Life-long bachelor Neil weds in secret

BROADCASTER Andrew Neil has become almost as famous for his colourful love life as for his highly distinguished career. But at the age of 66 he has decided it’s finally time to settle down.

I can disclose that the Paisley-born BBC politics presenter has secretly tied the knot with Susan Nilsson, a glamorous Swede 20 years his junior.

The couple wed near Neil’s villa in the South of France, with the ceremony attended only by Deal Or No Deal presenter Noel Edmonds, 66, and his wife, Elizabeth Davies. The couple are close friends and neighbours in Grasse.

‘Yes, the marriage was here on August 8,’ confirms a spokesman for the local mayor’s office. Neil, who has 14 godchildren, is expected to announce the happy news to friends tomorrow. Each August he hosts a party to commemorate the birthday of Napoleon.

He has been courting Susan, a polo enthusiast and economics graduate, for five years. She is the director of communications for an engineering firm.

Soon after their romance began, an interviewer pointed out to Neil that he was no longer seen around town with a string of attractive models on his arm.

Miss Nilsson had ‘put a stop to all that’, the broadcaster explained. ‘She is wonderful, beautiful and intelligent. She keeps me in check.’

The former Sunday Times editor used to be known as a regular on the dancefloor at celebrity watering hole Tramp in London’s St James’s, where he met his short-lived girlfriend, the former Miss India, Pamella Bordes. She was later exposed as a £500-a-night call girl.

Neil remarked at the time: ‘I regard myself as quite savvy for getting out after 12 weeks, because she was the kind of woman men become besotted with and do really stupid things with.’