Riddle of Russian billionaire’s link to Royal bolthole
POP STAR Adele and TV’s James Corden holidayed on a £120 million superyacht believed to be owned by a Russian oligarch linked to the Canadian mansion where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stayed over Christmas.
The singer and Gavin & Stacey actor arrived at the Caribbean island of Anguilla on January 2 aboard the imposing 350ft Andromeda.
Fellow tourists described how the pair were whisked ashore by speedboat before spending a day frolicking on the beach with a group of friends, including chart-topper Harry Styles.
Yacht industry insiders claim Andromeda is owned by Russian tech billionaire Yuri Milner, although he has denied it.
Mr Milner, 58, yesterday also denied reports that he owns the mansion on Vancouver Island where Harry and Meghan planned their split from the Royal Family.
David Foster, a music producer and husband of Katharine McPhee, a friend of Meghan’s since their school days, arranged for the Duke and Duchess to stay at the imposing waterside property, but declined to name its owner. However, he has said that Mr Milner was a visitor to the mansion in 2014.
Re calling how he watched Adele and Mr Corden with a group of around 15 friends on t he Andromeda, West Virginia University worker Joe Brown, 48, said: ‘ It stood out because it dwarfed all the other yachts.
‘I thought it was a military vessel at first, but then I saw a man I recognised as James Corden come up to the beach in a small dinghy that I had watched travel from the yacht.
‘He later went back to the yacht and came back with a bunch of children including Adele’s child.’ Mr Brown, who was in Anguilla on holiday with his family, added: ‘The yacht had a grey hull and a helicopter pad on top. It was incredible to look at – everyone was talking about it on the beach.’
Another tourist, who was on a yacht off the island, posted a picture of the Andromeda on social media saying: ‘ We also boated next to Adele’s yacht.’
Adele, who last year split from husband Simon Konecki with whom she has a son, Angelo, would have enjoyed the height of luxury on the yacht, which boasts a steam room, sauna, plunge pool, wine store and dining room that seats up to 18.
Married to Yulia, a model from Siberia, Mr Milner is said to be Russia’s most powerful t ech investor with a £76 million mansion in Silicon Valley. Three years ago, it emerged that two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin had funded substantial stakes in Twitter and Facebook through Mr Milner.
His investment in Twitter was backed by VTB, a Russian statecontrolled bank often used for politically strategic deals, while a major investor in his Facebook deal received funding from Gazprom Invest-holding, another state-controlled institution.
Andromeda was made to order for New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart, who called her Ulysses, but was sold to an unnamed buyer in October 2017 and renamed.
A spokesman for Superyacht Fan, a website that compiles a database of luxury yacht owners, said two industry sources claimed Mr Milner owned the yacht.
Public records show Andromeda is registered to a company called Proxima Y Ltd that shares a PO Box in the Cayman Islands with Milner’s DST Global firm, which has been involved in some of his biggest investments.
However, Mr Milner’s spokeswoman insisted that ‘neither he nor any family member nor any entity affiliated with him or his family own either the Andromeda or Ulysses yachts’.
A spokesman for Adele declined to comment.