sir Tim tells me. He visited ‘Fingers’ on Monday at St Mary’s Hospital in London and found the MCC stalwart keeping up with England’s triumphant first Test against India, led by opener Ben Duckett. ‘He was alert enough to realise that Ben, who was at Stowe School as John was, had done so well. So he was very pleased.’
Isabella raises temperatures at Norwegian Embassy bash
It girl Isabella Charlotta Poppius almost caused a diplomatic incident with her choice of outfit at a London embassy.
With the mercury soaring in the capital, Isabella, 28, an ex-girlfriend of Princess Alexandra’s grandson Alex Ogilvy, turned up for a summer party at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kensington in a pair of micro-shorts. While she’s graced many a best-dressed list, Isabella’s online followers were left fanning themselves.
‘Surely there’s foreign policy on shorts that short?’ gasped one.
Another demanded: ‘Trying to cause an international incident?’ Isabella responds coolly: ‘It was 30 degrees. Isn’t this just heatwave dressing?’
Isabella Charlotta Poppius in her micro-shorts at the Norwegian Embassy in London
Why Lady Amelia’s bag cost a packet…
Lady Amelia Windsor is such a keen party-goer that she would probably attend the opening of a bag of crisps.
So it seems appropriate she carries a bag made of them.
The Duke of Kent’s 29-year-old granddaughter, who was once named as the ‘most beautiful royal’ by Tatler magazine, was holding a silver Stone and Mason Luna Bag, that costs £215, at the Serpentine Gallery summer party in London. ‘It’s made out of crisps packets, which I find so amazing and cool,’ she tells me.
Lady Amelia, who is an ambassador for No More Plastic, says that she goes to great lengths to be eco-friendly.
‘I find a lot of my stuff on social media and discovering and talking with different labels.’
One of the labels she discovered is Laia Alen, with which she collaborated earlier this year on the design of two tartan-inspired bags called the Noulli.
Amelia Windsor at the Serpentine Gallery in London
Friends and family pay fond farewell to Freddie
Frederick Forsyth’s funeral in Buckinghamshire yesterday drew friends from all areas of his extraordinary life.
Among them were Countess Alexander of Tunis and Lady Annunziata Asquith, former Cabinet Minister David Davis, members of the IPOB – the Indigenous People of Biafra, whose plight inspired The Day Of The Jackal author to pen his first book, a work of non-fiction – and soldiers of fortune from the Special Forces Club.
In his eulogy, actor Robert Powell conceded that, though he’d been marlin fishing with him and holidayed with him on Mustique, he’d realised, while reading Forsyth’s memoir, The Outsider, that he’d never really known him.
Forsyth’s younger son, Shane, by his first wife, the beautiful Carrie, reflected on his qualities and limitations: ‘You could trust him with your wife, your money or your life – but not with a piece of toast.’
And his elder son, Stuart, recalled an early lesson in appreciating risk. ‘He fired an arrow straight up into the sun – and said to us: “Run!”’
Kate Moss’s decision to pull the plug on her lifestyle brand, Cosmoss, which I revealed in the news pages yesterday, will cost her a pretty penny. An insolvency update discloses that Cosmoss has a total of £2.9 million in debts to 24 creditors, including Harrods, where the brand was launched less than three years ago.
Monies owed to staff members have not yet been disclosed, with liquidators reporting ‘no provision has been made for staff claims’.
