Helen’s house blow

IF EVER there was someone in need of Big Ben’s bongs it’s ITV political editor Robert Peston, the broadcaster who is notoriously late for everything. So organisers of a Hospice Biographers event in his honour told him the evening started half an hour earlier than planned.

Alas, their ruse failed after a fellow guest told Robert the actual start time… and true to form he arrived late! ‘My time-keeping is terrible,’ admits Robert, 62. ‘Sometimes I only make it on air by minutes.’

He was at the event last week to launch the charity’s Stories For Life initiative, recording stories of those receiving palliative care at home and in hospices.

THEY say separate bathrooms are the key to a happy relationship, but would separate homes have saved Helen Skelton’s marriage to rugby ace Richie Myler? I only ask because, following last week’s bombshell news that the couple, left, had split, I’ve discovered that they had previously sought permission to build a separate four-bedroom house in the 1.25-acre garden of their Leeds home. The council rejected the plan, saying it would have a ‘detrimental impact’ on green space in the area.

News of their split came just four months after the birth of their daughter. The pair married in 2013, bought their cottage for £550,000 two years ago and have since spent hundreds of thousands renovating it.

Leeds Rhinos player Richie is believed to be abroad with new girlfriend Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of his team’s multi-millionaire president.