Couple

LONDON — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have moved their two children to a new school over security concerns, a spokesperson said Tuesday, just weeks after the family returned to the U.K. to make a fresh start.

“The decision for the children to move school was taken following a discussion with the family’s security team about the practicalities of their current arrangements,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, had only just started the new school year in England after the family relocated from California in late August.

British media reported that the distance of the school run and the heavy traffic on the route were among the concerns raised by the couple and their security team. The family is living at a private, non-royal residence outside of London.

“This decision should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on the school or the exceptional care the children have received there,” the statement added.

The news followed reports that Harry and Meghan were awaiting a new risk assessment from the government committee that reviews protection of VIPs, including a decision on whether the family should be entitled to publicly funded security now that they live in the U.K.

Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California more than six years ago, saying they wanted to earn their own living. They later signed lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify.

Although relations with the rest of the royal family have soured since then, Harry has recently expressed an interest in reconciliation so he could spend more time with his father, King Charles III.

Harry has fought a long-running battle with Britain’s government for the restoration of publicly funded police protection, which was canceled when the couple gave up their royal roles.

He had previously said he couldn’t “see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K.” without a security guarantee.

Earlier this month, the king reiterated that Harry and Meghan remain non-working members of the royal family and would continue to refrain from using formal royal titles, such as his royal highness and her royal highness, as they have done since 2020. The couple said they were surprised by the way the monarch issued that statement because they were given little time to review it.

NEW YORK — Donald Trump Jr.’s new wife, Bettina, is confirming that her May wedding weekend celebration was partially funded by a man with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a post on her Instagram page Monday morning signed by the couple, Bettina Trump wrote that the man, Umar Kremlev, was a “dear friend,” who “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding.”

“It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful,” it went on.

ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative website, reported earlier Monday that the wedding between Trump Jr. and socialite Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas was heavily funded by Kremlev, a Russian oligarch who heads the International Boxing Association. ProPublica reported that Kremlev “footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses,” including paying to rent out one of two private islands where the three-day party was held and a fireworks show.

In the post, Bettina Trump said that she and the president’s son were married in a private ceremony “surrounded ONLY by our family,”

“The weekend that followed had actually been planned well in advance as a fun weekend with friends. It was never intended to be our wedding weekend. When our original wedding plans changed, we simply decided to get married before it and arrived at an already planned weekend as newlyweds,” it went on. “It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift.”

That gift comes as Russia remains at war following its invasion of Ukraine and as the president has failed to broker a promised peace deal between the nations.

Kremlev was recently honored with the Order of Friendship by Putin, according to the International Boxing Association, and accompanied Putin to China as part of a Russian delegation, according to the Chinese state media cited by the outlet.

Trump Jr. has previously been scrutinized over his Russian ties. During the 2016 campaign, his meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower was the subject of intense scrutiny by federal and congressional investigators probing whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to meddle in the election.

The meeting had been billed as an opportunity to discuss potentially incriminating information about the president’s then-Democrat opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as part of the Russian government’s efforts to help Trump Jr.’s father win the White House.

Colvin writes for the Associated Press.

LONDON — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, were surprised by the way Buckingham Palace released a letter that made clear they remain non-working members of the royal family even though they have returned to the United Kingdom.

The letter, sent on behalf of King Charles III to senior government and military officials, caught the couple off guard when it was released to the media on Monday in part because they were given little time to review or comment on its contents, a person familiar with the discussions said.

The couple’s representatives received a copy of the letter just one hour and 12 minutes before it was released to news outlets, the person said. That left them with little time to respond because they were unable to reach Harry, who was in a meeting, until just two minutes before the letter was released, the person added.

The letter said Harry and Meghan would continue to refrain from using the formal royal titles, such as his royal highness and her royal highness, as they have done since stepping back from official royal duties in 2020. Any charity work the couple undertakes will be carried out in a private capacity, and operational security decisions are matters for the relevant police agencies, the letter said.

“To help avoid doubt or confusion, The King has directed that (this) information be shared,” the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the royal household, said in the letter.

Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020 when they moved to North America to make their own living through lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify. At the time, Queen Elizabeth II made clear that the couple could not be part-time royals and they had to give up their royal positions if they wanted to pursue such commercial arrangements. Charles reiterated that position after he became king in 2022.

The couple’s reaction to the letter, which confirms that their status remains unchanged, highlights tensions surrounding their return to the U.K. Some palace observers have expressed concern that Harry and Meghan’s presence in Britain could allow them to establish a sort of parallel royal court that would compete with working members of the royal family.

The security question is particularly sensitive because Harry has fought a long-running battle with the government for the restoration of publicly funded police protection, which was canceled when the couple gave up their royal roles.

Any decision about whether to restore the couple’s round-the-clock police protection is a matter for a government panel known as RAVEC, or the Royal and VIP Executive Committee. The committee is expected to meet this week, the person familiar with the discussions said.

Kirka writes for the Associated Press.

They say 10 passengers were told they would not be allowed on the ‘overweight’ flight

A pensioner says a dream family holiday to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary ended in “anger and frustration” after she and her husband were denied boarding on an overbooked easyJet flight home. Eileen Snow, 72, and her husband Stephen, 74, had enjoyed a week in Croatia followed by a week in Montenegro with family when they arrived at Tivat Airport on Saturday expecting to fly back to London Gatwick.

But the couple say they were stopped at the gate and left stranded abroad. The situation was worrying for Stephen, who takes daily medication and says he only had enough to last until the following day. The delay also meant Eileen was unable to visit her late father’s grave on what would have been his birthday.

EasyJet later emailed Stephen apologising that he had been “denied boarding” on flight EZY8814 and referred to procedures used when flights are overbooked. According to Civil Aviation Authority guidelines, an airline expecting to have too many passengers should first ask for volunteers willing to surrender their reservations in exchange for agreed benefits.

But the couple, from Emsworth, Hampshire, insist they did not volunteer to give up their seats. “I was angry and frustrated – I couldn’t believe the level of incompetence,” said Stephen. “It did ruin what had been a perfect holiday with family. Regardless of what easyJet claims, we did not volunteer to stay off the flight.”

Eileen and Stephen had been booked on the 4:50pm easyJet service from Tivat to Gatwick. The flight was already delayed when they reached the gate. The couple says they and three other couples were prevented from boarding despite having reserved their seats well in advance.

Eileen said: “They let many people board after us. We were told the flight was full. Ten of us could not go.”

She says they were told the aircraft was over-fuelled. She claims a woman dealing with the stranded passengers promised to arrange taxis, accommodation, food and vouchers. But Eileen says the woman then left to seek help and never returned.

She said: “She promised all the requested items – taxis, accommodation, food, vouchers. She abandoned us.”

The couple says they repeatedly asked for an easyJet representative and a senior airport manager but were unable to get practical assistance. As the airport began closing, Eileen says the remaining passengers were told they had to leave.

She said an older man approached them before bringing over what she believed was a police, security or border officer. Eileen said: “Some of them had belts with what looked like a gun. We were intimidated.”

An airport worker eventually stepped in and drove the couple to a hotel in his own car, helping them with their luggage. Eileen and Stephen paid for the accommodation themselves.

By the following evening, Eileen was still trying to resolve the situation through easyJet’s WhatsApp customer service. The airline later provided links allowing the couple to seek reimbursement for hotel, food and transport costs and submit a denied-boarding compensation claim.

But Eileen says the experience had left her deeply disappointed. The couple had travelled from 16 to 29 August for the family holiday to mark their golden wedding anniversary. They eventually secured British Airways flights from Croatia to Gatwick and booked a £190 taxi across the border to Dubrovnik.

They then faced a further £177 journey from Gatwick back to their home. An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are very sorry that Mr and Mrs Snow were unable to travel on their flight from Tivat to London Gatwick due to the aircraft exceeding weight limits.

“Weight restrictions are in place for all airlines for safety reasons and in the event that a flight exceeds this limit, we are required to carry fewer passengers. We did everything possible to minimise disruption for our customers including offering the next direct flight, however as this wasn’t suitable, they booked with an alternative carrier and will be reimbursed.

“We have since spoken to Mr and Mrs Snow, apologised for their experience and provided the compensation due. The safety and welfare of our passengers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”

Sammy and Jonathan were one of a number of couples whose romantic journeys were never shown on the Netflix show

Love Is Blind UK’s third season saw a record number of engagements – but only a handful were shown.

The Netflix reality dating show sees 30 singles sent on a string of blind dates in the show’s pods which are designed to prevent the contestants from ever seeing each other. The only way they can meet a potential partner face to face is if they accept a marriage proposal from them.

An unprecedented number of contestants became engaged during the latest season – 14 to be precise – though just six of those love stories were shown to viewers at home.

The show’s executive producer, Nazleen Karim, previously addressed why they cut some couples on the programme but kept following others. She explained: “When there are more engagements than we can physically follow, we have to make difficult editorial choices. We’re looking for a range of different relationship journeys and stories that together capture the full experience of the experiment.

“Not being selected isn’t a reflection of the strength of a relationship – many couples continue exploring their connection once they leave the pods.”

Now, one couple who were cut from the show revealed what happened to them afterwards, and the remarkable journey they have been on since.

Tech recruiter Jonathan, 32, and wellbeing coach and entrepreneur Sammy, 31, found a connection in the pods and became engaged, but their dates, nor that all-important proposal, were ever shown.

In a tell-all Instagram post, Sammy recounted that she asked a producer to give Jonathan her number after they were told they would not be continuing on the programme, and the pair continued to date in the real world.

Since leaving the show in August last year, they have jetted off on holiday together, met each other’s families, got a dog together named Poddy in homage to the show, and remain engaged to this day. Sammy also revealed the devastating news that the pair had suffered a silent miscarriage in June.

“We lost our baby to a silent miscarriage and honestly, we really struggled,” she shared. “Grieving whilst still living on opposite sides of the country was one of the hardest things we’ve had to face together.”

While she admitted the pair were still navigating the loss, Sammy revealed their love story still endured. She added: “We didn’t get picked to continue on Love Is Blind. At the time, that felt like the end of our story. Turns out, it was the beginning of the best bit.

“No cameras. No experiment. No guarantees. We just kept choosing each other, and now you’re finally in on the secret.”

Love Is Blind UK series three is now streaming on Netflix. A reunion special will air tomorrow night (August 30) at 9pm.

JAMES Bond could see it’s first ever husband and wife casting as Saoirse Ronan pitches for a villain role – and Jack Lowden is up for 007.

The actress, 32, who tied the knot with Jack in 2024, has teased that she could be in the upcoming blockbuster Bond 26.

Lady Bird star Saoirse recently told Empire magazine: “I want to go dark. I said that I wanted to be a Bond villain, and I’m dead serious.

“I think it would be really interesting, having a young, female villain.

“Especially for girls and women, to see someone who can just take all that pent-up anger and direct it somewhere.”

The pair welcomed their first baby into the world after being spotted with a pram in public back in September last year.

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Her husband has been tipped as one of the stars to take on the role of James Bond, following on from Daniel Craig, who has played agent for the last 15 years.

Jack has been a huge fan favourite since taking on the role of MI5 agent River Cartwright in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses.

He’s also been in the likes of Pride and Prejudice, The Gold, War & Peace, The Long Song, Wolf Hall, Mrs Biggs and The Tunnel.

Meanwhile Saoirse has starred in Little Women, Lady Bird, The Lovely Bones, Hanna and Mary Queen of Scots.

There are some pretty huge names in the mix for the next Bond.

The likes of Jacob Elordi, Callum Turner, Harris Dickinson, Anthony Boyle  and Tom Hardy have been some of the names.

And New Brit actor Jack Barton has been thrown in there too.

It comes shortly after The Sun exclusively revealed that the new 007 writer shared an unexpected update on the Bond script.

The upcoming film could possibly relocate from MI6 in London to Birmingham.

Its writer Steven Knight has a long-standing love affair with the Midlands, the home of his smash hit Peaky Blinders and drama This Town.

The screen giant is considering a Brummie background for the spy’s next outing.

Steven told The Sun: “I’m loving working on the Bond film — I’m tempted to set it in Birmingham.

“I’m always tempted to do that on everything I work on!”

Knight has been drafted in by Amazon MGM Studios, which bought creative control of the Bond franchise for £790million last year.

Sharing an update at the launch of the Peaky Blinders Underworld immersive game, he went on: “Writing this film is like working for King and country. I feel like it’s my duty.

“Seriously, I’m such a big fan of the whole Bond franchise. To be able to be the person who is writing the next one is genuinely an honour and it’s a dream.

“Making Peaky Blinders has been amazing and doing Bond is beyond that.”

A COUPLE due to travel to Greece were denied boarding over a simple passport mistake and lost out on £500.

And now the couple is warning other travellers about the common mistake.

Celia Jenkins, 78, and her husband Rees, 82, were meant to fly from Bristol Airport to Kefalonia, Greece, for a six-month stay at their house on a Greek island, but were unable to board their flight.

They were caught out by a rule that means UK passport holders are now seen as ‘third-country nationals’ by the EU, meaning they must follow strict entry rules where their passport is less than 10 years old, regardless of when their document expires.

Jet2 staff told the couple that their passports were 10 years and three days old, meaning their passports were past the limit.

According to The Independent, Celia said: “We were escorted out through border security because technically we had no passports suddenly. We felt like criminals.”

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She explained that while the couple missed the fact their passports were no longer valid, they feel like the Government and airlines have not made the rules clear.

She added: “We weren’t informed clearly enough by anybody at any time.

“We didn’t get it because we saw the expiry date rather than the date of issue as being a problem.”

The couple had paid for an airport hotel as well as the flights, meaning they spent and lost around £500.

The couple has since applied to renew their passports but believe they will no longer be able to meet up with their family in Greece.

The 10-year passport rule was actually introduced for UK citizens back in 2021, however many people still get caught out by it.

UK passports must not be issued more than 10 years before the date of entry into the EU and there must be at least three months remaining on the intended day of departure from the EU.

At least three months remaining on the intended day of departure from the EU.

This means that if you returned from a holiday today and have exactly three months left on your passport, but want to travel again next month – you would need to get a new passport.

Getting a new UK passport usually takes around three weeks through the HM Passport Office.

However, the Government advises that Brits apply at least 10 weeks before travelling, especially during busy periods.

Famous for its walls bearing scribbles and sketches left behind by patrons for over 60 years, El Batey, a bar in Old San Juan, is a Puerto Rican institution serving locals and tourists alike.

It was inside this famed establishment that filmmakers Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero first met one night back in 2008. Since then, the two have joined forces in both life and art; they are a married couple, as well as parents and close collaborators on film projects.

Their first feature, “Esta Isla,” which is now available on VOD, made history as the first Puerto Rican film to win at the Independent Spirit Awards in February, taking home the John Cassavetes Award honoring a production made for under $1 million. At the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, it received three prizes, including best new narrative director.

A politically charged, coming-of-age road-trip movie, “Esta Isla” follows Bebo (Zion Ortiz), a young man from the “caserios,” or projects, and Lola (Fabiola Victoria Brown), a well-off girl unhappy in her bubble of privilege. Violence forces Bebo to run away to the mountains. Lola tags along and together they come across a series of people who expand their worldview.

There’s a grounded, earthy lyricism to the images captured in “Esta Isla” that show a Puerto Rico that’s at once lush and entrancing but also undiscovered and unseen in cinema.

Fabiola Brown, pictured above, plays “Lola” in the new Puerto Rican film “Esta Isla.”

(Experimento Ludico)

Key to their professional success thus far, the filmmakers believe, is their loving personal bond. “We’re always together and talking about ideas. When we were working on ‘Esta Isla,’ it helped a lot to really dig deep and have long conversations about certain details and topics,” Carretero says during a recent video call. “We do mostly everything ourselves, just me and Lorrie. Sometimes I do camera, Lorrie does sound. We keep it pretty small.”

In 2010, Carretero and Jones Molina founded the production company called Experimento Lúdico in the western town of Mayagüez with the intent of decentralizing production on the island. Most opportunities for filmmaking are still based in the San Juan metropolitan area.

“I’m from Arecibo, from the north, and Cristian is from here, from Mayagüez. That’s part of who we are, and we want to tell these stories from here. It’s part of resisting. It feels like somebody has to do this,” Jones Molina says with a laugh, while sitting next to Carretero.

Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero are the filmmakers behind the Puerto Rican road trip movie “Esta Isla.”

(Experimento Ludico)

When Carretero and Jones Molina first met, it was the documentary scene that sustained Puerto Rican cinema because those stories could be told with fewer resources. Karen Rossi’s 2007 environmentalist doc “Isla Chatarra,” for example, inspired Jones Molina.

She and Carretero later directed the 2016 medium-length doc “Seeds, Chronicles of the Earth,” about GMO experimentation on the island.

Most of the fiction production on the island then pertained to Hollywood films, such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (2011). In the 2010s, however, a string of fiction films, including Ari Maniel Cruz’s “Under My Nails” (2012) and “Before a Rooster Crows” (2016) and Ángel Manuel Soto’s “La Granja” (2015), pushed local storytelling forward.

And while those movies, just like “Esta Isla,” don’t address the socioeconomic issues facing Puerto Ricans didactically, their mere existence is in itself a statement. “Making Puerto Rican films in Puerto Rico is political,” says Jones Molina. “Talking about who we are, our identity, our culture, our history and saying that we are here and we exist is political.”

Residents in San Juan are currently experiencing a water crisis, and while the scarcity hasn’t directly affected Jones Molina and Carretero in Mayagüez, this problem is not new and has only turned more urgent in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

That’s why they deliberately wrote a scene in “Esta Isla” showing people getting water from a water truck.

“It’s crazy that we filmed that a couple of years ago to talk about that issue, and it’s just gotten worse,” says Carretero. “Now we have a drought, and you have to have water rationing. It’s something that is reflective of a bigger problem in the island: the neglect of the most important needs of the citizens.”

Puerto Rico’s status as a colony of the U.S., where the interests of corporations supersede the well-being of the local population, is the source of many of its challenges. And for a long time, even referring to Puerto Rico as a colony was taboo. A history of persecution on behalf of the U.S. government ingrained fear in Puerto Ricans.

“The FBI would keep ‘carpetas,’ or files with information on regular people, who were suspected of organizing or fighting for independence,” Carretero says. “People were being surveilled by the FBI, and they’d pay family members or people they knew to survey them.”

“Esta Isla” touches on the troubled relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. via Lola’s deceased father, who is a stand-in for Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, a Puerto Rican revolutionary and leader of the pro-independence militant group Los Macheteros. After years on the run, the FBI assassinated him in 2005. In the film, the character Cora (Teofilo Torres) lives in the mountains and works the land. The location used for his house carries great significance.

“The inside shots, with the bullet holes, and the windows, and the books, all of that is from Filiberto’s actual house where he was assassinated,” says Jones Molina. “When you go there, you see all those bullet holes; it’s heavy.”

To that, Carretero adds: “There’s an inferiority complex that the colony perpetuates, which has to do with not knowing where you come from. Once you know all these names and all the stories of women and men who’ve worked for the good of Puerto Rican people, here and in the States, it opens up this whole other space for inspiration that’s from our ancestors”

Carretero and Jones Molina found the core concept for “Esta Isla” on the first page of Octavio Paz’s seminal novel “The Labyrinth of Solitude,” where the Mexican author discusses adolescence as a moment in a person’s life where they open up to the world, while at the same time noting that societies themselves also go through a coming-of-age.

Zion Ortiz, pictured above, plays “Bebo” in the new Puerto Rican film “Esta Isla.”

(Experimento Ludico)

“Puerto Rico is still an evolving organism. It’s a country, a people and a culture still evolving,” Carretero explains. “We’re still trying to understand who we are and where we’re going. Are we a country? Are we not? Are we part of the U.S., or not? Are we Americanos, or somos latinoamericanos? Tantas preguntas that are still unresolved.”

Jones Molina continues: “There’s this idea that you have to just be grateful that you’re a part of the United States and don’t complain. But when you question that, and when you want to really look at why you love and care about your country and your culture and want to educate yourself, then you’re definitely going through this kind of coming-of-age.”

For this filmmaking couple, reaching maturity as artists forged in the complex context of a modern colony hinges on acknowledging their limitations and still persevering.

“We also wanted to show that you can make films with very little; you don’t have to wait for the perfect moment or all the different resources. That’s what we call tropical realism. Not only the style of the filmmaking, but it’s also the means, and how that matches your reality,” explains Carretero. “We cannot pretend to be something that we are not. We have to develop our own language, our own way of filming, our way of telling our stories.”

LONDON — Prince Harry and his wife Meghan arrived in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, as they make a fresh start in Britain after six years in the United States, U.K. media reported.

The news comes less than a week after the couple surprised fans and critics alike with plans to return to Britain. The return was reported by media such as the BBC and the Daily Telegraph, with the newspaper reporting that their plane landed at Birmingham International Airport around noon.

Flight tracking websites showed a private charter flight from Van Nuys, arrived at the airport at 11:56 a.m.

The couple’s children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, have already enrolled at British schools and will start classes in September. The family plans to live at a private, nonroyal residence outside of London, but haven’t said exactly where that will be.

Harry and Meghan gave up their royal duties and moved to California more than six years ago to earn their living through lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify.

Relations with the rest of the royal family quickly soured as the couple said palace staff had been insensitive to Meghan’s mental health and leveled charges of racism and media manipulation at members of the royal family.

Harry recently expressed an interest in reconciliation so he could spend more time with his father, King Charles III, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer. But relations with his brother, Prince William, who is heir to the throne, remain tense.

Charlie Herlihy and Sophia Woodcock have been working hard to save money after living in a city on entry-level salaries

A savvy couple who “never pay full price for anything” by using discount apps and reward offers manage to save £1,600 per year living in London. Charlie Herlihy, 26, and partner Sophia Woodcock, 24, have been living frugally since their teens, and since moving to the capital on entry-level salaries in 2025, have been working out ways to maximise their savings.

They eat out using apps that give huge discounts, choose their energy providers wisely to get the best rewards and use Gold Amex cards to earn points “anywhere” they spend to exchange for luxury perks like plane tickets. In July, the duo were able to save £137.02 from their swaps.

After travelling to South-East Asia for six months after saving £12,000 in just three months in 2022 using their tips and tricks and spending less, their next goal is to afford return tickets to Singapore. Charlie, a graphic designer, from London, says: “Kind of our brand became we never pay full price for anything.

“I think mainly the reason it became a habit is anywhere you go you tap your card without thinking about it. We have a back catalogue of apps on our phones that do deals and discounts and websites we research on first.

“Say we’re planning a weekend we’ll check certain websites for offers and places that are doing different discounts. It takes 15 minutes in the morning but to plan it out is the most cost-effective way of doing it.

“I was used to doing it myself and a lot of people don’t factor it in and go with the flow but you end up spending loads of money without planning. It really does add up.”

Sophia and Charlie have a “portfolio” of methods to ensure they can live frugally, especially on food and drink. Sophia said: “Eating out and coffee is something me and Phi love to do and one of the things we spend on and apps are the best way to save money on a big expense.

“The Paace app rewards you with coffees for getting your steps in. Eat Club gives you discounts at restaurants that don’t have their tables filled.”

They also make use of First Table, an app that often gives you a 50% discount on your food bill if you dine early. The pair try to shop at Sainsbury’s where they can – as Charlie says they have an affiliate with Amex where they can earn four points per £1 spent, as oppose to £1 at other supermarkets.

Lidl Plus is also a go-to, and they will check out the app before hitting the shops to see what’s on offer, as well as making use of Ocado’s 25% off offers.

“We use Octopus energy as it gives you stuff like two for £8 cinema tickets, e-bike rides around London and free coffees for literally paying your bills as you would with every other provider,” Charlie says.

“We use the gold Amex card which gives you points on everything you spend anywhere really. You can build those up and buy flights, stuff like that.

“Our project we’re working towards is return tickets to Singapore. We’ve made it our default card even when tapping on the tube and stuff like that.”

She is also a “big advocate” for checking promotions that come through from restaurants on emails – having recently “paid nothing” after bagging a £15 voucher and cashing in on half price ramen at a restaurant. Charlie said: “We’re not really saving for anything but just to have enough money for freedom in life as we’d love to go to Australia and go travelling again.”

You can follow Charlie and Sophia on TikTok @lifeofphiandcharlie. Charlie and Sophia’s July savings:

Utilities

Octopus Energy

-Cinema trips £11.96 saved

-Free Forats bike hire – 30-minute free session (usual price £10.90)

Food and drink

Paace

-They bought four coffees and saved £16.60 (£8.30 each)

Eat Club

-Went out to dinner using discounts 3 times and saved 30% on one bill (£51.07 became £29.86 saving £11.21)

First Table

-Saved 50% on one saving £23.69 from a £65.38 bill (including the first table £6 booking fee)

London on the Inside

-£88.90 down to £50 with a 50% off offer (with service charge)

Too Good To Go

-Didn’t use this month but normally pick up a £3.99 Gail’s bag worth £15, an £11.01 saving

Banking

The Amex Gold card

-The couple say they make back between 0.05%-1% every time they tap their cards on anything with Avios redeems – which is how nothing they pay for is really ever full price (unless they do not accept Amex). In July, they spent £850 through Amex which equates to £4.25-£12.75 depending on where they redeem their Avios.

They are still saving up for their first fully paid for Avios flight. Also, whenever purchasing anything online they try and do so through the Avios portal – similar to TopCashback – which gives them Avios for free just for buying something through the portal.

Total savings – £137.02

They left the UK earlier this year with their sons aged six and four

A couple ‘retired’ by 33 and 32 ditched the UK to travel the world with their kids – spending just £60 a day.

Ryan Blackley, 35, and wife Jess, 34, headed out to Chang Mai, Thailand, on February 24, 2026, with sons Noah, six, and Bodhi, four. They had travelled together back in 2016 before having children and say they knew their future would “lie outside the UK”.

By renting out the two flats and family home they still own, the pair class themselves as retired and can fund their new lifestyle with the profits. The original plan to move to Portugal and travel Europe changed when they realised the climate would be warmer in the winter months in Asia, making the jump to move 5,800 miles away.

Leaving with just two suitcases and a backpack each, the couple reckon they spend an average of £1,800 each month compared to their £2,200 per month costs in the UK. They also bring in an estimated £2,500 monthly from their rentals.

They don’t plan to return to live in the UK and have a five-year Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) – which allows them to both live and work remotely there. With plans to continue world-schooling their sons, so far they say they are “thriving” in their new life.

Ryan, originally from Cambridge, said: “We had a plan basically of how to get out of the UK and that was through property. But I think we obviously had a good life in the UK, but it got to a point where I guess we felt that the UK wasn’t the right place for us to live and bring up kids.

“The cost of living is insane. We’ve got two boys and at some point they are going to want to go out on their own and we don’t feel the UK is a safe country anymore because knife crime is massive and I don’t want one of the kids being a statistic of knife crime anymore.

“The school system is a very outdated system. For us, the whole concept of life is backwards because you’ve got to go to school, work and then enjoy life when you’re 68 years old.

“Who knows one, if you’ll be alive then and then two, health-wise what that will be. This way we’re teaching the kids everything.

“They know how to read, write, maths, English etc and then learn the skills they don’t get taught at school. We both class ourselves as retired because the property work requires minimal upkeep and effort.”

Mum Jess said they got caught up in the “monotony” of school runs back in the UK. “Every time I’d pick Noah up from school I’d ask ‘how was your day blah blah blah’,” she said.

“He’d say ‘these kids were naughty today’ or ‘these kids got their names on the board’ and I never heard positive things. I thought ‘what’s the point?’.

“I feel like a lot of the school day is spent controlling the class and troublesome kids. How much is actually spent learning?”

After buying her first flat at 20 for £120,000, Jess rented it out and the couple bought their second flat for £145,000 after they saved up some money while travelling and working abroad for two-and-a-half years – visiting 27 countries. They went ahead and sold it for £183,000, before buying another two-bed flat £190,000 – and finally buying their four-bed family home in 2021.

Renting them all out either through Airbnb or with private tenants, they have been able to retire early after bringing in £2,500 per month.

“Obviously we still have the house in the UK and if this all fails, we’ll simply go back,” Ryan said. “We’ve done nearly six months already and I don’t see us ever returning, not in a living capacity but literally just to visit the family.

“It’s crazy we lived in the house and all we travel with is two large suitcases and a backpack each. It makes you realise you don’t need much in life.”

Flying out in February to Chang Mai, after their 60-day tourist visa expired they crossed the border to Laos and applied for their five-year DTV. Since then, they have travelled around Thailand, including visits to Chang Rai, Bangkok, Udon Thani and Kanchanaburi. Currently in Koh Samui, they plan to visit Malaysia and Singapore next.

“The plan still is to travel the world, but having a base in Asia makes it easier,” Ryan said. “We’ve basically got freedom and don’t have to be anywhere by a certain date or time.

“It’s just the four of us and we pretty much go with the flow. It’s just nice being free”.

The couple have stayed in a mixture of Airbnbs, apartments and hotels and only usually book their next spot a few days in advance. They don’t budget, but Ryan said he made a note of everything they spend and they have been eating out for lunch and dinner since their travels began.

“We’re quite fine with the simple life, like eating Thai food,” he said. “We don’t drink alcohol or go to bars or fancy restaurants.

“The rolling average from the last five months is £1,800 for the month for four of us. We were everyday people, just a normal family who had a dream to get out and travel the world and give our kids a different life.

“I can understand it can be scary because it’s going into the unknown and going away from your family and friends, home comforts and everything. But if you don’t try it out, how do you know you’re not going to like it?”

You can follow Ryan and Jess on Instagram and YouTube @blackleysabroad TikTok @travelwiththeblackleys.

Ryan and Jess’ cost breakdown

UK costs per month

Mortgage – £1,459

Bills – £427

Food – £400

Total: £2,296

Thailand costs in July

Accommodation – £790

Food – £350 a month

Other – Days out, transport, miscellaneous- average per month £420

Total: £1,560

Rolling average per month: £1,800

Sandra Bullock has opened up about her late partner Bryan Randall’s private battle with ALS.

The “Practical Magic 2” star discussed what it was like to care for Randall while honoring his request to keep his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diagnosis a secret for years during her appearance on the “SmartLess” podcast.

“I wasn’t allowed to speak about it,” Bullock told hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes in a clip of the episode posted by TMZ. “That was the request, and I honored it. … He asked me not to share … and it isolated me in the process.”

She explained that Randall, who died in 2023 at age 57, had been ill for half of their relationship and that his diagnosis came amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bullock and Randall had also kept their relationship fairly private. The couple started dating in 2015 after they reportedly met at Bullock’s son Louis’ fifth birthday party. Randall, a photographer, had been hired to capture images of the celebration. Bullock also has a younger daughter, Laila, whom she adopted in 2015. The couple was also raising Randall’s older daughter, Skylar.

Over the years, Bullock and Randall debunked rumors about their engagement and marriage numerous times.

“I don’t need a paper to be a devoted partner and devoted mother,” Bullock said in 2021.

The “Ocean’s 8” star described Randall’s diagnosis as “traumatic” and that she had started grieving him four years before his death. Bullock’s sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, had been the only person who had known about Randall’s diagnosis “for a while” although the actor eventually also confided in friends Jennifer Aniston and Bateman’s wife, Amanda Anka, according to People.

“My person left a lot earlier than the body left,” Bullock said in the podcast. “I don’t think I ever dealt with that until after he passed.”

Bullock’s episode of the “SmartLess” podcast will be released on Aug. 24 but is available now to SiriusXM early access subscribers.

They fear replacement flights today may also be grounded

A couple have been trapped in Italy for a week after a volcanic eruption saw their flights cancelled. Barbara Krmelj, 35, and partner Roy Barone, 46, went to Sicily to spend a week’s holiday with his parents. They were due to fly back to their home in Hackney, east London, on August 11 – but when Mount Etna became active that day, their flights were cancelled as a red warning level was issued.

The couple have had to take an extra week’s leave from their jobs and find alternative sitters for their two cats back at home as they remain “trapped” in the seaside town of Marina di Modica. They have alternative flights provided by the airline for August 17 but anticipate having to pay around £700 to rebook with a different airline if those are cancelled too, which they feel is likely.

They remain in a small holiday home owned by Roy’s family but say they “feel like a weight on his parents” to overstay. They checked but said the only hotel available would have cost over £2,000 for five nights because of high demand as it coincides with Ferragosto, a holiday period across Italy which sees people flock to the region.

Sales associate Barbara said: “On the way to the airport to fly back to London we got a message that our flight was cancelled. Eventually we managed to get a flight for the 17th, but the budget we allocated for our holiday is gone now. We have come back to Roy’s parents but the place is small and we feel like a weight on them now. We’ve had to organise for our friends to pop over to our home in London because the cat sitters we booked are done now.

“We’ve been paying for things like food and drinks with credit cards – and if we aren’t able to fly on the 17th we’ll have to book new flights. If we have to book new flights it will have cost us around £1,000 in total. It’s a beautiful city, but the holiday has turned into a frustration now as we want to go back home to our pets now. We can’t enjoy all the beauty around us as we feel trapped on the island.”

Barbara and Roy have been paying elevated prices for taxis to travel around due to high demand due to the Ferragosto festival. They said they have seen a steady flow of ash over the region as well as eruptions in the distance coming from Mount Etna.

The couple did not purchase travel insurance ahead of the trip. Barbara said: “We have had a chat with a few other tourists, people are definitely frustrated. People have been sleeping at the airport – when we went, people were sleeping or sitting in every hallway. There was no space even to sit and organise ourselves when we were trying to rebook flights.

“We were given a hotel for one night when our flights were cancelled, and thank God we have Roy’s parents here. I don’t know what people are doing when they don’t know other people living here.

“When we tried to go and stay at a hotel, there was nothing we could book, the prices had skyrocketed, it was around £2,000 for five days and there were only one or two options.”

The couple are going to the beach each day and trying to make the best of their situation but say they are no longer enjoying the once-relaxing trip. Barbara added: “We’ll have spent over our budget by about £1,000 if we end up having to rebook flights.

“We’ve been using credit cards because you do what you have to do in this situation, but we have to be careful, we don’t have a lot of money left because we didn’t expect this. Ordinarily, the holiday was lovely, and I’d recommend the area to everyone. But now the holiday has turned into a frustration.”

ROMANTIC David and Victoria Beckham returned to the hotel where they sealed their love on a first holiday in 1997.

The couple went back this weekend to the retreat where they holidayed in secret 29 years ago before making their relationship public.

Posh and Becks shared a photo of themselves on a balcony overlooking the Med at the Splendido hotel in Portofino on the Italian Riviera.

Mum-of-four Victoria, 52, wrote next to the image: “Back in Portofino where we began in 1997.”

David, 51, also shared a video of his wife walking into the £2,000-a-night hotel and wrote: “29 years ago we came to Portofino to this hotel before anyone knew we were dating and here we are back again.”

In a Netflix documentary, Victoria revealed a never-before-seen picture from the 1997 trip, saying it was the first time they had met away from a car park where they secretly dated.

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She said: “I know, it makes it sound like we’re really dodgy. We’d already fallen in love before then, but it was definitely the first time that we’d been somewhere so romantic and so private.”

They got engaged the next year.

On their current trip, the pair stopped for a drink before returning to their yacht moored at Portofino.

They are holidaying with son Cruz, 21, and daughter, Harper, 15.