Friends of Lineker and Goldsmith reveal the story behind THAT picture

Standing outside an upmarket restaurant in the swanky London enclave of Notting Hill, Jemima Goldsmith was looking rather happy with herself.

Next to her was Gary Lineker looking dapper in a white shirt and jeans. They were seen giggling together after a cosy dinner at Dorian, a bistro that is a favourite haunt of A-list celebrities including Victoria Beckham.

The sighting set tongues wagging because Lineker was also at Jemima’s 50th birthday celebrations in January and rumours that they have become more than just good friends have been swirling in society circles for some months now.

Perhaps it’s simply the fact that they are both single and are thought to have been so for some time that has set the bush telegraph buzzing.

But if they really are together it would surely put a smile on Jemima’s face after years of failing to find Mr Right, something she has admitted has caused her a tremendous amount of heartache.

The same goes for Gary, 63, who has been officially partnerless since he split from second wife Danielle Bux in 2016.

Jemima, who was as chic as ever in a simple white T-shirt tucked into black wide-legged trousers and a blazer, insists that any talk of a relationship is untrue.

But one onlooker who saw the pair smiling and laughing outside the restaurant said: ‘They looked very familiar with each other.

‘They were having a jolly old time, like they had known one another for ever.

‘They were stood outside for some time before saying their goodbyes and going home separately, or at least that is what they would make you think. People walking by must have thought: ‘What’s going on here?’

Indeed, the pair spent hours in Dorian, eating and drinking wine before leaving, with Gary carrying two take-out boxes of food.

Sources close to Jemima say it is only the second time she has seen Gary all year — the first, presumably being at the milestone birthday celebrations held at her country estate, Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, which she bought in 2010 for a reported £15million.

One friend tells me: ‘Jemima is absolutely adamant that nothing is going on between her and Gary. She says that they have known one another for years and have a wonderful friendship. She insists that there is nothing more to it than that and, of course, he would be at her birthday party because they are friends.

‘The do was full of famous people and it was a jolly affair but he was not there in the capacity of her boyfriend. So she says anyway, but then would she admit it? Probably not. These things do not come from nowhere.’

As for Gary, he is known for being ‘very secretive’ about romantic matters.

Sources close to Jemima say she is also a close friend of Gary’s ex-wife, Danielle, 44. Jemima didn’t wish to comment but it was pointed out to me by a pal of hers that she ‘shouldn’t have to justify every time she has dinner with a man’.

With them at Dorian, which is just a few miles from Jemima’s home in South-West London, was a ‘third wheel’ in the form of filmmaker Leila Bartell, who is thought to be a mutual friend of both Gary and Jemima’s. And Bartell is no stranger to the limelight. Fans of Johnny Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard will recall that, back in 2017, she spent a lot of time with Leila in California. The pair were seen dining together in Los Angeles after her split from the Hollywood actor.

Apart from Danielle, Gary’s only other notable relationship was his first marriage, to beautician Michelle Cockayne, the mother of his four sons: George, Harry, Tobias and Angus.

Jemima, a renowned beauty who is a successful film writer and producer in her own right, as well as being a former associate editor of political magazine the New Statesman and European editor-at-large for the U.S. magazine Vanity Fair, has had a more colourful love life.

In 1995, she married the Pakistani cricketing legend Imran Khan — with whom she has two sons, Suleiman, 27, and 25-year-old Kasim — but the couple divorced nine years later.

Since then, she has dated several high-profile men. Following the end of her marriage to Imran, Jemima began dating Notting Hill actor Hugh Grant.

They soon became one of the most written about couples in London but in February 2007, just a few days after Valentine’s Day, they announced they had split. Jemima was said to have been the one to call it off, though a spokesman for Grant said it was ‘entirely amicable’.

The aide added: ‘Hugh has nothing but positive things to say about Jemima.’

Then came her most unlikely dalliance of all: Russell Brand. The romance between the daughter of the late billionaire tycoon Sir James Goldsmith and his third wife Lady Annabel and the controversial comedian certainly raised eyebrows.

Reports said that Jemima’s half-brother Robin Birley, who owns exclusive members’ club 5 Hertford Street, took such a dislike to the union that he banned Brand from ever walking through the club’s doors.

However, that didn’t stop the pair from regularly being seen at some of London’s finest restaurants and on walks with Jemima’s beloved white alsatian, Brian.

Their relationship ended in September 2014, much to the relief, not just of Birley, but Jemima’s other brothers, Zac and Ben.

Later, there were rumours that she and footballer-turned-TV pundit Jamie Redknapp had enjoyed a romance, though he denied the claims. Jemima told pals they were ‘simply friends’.

Her most recent confirmed relationship was with the writer of Netflix series The Crown, Peter Morgan, a liaison revealed by The Mail on Sunday in 2021.

Very soon after Morgan announced his split from the X-Files star Gillian Anderson, Jemima moved in with Peter, apparently leaving Gillian ‘bemused’. Like her and Lineker, she and Peter were old friends and some claimed that Jemima ‘had been trying to make it happen for quite some time’. However, a little over six months later, she and Morgan split, with him apparently wanting Gillian back.

The break-up clearly affected Jemima because, some months later, in an interview to promote her 2022 movie What’s Love Got To Do With It? — which starred Lily James — she said she would rather have had an arranged marriage than go through ‘a lot of heartache and headaches’.

‘Frankly speaking personally, [arranged marriage] could have saved me a lot of heartache and headaches if I’d just had someone to sort it out for me,’ she said, although she admitted she was ‘someone who did the absolute opposite’.

But in the aftermath of turning 50, could her Mr Right be under her nose, or rather, sitting opposite her at a dinner table in a very upmarket Notting Hill restaurant? ‘Watch this space,’ says a friend.