MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers has spent a lifetime overcoming extraordinary challenges. Now, she’s facing her toughest battle yet.
The television star, who co-founded popular Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, has revealed that she’s undergone a mastectomy following a shock breast cancer diagnosis.
‘Originally, I’d had a cyst there but the second and third lump turned out not to be one at all,’ the Gloucestershire-born cook explains. ‘Quite the reverse. They were bad asses.’
She encourages women to ‘always check a lump even if you think it’s a cyst and do it promptly’.
Thomasina, 50, who is married to fund manager Mark Williams, says: ‘This scare, and what it puts in my path, may help me be braver at taking leaps into the unknown and making some scary decisions. This is a very good thing. We only get one life. So today I am feeling enormously grateful. For breast cancer care has moved on so much in the last ten years. I’m praying for no chemo.’
She believes that her diet will play a part of the healing process, saying: ‘Food is medicine.’
Thomasina, who has three children, is demonstrating the same remarkable resilience as during previous health challenges, including a decade-long battle with an eating disorder and being prescribed bipolar medication throughout her 20s.
‘Coping with some fairly punchy ADHD means I have been excellent at worrying over the years,’ she says. ‘Battling with low self-esteem in my teens, 20s, 30s, even 40s, is part of it, too. Don’t bury that stuff. Address it and deal with it.’
Thomasina encourages women to ‘always check a lump even if you think it’s a cyst and do it promptly’
Thomasina says with age has come a new perspective: ‘Age helps. Age is wisdom. Women particularly benefit from the passing of time by absorbing small truths.
‘We are actual experts in our fields by now, we are good at what we do.’
His bravery is an inspiration to all who treasure free speech. So admirers of Sir Salman Rushdie – left with what he describes as ‘one functioning eye’ after being stabbed by an Islamist in 2022 – will be relieved he has just heeded some critical medical advice.
‘It is with real regret that I must cancel my upcoming appearances in Melbourne and Sydney,’ Sir Salman, 79, announces, explaining that he needs ‘urgent eye surgery’.
Adds Rushdie, who spent nine years under police protection after his book The Satanic Verses provoked a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for his death: ‘My surgeon has advised me against long-distance travel while I recover. My apologies to all.’
Let them eat (a lot of) cake, says Caroline
Caroline Stanbury, who once counted the then Prince Andrew among her close friends, never does anything by halves.
And the socialite’s 50th birthday celebration in St Tropez was no exception: it featured a cake big enough to feed a village.
In photos shared online, Stanbury could be seen with her arms in the air beside the gateau decorated with sparklers.
Caroline Stanbury’s 50th birthday celebration in St Tropez featured a cake big enough to feed a village
Among those celebrating was her toyboy husband, ex-footballer Sergio Carrallo.
For his 30th birthday in 2024, Stanbury organised a surprise Eyes Wide Shut-themed party based on Stanley Kubrick’s erotic psychological film.
A rumour reaches me that Andy Burnham intends to give peerages to all 14 strategic authority mayors.
This would allow him to claim that he’s making Westminster more ‘local’ and would have two added benefits for him: ten of the mayors are Labour, so it would increase the Government’s strength in the Upper House; and it would give his friend Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool, political cover to become a peer, even though he has been very critical of the Lords.
The idea to ennoble all the mayors is being called ‘the full Trumpton’, after the kids’ TV show in which the mayor was called ‘Yer Worship’.
Why robots could be on menu at Simpson’s
Top restaurateur Jeremy King has issued a stark warning to his front-of-house staff: improve your customer service or risk being replaced by robots.
‘Robots are never late; robots can do just the same job,’ he tells me at the launch party for his book Without Reservation, at the Sir Devonshire Square hotel.
King, whose venues include Simpson’s in the Strand, adds: ‘They stand behind the desk, they’re not checking their phone, they’re not talking about what they did last night, they’re not thinking about what they’re doing tonight. Somebody walks through the door, and they can say just as well as you, “Good evening, have you got a reservation?”’
New baby brought Jamie and Frida’s families closer
Jamie Redknapp’s wife, Frida Andersson, has admitted that she treats their four-year-old son, Raphael, differently to how she raised her four children from her previous marriage.
Jamie Redknapp has two children with his ex-wife, Louise. Frida Andersson, pictured here, has four children from her previous marriage
‘I’m a calmer mum now,’ says the Swedish model, 42, who married former England footballer Jamie, 53, in 2018. ‘I talk to him in a completely different way.’
Sky Sports pundit Jamie has two children with his ex-wife, Louise Redknapp. Frida’s other children are from her marriage to US hedge fund manager Jonathan Lourie.
Frida says Rapha has helped bond their blended family. ‘Going through a divorce is like putting a family through a tumble dryer,’ she says on The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan podcast.
‘Having Rapha has been a godsend – he’s the glue. Everyone wanted to come home and see Rapha.’
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