Cliff ’s heartache at death of the friend he lived with for 30 years
Cliff Richard paid a touching tribute yesterday following the death of his friend and former manager.
The 82-year-old singer said Bill latham, who he lived with for 30 years, changed his life ‘fully and completely’.
‘Dear all. Yet another loss,’ he wrote on facebook alongside a picture of the pair with American evangelist Billy Graham. ‘This time, someone i feel as though i’ve known forever has left this life and moved on to a better one.
‘Many, if not all of you, will know of whom i write… Bill latham. He is the one who led me on to that spiritual pathway that changed my life fully and completely.
‘He showed me how important it was to be charitable and also be brave enough to speak openly of my faith. Bill was one of those people who you could reliably lean on and i did, many times.’
Sir Cliff said Mr latham, who was 84, ‘will be missed greatly and will live on in the many hearts of those that loved and respected him… my heart being one of them’. He signed off affectionately: ‘God bless you Bill. You deserve your Rest in Peace… Cliff.’
Mr latham, who was a religious studies teacher, died in hospital this week following a spell of ill health, according to a source. He had reportedly been in hospital for treatment for a month.
The pair met in the 1960s with Mr latham quickly moving in to Sir Cliff’s mansion on the exclusive St George’s Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, where they lived together until 1996 when Mr latham moved out to live with his wife. A source told the Mail
‘He changed my life completely’
that Sir Cliff bought Mr latham a home as a wedding present.
The singer later moved in with John McElynn, a Catholic priest whom he met in New York in 2001, with Sir Cliff saying: ‘i don’t like living alone, so it’s nice if someone is there with me.’
Mr latham acted as Sir Cliff’s aide and became part of his management team before retiring at the end of 2010. They endured years of rumours about their relationship, with many questioning Sir Cliff’s sexuality. But the singer always denied claims they were romantically involved.
Speaking in 2008, he said: ‘When Bill and i lived together, there were always stories about what people believed our real relationship was, but what nobody realised was that Bill’s girlfriend was living with us, too.
‘Nobody asked about that, not that it was anyone else’s business. When Bill decided to move out, it was because he and his girlfriend wanted to be alone together, simple as that.’
The singer had relationships in the 1960s with the actress Una Stubbs and dancer Jackie irving as well as tennis player Sue Barker in 1982. With hits such as Summer Holiday, he is the third-top-selling artist in UK singles chart history, behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
PIPPA MIDDLETON is determined to make a splash at the country home she and her husband, James Matthews, bought for £15 million. I can disclose that the Princess of Wales’s sister plans to dig up the massive walled garden where the previous owner lovingly cultivated fruit and vegetables.
In its place, Pippa, 39, and investment banker Matthews, 47, want to install a huge outdoor swimming pool. At 82 ft x 19 ft, it would be more than twice the size of a typical private pool and the same size as those at her two local leisure centres in the Royal County of Berkshire.
Next to their pool, the lawn will be dug up and replaced with a tennis court.
While Catherine presides over manicured grass courts as patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, her sister intends to install one made of AstroTurf fake grass, ‘to enable safe playing conditions all year round’. The kitchen garden’s potting shed will be converted into changing rooms.
I disclosed in July that the couple, who married in 2017 and have three young children, had bought the 32-room Georgian mansion set in 150 acres.
They need planning permission because the walled garden and main house are Grade II-listed and lie in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and near ancient woodland.
‘Ownership of [the house] has recently changed hands and the new owner is seeking to evolve and identify a new use for the expansive walled garden site,’ their planning agent said in documents submitted to the local council just before Christmas.
‘This in turn will facilitate a significant investment in the heritage asset, securing its future for generations to enjoy. The owner has a growing young family and the proposals seek to provide a secure, private and enhanced area of residential space.’
There is already a much smaller pool in the grounds of the house, but their agent says it ‘was installed in excess of 20 years ago and is in need of significant renovation and infrastructure upgrades to bring up to modern standards’.
The house, which was the subject of a painstaking multi-million-pound restoration by its previous owner, is a short drive from the home of Pippa’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, in Bucklebury. Her brother, James, bought a farmhouse in the county for £1.45million with his French wife, Alizee, last year.
Pippa and Eton-educated Matthews have plenty of spare cash for the project: they sold their home in Chelsea, West London, for £22.5 million — £5.5million more than James spent on the five-floor townhouse (with six en-suites, a gym, underground cinema and staff room) in 2014.