Will Maitlis hit the hairwaves?

EMILY MAITLIS’S departure from the BBC after 20 years is still a hot topic among her colleagues – I hear they are taking bets on how long it will be before she pops up on our screens in a shampoo ad!

Former Newsnight presenter Emily, right, who has signed a big-money deal to front a new podcast for LBC, was prevented from promoting products during her stint at the Beeb. But now that she’s a free agent, her former co-workers think it’s only a matter of time before she’s telling us that she’s worth it or is extolling the virtues of frizz-free conditioner.

NO PRESSURE on the Marquess of Bristol’s glamorous American wife Meredith to provide a son and heir as the couple happily await the birth of their second child in August… but the Marquess’s mother, Lady Bristol, is getting impatient. ‘It would be wonderful if it was a boy because we need an heir,’ she tells me. The 42-year-old Marquess, Frederick – brother of 1990s It Girl Lady Victoria Hervey – has a two-year-old girl, Arabella with Meredith, 40. They married, left, in 2018. Without a son, the title passes to fourth cousin Tim, 62, a tax adviser from Eastbourne. Or more likely to his son Ben, 25, a trainee sports performance analyst at Millwall FC.