NEW YORK (AP) — “Artificial,” Luca Guadagnino’s starry film about Sam Altman and OpenAI, has been acquired by the indie distributor Neon after it was dropped by Amazon MGM Studios.

Neon said Tuesday that it bought the film following a bidding process. Amazon dropped the nearly complete $40 million film, starring Andrew Garfield as Altman, earlier this month, a surprise move that came just months after Amazon announced a $50 billion investment in OpenAI.

Amazon said then that “Artificial” would “be better served if it were released by a different studio.”

Neon said Tuesday that it will release “Artificial” this year and “compete in this year’s Oscar race.” The film, which chronicles the days leading up to the 2023 firing and reinstatement of Altman as OpenAI chief executive, also stars Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov and Academy Award winner Mark Rylance. Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk.

In late February, Amazon signed an expansive multiyear partnership with the artificial intelligence startup. Then earlier this month, Amazon MGM said it would put the film up for sale to find it a new home.

Neon has established an enviable awards-season track record with Oscar winners like “Parasite” and “Anora.” The specialty label has backed the last seven Palme d’Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival. The studio declined to disclose how much it paid for the worldwide rights to “Artificial.”

“The acquisition underscores Neon’s commitment to partnering with visionary filmmakers, and bringing ambitious cinema to audiences around the world,” the studio said in a statement.

Over a four year period, between 2022/23 and 2025/26, more than £860,000 was paid out in compensation for accidents on footpaths in the town, a freedom of information request has revealed.

Independent Councillor Joan McTigue said she doubts it would have cost as much to “repair all the [footpath] damage in the first place”.

When accidents do happen, resulting payments are made through the council’s insurers.

A Middlesbrough Council spokesman said the safety of footpaths and pavements is a “key priority” for the council.

He added: “We have an ongoing programme of repairs and maintenance. Regular inspections are undertaken, and we also rely on the public to report issues to us where they arise so they can be dealt with quickly and effectively.

“While public safety is of paramount importance, where possible more extensive preventative work will also be carried out.”

The total figure over the course of four financial years amounted to £866,584, although it is unclear if this sum includes compensation for injuries that occur on damaged grass verges, which border many of the town’s pavements in residential areas. 

Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for playing Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise, has died at the age of 78, his family has announced

Actor Sam Neill has passed away at the age of 78, his family has confirmed.

The cherished New Zealand star, renowned for his portrayal of Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park series, died on Monday, July 13, in Sydney, Australia.

His family released a statement revealing Neill was with his loved ones at the time of his death and described the loss as “sudden and unexpected”.

They went on to say he had stayed cancer free and expressed thanks to the medical team who looked after him.

The statement said: “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.

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“The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care.

“More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”

Neill’s career stretched across more than 50 years, establishing him as one of New Zealand’s most familiar faces on screen. He achieved worldwide recognition playing palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant in the 1993 smash hit Jurassic Park, going on to reprise the character in Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World Dominion.

Beyond the dinosaur series, he featured in numerous celebrated films and TV programmes, such as The Hunt for Red October, The Piano, Event Horizon, Peaky Blinders and The Tudors.

In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer but subsequently confirmed his treatment had proved effective and that he was in remission.

Additional details regarding his death have not been made public at this time.

As Ukraine‘s long-range strikes spark more petrol shortages and chaos, Vladimir Putin and his family might ‘jump’ out of a window, according to a senior Estonian minister.

Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna made the comment in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on the topic of Russia’s faltering performance in the war with Ukraine.

‘Even among the oligarchs, more and more are doubting Putin’s war,’ Tsahkna said.

‘Many who spoke of victory a year ago no longer believe it,’ he added.

It comes as Ukraine is striking Russian energy infrastructure at an unprecedented rate, with Volodymyr Zelensky‘s intensified drone campaign triggering Moscow‘s worst fuel crisis in decades.

More than half of Russia’s regions have been forced to impose strict limits on fuel sales, with disgruntled residents queueing for hours and getting into dramatic brawls at petrol stations.

‘Putin could change his goals and enter into serious negotiations – if he acts rationally,’ Tsahkna said.

‘It’s just as possible that one day he’ll jump out of a window with his family. After all, things like that happen in Russia,’ he added.

Since the beginning of 2026, Russia’s refineries have been hit at least 194 times, an 11-fold increase from the same period the previous year, according to data from Rochan Consulting, a Polish analytical group monitoring the war

As Kyiv tightens the noose on oil supplies by targeting Russia’s refineries and tankers, new filling station fights are erupting

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Since the beginning of 2026, Russia’s refineries have been hit at least 194 times, an 11-fold increase from the same period the previous year, according to data from Rochan Consulting, a Polish analytical group monitoring the war. 

In June, Kyiv hit Moscow’s sole oil refinery several times, sparking huge blazes that sent clouds of smoke billowing over the capital.

The intensification of Kyiv’s aerial campaign comes as Zelensky announced that his forces would make a concerted push this summer to try to compel the Kremlin dictator to end his years-long war of aggression.

The Ukrainian leader said his military was carrying out ‘a 40-day influence operation’ with its long-range strike units to try and force Putin to the negotiating table.

‘By now, every Russian feels that this war isn’t happening somewhere far away, but has reached their own country,’ Tsahkna said.

On the efforts of the US president to broker peace, the minister said ‘Putin primarily wasted Trump’s time’, adding that ‘the talks have effectively failed’.

About whether Russia would consider an imminent attack on Poland or the Baltic states, Tsahkna dismissed the idea. 

‘I consider a large-scale invasion in the coming weeks to be out of the question. Russia lacks the resources for that,’ he said. 

Nevertheless, Tsahkna issued a clear warning: ‘Russia remains a dangerous country, and provocations are always possible.’

Thick plumes of smoke with flames rise from an oil refinery following a Ukrainian drone attack in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Moscow, Russia, June 18

Ukrainian drones have set the Mikhailovskaya oil depot ablaze in the southern Russian region of Stavropol

Ukraine claimed to have attacked 14 tankers of Russia’s shadow fleet on July 12

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The major Mikhailovskaya oil depot in Stavropol was ignited in a fireball followed by towering flames, further denuding Russian supplies

As Kyiv tightens the noose on oil supplies by targeting Russia’s refineries and tankers, new filling station fights are erupting.

Multiple drivers joined a brawl in Penza amid accusations of motorists jumping the queue.

In Moscow, a woman driver was in tears as she claimed a knife-wielding man had slashed her tyres, accusing him of leapfrogging her in the line.

In fear inside her car, she asked him: ‘Are you an idiot or something? What are you doing?’

She said: ‘This guy just ran out, threatened me with a knife, and slashed my tyres because he thought I was cutting in front of him at the petrol station.’

Tension is exploding over chronic and worsening shortages of petrol and diesel due to precision Ukrainian strikes on key oil facilities which are now causing serious harm to the economy.

On Monday, 15 more ships – mainly shadow fleet tankers breaking Western sanctions – were hit by kamikaze drones in the Sea of Azov.

This takes the toll to more than 100 in the past eight days, and further strangles supplies to annexed tourist region Crimea.

Images show tankers being hit and in flames amid a total failure of Russian air defences.

Overnight drones also struck the Kavkaz oil and passenger port linking Russia to the Black Sea peninsula.

Ukraine has vowed to stop the strikes if Putin halts his debilitating war – but he refuses to do so, at an increasing cost to Russians.

In a spectacular new strike Monday, the major Mikhailovskaya oil depot in Stavropol was ignited in a fireball followed by towering flames, further denuding Russian supplies.

Dozens of key refineries and oil storage sites have been put out of action.

Russian sources also said that 350 Ukrainian drones were flying towards Moscow.

Air defences downed many of the incoming unmanned planes but debris from one crashed into residential building in Pionersky, Moscow region, killing three and injuring others.

Russian rage over the strikes on oil supplies spilled over onto pro-Putin’s propaganda TV shows.

Leading Kremlin trumpeter Vladimir Solovyov demanded harsh revenge strikes on Ukraine.

‘They’re attacking our ships in the Sea of Azov, and they’re telling NATO countries we don’t care, we’ll attack in the Mediterranean too,’ he ranted.

‘Why aren’t we destroying every ship heading to and from [Ukraine]?

‘Not just the ports, but any shipping connected to Ukraine should be destroyed, and we don’t care what flag they’re flying…

‘And what’s more, we have submarines….What’s stopping us from using submarines to destroy ships heading for Ukrainian ports?’

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had foiled a series ‌of attempted large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks against two military air bases deep ​inside Russia, state news agency ​TASS reported. 

TASS cited the FSB as ⁠saying in a statement that Ukrainian ​secret services had attempted to strike ​the Shagol and Ukrainka air bases, in Russia’s Ural mountains and its far east, ​respectively, and that the perpetrators ​of the attacks had been detained.

It said ‌that ⁠Ukraine had used balloons and drones to deliver containers full of drones into Russia’s Bryansk region, which were ​then ​to be ⁠transported to the two targets.

The foiled operation appeared to ​resemble a 2025 attack ​on ⁠Russian military air bases, including the Ukrainka base, which destroyed around 10 ⁠Russian ​aircraft, according to the ​United States.

A Four in a Bed star was left wiping away tears before the result on the Channel 4 programme

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A Four in a Bed star was left in tears on payment day after an emotional admission.

During a repeat episode airing on Saturday (July 11), Norfolk property owners Phil and Gil heard from their competitors after a stay at Old Hall Country Breaks.

The couple’s self-catered accommodation had already been described as “stunning” and “amazing”.

“It’s like I’m visiting the King,” fellow Four in a Bed star Jack had praised, while the others were blown away by the facilities.

“I could live here,” guest Justin also added, with all the other teams highly rating Phil and Gil’s stay.

“I’m a bit speechless,” Gil had said, after reading the feedback, while Phil commented: “It’s a competition that we came to win and it’s all about the money that goes into the envelope.”

On payment day, the praise continued, as Jack said: “From the moment I opened the door, I felt the level of detail.”

He later added: “With your attention to detail and you guys knowing what I want before I know I want it, it was one of the best stays ever.”

Justin’s partner Keighly also called it “perfection”, leaving Gil wiping away tears.

He said: “You guys have really got me going now, that means everything. I’m a perfectionist, and it’s not always easy. Knowing that you guys feel that we are right there, it means a lot.”

As he sobbed, he added: “It’s just because we’ve put a lot of our personal lives and everything to make that happen.”

After receiving the feedback, Phil added to the camera: “It was the stuff of dreams.”

Gil went on: “They are our peers in the industry and to hear that brilliant feedback just meant a lot to us.”

To no surprise, the couple received a total £10 overpayment, and were crowned winners that week.

Celebrating their win, Phil said: “We are completely speechless by how you’ve made us feel today, and just blown away by it.”

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Gil also told the cameras: “We did have a bit of pressure coming into this competition with our price range and to have the overpayments meant a lot.”

The couple both echoed: “I’m speechless, it feels like a dream,” as they were called “worthy winners” by their competition.

“Thanks to the best competitors we could have wished for,” Phil said over the toast.

He then quipped: “We always said we came to slay and not to play, we slayed!”

Four in a Bed is available to watch on Channel 4

For four long years, journalists at this newspaper have worked under the shadow of a series of terrible accusations. It was alleged they hacked phones, blagged medical and travel records and did other ‘unlawful information gathering’.

Then they had to endure an 11-week trial and were cross-examined, one by one, about their working lives. 

They are not princes. They are hard-working people who have mortgages and school runs and the ordinary dread of an ordinary person who has been publicly accused of something they did not do.

Last week, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all allegations. Every single one of them.

The man who, as a consequence of his litigation, put those people in that witness box is the same man who has spent the past decade instructing the rest of us to be kind.

The question that interests me is not whether Prince Harry had the evidence to prove what he was alleging – the court has answered that. 

As a psychiatrist, what most intrigues me is why he went to court in the first place? Why spend four years and presumably a lot of money on such a misguided crusade?

The answer, I suspect, has almost nothing to do with newspapers. We all know the story. He was 12 years old. He walked behind his mother’s coffin, watched by 100 million people, and he did not cry, because a boy of 12 in that situation understands that he is not permitted to.

Prince William and Prince Harry at the funeral of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 

Grief in childhood does not revolve around a neat timetable. It goes underground and it waits. And what it very often waits for is adulthood, because adulthood supplies the one thing a grieving child lacks: the power to act. 

What mourning wants, above everything, is to undo; to go back. And since that cannot be done, the wish attaches itself to whatever might provide answers.

A courtroom has that potential. It offers a defendant and it offers a finding of fact and a verdict. It offers the one thing bereavement doesn’t always provide, which is somebody to blame, even if that somebody has done absolutely nothing wrong. 

I have seen smaller versions of this play out in my clinic for over 20 years. The widow who devotes a decade to an unfounded complaint against the hospital. The son who cannot let his father be buried until every question has been asked and answered.

Somewhere along the way the pursuit stops being a route through the grief and becomes the place where the grief now lives. And while the case is still open, the loss seems somehow less final.

And there is something else that happens to people gripped by what they perceive to be a righteous cause, and this is the part I find hardest to forgive.

They stop seeing the people standing inside it.

Not because they are deliberately cruel, but due to a narrowing of vision that is so complete, other human beings drop out of the frame.

The reporter lying awake at 3am is not someone Harry has been unkind to. They are someone he is treating as if he has not noticed them at all.

I am not sure which is worse. From the lofty heights of the moral high ground, the little people can seem even smaller.

Harry has spoken often about the years of therapy he has had, and I don’t doubt a word of it.

But it prompts an uncomfortable thought about my own profession. There is a kind of therapy that hands a person a beautiful vocabulary for their injury, but then never once asks them to put it back down again.

They emerge able to describe their wound in exquisite detail, fluent, articulate, but entirely unhealed. Insight is not the same thing as change.

I have seen several people who after years of therapy remain obsessed with their trauma to the extent that they are unable to heal and move on with their lives.

Good therapy should, in the end, leave you rather less interested in your own story than you were when you started. Harry couldn’t get what he really wanted from this case. Not only because this newspaper hadn’t done what he alleged, but because there is no order any judge in England can sign that says: your mother should not have died, and you were only 12.

Nobody can give him that. Not this newspaper, not his father and not a High Court judge.

What might help is duller, and harder and free. It is the slow, unglamorous work of mourning something that cannot be returned. It is the only way of laying down a weight that has been carried since childhood.

The truth about infertility

New research has found that infertility among women aged 35 to 49 has been rising steadily since 1990, and is projected to keep climbing. 

Notice how the coverage of such findings always carries a faint note of reproach. As though women had put off having children for the fun of it. As though there were a cohort of thirtysomethings who chose the second holiday over the first baby.

I’ve never met her. What I have met is women who could not afford a home with a second bedroom. Women on rolling contracts who knew exactly what a pregnancy would do to their prospects. 

Women still paying off a degree they were told to get. And women who simply had not met anyone. 

Eva Beaujouan, of the University of Vienna, points to longer years of study, economic insecurity and unemployment. 

We ask women to establish themselves in the years when their fertility is at its best, then we tut when the sums don’t work. 

Not one woman I have sat with chose to run out of time.

I once had a patient in her 50s and every 20 seconds or so she would shift in her chair and wince. Her scans were clear. So for years she had been told there was nothing wrong with her. This is why a study from Johns Hopkins University into back pain matters. Working with mice, the team found that in a degenerating spine, pain-sensing nerve fibres grow into places they should not be in. But a hormone called PTH prompts bone cells to produce a protein that pushes them back out. So, we now have a mechanism for why back pain occurs and a possible solution. 

Ministers have promised to end corridor care in hospitals by the end of this parliament. But Jason Killens, of the London Ambulance Service, says some are simply moving the problem outdoors… to the car park. More than 20,000 patients a month are at risk of harm from handovers delayed beyond an hour. Clearing corridors might still help no one.

Dr Max prescribes…

Altruist sunscreen

Most of us apply nowhere near enough sunscreen. Studies suggest we use a quarter to half of the amount that SPF was tested at, which turns your SPF 50 into something far weaker. And the reason we are so stingy is that the bottle cost us £30.

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So cheap suncream is not a lesser suncream; it is the sort most people will use properly. Altruist was founded by Dr Andrew Birnie, a consultant dermatologist and skin cancer surgeon, to provide excellent suncream at the lowest possible price (from £6.36, altruistsun.com). 

As a man who has had skin cancer surgery himself, I buy it. For every tube sold, they send suncream to children with albinism in Africa, who develop skin cancers young. That amounts to almost £1.4million worth so far.

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This is the moment the prime suspect in Ann Widdecombe‘s murder climbed into his car with what appears to be a large baton bulging from the pocket of his shorts.

The man, who the Daily Mail is not naming, was arrested on suspicion of killing the former Tory MP after a dozen armed officers descended on his council house in South Yorkshire on Saturday night.

He was captured on CCTV leaving the property on a run-down Rotherham estate shortly before 8am on Wednesday – the day the 78-year-old was allegedly beaten to death.

The footage shows what appears to be a baton or pole more than a foot long in his left pocket.

The man, who neighbours described as a recluse, was filmed climbing into a red hatchback before allegedly travelling some 267 miles – a journey of around five hours – to Ms Widdecombe’s remote property at Haytor on Dartmoor.

Police believe the former Tory minister, who was found dead the following morning, was killed shortly after midday on Wednesday.

Neighbours said the man held over her death was an unemployed ‘loner’ who rarely left home and had become increasingly introverted following his father’s death last year.

But early on Wednesday morning, the suspect, who lived alone, was spotted on CCTV leaving his terraced home and getting into a run-down vehicle parked on the driveway.

‘He comes out of the house and walks towards the red car,’ said a neighbour familiar with the footage, which has been shared with police.

Ann Widdecombe was killed in her home on Wednesday last week and discovered 24 hours later

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They said he appeared to be carrying a stick concealed under his top before placing it inside the car. 

‘It looked like a wooden stick or an iron bar, about a foot long, and it was pushing up underneath his T-shirt as he got into the car,’ the person added.

‘He seemed calm and there is nothing to suggest anything unusual was happening.’

It comes as Devon and Cornwall Police said there was no indication that the violent murder was ‘politically motivated’ or ‘terrorism-related’ despite Ms Widdecombe’s public profile.

She was first elected a Conservative MP in Kent in 1987 before she went on to serve as an MEP for the Brexit Party and then a spokesman for Reform UK.

Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said: ‘At this point, there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident and at this point we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this murder.

‘At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it was politically motivated.’

He said detectives ‘remain open-minded about the potential motive’ and stressed it is not believed there is any threat to the wider public.

He urged people ‘not to share or engage with that speculation’, saying: ‘It’s unhelpful, it doesn’t aid our investigation and particularly it’s distressing to family and friends of Ms Widdecombe.’

Chief Constable James Vaughan, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said the force has ‘mounted an extraordinary response to a horrific murder of a very prominent public figure’.

He added: ‘The operation has been running at a lightning pace for 48 hours.

‘I am really pleased that we have a suspect firmly in custody and that will undergo some further work from us today.’

Forensic officers were still searching the man’s mid-terraced address in the town’s Kimberworth Park area on Sunday as uniformed officers stood guard outside.

Neighbours said around a dozen armed officers had surrounded the property at around 9pm on Saturday before knocking loudly at the door.

Courtney Foster, 25, who lives next door with partner Rayed Astle, 26, said: ‘We were in the kitchen and just saw the officers running up. Some were armed. Then they banged on the door very loudly.

‘They didn’t smash the door down because he opened it. They asked him his name, he confirmed it and they took him away.’

Ms Foster said police also took the man’s pet labradoodle, adding: ‘There were about 12 officers and quite a few cars. It was quite a shock.’

Describing the man, Mr Astle said that he had barely spoken to anyone since his father, who he had moved in with around a year ago, died last December.

‘He was someone you’d have a conversation with but that changed after his dad died. He became very quiet. He kept himself to himself and wouldn’t really speak to anyone,’ he added.

Ms Foster added: ‘He was always in the house and I don’t think he worked.’

Other neighbours said the man’s red Vauxhall Corsa ‘barely moved’ from the drive – to the extent it had begun to rust with weeds growing on it.

Forensic officers were seen heading into the house, after it was confirmed there is no evidence to suggest the murder was politically motivated

Police were searching an address in Rotherham on Sunday where they arrested a man on suspicion of Ann Widdecombe’s murder

A cordon remains at Ms Widdecombe’s bungalow in Haytor, Devon, and police said locals will notice a heightened presence for the next few days

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Floral tributes have been left on the grass outside her home, including a framed photograph of Ms Widdecombe

‘The car was normally left outside for long periods, so it just stood out that he was driving away so early in the morning,’ one added.

Another local said: ‘He is one of three brothers but the others moved out, so he was living on his own.

‘His father died before Christmas and I think it affected him. He seemed to change because he became even more introverted.

‘You would barely see him – to the point where you’d presume the house was unoccupied. Now and again you’d see the upstairs light on but that was it.’

Another resident, who witnessed the arrest, said: ‘The police came at about 9.10pm. There were about a dozen officers armed with guns, both in the front garden and the back garden.

‘They knocked on the door and he opened up. They asked his name and he was taken away.

‘It was quite quiet, really. There was no commotion….It was very quiet how they turned up. There was no lights, no noise – our Ring doorbell didn’t even go off.’

Neighbour Kingsley Whybrow, 29, said: ‘I’ve never seen anyone come in and out of that house, ever.

‘He drove a red Corsa that was parked outside – it had started to rust and there was vegetation growing on it. They came at about 3am to tow it away.’

One of the man’s brothers is believed to live in Devon, while a second brother and his mother, who is thought to have worked as a teaching assistant, are said to live locally.

Ms Widdecombe had stopped responding to text messages regarding a TV interview around the time police believe she had been attacked.

She had been due to appear remotely as a guest on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright show when she suddenly stopped responding to a producer at 12.19pm, according to ITV News.

The messages show she did not open a reply timestamped 12.48pm asking her to join the Zoom meeting which she failed to attend.

Reform UK is said to be reviewing emails sent to Ms Widdecombe in the weeks before her murder in search for any threats against her life.

The party has also said it is committed to providing round-the-clock security to its MPs in the wake of her death.

Sam Neill has died at the age of 78 just months after he revealed he was ‘cancer-free’ following a long battle with a type of blood cancer. 

The New Zealand actor – who starred in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park and The Piano – was taken to hospital in Sydney on Monday. 

Family described his passing as ‘sudden and unexpected’ in a statement published to his Instagram page.

‘It is with immense sadness that the whānau (family) of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,’ they said.

‘The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer-free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care.

‘More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.’ 

In April, Neill – who is best known for playing Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise – announced tests had found he was cancer free.

In an interview with Channel Seven, Neill detailed how close he came to death after chemotherapy stopped working. A costly, cutting-edge treatment prolonged his life. 

Neill said: ‘I’ve been living with a particular type of lymphoma for about five years and I was on chemotherapy and the pretty miserable business, but it was keeping me alive.

‘Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously.’

Neill underwent a special treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically modifies a patient’s own T-cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells. Private treatment costs around $AUD540,000.

‘I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing. I’m very, very excited that this can happen,’ he said at the time.

The treatment is currently in clinical trials to treat another blood cancer, myeloma.

Neill also said he was planning to make a return to acting. 

The New Zealand actor was best known for blockbusters such as Jurassic Park and The Piano. Pictured in Jurassic Park

Neill played Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise (pictured)

‘It’s time I did another movie,’ he said.

Neill first went public with his cancer diagnosis in 2023 after being diagnosed with cancer the previous year, after initially experiencing swollen glands.

He found out about as his stage-three blood cancer while he promoted Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.

In that film he reprised his role as Grant alongside original co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

He told Australian Story at the time: ‘I’m not in any way frightened of dying. That doesn’t worry me. It’s never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.

‘I’d be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I’m not afraid of it.’

Neill, who was born in Northern Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealander father, first disclosed the news of his illness in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This, where he writes in the first chapter that he is ‘possibly dying’.

Reflecting on life at the time, the seasoned actor once again said that he did not fear death, admitting, ‘I’m not afraid to die. But it would annoy me. Because I’d really like another decade or two, you know?’

‘We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big.

‘But as for the dying? I couldn’t care less.’

News of the celebrated actor’s death was inundated with tributes.

‘This hits hard. Thanks for the memories, Sam. You’ve left behind an incredible body of work. Love to your family,’ wrote Australian radio host Ben Fordham.

‘This is shocking news. What a legend. Gentle genius. Vale Sam Neill,’ commented comedian Dave Hughes.

‘Sam! May you be resting peacefully,’ wrote Australian of the Year Grace Tame.

Meanwhile, former ABC journalist Virginia Trioli shared her disbelief with a simple, ‘Oh no.’

Neill shares a son, Tim, 40, with New Zealand actress, Lisa Harrow, to whom he was married between 1980 and 1989. 

The star was married to Japanese makeup artist Noriko Watanabe from 1989-2017 and they share a daughter, Elena, 35. He also adopted Noriko’s daughter from her first marriage, Maiko. 

Neill was born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Ireland, with his family moving to New Zealand in 1954. 

He went by the nickname Sam, dropping Nigel after deciding Sam was ‘less awkward’. 

‘I found I moved more easily in the world as a Sam. Nigel is an awkward fit in most circumstances. Imagine being a movie actor called Nigel Neill,’ he said in 2014. 

Neill starred in three Jurassic Park films including the original in 1993, Jurassic Park III in 2001, and Jurassic World Dominion in 2022. 

He became a household name after playing palaeontologist Grant in 1993’s Jurassic Park alongside Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum.

He would reprise the role in Jurassic Park III in 2001, and again in Jurassic World Dominion just four years ago.

He has recently worked on Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort, both of which are now set to be released posthumously in 2027.

On the small screen, Neill appeared in episodes of The Simpsons, Peaky Blinders, The Tudors and The Twelve.

Most of us spend months dreaming about our summer holiday. We imagine lazy breakfasts, sunset walks, laughter by the pool, quality time with the one we love.

Yet for many couples, the reality could not be more different.

After 30 years as a divorce lawyer, I’ve learnt that for midlife couples already in rocky marriages, summer holidays can often expose relationship cracks which might have been hiding in plain sight back home.

January might be known as ‘divorce month’ because of the spike in inquiries we lawyers get after Christmas, but I’m not so sure – I’m always busy after the summer break.

Holiday tensions often hit hardest – and most devastatingly – at midlife. Recent figures suggest later-life divorce is continuing to rise with splits among women aged 65 and over increasing by a staggering 38 per cent in the past decade.

Many couples slowly drift apart over the years but an antagonistic holiday really can shine a spotlight on differences and conflict that can suddenly seem insurmountable.

The good news is that most holiday tensions and flashpoints are preventable. In fact, a week or two away without the distractions of home can provide the perfect canvas for rest and repair. Holidays give us something we rarely have: time.

Here are a few of the biggest holiday flashpoints with my expert nuggets of advice for how to make sure this year’s holiday strengthens your marriage – and doesn’t destroy it…

While couples may want different things from a trip, Sheela says expecting your partner to enjoy your perfect holiday can be a recipe for resentment

Holiday hostage?

If one of you is itching to explore local markets, churches and museums, or to hike through forests when the other is longing to chill by the pool, downtime incompatibility can be a big trigger for tension.

We all want different things from a trip but expecting your partner to enjoy your perfect holiday can be a recipe for resentment.

Trouble starts to build when one of you is forced to swallow their disappointment and you can end up feeling like a hostage to someone else’s perfect plans.

If tensions do boil over into a blazing row you need to know this conflict likely has less to do with sightseeing and more to do with years of feeling unseen, unheard or unvalued. Holidays just bring it all to a head.

Divorce-proof tip:

Many couples believe they should spend every minute together but ironically, the happiest couples often don’t. So talk about holiday expectations before you pack your suitcases and have a simple planning conversation.

Agree that every day will include:

• One activity you choose;
• One activity they choose;  
• One activity together. 

That way, neither of you spends the holiday feeling you’re living someone else’s dream.

No sex please

Many couples pack far more ‘sexpectations’ than swimwear in their suitcase, hoping a romantic setting, time away from the pressures of home, a few drinks and sunshine will revive a flagging sex life.

But if you’ve spent months trying to wriggle out of intimate contact, a change of scenery won’t be enough to suddenly reignite the sexual spark.

You’ll have little left in the tank for erotica if you’ve had to do all the planning, packing, organising and looking after everyone else. And it’s hardly surprising that, by bedtime – even if you are between sheets you haven’t had to launder – sleep is likely to be far more appealing than sex.

But for some people the unexpected holiday sex drought can be a final straw.

Divorce-proof tip:

Feeling loved and appreciated is often the biggest aphrodisiac of all – whether you’re on holiday or not.

The best sex often starts with how you make each other feel long before bedtime, so aim to build intimacy throughout the day.

Kiss before leaving your room. Hold hands strolling along the beach. Hug properly (holding on for six seconds – at least).

Holidays are the perfect time to kickstart affectionate habits and daily rituals that build emotional closeness and which you can continue at home.

The sound of silence

We’ve all seen those couples sitting opposite each other in the hotel restaurant in awkward silence and wondered how on earth their relationship can survive.

The truth is, it probably won’t.

At home we are surrounded by conversational triggers – house bills, work, TV, the kids – but when it’s just the two of you side-by-side on a sunbed all day, it can be so much harder to get the chat going.

The problem isn’t that you’ve run out of things to say, it is much more likely to be that you’ve forgotten how to be curious about each other.

This is one of the saddest stories I hear: a holiday can reveal something you might not have noticed – that you’ve quietly drifted apart.

The long pauses and awkward silences can breed the unsettling thought: ‘If this what two weeks together feels like, how will we survive retirement?’

Divorce-proof tip:

Use the holiday to become curious and interested in each other again. Ask the questions that you stopped asking (write this list down on a piece of paper and take it on holiday with you).

• What’s one thing you’d love us to do more of together?
• What would make the next year amazing?
• What’s one dream we’ve never made time for?
• What was your favourite part about today?
• What are you most looking forward to about going home?

When you do get home, aim to make one meaningful question part of your Sunday morning coffee ritual or evening walk.

Five minutes of curiosity can prevent years of emotional drift.

Flashing the cash

One of you is happily ordering fancy cocktails, booking boat trips and upgrading to lobster for dinner while the other is sneaking a breakfast roll into their bag for lunch and squirrelling away the mini soap and shampoo.

In my work in the divorce trenches, I can tell you that money is one of the biggest relationship stressors and one of the biggest causes of divorce.

And holidays expose and magnify different attitudes to money in a big way.

If you find you are stressing or bickering about money on holiday you can be sure this isn’t about the price of the Whispering Angel rose wine.

It’s about something much deeper – your different attitudes towards cash, financial security, trust, control and the painful suspicion that one person is carrying the heavier burden of worrying about the bills alone.

I’ve seen marriages end after blazing rows over holiday bills when one partner feels controlled, criticised or guilty whenever they spend money and the other feels anxious and resentful of a partner who they perceive as financially reckless.

Divorce-proof tip:

Agree a realistic holiday budget. Talk upfront about flights, hotels, meals, drinks, excursions and shopping. It may not sound very romantic, but it’s far more so than spending the journey home arguing about money – and if you’re not bickering about cash, you’ll be saving money on your lawyer’s bill.

Airport incompatibility

Divorce lawyer and relationship coach Sheela Mackintosh-Stewart is the author of the How To Stay Together: 12 Daily Habits To Strengthen Your Relationship, set for release in January

There’s a great TV advert doing the rounds where a young couple, recently engaged, are waiting at the airport for their flight to be called. The minute the gate opens, the man jumps up, keen to be first in the queue, leaving the woman – who clearly prefers the ‘stay in your seat until the last minute to avoid the queue to board the plane’ philosophy – to start to seriously question their relationship compatibility.

Holiday travel brings out fundamental differences in behaviour like this, something many couples might never have noticed before.

At the mildest level these differing preferences can be irritating but left to fester undiscussed, your airport habits can jeopardise your relationship.

Travel can act like a pressure cooker and airport rows can reveal and heighten underlying differences in priorities, compromise, control and expectations.

Divorce-proof tip:

Different travel styles don’t matter, but not talking about them and finding a way forward does. Before you book, agree on how you will handle and manage these differences to avoid tension.

The in-law invasion

A holiday should be a great opportunity to reconnect as a couple and deepen your relationship. But if you’re holidaying with extended family it can quickly become a holiday from your relationship, rather than for it.

The idea of holidaying with blended step-families, both sets of parents or old friends, might seem completely delightful to one partner while leaving the other feeling trapped and resentful, especially if that person ends up as cook and bottle washer for a big band of others.

In my experience, on these holidays the rows are rarely about the in-laws – they are about loyalty, boundaries and one of you feeling repeatedly deprioritised.

Divorce-proof tip:

Before you book the next holiday, regardless of the extras that might be tagging along, have a proper chat and agree how much time will be ‘couple time’ and how much will be ‘family time’.

No one should feel like a spare part on their own holiday.

Old and tired

One of the biggest triggers for later-life divorce can be the startling realisation that one of you has ‘let the old person in’ when the other is doing everything it takes to hold back the ravages of time. If you’re picking out salads from the hotel buffet and pumping iron in the hotel gym you can get more than an ‘ick’ from spending two weeks with a partner who has let themselves go.

Away from the camouflage of everyday routines (and clothes), you can suddenly notice how differently you’re both ageing and this can leave you wondering if you’re still going to be able to enjoy the future you had imagined together or whether you might have to become their carer far sooner than you feared.

Divorce-proof tip:

Use the holiday to have an honest but loving conversation about the future. Become teammates rather than critics.

Ask yourselves: ‘What sort of retirement do we want?’ and, ‘What do we need to start doing now to make that happen?’

The answer might be daily walks, joining a gym, healthier meals, quitting smoking, cutting back on the booze or maybe taking more active holidays.

Phone wars

You’ve finally escaped. Together at last! Hurrah! No deadlines. No school runs. No endless chores.

Except one of you isn’t really there. They’re still taking conference calls on sightseeing trips, tuning into World cup football in the middle of the night, doomscrolling in bed, missing sunsets and barely acknowledging your sexy new holiday wardrobe.

The problem is, nothing says ‘you’re not my top priority’ more loudly than choosing your phone over your partner day after day.

Divorce-proof tip:

Agree a few holiday rules before you leave home such as:

• No screen zone during meals. Use the time to chat about things you don’t usually have time for.
• No phones in bed. Let the first and last few minutes of the day belong to each other. Talk, cuddle or simply enjoy your morning coffee together.
• Agree beforehand if there’s a unique sporting event you can’t miss.

Don’t drop the D-word

Holidays are stressful – tiredness, travel, grumpy kids, overheated partners and small frustrations can quickly turn into blazing rows.

That’s often when people blurt out things in anger or to shock the other which they don’t really mean and the D-word (divorce) can raise its ugly head.

It is most likely to be thrown into the conversation with apparent abandon (‘Oh are we heading towards divorce then?’). And followed up with ‘Oh come on, I was only joking!’ But that word – in any context – is a hand grenade into your marriage.

It plants doubt, fear, uncertainty and insecurity.

I’ve seen marriages fatally weakened by repeated divorce threats. Every time you use the D-word, it becomes a little more believable and more damaging.

Divorce-proof tip:

The D-word is off limits – whether you’re at home or on holiday. No matter how tired, stressed or frustrated you are.

If the word has already been used, don’t ignore it and hope it blows over. A simple apology can make all the difference (‘I’m sorry. I was angry and overwhelmed. I don’t want a divorce. I shouldn’t have said that’).

Sheela Mackintosh-Stewart is a divorce lawyer, relationship coach and author of How to Stay Together: 12 Daily Habits to Strengthen Your Relationship (published by Octopus), is out on January 21, 2027, and is available to pre-order now.

• As told to Louise Atkinson