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EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Wetherspoon boss accuses Private Eye editor of 'fantasising' after the critic claimed he witnessed domestic violence in pub By RICHARD EDEN Published: 17:37 EDT, 8 April 2025 | Updated: 17:41 EDT, 8 April 2025 e-mail View comments As a team captain on Have I Got News For You, Ian Hislop enjoys bringing pompous politicians down a peg or two. But the Private Eye editor appears to have met his match in Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon pub chain. Hislop, 64, claimed to have witnessed an incident of domestic violence , as well as a gang of teenage drug pushers in a Wetherspoons pub in Wales.
But Martin, 69, insists the violent incident never happened and that Hislop was 'fantasising'. The pub owner has published in his newsletter some correspondence between Lynn Picknett, a loyal customer, and Hislop. Ms Picknett wrote to Hislop complaining about allegedly disparaging comments that he had made about Wetherspoons on the popular BBC One panel show.
She describes the chain, known for its low prices on drinks and popular meals, as a 'warm and welcoming haven'. Hislop wrote back to Ms Picknett, describing his recent trip to a Welsh Wetherspoons, in which he'd allegedly seen a woman beating up her husband and witnessed a group of 'underage dealers trying to sell drugs for cheaper than the cut-price shots'. This has not gone down well with Martin, who is known for his campaigning for Brexit .
'I must admit that my personal intuition on reading Mr Hislop's reply to Ms Picknett was that he was 'gilding the lily' somewhat, or, to be blunter, fantasising,' Martin says. Private Eye editor Ian Hislop appears to have met his match in Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon pub chain Martin, 69, insists the violent incident never happened and that Hislop was 'fantasising' The pub owner has published in his newsletter some correspondence between Lynn Picknett, a loyal customer, and Hislop 'Since all of our pubs are covered by CCTV, the alleged behaviour would have been reckless indeed, yet we can find no trace of these incidents in any Welsh pub during the time of Mr Hislop's visit. 'In any event, in order to help our investigations, I wrote to Mr Hislop asking which pub he had visited, but he declined to help us with our enquiries.
' Poppy's ex to marry lookalike Poppy Delevingne is due to give birth to her first child next month, but the society model's ex-husband has exciting news of his own. James Cook, 46, has got engaged to Lauren Brown, who looks remarkably like his 38-year-old ex-wife. Cook, who works for his family's aerospace firm, proposed to the photographer's agent in Bhutan.
Cook and Poppy married in 2014 but separated in 2022. Poppy is expecting a baby with boyfriend Archie Keswick, 44, scion of the Jardine Matheson empire. James Cook, 46, has got engaged to Lauren Brown, who looks remarkably like his 38-year-old ex-wife Cook and Poppy married in 2014 but separated in 2022.
Poppy (pictured) is expecting a baby with boyfriend Archie Keswick, 44, scion of the Jardine Matheson empire Prince Harry's old friend Alex Rayner went into battle for him last week in the row over charity Sentebale, suggesting that its chairman, Sophie Chandauka, failed to support Meghan over criticism as she 'had her nose put out of joint because she was not the most important woman of colour on stage' at a polo event. And this week public relations man Rayner, 46, playfully squared up to boxer David Haye, 44, at the charity International Restaurateurs' 8 Hand Dinner, sponsored by Visit Malta and Neft Vodka, at the Rosewood Hotel in London. This week public relations man Rayner, 46, playfully squared up to boxer David Haye, 44, at the charity International Restaurateurs' 8 Hand Dinner It's double delight for TV's Ellie GB News breakfast presenter Ellie Costello's life hit the headlines in 2022 when she revealed her terrifying stalking ordeal at the hands of a guest who appeared on her programme.
Now Eamonn Holmes's co-host has a joyful bulletin to report – she is due to marry Gerard Durkan this weekend. Ellie, 31, tells me at a charity gala: 'It's our legal wedding on Saturday. It will be a nice intimate family celebration in London.
We will then have a second wedding in the South of France.' She and Gerard, 29, a commercial manager, met as students. Now Eamonn Holmes's co-host has a joyful bulletin to report – she is due to marry Gerard Durkan this weekend (pictured together) Simon Le Bon, who sang Hungry Like The Wolf with Duran Duran, says he and wife Yasmin enjoy eating raw sea urchins, whose reproductive organs are the only edible part.
'We eat pretty much everything,' he tells the Travel Secrets podcast. 'Some may feel a little uncomfortable about this.' Troubled by things which go bump in the night? Then spare a thought for beauty Rose Cholmondeley, who at 25 married the Marquess of Cholmondeley, 23 years her senior.
The couple – close friends of the Prince and Princess of Wales – have been reflecting on the pleasures (and pains) of life in Norfolk, where just 11 miles separate them from Anmer Hall, William and Catherine's retreat. 'It's huge,' muses Rose, 41, referring to Houghton Hall, the Palladian pile built by her husband David's ancestor, Robert Walpole. But that doesn't make it invulnerable to nocturnal intruders – as David, 64, learned in lockdown.
'Beetles came down the chimney and started to munch away at the tapestries,' he says. 'We got it under control quite quickly.' He was known in his Eton days – when his courtesy title was the Earl of Rocksavage – by the playful nickname 'Rocksausage'.
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