Queen’s courtiers are ‘nervous’ over Carrie’s first Balmoral trip with Boris at Christmas and ‘would rather it didn’t go ahead due to Covid risk’
Carrie Johnson is desperate to stay with the Queen for the first time since she married Boris, but I hear courtiers are becoming increasingly nervous about their planned visit to Balmoral.
Their stay at the Scottish royal retreat was cancelled last summer and officials are desperate to make sure Her Majesty is not put at risk of catching Covid.
‘The visit is still due to go ahead but, frankly, we’d rather it wasn’t,’ admits one royal source.
Boris and Carrie will be asked to avoid meeting other people in the days leading up to the trip and take Covid tests.
Carrie Johnson is desperate to stay with the Queen for the first time since she married Boris (pictured together), but I hear courtiers are becoming nervous about the visit to Balmoral
The Queen, 95, has had both doses of the vaccine but, given her age, courtiers are keen that she doesn’t catch the virus, however mild the possible symptoms.
She has not been to church at Crathie Kirk once since she arrived in Royal Deeside because of Covid fears and a desire to avoid attracting crowds to gather.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, warned yesterday that the virus was spreading faster than at any time since the start of the pandemic. A staff member at Balmoral tested positive for the virus earlier this summer.
Courtiers’ fears were heightened by Dominic Cummings’s claims. Boris’s former right-hand man said the PM had to be talked out of meeting the Queen in London a week before Britain went into lockdown for the first time.
He said Boris declared, ‘Sod this! I’m going to go and see her.’ Cummings added: ‘I just said, “If you give her coronavirus and she dies, what are you going to [do]? You can’t risk that. That’s completely insane”.’
The Queen, 95, (pictured with Boris in June, 2021) has had both doses of the vaccine but, given her age, courtiers are keen that she doesn’t catch the virus
Their stay at the Scottish royal retreat was cancelled last summer and this year Boris and Carrie will be asked to avoid meeting other people in the days leading up to the trip and take Covid tests. Pictured: Balmoral Castle
The Queen has met Boris only once since the start of the pandemic. After that meeting, at Buckingham Palace in June, video was released of her telling him she had just seen ‘poor man’ Matt Hancock and he was ‘full of . . .’ Boris interrupted her to say ‘beans’.
Hancock resigned as Health Secretary a few days later after his affair with an aide was exposed.
Wisely, perhaps, the Queen subsequently returned to holding her monthly meetings with Boris on the telephone.
Earl’s girl and fiance share a belly laugh
Princess Diana’s niece Lady Amelia Spencer clearly shares her sense of fun.
Earl Spencer’s 29-year-old daughter has just moved to London from South Africa and has already been seen playing around with her fiance, Greg Mallett.
Lady Amelia giggled and took photographs on her smartphone as water polo instuctor Greg, 30, lifted up his shirt and showed off his tum in their new neighbourhood, a fashionable corner of West London. She’s moved to the capital with her twin sister, Lady Eliza, and they’re keen to make the most of the social scene.
‘We can’t wait to see what the future holds,’ Amelia said. ‘I always imagined I’d end up in the UK — it just took a little longer than I’d planned.
‘We’re thrilled to be here. For me, this is where my future is.’
Trust Tom Cruise to arrive for dinner in style. His friend and Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg has revealed that the Hollywood star flew in by helicopter when he came to visit him and his wife, Maureen, at their Hertfordshire home.
‘We’ve taught him how to land in our garden as opposed to crashing it on a mountain,’ Pegg jokes.
2bn property heir Justin and wife over the moon with Star
Property heir Justin Portman’s model ex-wife, Natalia Vodianova, is known as Supernova, and he’s determined his daughter will not be outshone.
His second wife, the American actress Morgan Snyder, is due to give birth to a girl in October and she tells me: ‘We are going to call her Star.’
Morgan, 38, who already has a son, Leo, aged two, with Justin, 52, had an astral-themed baby shower this week in New York (pictured).
Justin — whose father, Viscount Portman, owns 110 acres of Marylebone, London, and has a reputed fortune of £2 billion — has three children, Viktor, Lucas and Neva, with Vodianova.
No doubt, the christening will be out of this world.
Tycoon Caudwell rides into trouble
PHONES 4U billionaire John Caudwell has had a holiday from hell.
The tycoon, 68, was on his bike in Italy trying to keep up with his girlfriend, the former Olympic cyclist Modesta Vzesniauskaite, 37, when he suffered a terrifying accident. ‘I had just climbed one of the mountains around Florence and started a descent,’ explains Caudwell. ‘As I rounded the first bend, my front tyre exploded and my head, shoulder and hip crashed to the ground.
‘A passer-by called the ambulance while I sat on the roadside barely conscious.’
Caudwell was air-lifted to hospital with a punctured lung, shattered shoulder blade, fractured collarbone, and six broken ribs, but says he’ll bounce back. Maybe a walking holiday next time . . .
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