Jonathan Ross and his star-studded Hampstead Halloween party returns

After two years of COVID cancellations, social distancing and soul destroying boredom brought about by repeated lockdowns, normal business appeared to resume on Monday evening as Jonathan Ross revived his annual Halloween party. 

Protective face masks were traded for something a little more spook-tacular as the genial chat show host welcomed the usual convoy of ghoulishly dressed guests and trick-or-treaters to his sprawling family home in leafy Hampstead, north London. 

Ross, 61, opted for skeletal white face paint and a gothic black outfit completed by a large top hat while welcoming youngsters outside the property he shares with wife Jane Goldman and their three children. 

He was returning to the Halloween party circuit after a two year absence initially brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent global impact, before cancelling for a second time after his daughter Betty was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a long-term disorder characterised by chronic muscle pain. 

Here we go: After two years of COVID cancellations, social distancing and soul destroying boredom brought about by repeated lockdowns, normal business appeared to resume on Monday as Jonathan Ross revived his annual Halloween party

Confirming his decision to cancel for the sake of his daughter in 2021, he told Good Morning Britain: ‘One of our children isn’t well… it’s fibromyalgia which is quite debilitating. 

‘She’s back home with us and we’re looking after her. She’s upstairs and I thought, “I can’t in good conscience have a big loud fun party downstairs and one of my kids is locked in a room upstairs”. It would be like something out of a horror novel’.

Ross, whose annual bash is normally a staple of the celebrity calendar, explained that he didn’t feel comfortable throwing the party while she is struggling with the condition and feared any of his guests falling ill from Covid after attending the party, and so decided to cancel the event.

He added: ‘I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be over yet and it does look like the figures are creeping up again. So I really am conscious that I don’t want to be part of any super-spreading event.

Macabre: Protective face masks were traded for something a little more spook-tacular as the genial chat show host welcomed the usual convoy of ghoulishly dressed guests and trick-or-treaters to his sprawling family home

Ghoulish: Ross opted for skeletal white face paint and a gothic black outfit completed by a large top hat while welcoming youngsters outside the property he shares with wife Jane Goldman and their three children

Trick or treat!  Children gathered outside the property with their cameras at the ready as the host prepared to welcome guests on Monday evening 

‘We always have a couple of hundred people to the party and as you know, about half of them are from showbusiness.’

‘So if there was a breakout would wipe out half the shows on TV, so we don’t want that, we wouldn’t want to be a superspreader event.’

In previous years Jonathan’s star-studded Halloween party has seen some of the UK’s biggest stars in attendance, including Holly Willoughby, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Carr and Joan Collins.