TALK OF THE TOWN: Beauty mogul Charlotte Tilbury upsets locals – by turning getaway right into a ‘mini-Ibiza’

She’s making up to £1 billion by selling the make-up company that she built from scratch – but Charlotte Tilbury is causing upset with how she’s spending her fortune.

The cosmetics queen, who counts Kate Moss and Amal Clooney as close friends, has amassed an impressive property portfolio on the exclusive Kenyan getaway islands of Lamu and Manda, I can reveal, including two sprawling homes and an ‘off-grid’ bar.

But locals are concerned that her feted celebrity parties are turning the low-key resorts into an ‘African Ibiza’. And, worse, they fear the influx of wealth may attract pirates from neighbouring Somalia to the tranquil paradise.

A local tells me that the cosmetics tycoon, right, is ‘intent on buying more land’ in the area, which has been a favourite of the gliteratti since the 1930s, and has hosted the likes of the Obamas, Princess Beatrice (whose husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi has a family estate on Lamu) and The Crown star Dominic West. But locals complain that the parties thrown by 51-year-old

Tilbury, who grew up on Ibiza, are too rowdy.

One resident said: ‘It’s a quiet place and now we are worried about pirate trouble. Soon it’s going to be a no-go area.’

It is not an unfounded fear. In 2011, British tourist Judith Tebbutt was seized from Lamu by Somali gunmen who killed her husband David. Tourism took years to recover.

Tilbury, who last week announced that she will hand full ownership of her eponymous brand to Spanish luxury goods firm Puig by 2031, has been snapping up properties, including a watering hole called Gerald’s Bar, which has been renamed George’s Bar after her husband George Waud, a film producer. 

Tilbury often spends New Year’s Eve on Lamu with her family and A-list friends. She declined to comment last night.

Chelsea’s Tabitha is putting on the writs

Former Made In Chelsea star Tabitha Willett is not going down without a fight despite losing a recent court battle.

In October I revealed that the ‘mummy blogger’ was ordered to pay her landlady £4,749 for trashing an upmarket Kensington apartment. 

Following Tabitha’s eight-month stay in the flat with her five-year-old daughter and King Charles spaniel Ruby, the owner complained of make-up marks on the walls and spaniel stains on a £9,000 rug in the property, telling the court that the damage was a ‘nightmare scenario’.

Now I hear that Tabitha – who counter-sued the landlady – says she is planning to issue a claim for misrepresentation against the law firm which fought and lost her case.

Guinness is not in the black!

It’s been more than 17 years since Daphne Guinness founded her record label, Agent Anonyme, though it seems never to have turned a profit.

The brewing heiress has loaned her own firm more than £7.3 million since 2007 to cover running costs. Not that Daphne seems fazed by the amount – she posted a photo of herself with a guitar with the caption: ‘In my music lair.’

Licence to grill?

Hollywood star Josh O’Connor was in fashionable company last week, dining with his new girlfriend, Saltburn actress Alison Olive, designer Jonathan Anderson, and Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey.

The glamorous clique were spotted enjoying steaks at the historic Quality Chop House in Clerkenwell, East London.

I wonder if they were celebrating something? O’Connor, who played Charles in The Crown, has just been named the favourite to be the next James Bond…

Minnie signs up to save mistletoe

Actress Minnie Driver has proposed a creative solution to the dilemma of whether a kiss under the mistletoe is problematic in today’s climate. 

‘Maybe we should have mistletoe that has a little dangling sign that says “Consent” or “Do not consent”,’ she told me at a carol service held by the Quintessentially Foundation. 

Sales of the festive sprig have declined amid fears people would be accused of abuse for giving someone an unwanted kiss underneath it. ‘That makes me sad,’ the Good Will Hunting star says. 

I know the King likes to talk to his plants – but has the Queen been reading to her dogs? 

Camilla apparently shared a book called The Royal Pup Pack: Catastrophe At The Palace with her two adopted Jack Russell terriers, Bluebell and Beth, and they loved it. 

Author David Seow sent a copy to the Palace before Beth died last month, and the Queen wrote back, urging him to keep writing. She added: ‘My dogs enjoyed it too.’ 

Talkings of possible 007s… my spies saw Aaron Taylor-Johnson – another actor tipped to replace Daniel Craig – pumping iron in posh gym Third Space over Christmas. 

The fight is most certainly on. It’s Josh vs Aaron; King Charles vs Kick-Ass. I know who I’ve got my money on!