Third time lucky for PR guru Lord Bell

WHAT better way to celebrate your 76th birthday than by getting married? Margaret Thatcher’s adviser Tim Bell marked the occasion by tying the knot with Jacky Phillips, whom he describes as a ‘Felicity Kendal lookalike’, 23 years his junior.

The wedding, at Chelsea Old Town Hall, comes after his former public relations company, Bell Pottinger, went into liquidation following accusations that it ran a racist PR campaign in South Africa. Lord Bell of Belgravia helped seal the deal that brought down the company.

He divorced his glamorous second wife, Virginia Hornbrook, 60, last year after reports that she had been romantically linked to a gardener who was a relation of Olympic gold-winning swimmer Duncan Goodhew. The peer was previously married for five years when he was 23, but omits his first wife from his Who’s Who entry.

Lord Bell said marrying Jackie was ‘the perfect birthday present’.