TALK OF THE TOWN: Meghan opts for that Soho House vibe again… even in Portugal

It’s the swanky private members’ club that prides itself on a muted style that appears effortlessly casual, but which has, in reality, been meticulously curated.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that the Duchess of Sussex – who is equally fastidious when it comes to aesthetics – has chosen Soho House’s designers to recreate the fashionable vibe of their exclusive venues in the Portuguese bolthole she and Harry, right, bought for £6.3 million in 2023.

The pair have a long relationship with the global chain of clubs. 

It was in the Greek Street venue in central London where they went on their first blind date in 2016, and they often hung out at its Cotswolds retreat, Soho Farmhouse, where luxury cabins cost up to £1,200 a night.

In 2019, the couple enlisted Soho House’s former design chief, Vicky Charles, to renovate Frogmore Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace, as part of a £2.4 million makeover. 

That the couple used taxpayers’ money via the Sovereign Grant caused a backlash, prompting the couple to pay back the full fee. 

Charles’s company – which she runs with James Corden’s wife Julia – was also said to have worked on the Cotswolds home the Sussexes inhabited while the work on Frogmore was being done.

The Beckhams and George Clooney are also loyal customers.

Soho House has long had its own interior design consultancy, set up for members who want to recreate the clubs’ look in their own home. And now, it seems, there will be a little bit of Soho on Portugal’s Atlantic coast.

Tabitha comes up with a poor excuse

Former Made In Chelsea star Tabitha Willett is still at war with her old landlady, Charlotte Hill. 

After Willett left Hill’s Knightsbridge flat with ‘dog urine’ stains on the carpet, a court ordered her to pay £16,500 in 2024. 

I hear Tabitha, who’s just become a mum for the second time, still owes £3,053, with her new husband, wealthy bank heir Harry Hoare, claiming that ‘life being expensive’ has delayed the payments. 

 Gen’s got a yen to be the next Bond girl

Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour has set her sights on being the next Bond girl – and believes she has all the right credentials.

‘I would love to do it, and I have military intelligence in my family,’ she tells me proudly.

But it’s not the only thing that qualifies the 28-year-old, who played society gossip Clara Livingston in the racy period drama.

‘I have done a lot of stunt work. And I have a sporting background,’ says Genevieve, referring to her time as a Team GB artistic swimmer.

As for who she’d like to act opposite, Chenneour tells me at the Alice+Olivia Mayfair store event hosted by Stacey Bendet and Nicky Hilton Rothschild, that ‘Bond should be someone who’s got a career, but I don’t think it should be someone famous because it’s such a unique thing’.

 Cara de la whinge

Supermodel Cara Delevingne has never been one to mince her words – and now she’s declared she doesn’t like her parents’ friends.

‘They can be pretty rude and spoilt,’ she says of the high-society circles the aristocratic Delevingnes run in.

‘It’s having kind of a lot of money and not really doing anything and feeling very entitled, and having a lot and expecting a lot for really nothing.’

Stop sitting on the fence and tell us what you really think, Cara…

 No notes… 

It seems Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine have mellowed since reducing guests to quivering wrecks on their TV show What Not To Wear. 

The pair were reunited at London music festival Mighty Hoopla last weekend, but before they introduced headliners the Scissor Sisters to the stage, Trinny said: ‘First we want to take a look at what the crowd are wearing’, before quickly adding: ‘You all look gorgeous. There’s no such thing as what not to wear.’