Cara mum’s memoir ‘too painful’ for her family
WHEN top model and actress Cara Delevingne’s mother, Pandora, chose to pen a revealing memoir about her struggle with drug addiction, she hoped to help those in similar situations find a way out.
Sadly, I hear the society stylist has been forced to delay the book’s publication as stories from her painful past have proved too hurtful for the family. ‘It’s all done, but I’ve put it on hold because it’s upsetting my loved ones,’ she tells me.
‘It’s hard. I don’t mind for myself, but it’s difficult for my family.’
Pandora, 62, who’s advised the Duchess of Cambridge on her outfits, is married to property developer Charles Delevingne, 72, and the mother of Chloe, 36, actress Poppy, 35, and Cara, 29.
While they were growing up, Pandora would sometimes move out of their home to spare them the distress of seeing her at rockbottom. Often, she’d stay with zoo owner and gambler John Aspinall.
‘The children know a lot because they were there for it, but there’s a lot they don’t know, and I’m checking it out slowly with each of them,’ she explains. ‘I’m doing this with all my loved ones.’
Pandora is the daughter of late publishing magnate Sir Jocelyn Stevens and Jane Sheffield, 84 — erstwhile It-girl and former lady-inwaiting to Princess Margaret.
‘My mother was so sad when I told her about some of the stories and described what I was going through — but she’s very happy that I’m better, of course,’ she adds.
When I saw Chloe at a party last week, she told me the book wasn’t coming out — but Pandora insists: ‘It will come out next year. I’ve had a lot of interest from publishers. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but it’s too important a book not to publish. It would help so many people. It would give people inspiration: it is possible to lead a normal life again, like I do.’