She’s never been a figure to invite much public sympathy, but I feel rather sorry for Nancy Dell’Olio.
After months of legal wrangling, the eternally youthful Italian glamourpuss has finally settled her four-year fight over money with former partner Sven-Goran Eriksson.
When their relationship collapsed, Nancy claims Sven told her that he would look after her financially, but then reneged on the deal.
She refused to move from the £3 million Belgravia home they once shared until an agreement had been reached — and has eventually settled for a payment said to be in the region of £2 million.
A lot of money, yes. But as she battled for what she considered her due, she sent a clear message to all women in a long-term relationship with a man, rich or poor, who won’t commit: it doesn’t mean a thing without a wedding ring.
Nancy arguably spent the best years of her life with Sven. She left her husband for him, moved country for him, devoted herself to his career and tolerated his serial infidelity.
Yet in the end she was treated as little more than a nuisance tenant.
Hers is a cautionary tale for all women, especially those in middle age, that marriage is the only relationship which offers any kind of security.
Without it, you can be jettisoned like last week’s garbage. Especially when, like Nancy (who’s been 51 for much of the past decade), you’re beyond child-bearing age and there are no offspring to be provided for.
Yes, Nancy has eventually got a seven-figure settlement. Some may say she didn’t deserve a thing.
But if she and Sven had been married, she would most certainly have been entitled to a great deal more.
Let’s not forget she and Sven were together for nearly a decade and that during his time as England coach he was earning £5million a year.
Besides, it was Nancy who turned the geeky, bespectacled Swede into a true celebrity, with an earning power that most managers could only dream of.
Dell'olio and Eriksson had been in dispute over the flat since they split seven years ago
Dell' Olio had continued to live in the £3.75m flat in Belgravia, London
Thanks to her wit and wiles, she increased his public profile way beyond the sports pages. (Who can forget her skintight, red Elvis suit when the England team went to No 10?)
And for what? To be serially substituted in the bedroom, eventually ditched altogether, and then faced with the final humiliation of having to fight eviction from her home.
A humbling lesson that even the irrepressible Nancy has struggled to spin to her advantage.
Gwyneth Paltrow at the Los Angeles premiere of her movie Iron Man 3
Now that her £4 million, three-year deal with ITV is about to expire, the gormless Christine Bleakley is having to take a 70 per cent pay cut. But why is she still in line for £12,000 a show for co-presenting Dancing On Ice? I’ve seen ice statues with more warmth and talent.
Try staying mum, Gwyn
Gwyneth Paltrow insisted her career would take second place to being a mum. That must be why she’s done seven movies in the past three years — though, to be fair, mostly in minor roles.
On Thursday, she appeared at the premiere of Iron Man 3 in a dress sheer from ankle to waist, proving that old Hollyood rule: the smaller the part, the skimpier the red-carpet frock.
At this rate, she’ll be wearing nothing but nipple tassels to Iron Man 4.
A ballroom dancer who lost her leg below the knee in the Boston bombing vows she will dance again. Adrianne Haslet-Davis has been assigned a partner and will appear on the U.S. TV series Dancing With The Stars.
How courageous of her, but also how cynically opportunistic of the producers to capitalise on a tragedy when the dust has barely settled.
Working girl Kate
Lovely to see Kate attending four events this week, despite her advancing pregnancy. In her days of courting William, I often criticised her for being work-shy, but she’s carried out her recent engagements with all the grace of Diana and the diligence of the Queen. We used to call her Waity Katie. Perhaps now she’s proving to the nation she was someone worth waiting for.
The Duchess attended the National Review of Queen's Scouts at Windsor Castle on Sunday, and also made several other public appearances this week
Thirteen years ago Grant Bovey left his wife Della for Anthea Turner — but it was only recently the women came face to face at his daughter’s 21st. Anthea said it was a ‘lovely affair’.
'I'm Dead' 2010 by David Shrigley who is shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2013
All the lovelier for Della, no doubt, knowing Bovey had cheated on Anthea, too, that he’s bankrupt, and Anthea is jobless.
The hopes of justice for the families and survivors of Hillsborough must have been dashed when they learned that police officers on duty that day will refuse to give evidence. How can you possibly have an inquiry when those already exposed as liars fall as silent as the dead?
Art? It’s going to the dogs
Frontrunner to win the Turner Prize is David Shrigley’s stuffed dog holding a placard saying ‘I’m dead’. Art experts swoon that it leaves the audience with a moral conundrum — whether to laugh or not at someone’s dead pet, and that it highlights ‘the farcicalities of life’. Not to mention the annual farcicalities of the Turner Prize.
Even Abu has more rights
Wanda Maddocks was sentenced by a secret court to six weeks in prison, without even legal representation to defend her.
Now we discover her brother Ivan suffered a similar injustice and was given a two-month suspended sentence.
More from Amanda Platell...
AMANDA PLATELL: Why I pray my dear friend Rolf is innocent 19/04/13
Crocodile tears of men who knifed Maggie 12/04/13
What took you so long to cotton on, George? 05/04/13
No wonder our leaders don't value stay-at-home mums (Just look at their wives) 22/03/13
A thug freed. A hero in the dock. Call that justice? 15/03/13
Vengeance wounds those we love most 08/03/13
Two mums, 21 children and one big difference 22/02/13
Don't be a whinger like your Dad, Wills 15/02/13
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They were punished by the Court of Protection, which settles the affairs of those too ill to make decisions for themselves.
Her and her brother’s crimes were to take their elderly father, who suffered from dementia, out of his council-designated care home, as they were both fearful of the care he was getting. He later died there.
What a crazy world when the human rights of villains such as Abu Qatada are more sacred than those of two children simply trying to protect their dad.
Michael Gove has come under fierce criticism for insisting that schoolchildren must learn to spell the most basic words. Meanwhile, educationalists now insist children are taught about pornography in the classroom.
At least they’ll know how to spell a few four-letter words, then.
Lord Gullible
Lord Justice Leveson dismissed calls for an investigation into the affair between two key lawyers in his inquiry into the Press. He says there is ‘simply no room’ for a ‘breach of confidence or any other conspiracy’ between Carine Patry Hoskins, a key member of his legal team, and celebrities’ barrister David Sherborne.
Leveson clearly believes their claim that their affair did not begin until after his findings were published, and that a holiday the couple took to a romantic Greek island during the inquiry was purely to discuss ‘the possibility of a future relationship’.
With all due respect to m’learned Lord, if he doesn’t think that warrants investigation, it doesn’t give anyone much confidence in his other judgments.
Westminster Noticeboard
+ The beleaguered Prime Minister has appointed Boris’s brother Jo Johnson (pictured) as head of his policy unit.
A pro-European who was once India correspondent for a newspaper, J-Jo has never run anything in his life and is even more wet behind the ears than his mentor George Osborne. And how pathetic that Dave’s answer to every problem is an old Etonian.
+ Labour’s decision to allow family doctors to opt out of out-of-hours care has led to a crisis in A&E, with four million more people now having to use it often for minor ailments, says Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. GPs are up in arms, perhaps not least about the hypocrisy of politicians who, while calling for doctors to work nights, drastically reduced their own late-night sittings in Parliament.
+ Defending accusations that he influenced the FA to give Luis ‘The Cannibal’ Suarez a whopping ten-game ban for biting another player, David Cameron said he didn’t want his seven-year-old son Arthur seeing a grown man tearing chunks out of an opponent on television.
One can assume then that he bans his son from watching Prime Ministers Questions.