Ephraim Hardcastle
GHISLAINE Maxwell, sought by US investigators following the death in prison of her close friend, paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, is described as the late Robert Maxwell’s favourite child. Maxwell biographer Tom Bower wrote that – unlike her two brothers – Ghislaine was not ‘hit or publicly humiliated’ by her father. But, Maxwell friend Eleanor Berry said in her memoir, Robert Maxwell As I Knew Him, that Ghislaine, then aged nine, once told her she expected ‘a prearranged hiding’ from her father, administered with ‘a riding crop with a swish to it, or a straight riding crop... He always asks me to choose which one I want’. Is Ghislaine, now 57, enduring greater punishment by outliving her seedy late friend Epstein? WHEN it came to light in 2011 that Prince Andrew was still in contact with the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – after the latter was convicted of having sex with underage girls – the Queen’s second son stepped down as UK trade envoy and endured an awkward conversation with Prince Philip. ‘The Queen dotes on Andrew, who denied everything, but Philip criticised their second son for exposing them to scandal by associating with such a notorious character,’ I am told. Might this explain the palace’s risky-seeming ‘categorical’ denial that Andrew ever had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl allegedly procured by Epstein? SONGBIRD Katy Perry, 34, pictured, and actor fiance, Orlando Bloom, 42, are ‘doing a lot of enemas’ – the former explaining that this bowel-cleansing procedure combats the effects of ‘getting older’ and ‘cells dying’. A friend says: ‘They are both on the same page about making their coming wedding a little different.’ All cisterns go! PRINCE Charles will attend, for two days, the enthronement of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito in October without the Duchess of Cornwall. It’s accepted that, at 72, Camilla can choose not to do short-duration, long-range engagements. Will she cope as Queen Consort? The Queen‘s last long haul journey, to Australia in 2011, was when she was 85 and Philip 90. Will Camilla accompany King Charles when he has to criss-cross the globe greeting his subjects? HAVING lost three-and-a-half stone after gastric bypass surgery, broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, 57, says her ‘toyboy’, musician Ben Ofoedu, is pleased, saying: ‘He doesn’t seem to have become any less keen on a bit of how’s your father, put it that way. I’m a size 12 and on holiday I wore a bikini, so I have a brown tummy for the first time in 35 years.’ ASKED by LBC’s sardonic Iain Dale to name her ‘best assets’ ex-Labour home secretary Jacqui Smith, 56, says: ‘I’ve got nice t**s.’ Despite so, Jacqui lost her Redditch constituency in 2010 after husband Richard Timney was accused of purchasing adult movies at taxpayers’ expense. Email: peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk