The toll all that bed-hopping and wild partying took on the Primrose Hill set!
THEY were the louchest crowd in London, notorious for their wild parties and allegations of partner-swapping. But 20 years on from their hedonistic heyday, the Primrose Hill set — so-called because of the leafy area where they lived — are all middle aged. So how are the former hell-raisers — who included supermodel Kate Moss and actress Sadie Frost — coping with the fact the party’s over?
THREESOMES TO LONELINESS
SADIE FROST, 50 THEN: After marrying actor Jude Law in 1997, Frost became the lynchpin of the set.
Scandal followed her: her daughter Iris, then aged two, accidentally swallowed half an ecstasy tablet during a birthday party at Soho House in 2002, and there were allegations of partner swapping with Danny Goffey of rock band Supergrass and his wife, Pearl Lowe. It was even reported that Sadie, Kate Moss and their friend, heiress Davinia Taylor, had a ‘cocaine-fuelled’ lesbian threesome in 2002.
After splitting from Jude in 2003 — which Frost blamed on her severe post-natal depression — she was given £6 million as a settlement, plus the marital home, where she raised her children with Law: Rafferty, 19, Iris, 15, and Rudy, 13; as well as eldest son, Finlay, 25, from her marriage to Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp. NOW: Yoga-loving and clean-living, Frost has written a book about wellbeing called Nourish. These days, she breakfasts on chia seeds and green smoothies rather than Veuve Cliquot. Indeed, alcohol is largely a thing of the past.
Loneliness, though, isn’t. Frost confesses to spending regular Saturday nights alone at the cinema, and her forays into romance have been largely ill-fated.
She dated a series of toyboys, and a long romance with Kylie Minogue’s ex, male model James Gooding, came to nothing — aside from a police caution for her after a bustup in 2012. Her current relationship, with multi-millionaire Darren Strowger seems, thankfully, calmer.
Professionally, there have been lows, too. Frost completed a degree course in film and produced her first feature film, a ‘psychosexual romance’ called Buttercup Bill — but it opened and closed in a single weekend and took just £4,132.
She’s reflective on her mad years: ‘I think through times of difficulty, like losing a parent, postnatal depression or divorce, I veered off the rails. But there’s part of me that always wants to get back to who I am, to what makes me feel good.’
A £4m FORTUNE FRITTERED AWAY MEG MATHEWS, 50
THEN: Meg’s style was distinctive: surgically enhanced breasts on show, the outfit usually skimpy and eye-catching, and, infamously, one nipple pierced with a bolt.
The party-planner’s relationship with Oasis’s Noel Gallagher — whom she married in 1997 — was hedonistic, and Noel even joked that he sprinkled cocaine on his cornflakes. However, he found his wife’s excesses alarming at times, and a move to the Home Counties couldn’t save their union. Months after daughter Anais was born in 2000, they split. NOW: Despite receiving £4million from Noel, most of it appears to have been frittered away. She had to sell her mansion for a smaller house in Primrose Hill, because the ‘overheads’ were ‘too much’.
There was also the spectre of addiction. In 2006, she went to rehab for two months: ‘I was drinking too much and it wasn’t having a good effect on me. I hadn’t dealt with my divorce . . . I mean, I was heartbroken about me and Noel. I had to learn to let all the anger and bitterness and emotion go.’
Re-invention followed, with spells as an interior designer and animal rights campaigner. She even stood unsuccessfully for election as an MEP on an animal welfare ticket.
Romance has been similarly chequered: past lovers include Simon Jordan, owner of football team Crystal Palace, and a millionaire businessman who was jailed for handling stolen goods.
Ageing clearly worries her, and she’s admitted to having Botox and a ‘thread lift’ procedure, where fine threads sewn into the face gently lift sagging skin.
The old gang remain loyal, and Sadie Frost attended her 50th birthday party last month.
ADDICTION AND CUSTODY BATTLES DAVINIA TAYLOR, 38
THEN: Blonde heiress Davinia starred in the soap Hollyoaks, but her off-screen life has been far more dramatic. Her father made a