Vanessa Feltz never made it down the aisle with pop singer Ben Ofoedu despite being engaged for 16 years.
The Phats & Small star is clearly in more of a hurry with his new fiancee, Vanessa Brown.
Having proposed just before Valentine’s Day, Ofoedu, 52, is to marry his new Vanessa, 29, in just three months’ time, I can disclose.
‘I was in a long engagement, and it didn’t work,’ Ofoedu tells me. ‘A long engagement is a massive question mark over the relationship. I just think now, as I look back on it, it was pointless.’
Speaking at the premiere of About Light and Shadows, at the Vue Leicester Square in London, he adds: ‘I was quite clear with Vanessa [Feltz] about that. You want to be engaged to be married. Anyone who wants to keep you engaged for that long is definitely just stringing you along.’
He adds: ‘I wish I could go back and talk to myself. I don’t even know what I was doing.’
He will exchange vows with Miss Brown, a beauty entrepreneur, in a castle in the Lake District in July.
Having set a date, he says: ‘I’m so excited to be getting married, it’s one of the dreams, which I’ve always had.’
Ben Ofoedu and Vanessa Brown attend the About Light and Shadows UK Premiere
Ofoedu and ex-fiancee Vanessa Feltz at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2022
Meanwhile, Dumfries-born Vanessa is planning their three-day wedding extravaganza, which she says will include ‘a lot of entertainment and fun’.
She tells me: ‘I love party-planning and my mum loves party-planning, so this is the real challenging test.’
Miss Brown, who owns an award-winning beauty clinic, says she does not doubt that Ofoedu is in it for the long term.
‘We want to get married because we want to start a family soon and, spiritually, it’s the right thing to do.’
Ofoedu and Feltz split up in 2023. The news of his wedding comes as Feltz, 62, has launched her daytime Channel 5 show, Vanessa, which Ben admits he won’t be watching.
‘I prefer Loose Women,’ he says of the ITV chat show. ‘It’s a combination of different women and different opinions. So that’s more to my taste and I don’t think I’ll be turning off Loose Women anytime soon.’
Stephen Carter has quit the House of Lords after a remarkably mute 15 years.
Sometime advertising executive Carter, who once ran Ofcom, had a short and unfruitful stint as Gordon Brown’s chief of staff at No 10. When that went wrong, he briefly served as a business minister in the Lords. He last spoke in the Upper House in 2009. Now the silent sulk has ended with his voluntary departure. Why did he ever bother going into politics in the first place?
On Monday, Lord Speaker Lord McFall voiced thanks for Carter’s ‘much-valued service to the House’. Come off it!
Now Gemma declares her passion for Jesse Wood
Jesse Wood's new girlfriend Gemma Gregory shared a selfie of the pair
When I disclosed last month that Fearne Cotton’s estranged husband, Jesse Wood, was enjoying a passionate romance with a former actress, the new couple declined to comment.
That all changed yesterday when Wood’s new girlfriend, Gemma Gregory, 39, shared this selfie online of the pair cuddling up, with the caption, ‘Bloody love this one’. Gregory played the young Estella in the 1999 version of Great Expectations and later appeared in Made In Chelsea.
TV presenter Fearne, 43, who interviews famous figures on her Happy Place podcast, was photographed kissing TV director Elliot Hegarty, 53, last month.
Downton Dan’s horror at role of social media
Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens is horrified by Hollywood’s drive to hire actors based on the number of fans they have online.
‘You hear about people being cast because they have a certain number of Instagram followers, and that’s terrifying,’ says Stevens, 42, who shot to fame as Matthew Crawley in ITV’s period drama. ‘It’s trying to put a metric on popularity... and it just doesn’t work.’
He adds: ‘Of course, when there’s big money involved and lots of risk, everyone wants the three-point average. It’s so bizarre. It makes you shudder to think that you’re churned into an algorithmic spreadsheet.’
Georgina reveals all!
Georgina Castle shared photos of a fitting at The Wedding Club bridal shop in London
Most brides-to-be keep their wedding dress under wraps until their big day, but Georgina Castle has already given her fiance, actor Simon Lipkin, a glimpse of what he can look forward to.
The star of West End musical Mean Girls, 32, shared photographs online of a fitting at The Wedding Club bridal shop in London, where she tried on a few dresses including this one designed by Berta.
‘There are very few things in life better than getting to play dress up for real,’ says the daughter of BBC Wimbledon commentator Andrew Castle.
Why Withnail star’s left high and dry despite planning battle win
RICHARD E. GRANT has won his battle to build a pool house at his historic Georgian rectory home – but he doesn’t have a swimming pool.
The Withnail And I star, 67, wants to demolish a garage and greenhouse to make way for the room. But, bizarrely, there are no plans for an actual pool as part of the application for his Grade II listed five-bedroom home in Richmond, London.
The local council said: ‘It is noted that subterranean works are not proposed to facilitate the pool and it is unclear whether this will form another application or if the pool will be above ground.’
