When Ben Ofoedu’s 16-year relationship with TV presenter Vanessa Feltz ended in 2023, he walked away without the two things he longed for the most – a wife and a family of his own.
Now, after finding love with beauty entrepreneur Vanessa Brown, whom he affectionately calls ‘Vanessa 2.0’ and married last year in a lavish £100,000 ceremony at the Rose Castle in Cumbria, the Phats & Small singer, 54, says there is just one dream to fulfil – becoming a father.
To mark the couple’s first wedding anniversary at the weekend, Ben took the proactive step to see if fatherhood is still within his reach.
Ofoedu visited the Bridge Clinic in London for a check-up.
He tells me: ‘I am 23 years older than my partner, and I decided that I should go and get checked out as it hasn’t happened yet. I want to start a family, and a lot of males don’t go and get checked out to make sure that everything’s kind of working properly.’
The singer, whose hits include Turn Around, adds: ‘Sometimes with males they just assume it’s the female – “Oh, she can’t conceive” and it could be him that’s the problem. So for a man like me, I’m an advocate for going and getting checked out.’
To mark his first wedding anniversary with Vanessa Brown at the weekend, Ben took the proactive step to see if fatherhood is still within his reach
Ben got engaged to Vanessa Feltz in 2006, but they called off the engagement in 2023
Ben’s openness has won the support of his wife, as he admits: ‘I think she’s fine because she’s so much younger than me. So I feel it would just be down to me on whether we can conceive.’
It’s an anxious time for Ben as he waits to receive his results this week. ‘I feel for once in my life, I’m taking charge of my destiny. I was advised that if there was a problem, there’s a lot of contributing factors that can be reversed.’
The hardest part of the process, he admits, was before the test itself: ‘I’ve had to abstain for five days, which has been very difficult.’
Dine and dash gang hit celeb seaside spot
Its picturesque beaches have attracted everyone from Jack Whitehall to Winston Churchill, the Beatles to Dame Agatha Christie.
However, it appears that less welcome characters visited Bigbury-on-Sea in Devon on Saturday night, where staff at the popular Oyster Shack restaurant fell victim to a ‘dine and dash’ gang that left owners £600 out of pocket.
A spokesman for the restaurant said: ‘It’s incredibly upsetting for our staff, who worked hard to provide a warm welcome and great service, only to have their trust abused.’
The Oyster Shack’s owner Kieron Vanstone attempted to reach out to the group of six, who booked the table over the phone.
Devastated Kieron reveals: ‘They answered the first call and said, “We’re in church at the moment, we’ll call you back.”’
Rivals stars honour Dame Jilly at polo
It was a bittersweet International Day at Guards Polo Club in Windsor, where bonkbuster queen Dame Jilly Cooper presented the Coronation Cup last year.
Dame Jilly died suddenly last October aged 88 and cast members of Rivals, the hit Disney+ series based on her novels, including Emily Atack, attended the polo event at the weekend to celebrate her legacy.
The Coronation Cup was presented by Rivals star Katherine Parkinson to winners England.
‘It’s a very poignant day as we remember Dame Jilly,’ said Anna Hall, chief executive of the Hurlingham Polo Association, the sport’s governing body.
‘She was the one who brought so many of us together.’
Katherine Parkinson, who presented the Coronation Cup at International Day at Windsor’s Guards Polo Club, poses with Ned Hine, a professional polo player
Dame Jilly Cooper smiles for the camera with professional polo player Tommy Beresford at last year’s International Day – which was her last public appearance
Dame Penelope Keith’s funeral at Guildford Cathedral today may reignite a long-running row. The star’s former peers at the Actors’ Benevolent Fund are said to have no intention of letting the controversy surrounding her departure as president of the charity in 2022 fade away.
An insider tells me: ‘It’s [the funeral] bringing to a head some of the issues in this situation that have been quietly ongoing.’
And they said it wouldn’t last! Russell T Davies, 63, caused a furore when I disclosed he was dating Australian waiter and aspiring model Oliver Cole, who at 27 is 36 years his junior.
But perhaps age really is just a number for the couple, as the former Doctor Who screenwriter shared a picture online of the pair celebrating their first anniversary during the weekend at Mountain Restaurant in Soho, London.
Russell T Davies, 63, is dating Australian waiter and aspiring model Oliver Cole, 27
Helen’s heartbreak cure
Call The Midwife star Helen George says starring in High Society has proved the perfect remedy for heartbreak.
The 42-year-old, who recently split from property executive Dan Innes, is touring the UK with the musical and says her castmates have helped ease the pain of the break-up. George, who plays Tracy Lord, said: ‘The character is really fun. She gets drunk and she’s silly onstage. I’m lucky because the cast are so much fun. We make each other laugh.
‘When you’re going through a break-up, do a musical, it’s the best.’
The arrival of the romantic period drama Mr Malcolm’s List to the BBC iPlayer delighted fans but it also stirred up its star Zawe Ashton to call out the TV industry’s long-standing exclusion of brown and black actors from the genre.
Zawe Ashton stars as Julia Thistlewaite, a society lady jilted by London’s most eligible bachelor Mr Malcolm
The actress, 42, who is of Ugandan and English descent, says ‘by locking us out of the sandbox of period television, they were denying us our right to our softness, our tenderness’.
Zawe, who is engaged to Tom Hiddleston, adds: ‘We deserve to play, to romance, to wear the whimsical costumes, the bonnets, to mess up or succeed delightfully, regally. The door is unlatched. We cannot let it swing again.’
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