Dame Edna comic heals family rift for son’s wedding
Dressed as his flamboyant, lilac-haired alter ego dame edna everage, Barry Humphries revelled in behaving outrageously.
And the 84- year- old Australian comedian was said to have continued shocking others last year once he had removed his garish women’s outfits.
For his son, the fine-art dealer and journalist Oscar Humphries, publicly declared that he was dropping his illustrious surname because he was so angry at the way he had been treated.
Happily, however, father and son were reconciled in time for Oscar’s wedding on saturday to blonde art lover sophie Oakley, 36- year- old daughter of the explorer Tim Oakley, at st John the Baptist Church in Kensington, West London.
‘Barry came to the wedding and all seemed to be well again,’ one of Oscar’s friends tells me.
Last summer, Oscar declared: ‘Changing my name.’ In a foul-mouthed message posted online, he announced: ‘F*** you for disinheriting me.’
Using only his first and second names on Facebook, Oscar Valentine — who in the past struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, and aged 22 had an affair with 37-year- old married Jimmy Choo tycoon Tamara Mellon —
explained on social media why he had made the dramatic change. ‘new name,’ he said. ‘I never wanted the little bit of money anyway. Liberating after the shock. The feeling is: “Well, I’ll do it myself.”’
Adding insult to injury, Oscar, 36, was apparently informed of the decision to cut him off at a celebration of his engagement to Sophie.
‘They let me know twice: once at lunch and once at my engagement party,’ said Oscar, who did not spell out who ‘they’ were.
Oscar later deleted the abusive message. When asked to elaborate, he claimed it had been an ‘in-joke with a friend’.
his younger brother, Rupert, known as Roo, was best man. his mother is Barry’s second wife, the artist Diane Millstead.
The comic has been married to his fourth wife, Lizzie Spender, daughter of British poet Sir Stephen Spender, for 27 years.