Roux’s recipe for happiness at 83
Chef weds in secret for third time... to woman three decades younger
AT 83, Albert Roux clearly still has the recipe for love. The celebrated chef, who turned Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White into culinary stars, has quietly married for a third time.
Roux – who founded Le Gavroche, the first restaurant in Britain to be awarded three Michelin stars – tied the knot in a private ceremony with a woman understood to be three decades his junior.
‘I can confirm that Albert’s wife is called Maria and they married last year,’ his spokesman told the Daily Mail.
The couple made their first public outing this week at a Restaurant Association dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London, where Roux used a walking cane.
‘Maria was very attentive to Albert all evening,’ a guest said. ‘She has clearly
‘She’s given him a new lease of life’
given him a whole new lease of life.’ The spokesman declined to give Maria’s surname or any details of the wedding, which came four years after Roux divorced his second wife Cheryl Smith, a statuesque Zimbabwean 21 years his junior.
She had met Roux at an International Wine and Food Society dinner, a few years after his divorce from his first wife, Monique. Cheryl, whose business success had earned her a £30million fortune of her own, later recalled how she had spurned his advances – initially, at least.
‘When I met Albert, he had seven girlfriends, two of whom believed they were living with him,’ she said. ‘I told him I would not be part of his harem.’
But Roux would not be rebuffed, seducing her with same meticulousness for which he was acclaimed in the kitchen. After seven months’ relentless wooing, during which he assured her he With businesswoman Cheryl in 2004 had ‘unloaded’ his other women, Cheryl capitulated. They married in 2006.
But in 2013 the French chef became distracted by Nataliya Lutsyshyna, a 40-year-old Ukrainian who worked as a cloakroom attendant at the Roux restaurant in Parliament Square, Westminster. Cheryl ordered Roux to leave their house in Belgravia and filed for divorce.
Born in Semur-en-Brionnais, Roux left school at 17 intent on becoming a priest – but almost immediately thought better of it, marrying Monique, his childhood sweetheart, the same year.
‘On reflection, I would have made a very bad priest,’ he has remarked.
With Monique, he had two children – son Michel Roux Jr, who now runs Le Gavroche in Mayfair, and daughter Danielle – but the couple divorced in 2001.
By then Roux and his brother Michel Sr had achieved dazzling success, opening the Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, which was also awarded three Michelin stars, and establishing the Roux Scholarship to identify up-and-coming British chefs.
WHEN Meghan Markle was pictured kissing Prince Harry before she presented him with the winners’ trophy at the Audi Polo Challenge, it confirmed the event’s central place in the royal social and sporting calendar.
However, I can disclose that this year’s charity tournament is not expected to go ahead amid claims that Audi was asked to increase massively its donation to good causes supported by the Prince.
Last year, both Harry and Prince William played in the competition, held at Coworth Park in Ascot, where spectators included Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams.
‘There has been real shock, because Audi has provided 16 years of loyal service holding the event with the Royal Family,’ an insider tells me. ‘The sum it was expected to stump up was a huge increase on its previous donation.’
Kensington Palace is keen to deny suggestions that Audi was asked to donate £1 million — and that Meghan inspired the increase. ‘The Princes decide which charities their matches support,’ the spokesman insists.
Last year, Harry helped raise £1 million for his African charity, Sentebale, when he played in the Sentebale Polo Cup, which he hosts annually.
‘This is the sort of money they want to be making through polo from now on,’ said Malcolm Borwick, polo ambassador of Royal Salute, which sponsored the cup in 2017. ‘We want to help Prince Harry raise £1 million per event in the future.’
Borwick added: ‘They have a limited number of days to play polo, so they really want to make it count.’
The Audi event’s cancellation would, at least, reassure Meghan that her husband won’t be tempted by any alluring fellow actresses.
In 2015, Harry was pictured with his hand on the knee of Victoria star Jenna Coleman as they chatted intimately in the sponsor’s marquee.
The event’s future appears to be a very hot potato, with Audi referring all inquiries to Kensington Palace, where Harry, Meghan, William and Kate are based. A palace spokesman will say only: ‘Polo matches will be announced in the usual way.’