Tamara Ecclestone blasts 'bitter' critics… from Daddy's £28 m yacht

SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Tamara Ecclestone blasts ‘bitter’ critics… from Daddy’s £28 m yacht

She has a £70 million mansion in London’s Kensington at her disposal and has posed nude for Playboy magazine. But the gilded life of heiress Tamara Ecclestone can be open to misinterpretation. 

Indeed, I can disclose that statuesque Tamara, 35, has felt it necessary to launch a withering attack on critics who have taken to social media to lambast her and her family for enjoying themselves aboard her father Bernie’s luxurious £28million, 176ft yacht, off the coast of Croatia. 

‘Clearly this virus hasn’t changed some people for the better, which is a bit of a shame,’ writes Tamara in a spirited rebuttal. 

Tamara Ecclestone has taken to the crystal clear waters of Croatia with husband Jay Rutland, and their six-year-old daughter Fifi

‘For those of you who are confused or just bitter,’ she adds, ‘I didn’t leave my house at all during lockdown. I didn’t even go to the park or exercise.’

Just in case her detractors had forgotten, Tamara reminds them that, while her father, former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, is British, her mother, Slavica, his second wife, is not. 

‘I am half-Croatian,’ she points out, ‘so decided it would be best, safest, to come here, which is not forbidden, and I am now following the rules in Croatia.’ 

She issued a strongly worded Instagram post in which she hit back at the critics, explaining she is half Croatian and felt safe to travel to the country

The country had, as of Thursday, suffered only 106 coronavirus fatalities, while there are ‘no bans, just precautions’ on its beaches.

Tamara was joined aboard the yacht by her husband, Essex entrepreneur Jay Rutland, and their daughter Fifi, six, as well as Tamara’s younger sister, Petra, 31, and her four children — three of them by her ex-husband James Stunt, and one by her fiance, Sam Palmer, who was also on board. 

Stung by allegations that they have been neglecting the children’s education, Tamara, who speaks Croatian and Italian as well as English, adds: ‘As for the home school questions, a return to school was optional. We chose to continue to home-school Fifi.’ 

The heiress has been documenting the vacation online with a series of personal photographs

The results, she claims, have been gratifying. ‘She is doing better than ever and has gone up two reading bands. If I am not mistaken, no one is obliged to follow me, so you know what to do.’ 

Doubtless Fifi has mastered why her grandfather’s yacht is called Petara — an amalgam of her mother’s and her aunt’s names. 

Even famously svelte stars are suffering from lockdown weight gain. 

Dame Joan Collins, sharing a picture of a giant box of chocolate bars she’s been gifted, has apparently been hitting the sweet stuff in isolation and sighs ruefully: ‘A few of the reasons why I’ve gained 6lb in lockdown. Must go on a diet.’ 

Joan shows her smalls for the NHS

Puerto Rican supermodel Joan Smalls is one of 23 mannequins who has teamed up with British Vogue to donate part of their wardrobe to charity. 

The 31-year-old, who was once one of the world’s highest-paid models, is auctioning off her favourite Givenchy bag. 

‘It has travelled everywhere with me — its size is deceptive, so much fits in it,’ she says. ‘It became such a staple of my wardrobe that at one point I was like: “I need to give her a break”, and I took really good care of her because of that.’ 

The campaign will raise funds for NHS Charities Together and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in the U.S.

Joan Smalls is auctioning off her favourite Givenchy bag after teaming up with British Vogue to donate part of their wardrobe to charity

Off to see Grandma, Fergie?

The party-loving Duchess of York needs no excuse to dress up. 

And Thursday proved no exception, when she posted this picture of herself as ­Little Red Riding Hood on Instagram, ahead of a reading on her YouTube channel, Story Time With Fergie And Friends. 

‘I am going to be reading Little Red Riding Hood by Lesley Sims and my guest friends are Beatrice and her friends from Oscar’s [children’s] Book Prize,’ she trilled.

The Duchess of York dressed up as Red Riding Hood before reading a story book for YouTube

Jo Wood’s battle with the bathroom

She left London in search of the good life, but Jo Wood admits it’s proving a bit of a struggle in the current crisis. 

Jo, ex-wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, is at her farmhouse in Northamptonshire and says she has — reluctantly — become more domesticated. ‘I’ve become good at cleaning, but I miss my cleaner so much,’ she tells me. 

‘I can’t wait not to have to clean toilets and baths. But I’ve started my greenhouse here and I have got lettuce, peas and tomatoes growing. I just want to keep this up, it’s really fun.’ However, dealing with grief in lockdown has been tough, says Jo, who lost her brother, artist Paul Karslake, to Covid-19 in March. 

She says: ‘It was just so sad, I really miss him so much. I can’t believe he’s gone really. It feels like he’s not dead and I just haven’t seen him.’

Hats off to Boots boss Stefano Pessina, who is letting staff at his London mansion use his chauffeur-driven limousine for their commute, rather than run the gauntlet of public transport. 

‘There can’t be too many billionaires who let staff ride around in their limo and use it like an Uber cab,’ says a source. 

‘I guess he just didn’t want any of the staff picking up Covid on London’s buses and trains. He’s doing everything he can to make sure he and his family don’t catch it.’

Stefano Pessina’s staff at his London mansion use his chauffeur-driven limousine to commute

TV chef Gizzi Erskine admits she doesn’t treat herself to healthy meals. 

‘I have no food in the house,’ she says. ‘I go out and cook all day and if I eat, I’m eating absolute c*** on the way home. I’ve never eaten more junk food than I have over the past few weeks. 

It’s really insane because you’re cooking this delicious food and at the end of the day you get back and you can’t be bothered to cook any more.’ 

You could take some of the fruits of your labour home, Gizzi…

The Government has plenty on its plate right now, but River Cafe co-founder Ruth Rogers has some culinary advice for Boris Johnson the next time he hosts a state dinner. 

‘I wish that everyone was given steak and kidney pie instead of a French souffle and poached Dover sole,’ she says. ‘It would be fantastic to really celebrate the best [British food].’ 

One suspects the PM, whose biography of Winston Churchill contained glowing references to the wartime premier ‘eating a forkful of steak and kidney pie’, would heartily approve. 

Someone’s hair is in a jam over lockdown

Talk about letting your hair down. 

Former Jam singer Paul Weller, who has eight children, resembled an Old Testament prophet when he showed off his flowing grey locks this week.

‘This lockdown hairgrowth might be getting a bit out of hand,’ joked his wife, Hannah, a former backing singer, who posted the image on social media. 

Some of her followers twigged that he might have been wearing a wig.

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