EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Street smoking man! Keef’s son Marlon puffs a cigarette on lunch outing 

Keith Richards once said: ‘Some doctor told me I had six months to live and I went to his funeral. I’ll write all your epitaphs.’ 

The Rolling Stones guitarist, who turns 79 next month, did, however, take the precaution of quitting smoking two years ago and has said of the benefits: ‘I noticed I had more air in the lungs and in the voice.’ 

His son Marlon Richards, 53, still enjoys a puff, though, and could be seen with a cigarette in his hand as he went for lunch in Chelsea, West London, with his wife, the model Lucie de la Falaise, 49, and their daughters, Ella and Ida. 

The art curator, who looks a dead ringer for his father, is the eldest of Keef’s four children and the son by the star’s former long-term girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, who died in 2017 aged 75.

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Surely that’s not Keef with a ciggie? Marlon, son of Keith Richards, looks a dead ringer for his famous dad

His son Marlon Richards, 53, still enjoys a puff. Pictured: Marlon Richards with his father Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones

The art curator, who looks a dead ringer for his father, is the eldest of Keef’s four children

Bear Grylls’ quest to find friend’s body on Everest

Used to fighting off poisonous snakes and wrestling alligators, television adventurer Bear Grylls has secretly undertaken his most heartfelt challenge.

I can reveal that the Chief Scout, who counts the Princess of Wales among his friends, led an expedition to Mount Everest earlier this year to try to recover the body of Pippa Middleton’s brother-in-law.

Michael Matthews died in 1999 in a mountaineering accident, hours after becoming the youngest Briton to conquer the world’s highest peak at the age of 22. 

His family are desperate to find his body. He was following the example of his friend Grylls, who had reached the summit of Everest the previous year at the age of 23.

Used to fighting off poisonous snakes and wrestling alligators, television adventurer Bear Grylls has secretly undertaken his most heartfelt challenge

Michael was the brother of Pippa’s husband, racing driver turned hedge fund manager James Matthews, 47. 

He and his brother, the Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, are friends of Bear, 48, son of late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls.

‘We actually had an expedition on Everest to try to recover the body of the brother of a good friend, who climbed it the year after I was there but was never found,’ confirms Grylls, who once circumnavigated Britain on jet skis and crossed the Atlantic in an inflatable dinghy.

‘We really tried. We had the best team in the world.’

Michael Matthews (left, with his friend Jami Everet) died in 1999 in a mountaineering accident, hours after becoming the youngest Briton to conquer the world’s highest peak at the age of 22

Speaking at the Oxford Union, the Old Etonian explains: ‘We had a team of, like, ten Nepalese guys and some other incredible Western climbers. We did manage to recover one body. It was not of Michael; it was a Nepalese climber.’

Grylls, who has attracted big names including former U.S. President Barack Obama and Hollywood stars Kate Winslet and Ben Stiller to appear on his show, Running Wild With Bear Grylls, adds: ‘The story has not come out yet, so I am not going to talk too much about it, but it was a really special moment for [Michael’s] family.

‘It is the reality of high-altitude mountaineering, as people pay the ultimate price up there.’

The Duke of Marlborough, who announced plans for the country’s biggest solar farm on his Blenheim Palace estate in Oxfordshire, has received a financial blow. 

‘With a very heavy heart’, the Jockey Club has ended its contract to organise the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials, one of Britain’s biggest equestrian events. 

A spokesman explains: ‘The current economic climate is unfortunately going to have an impact on us all.’ 

When the lucrative five-year deal was announced in 2020, Blenheim said the Jockey Club had ‘secured’ the future of the event. 

Shirl the new Spice Girl…

Having trained her powerful voice while performing at pubs and clubs in the evening, after packing chamber pots at a Cardiff factory during the day as a teenager, Dame Shirley Bassey knows a thing or two about girl power.

So the singer was only too happy to make an appearance at Spice Girl Geri Horner’s 50th birthday party, where she performed Happy Birthday. 

‘It was a total surprise,’ one guest tells me. 

The party was held at the Oxfordshire home of Geri and her husband, Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner.

Yesterday, Dame Shirley, 85, shared this photograph of herself in a warm embrace with Geri, saying: ‘What a wonderful, wonderful evening.’

Birthday song: Dame Shirley and Geri. The singer was only too happy to make an appearance at Spice Girl Geri Horner’s 50th birthday party, where she performed Happy Birthday

Glenda turns down crown

Judi Dench isn’t the only grande dame of the theatre to turn down The Crown, whose new series is broadcast today.

Dame Judi, who criticised the Netflix drama’s ‘crude sensationalism’, is said to have rejected the role of the Queen Mother.

I hear that Glenda Jackson, famed for her performance as Elizabeth I, was also unpersuaded.

‘She was approached to play Princess Alice of Greece [Prince Philip’s mother, a chain-smoking Orthodox nun who was brought to live at Buckingham Palace after a coup in her homeland], but passed, and the part went to Jane Lapotaire,’ an insider says.

Radio 2 star Rylan Clark never has to pay full price for anything. 

Seeking to buy a Louis Vuitton suitcase, the presenter says: ‘They were, like, ‘We’ve had a word with our press department, and we want to give you a big discount’, and I was, like, crying, ‘Just let me pay for it.”

‘I just wanted to buy something — that was my little achievement for myself.’ Don’t worry, Rylan, we believe you . . . 

Gownmaker Ede & Ravenscroft, which will make the robes for King Charles’s Coronation, is due to receive £1 million in legal costs within days.

London’s oldest tailor was sued by Dragons’ Den start-up Churchill Gowns. 

It had taken Ede & Ravenscroft to the competition appeal tribunal, claiming the tailor had abused its dominant market position.

But the tribunal threw the claim out and has ordered Churchill Gowns to pay £1 million on account of costs.

Classical singer Russell Watson has fond memories of being insulted by Prince Philip. ‘I loved the Duke of Edinburgh — he was always hilarious,’ says the 55-year-old tenor. 

‘I met him after performing at Buckingham Palace in 2011. The Duke said to me: ‘You don’t need a microphone — it [your voice] can be heard in space.’ 

Later, he said to my wife: ‘You must be deaf, living with him.’ 

My wife looked back at Prince Philip and said: ‘Pardon?’ He burst out laughing.’ 

Coogan’s baby cow is giving gold top  

Comedian Steve Coogan, whose business took almost £100,000 of taxpayer-funded furlough cash during the pandemic, has declared a bumper turnover.

Accounts for Baby Cow Productions disclose that its revenue shot up after the pandemic from £2.2 million to £10.2 million in the year to March. 

The company — in which BBC Studios has a majority stake — made a profit of £277,000 overturning a £1.2 million loss in 2021.

The 57-year-old creator of Alan Partridge put seven employees and two temporary staff on furlough in 2020. 

He also furloughed the gardener and housekeeper at his £4 million mansion, leaving taxpayers to stump up 80 per cent of the pair’s wages. 

Coogan was said to have since repaid the furlough money.