Prince George’s godmother shares surprising household revelation about parentage, sensible set’s whispers about Lord’s fiancee’s racy previous and the blue-blood who loves skimpy swimwear: EDEN CONFIDENTIAL

As an acclaimed psychotherapist, Julia Samuel is used to helping people work through difficult personal problems and challenges.

Now, I can disclose that Prince George’s godmother is having to reassess one of the most important relationships in her own life.

Julia, who was a close friend of Princess Diana, has discovered that her father, James Guinness, was not, in fact, her parent. ‘Yes, James Guinness is not my biological father, although I think of him as my father,’ she confirms.

The shock discovery did not come until long after the death of her mother, the former model Pauline Mander, in 2017. James, a member of the banking line of the Guinness family who served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War, died in 2006.

The couple owned homes in London, Hampshire and St Tropez. I understand that it was during the division of her parents’ assets that the truth emerged.

‘It came to light quite a few years after my parents had died, and I did not inherit a farm,’ Julia confirms.

However, she is unable to achieve ‘closure’, as therapists might say, because it has not been possible to discover the identity of her biological parent. ‘I don’t know who my biological father is,’ she tells me.

Similarly, the discovery means that Julia, 65, who is married to Michael Samuel, of the Hill Samuel banking family, does not know which, if any, of her three sisters or brother are full siblings.

They include Sabrina Guinness, a former girlfriend of King Charles who is now married to Oscar-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, and Hugo Guinness, the artist, illustrator and writer best known for his collaborations with American film director Wes Anderson.

It is not the first time that the family has had to contend with shocking upheavals.

Julia’s brother-in-law Amschel Rothschild, who was married to her sister Anita, was found dead by his own hand in Paris in 1996 at the age of 41. The couple’s children include Kate Rothschild, who married financier Ben Goldsmith, and Alice, who married his brother, former Tory minister Lord (Zac) Goldsmith.

Last year, Julia, who appears on the Therapy Works podcast, suffered a ‘busted shoulder’ in a skiing accident, after which she was assailed by Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare neurological disorder.

It left her with a black patch over her left eye, and with that side of her face drooping as though she might have suffered a stroke.

India, 57, makes a splash in swimsuit

Never burdened by inhibition, the irrepressible India Hicks is unveiling her first ever swimwear collection, designed in collaboration with Australian brand Sea Level. It certainly doesn’t disappoint.

‘I wanted to go a little higher on the hip, a little tighter on the waist, a little skimpier on the bra, because I think that women, even more in our 50s, we can’t lose sight of wanting to feel sexy,’ says India, 57, a mother of five, pictured right in one of her designs.

A goddaughter of King Charles, India nurtured her creative processes by a stint on Windermere Island in the Bahamas, rejoicing in its ‘freedom and privacy’ to go topless. 

Of her swimwear collection she says: ‘I wanted to make sure that other women of every size, and every shape, would also feel like that James Bond girl. Doesn’t everybody want to be a Bond woman?’

The smart set’s talking about… The racy past of Lord Marcus’s feisty fiancee 

Marrying into the Beresfords might be a daunting – as well as exhilarating – prospect for many a young woman. Previous generations of the family do, after all, include the winner of a Victoria Cross; a racing manager to the Prince of Wales; and a star player in Prince Philip’s Windsor Park Cowdray Gold Cup-winning High Goal team, Lord Patrick Beresford.

There is also the glorious Curraghmore House in Ireland, the family seat for more than 850 years, set in 2,500 acres. But I expect that Ella McEwen, who has become engaged this week to the latest Lord Marcus Beresford – younger son of the 9th Marquess of Waterford – will cope.

The eventing executive followed her father, renowned racing vet Bobby McEwen, into the equestrian world where participants learn to cope with pretty well everything.

A young Bobby, for example, was called by Old Etonian trainer Fulke Johnson Houghton to geld a colt. While McEwen was engaged in the task, Johnson Houghton surreptitiously changed the name above the horse-box door.

McEwen emerged from the box to see the name Ile de Bourbon, winner of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes – and arguably the most valuable stallion in Britain.

All the blood had drained from McEwen’s face before he heard a shout of ‘Welcome to the racing industry!’ – and roaring laughter from Johnson Houghton.

King Charles, who loves Shakespeare and regularly invokes the Bard in his speeches, is glum about his sons’ lack of interest in the theatre. Downton Abbey star Dame Penelope Wilton recalls on the Rosebud podcast: ‘He said to me, “I’m afraid I’m the last one”. He said his boys weren’t into the theatre. Which was sad, I thought.’

Seeing Kate Winslet pose in the nude as she was drawn by Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic made comedienne Suzi Ruffell realise that she was homosexual.

‘I went to the cinema seven times to watch that film, every time more sure that I was gay,’ says Suzi, who’s appeared on television panel shows such as Mock The Week and 8 Out Of 10 Cats. 

‘There is some nudity in it, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t make some sort of impact. There’s quite a lot of lesbians of my generation that are, like, “Kate Winslet in Titanic, yeah yeah yeah”.’

House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has just completed one of the rites of passage of his office: he has visited The Speaker pub in Westminster and had an official picture of him given pride of place in the bar. I am told that the picture of his less convivial predecessor, John Bercow, has been relegated to a dark corridor. 

Gladiators has been left a shadow of its former self because of health and safety rules at the BBC, according to former star Sharron Davies.

The Olympic swimmer, 62, who was Amazon in the original ITV series, says: ‘It doesn’t have as many games and it’s a little bit tamer now. It was very rare a contender got through Gauntlet then whereas now they get through pretty quickly. There’s a big health-and-safety form they have to sign now.’

Davies adds: ‘There are games like Pyramid I doubt they would be able to bring back because there were so many injuries. We were told to grab the contestants and just throw ourselves off — that’s why there were so many injuries.’

Coleen dinner to cool jungle feuds

Since McFly star Danny Jones was crowned King Of The Jungle last month, various feuds between contestants on the ITV reality show have emerged.

However, I hear that Coleen Rooney, who was beaten by Jones in the final of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, is acting as peacemaker by giving a big reunion party at her Cheshire mansion.

Contestant Richard Coles, The Communards pop star-turned-vicar, revealed news of the get-together during a visit to Lewis and Harris in Scotland.

Coles said he is ‘looking forward to that’, according to musician Keith Morrison, who lives on the island.

(Very) modern manners 

Proof that padel is replacing tennis as the racquet sport played by metropolitan trendies: I hear that Soho Farmhouse, the private members’ club in Oxfordshire where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed twice in the giddy days of 2017, plans to convert some of its tennis courts to those for padel, which is played in enclosed spaces and features elements of squash.

A planning application describes ‘three padel courts on site of existing tennis courts’ as well as the ‘reorganisation of two remaining tennis courts’.

Actress Nina Naustdal was shaken when burglars ransacked her £10 million London townhouse while her children slept, as I revealed last summer. Now, the star of Channel 4’s Too Posh to Parent is despairing of the police.

‘I’ve contacted a few different private detectives,’ Nina, 42, tells me at the London premiere of Mr Hyde: The Untold Story, in which she stars.

‘The police have not found them. I’ve provided a clear image of one of the burglars. It’s frustrating.

‘I understand they’re overwhelmed but that’s not an excuse.’

Rapper Stormzy’s £215,000 pay day…

He banks at Coutts – favoured by the Royal Family for more than 300 years – and has previously funded four scholarships at Cambridge University, not to mention pledging to donate £10million over the course of a decade to fighting racial inequality.

But Stormzy could currently be forgiven for reflecting that charity begins at home.

Annual accounts just filed at Companies House disclose that the 31-year-old Backbone and Own It rapper paid himself a modest dividend of £215,000 from his music company, Stormzy Ltd – a far cry from the riches he enjoyed when he exploded on to the music scene in 2014 and propelled himself to a £24 million fortune.

Last year, Stormzy Ltd pulled in another £2million – but, after costs, its assets rose by just £50,000.

A shrewd move, perhaps, with ‘Rachel from accounts’ installed as Chancellor.