Archives for June 5, 2022

Alan Titchmarsh, the celebrity gardener, veteran broadcaster and now officially a national treasure, summed it up perfectly.

“It’s all a bit surreal,” he said.

I could see why. We were sitting in an open top double decker – one of seven buses that where taking part in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant. Each bus represented a decade during the Queen’s reign, from the 50s through to the noughties.

We were on the 60s bus and the seats on the top deck were occupied by some of the best-known and most loved British celebrities.

At the front of the bus I saw Valerie Singleton – former presenter of the iconic children’s programme Blue Peter – taking a selfie with Basil Brush.

On the 50s bus parked next to us, pop legend Sir Cliff Richard was miming along to one of his hits, blaring out from a loudspeaker. Standing next to him was the former boxer, Chris Eubank. And not far from them both, dancer Wayne Sleep blew kisses at the stars on my vehicle.

That is what Alan Titchmarsh meant by “surreal”.

It seemed that anyone who has ever been anyone on stage, screen, in a stadium or a recording studio was there.

TV presenter Chris Tarrant, on the 70s bus just behind us, winked at me and asked if I was OK.

Would he take “yes” as my final answer or could I phone a friend?

Celebrities really like other celebrities, it seems. They can’t possibly all know each other. But that is exactly how they were greeting one another. Lots of hugs, air kisses and selfies. LOTS of selfies.

Many of my Sky colleagues would be able to name most if not all of the stars on the buses, but this was a real test of my A, B, and C-list knowledge.

It was not a problem for the adoring crowds lining the streets below, however.

As the celebrities let their hair and their guards down the cheering throng went into a frenzy.

It is not every day that you see the actor Rudolph Walker and broadcasters Kate Garraway and Anthea Turner dancing like nobody was watching. But they were.

The veteran broadcaster and DJ Tony Blackburn could not stop smiling. I asked him who would be on a playlist for the Queen. “Diana Ross and lots of Motown,” he said without hesitating.

The concert at the gates of the palace on Saturday night brought together some of the biggest names in the world of music. I heard a commentator say that only the Queen could have drawn them to the same place at the same time.

The same is true of the People’s Pageant. The former decathlete Daley Thompson next to singer Tony Hadley? Pure gold.

And each one of these celebrities enjoying every second, too.

They knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to enjoy a celebration like no other – almost all of them describing themselves as “privileged” to be able to ride on these buses on this very special day.

It was a random, eclectic, crazy mix. Eccentric in a uniquely British way. An experience nobody will forget.

Shakira and her longtime partner, Gerard Piqué, have split after 12 years together.

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“We regret to confirm that we are separating,” Shakira, 45, and Piqué, 35, wrote in a joint statement to Reuters on Saturday, June 4. “For the wellbeing of our children, who are our highest priority, we ask that you respect their privacy.”

The twosome, who began dating in 2011, made headlines earlier this month after reports surfaced that Shakira caught the professional athlete having an affair. They did not address the claims at the time.

Before calling it quits, the Dancing With Myself judge and Piqué welcomed sons Milan, now 9, and Sasha, now 7. Though they were together for over a decade, the pair never tied the knot.

“[Gerard is] with me because he wants to be with Shakira the person, not the celebrity,” Shakira told Latina magazine in 2014. “There’s real love, there’s no ulterior motives. And I’m with him because he’s the most amazing man I’ve ever met. We want the same things, we like the same things, we hate the same things. I have never been with someone so passionate in my life.”

The former Voice coach added: “If it weren’t because of my music projects, I would be pregnant already [with a second child] I would love to have eight or nine kids with Gerard — my own futbol team. … When you have a baby, when you feel his love, you feel so at peace with the world. You just want to share the good news and share how happy you feel.”

Shakira — who dated lawyer Antonio de la Rúa between 2000 and 2010 — and Piqué previously weathered breakup speculation in October 2017, though a source told Us at the time that the rumors were false.

“Anyone around them could see that the split rumors from last year were pure BS,” a second insider told Us in January 2018 after the pair were spotted on a family trip to New York City with their sons. “They literally looked like they were on their honeymoon! They were absolutely inseparable and squeezed in a hug or kiss whenever or wherever they could. It was adorable. The kids are so well-behaved and polite, too.”

While the then-couple kept their relationship relatively private, they couldn’t resist sharing a few cute snaps together via social media.

“Holiday vibes.. #nofilter,” the FC Barcelona athlete captioned a July 2021 Instagram post with the “Hips Don’t Lie” songstress during a summer getaway.

Earlier this year, Shakira opened up about how the pair managed disagreements — due in part to their different upbringings.

“My poor husband, slash boyfriend, slash baby daddy, whatever you want to call him, he has to wait up for me so long. He’s tired of waiting up,” the Colombia native jokingly said during a February appearance on the “Planet Weirdo with Holly H” podcast. “[Because] Colombian time is not the same as Catalonian time, Spanish time. His mind is structured like that and mine. … I’ve become a lot more punctual since I met him. [But] the times that we actually fight is because I’m late and he’s waiting up.”