HM’s confidant and his new filly

WHEN the Queen’s confidant Harry Herbert separated from his popular wife, Chica, last autumn after 25 years of marriage, friends wondered how he could ever replace her.

Now, I have the answer. Old Etonian Herbert, 59, whose father, the 7th Earl of Carnarvon, was Her Majesty’s racing manager, is enjoying a sizzling romance with Irish chef Clodagh McKenna. At 42, she is 12 years Chica’s junior.

Irish Clodagh, pictured with the gregarious Harry, was introducing him to chums as her ‘boyfriend’ at a London party this week.

‘We met at Fortnum’s a few months ago,’ Harry tells me. One of the biggest movers and shakers in the equestrian world, Harry is the younger brother of the Earl of Carnarvon, who owns Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed.

Harry runs the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing syndicate.

His brother-in-law, John Warren, is the Queen’s racing manager.

He is, however, having to work on his culinary technique: ‘I can make scrambled eggs and do all the basics, but when you have Clodagh in your life you feel the pressure in the kitchen.’

Chica, of course, is a cordon bleu caterer herself. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, Harry?