wife

Ben Jones, the actor best known for portraying trusty mechanic Cooter Davenport on “The Dukes of Hazzard” before serving two terms in Congress as a representative from Georgia, has died. He was 84.

Jones died Sunday of a heart attack at his home in Virginia, his wife, Alma Viator, said on social media.

“I lost the love of my life today,” Viator wrote on Facebook. “Ben passed from a massive heart attack. He was home resting in his favorite chair waiting for the Braves to come on and whoop the Yankees. Ben had the most amazing rich full life. He loved and was loved by so many. He will be missed. I loved him so so much.”

A character actor whose earliest credits include films such as “Together for Days” (1972) and “Moonrunners” (1975), Jones’ break came when he landed the role of “Crazy Cooter” Davenport on the CBS action comedy “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The series, which aired from 1979 to 1985, primarily followed close-knit cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), as well as those in their orbit in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.

“The Dukes of Hazzard lost another integral part of their cast today,” Wopat wrote in his tribute to Jones on Instagram. “Ben Jones was a fine friend and a fierce advocate of all the best things we can offer in the entertainment business. He will be sorely missed… Denver Pyle frequently said to Ben, ‘I’m not your Uncle Jesse!’ But I feel like we lost a Duke cousin today.”

Initially introduced as a gruff wild man without much regard for the law, Davenport eventually settled into a loyal, fun-loving “honorary Duke” beloved by fans. The mechanic would often help repair the show’s signature vehicle, an orange 1969 Dodge Charger known as General Lee.

Despite mixed reviews from critics — former Times television critic Howard Rosenberg denounced it in 1980 as “a spittoon of a series about hotrod-speeding, card-carrying hicks somewhere in the South” — “Dukes” was one of the most-watched television shows of its time. Jones would return to play Davenport after his political career in the TV films “The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion!” and “The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood,” where the character was also revealed to have ventured into politics as a congressman.

Born Aug. 30, 1941, in Tarboro, N.C., Jones grew up in Virginia and North Carolina before eventually attending the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to study writing. He was open about his struggles with alcohol and told The Times in 1993 that he had been sober since 1977.

After his time on “Dukes,” Jones was persuaded to run for office, challenging a popular Republican incumbent, Pat Swindall, for his seat representing Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives. Though he lost his first attempt in 1986, Jones won their rematch two years later after Swindall had been indicted for perjury in relation to a money-laundering scheme. (Swindall was later convicted.)

Jones, a Democrat, served two terms representing Georgia’s 4th Congressional District before redistricting took his seat. He later attempted to challenge then-Rep. Newt Gingrich for his seat but lost in the primary. He ran for office again after moving to Virginia, challenging Republican incumbent Eric Cantor for his seat in 2002 but was again unsuccessful.

“I think there are a lot of similarities between politics and entertainment, even more so with the advent of television,” Jones told The Times in 1993, shortly after leaving office. “It’s all about communication.”

Proud of his Southern heritage, Jones was also known for his controversial defense of the Confederate flag, which he described in a 2015 essay published by the New York Times as “a symbol of a non-racist Southern spirit” that had been “appropriated and desecrated” by racists.

Jones is survived by Viator, his fifth wife; his three children, Rachel, Jeanne and Walker; three stepchildren and 10 grandchildren, according to the New York Times.

JON Cypher, the actor who played Prince Charming in the original TV production of Cinderella, has died at the age of 94.

A family announcement said the thespian died at his home in Central Point, Oregon, on August 3.

His wife of 40 years Carol Rosin was by his side.

The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Jon will perhaps be well-known as the ambitious police chief Fletcher Daniels on the long-running Hill Street Blues.

He appeared throughout the acclaimed TV drama.

Jon also had a prominent role as General March Craig on Major Dad.

He, though, had a long list of credits including Dynasty, Knots Landing, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, As the World Turns, Santa Barbara and JAG.

Jon first appeared on the small screen alongside Julie Andrews in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s live 1957 CBS broadcast of Cinderella.

At the time, Jon was a virtual unknown,

The big-budget production aired live and in color on CBS in March 1957.

It attracted an audience of more than 107million, more than 60 per cent of US households tuning in.

He went on to play Man-At-Arms in the 1987 film Masters of the Universe.

Jon also made regular appearances on Broadway, with credits including Man of La Mancha, The Great White Hope, Big, Coco and 1776.

FORMER Strictly pro James Jordan secretly lived apart from his wife Ola for months prior to their split.

Pals said he moved into a flat earlier this year close to the five-bedroom house the dancers once shared.

James, 48, is said to have “needed space” as he and Ola, 43, embarked on a trial separation after 22 years of marriage.

A source explained: “It was James’s decision to move out, he needed some space. It happened months ago. He has been holed up in a small flat in Kent.

“These past few months have been tough for James but he is trying to keep moving forward. Ola has been supporting him as best she can but their decision to end their marriage has been incredibly difficult for both of them.”

James was photographed looking downcast as he walked close to his flat last week, minus his wedding ring.

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We revealed on Saturday how the couple, who have not been photographed together since last year, had split.

James, originally from Gillingham, and Polish-born Ola, who have a daughter, Ella, then released a joint statement confirming their break-up.

It read: “We’re taking some time apart as we work through very difficult personal challenges.

“James moved out of the family home some time ago. This has been an incredibly painful and emotional journey for us both and it certainly wasn’t an easy decision.”

It said James’s mental health “hasn’t been in a good place for quite some time”.

James added: “I’ve been struggling more than I’ve let people see and I’m taking the time I need to focus on getting myself into a healthier place, both for myself and for Ella.

“Neither of us is in a good place right now. We’re both doing our best to navigate one of the hardest chapters of our lives.”

James and Ola both joined Strictly in 2006.

James quit in 2013 with Ola leaving two years later, after winning the trophy in 2009 with Chris Hollins.

INBETWEENERS star James Buckley’s wife Clair was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after “not being able to stand up”.

The couple shared on their podcast that Clair, 38, had been unwell and needed to seek urgent medical attention.

In a snippet from the latest episode of The Buckleys, Clair revealed: “I’ve not been very well.”

James, 38, then replied: “No, you ended up in the old hospital there, didn’t you?

“Didn’t an ambulance come and take you away?”

Explaining what happened, the mum-of-two said: “So basically it was some sort of virus that I had had, but it was slowly sort of chipping away at me and I was getting more and more dehydrated and I didn’t even really know.”

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The Inbetweeners star then said: “I feel a little bit bad. Because I went away, I was working.

“And you were calling me up, sort of. I’d get to my hotel and I’d check, see how you’re getting on. You’d be going, ‘I’m really ill, I’m really sick.’

“And I was going, ‘Alright, see how you feel in the morning.’

“I came home and the only way I can describe you, you look like when little weak Lord Voldemort was being carried and he’s got his little thin little legs like hanging out and he’s got like a little shawl over him!”

James, who shot to fame in the noughties as Jay in The Inbetweeners, then revealed how once he saw how sick his wife was he called 999,

“Got an ambulance, didn’t we? Because you couldn’t move, you couldn’t get in the car and stuff. You were so weak,” the star revealed.

Finishing off the story, Clair then said: “So anyway, I got taken in and just got pumped full of fluids. There you go.”

Not one to miss a comic moment, James then joked: “That’s the title of the show. That’s the title of this episode. Claire Pumped Full of Fluid!”

The Buckleys podcast is a spin-off from their hugely successful YouTube vlogging series At Home With The Buckleys,

The pair thrill fans each week with their hilarious stories from their family life.

James and Clair first found love when they met on Twitter. 

Clair, then an actress and model living in Glasgow, previously revealed how she had never watched The Inbetweeners before meeting the actor – who was currently starring in season three of the hit show at the time.

“I knew of the show and what it was but I didn’t tune in. I didn’t watch it, which might have been a good thing,” the Scottish podcaster told The Sun in 2023.

“I did watch a couple of episodes after we met but to this day I don’t think I’ve seen every single episode. James and Jay are nothing alike thank God.”

The couple bonded on Twitter over their love of The Beatles before meeting in person .

After a whirlwind romance, they welcomed their first child Harrison, now 14, in 2011.

They then wed the following year, before Jude, 12, was born in 2013.

DRIVING Home For Christmas singer Chris Rea left a £12million final gift to his family, documents show.

The hitmaker, who died three days before Christmas last year aged 74, passed the sum into a trust for his wife Joan.

Court records seen by The Sun show Rea left £14,435,894, reduced to £12,063,178 after taxes, debts and costs were removed.

A grant was issued by the High Court earlier this week.

He had signed his final will in October 2025, just two months before his death.

In the 19-page document, Rea asked to be cremated.

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Joan will also collect all of her husband’s personal belongings and future royalties from her husband’s hits being played on the radio.

Rea was born in Middlesbrough in 1951 to an Italian father and Irish mother.

He joined local band Magdalene in 1973 before launching his solo career by performing in local bars and clubs.

His 1978 debut album, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, spawned the US hit Fool (If You Think It’s Over), which landed him a £15,000 payday and a Grammy nomination for best new artist.

Rea produced 25 studio albums in a lengthy career, scoring two UK Number Ones – The Road to Hell in 1989 and follow-up album Auberge in 1991.

But it was his festive track, 1978’s Driving Home for Christmas, that made him a household name.

Rea had been dumped by his manager and banned from driving when his then-girlfriend Joan was forced to drive down to London in a Mini to drive him back up north.

He later recalled coming up with the melody and lyrics during the lengthy trip home.

The track only reached Number 53 when originally released in 1986, but has since become a staple of the festive season.

It has returned to the UK Singles Chart every year since 2007 and peaked at Number 10 in 2021.

Rea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at just 33 and went through nine operations in a decades-long health battle, spending more than 32 weeks in hospital.

He lost his pancreas, gallbladder and part of his liver to surgeries, and later developed type 1 diabetes.

At one stage, the star was taking 34 pills a day.

He suffered a stroke in 2016, prompting him to give up cigarettes, before collapsing on stage in Oxford the following year.

Chris said of his health battles: “The original illness hit me hard. I almost had a nervous breakdown with the shock of it. That was the Mount Everest to climb.

“When they said it was pancreatic cancer, I could not believe it. It seemed that if your DNA says you are going to have cancer, then you can.

“They did not think I would recover from the first operation, but I was determined to do so for my wife and the girls.”

The star continued performing despite his illnesses, and made his final TV appearance in a 2020 Christmas special of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, filmed in his home city of Middlesbrough.

Chris met wife Joan when they were both teenagers growing up in Teesside and they stayed married for 57 years.

They had two daughters, Josephine, born in 1983, and Julia, born in 1989.

Comic Mortimer and TV host Jools Holland led tributes to Chris after his death last year.

Bob, recorded a cover of Rea’s Let’s Dance with Middlesbrough FC in 1997, wrote: “A lovely brilliant funny giant of a bloke… RIP Chris.”

His record label, BMG, said: “Over a remarkable career spanning more than four decades, Chris Rea created an extraordinary and deeply human body of work, defined by emotional honesty, restraint, and craft.”

Sound engineer Stuart Epps, who worked with the singer for decades, remembered him as “an amazing guy and an amazing musician”.

And Squeeze pianist Holland said: “Sad we’ve lost dear Chris Rea. A brilliant musician and the kindest of men.”

Patti Scialfa’s cancer battle has taken a turn for the better. Take it from the Boss himself.

Bruce Springsteen announced the improvement in his wife and longtime E Street Band member’s health over the weekend in a video message for the Pan-Mass Challenge, a bike-a-thon fundraiser that benefits cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In the video, shared Tuesday on Facebook by Pan-Mass Challenge, the 76-year-old rocker praised the organization’s ongoing commitment to advancing cancer research and spoke about Scialfa’s battle with blood cancer.

“As you know, Patti’s been living with her multiple myeloma for over eight years but now thankfully she is in remission,” he said in his video message, which played during the PMC 2026 opening ceremony in Worcester. “Like millions of families facing cancer, we’ve learned what every patient learns: Hope has a face.”

Scialfa’s cancer battle became public in 2024 when she shared the health revelation in the world tour documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.” Scialfa, now 73, said in the film that she was diagnosed in 2018 with multiple myeloma, a condition that occurs when cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In the film, Scialfa said touring with her husband and the E Street band was difficult because of her disease and she has had “to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go.” She has been part of the E Street Band since 1984 and is its only woman member.

Scialfa, who provides backing vocals and plays tambourine and guitar, married Springsteen in 1991.

Scialfa was absent from the video message, but Springsteen said her health journey offers a lesson he hopes “every American can understand.” “Medical research isn’t an idea. It isn’t politics,” he said, “it isn’t a line in a budget. It’s the reason why families find hope when hope seems hardest to find.”

Times staff writer Mark Olsen and former staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

The late actor and director Rob Reiner was a devoted Dodgers fan.

Sunday would have meant a lot to him.

Jake and Romy Reiner threw out the ceremonial first pitches at Dodger Stadium before the team’s game against the Boston Red Sox, more than seven months after their parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, were found dead at their Brentwood home.

Jake Reiner, a 35-year-old actor and reporter, threw his pitch straight down the middle to Dodgers outfielder Alex Call behind the plate. Romy Reiner, a 28-year-old actor and writer, sent her pitch a little high and outside, but her catcher, Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas, had no trouble handling it.

Afterward, the siblings shared a heartfelt hug next to the mound.

Jake Reiner, who co-hosts the Dodgers-based podcast “The Incline,” wrote about his and his father’s connection through the Boys in Blue in a Substack column posted in April.

“We loved the Dodgers more than anything,” Jake wrote. “We went to so many damn games. I’ll never go to Dodger Stadium again without feeling my dad’s presence and hearing his voice tell me why Shohei Ohtani should never bat in the leadoff spot.”

When Rob Reiner threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a Dodgers-Braves game in 2010, Jake was photographed helping him warm up.

Rob Reiner told People in 2023 that he became a diehard fan through his own father, Carl Reiner, and that he made it a point to pass the same love for the sport on to Jake. The family has had Dodgers season tickets for about 60 years, with Reiner telling People that he and Jake “would go to at least 25 or 40 games a year.”

“Every time we come to the ballpark, even today when we walked in, I said to Jake, ‘There’s nothing like being at the ballpark,’” Rob Reiner said. “I love coming here. We look out at the grass. The green, it’s so beautiful.”

Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele, 70, were found by Romy Reiner when she went to their home the afternoon of Dec. 14. Another son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents by stabbing in December. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Nick Reiner has struggled with addiction for years and had been living in a guesthouse on his parents’ property, according to a family friend. His mother was said to have become increasingly concerned about his mental health in the weeks leading up to her death.

“The Dodgers express our deep sorrow and share our condolences over the passing of longtime fan Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele,” the team posted Dec. 15 on X.

BROOKLYN Beckham’s wife Nicola Peltz has revealed her latest tattoo on her leg.

The star could be seen sporting a new inking on her ankle which featured the name “Elijah” emblazoned on her foot.

Nicola is currently enjoying a holiday break away in St. Tropez with her husband Brooklyn after being invited aboard Sir Elton John‘s yacht.

During a break to get some ice cream, Nicola was snapped by photographers in which her brand new inking was on full display.

Nicola has inked the name Elijah onto her foot – which means “The Lord is my God”.

The Hebrew name is featured in the Book of Kings which describes Elijah as a “bold prophet who famously defended his faith”.

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Elijah is also the name of one of Sir Elton’s kids – with the legendary singer having invited Brooklyn and Nicola to join him on board.

The bold new inking comes following Brooklyn’s decision to cover up many of his tats.

Brooklyn had previously sported tributes to his dad David with the word ‘dad’ tattooed as well as the message: “Love you Bust.”

Snaps from earlier this year however show that he had these inkings covered up.

Nicola showed off her ankle on her outing which came as Brooklyn’s estranged parents David and Victoria were spotted just mere minutes away.

The couples are both currently in St. Tropez but on separate trips amid the ongoing Beckham family feud.

Photographers in France captured the estranged family just minutes apart visiting locations that were just five minutes in walking distance from one another.

David and Victoria were spotted walking past an eatery known as The Pirates Candies.

They then made their way into the nearby Cherry Restaurant for something to eat.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn was spotted in-store at a Jacquemus shop and later picked up an ice cream at Barbarac.

The distance between Brooklyn’s whereabouts and that of his parents is a simple five-minute walk.

They were just moments away from one another in what could have been a VERY awkward and unexpected run-in amid the vicious ongoing family feud.

RITA ORA’s fourth studio album is almost complete – but no one is quite sure what to expect from it.

Aside from her husband, Hollywood director Taika Waititi, that is.

Speaking to Bizarre’s Jack at a London screening to mark the 10th anniversary of his hit film, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Taika said Rita’s long-awaited album was “amazing”.

He added: “This new record is incredible. I’ve heard a lot of it.

“It was such a departure from stuff that she’s probably known mostly for. It’s a different sound.”

Taika directed the sultry video for Rita’s latest ­single, All Natural, and also directed and starred in the video for 2023’s Don’t Think Twice.

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Getting Oscar-winner Taika to work on your project can’t come cheap, but Taika assured us with a wink that he and Rita had come to an arrangement.

He chuckled: “There is a very mates’ rates deal going on. I think it’s been free each time. It’s just fun to get to work together.

“It’s great because we’re kind of in similar ­industries, but they’re very different disciplines – and when you’re with someone, you want to be able to do some work together.

“I’m really amazed and surprised at what she does, but also super- confused all the time.”

Taika masterminded two of Marvel’s biggest hits – Thor: Ragnarok in 2017 and Thor: Love And Thunder in 2022.

He also plays the alien Korg in the films.

Taika admits that he’d love Marvel book bosses to sign up Rita for a role alongside him one day.

He said: “Younger me would like to see a Bond Girl Rita, but I think I’d find it more fun to see her doing a Marvel film.

“It would be great to see her as a villain.” Watch this space . . . 

RAYE’S GLOWING WITH PRIDE

CHRISTMAS came early for Raye fans as she took to the stage in a sparkly red dress.

The Where Is My Husband! singer wouldn’t have looked out of place at a festive party as she headlined Brighton Pride on Saturday.

Her bill-topping set followed epic performances from Jessie J and Leigh-Anne ­Pinnock.

The Little Mix singer kept cool in a yellow bikini top and combat trousers – putting her growing baby bump on display.

She is expecting her third child with footballer husband Andre Gray. They had twin girls in 2021.

Brighton hosts the UK’s biggest Pride festival, but it is dwarfed by WorldPride, which took place in Amsterdam over the weekend.

Going all out to impress, organisers in the Netherlands somehow managed to land Madonna to perform.

She owned the Dutch stage in a bright purple corset and matching boots.

Taking camp to the next level, Madge was joined for her epic set by Kylie Minogue, who sang with Nick Cave at his Brighton gig on Friday.

Rumours are rife that the duo have a song together on a remix edition of Madonna’s latest album, Confessions II.

We should be so lucky . . . 

ARIANA’S IN FULL BLOOM

ARIANA GRANDE is dominating this week’s Official Chart First Look.

The One Last Time singer is on track to land three songs from her new album, Petal, inside the UK Top 20.

The album’s title track and second single, Petal, is currently at No3, while Kiss Me is at No6 and Stay sits at No11.

The album was streamed 62million times on its first day of release on Spotify, making it the platform’s 16th biggest first-day album debut by a female artist.

Ariana’s 2019 album, Thank U, Next, remains her biggest first-day debut, with 70million streams in its first 24 hours.

MUSIC guru Chris Herbert is the man who discovered the Spice Girls more than 30 years ago, and now he’s backing another feisty young act, Allegra.

She is gearing up to drop a new project called Unreleased EP on August 21 and has her sights set on collabs with top stars.

Allegra, right, said: “I’d love to work with someone like Rita Ora. We’d have so much fun. She’s got such cool style and I think we’d just have fun.”

Opening up about how she ­performs best, she added: “I like it when I’m feeling a bit sexy.

“I think I’m a bit angry at, like, a situationship or an ex- boyfriend, I’m looking hot in the music video and I’m like, ‘OK, I’ve got this’.”

1D GOING IN RIGHT DIRECTION

DURING their heyday, One Direction were a money-making machine.

And even though the That’s What Makes You Beautiful singers split up back in 2016, the cash keeps rolling in.

New accounts for the band, made up of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and the late Liam Payne, have revealed they each made £2,636 a week last year.

And to top it off, they had to do absolutely no work for it.

Their two firms, 1D Media Ltd and PPM Music Ltd, are now worth a combined £3,814,044 – up more than £687,000 from the previous year.

It’s not a bad life, eh?

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have earned at least $11 million since he took office, with most of their income coming from wineries, restaurants and other investments, according to tax returns from 2019 through their most recent filings for 2024.

The tax records show the couple has earned between $1.4 million and $3.5 million per year, putting them in the upper echelon of Americans when it comes to annual income.

Newsom allowed reporters on Thursday to view four years of the couple’s jointly filed tax returns after receiving criticism for not disclosing his filings since he last released the information for the tax year 2020.

The release of the tax records comes just weeks after Newsom accused the Department of Justice of launching — at President Trump’s request — a baseless and politically motivated investigation into him and his wife, including her business interests and charity work. The governor said the probes, which federal officials have not confirmed, were a personal vendetta launched because he’s considering a run for president in 2028.

Siebel Newsom leads the Representation Project, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equity through film and education programs, and Girls Club Entertainment, a for-profit production company she owns that holds the copyrights to her documentaries. The nonprofit has faced criticism for accepting donations from companies that lobby the governor, including Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and AT&T.

The tax records released Thursday showed that her salary from the Representation Project was $145,000 to $150,000 annually from 2021 though 2024, similar to prior years. While Girls Club paid her $100,000 in 2021, and $11,700 in 2022, she did not report any income from the production company in the two years that followed.

The governor’s office, in a summary of the tax returns provided to reporters, stated that financial documents contradict “the FALSE right-wing claims that the Newsoms ‘enriched themselves’ through new ventures and nonprofit organizations.”

The memo stated that their income has declined since Newsom became governor. The tax records also show that Girls Club Entertainment has been losing money in recent years.

The governor signed a law during his first year in office to require presidential and gubernatorial candidates to release five years of tax returns to appear on the primary ballot. Democrats passed the law in response to Trump’s refusal to make the information public.

Less than six months later, the California Supreme Court struck down the portion that required presidential candidates to comply with the law. Gubernatorial candidates are still required to disclose their tax filings during election season.

Though tax returns became a flash point in the California vs. Trump political saga, Democrats have for decades demanded that candidates for governor and president release their income tax filings.

Presidential candidates dating back to the Nixon administration routinely shared their filings, with only President Ford and Trump refusing to do so. Former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and his Republican opponents also declined to share their tax returns before the 2010 and 2014 California gubernatorial elections.

Newsom released his tax returns during his campaigns for governor in 2018 and 2022, again in 2020 and before he beat a recall election in 2021. California candidates, elected officials, judges and some public employees also file annual economic interest statements.

“In the interest of transparency, he’s now voluntarily making all remaining filed tax returns available — going beyond what the law requires — as part of his longstanding commitment to transparency,” said Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor, in a statement.

The governor and his wife put their investments in a blind trust when he took office. Their earnings, which have totaled more than $1 million per year since at least 2011, stem from investments in wineries, restaurants, bars, hotels and hospitality management companies based in San Francisco, Napa Valley, and Lake Tahoe, according to economic interest disclosures filed with the state.

The latest batch of tax returns covers 2021 through 2024. Reporters were allowed to view, but not copy, more than 700 pages of tax records at the governor’s office in Sacramento on Thursday. Their 2025 tax returns were not available because, as he has done most years, the governor filed for an extension with the Internal Revenue Service and he doesn’t expect to file until October.

The couple’s reported income was the highest in 2021, when they sold their home in Kentfield, a wealthy enclave in Marin County, for $5.9 million. The Newsoms reported receiving more than $55,000 in rent for leasing out the home that same year, but declared an overall loss for tax purposes of $70,000 due to their mortgage payments, taxes, legal fees and depreciation.

The family previously moved to a mansion in Fair Oaks that they purchased for $3.7 million in 2019 following a brief residence at the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Sacramento.

The family kept the Fair Oaks home and purchased another $9.1-million estate in Marin County in 2024, where they primarily live and their four children attend school. Newsom and his wife also spend time in Fair Oaks while working at the state Capitol.

During those four years, Newsom and Siebel Newsom paid a high of $1,253,187 in federal income taxes in 2021, and a low of $488,821 in 2023. Their state tax income bill ranged from $34,307 to $213,331 during that time. The annual property tax bills hovered between $48,000 and $64,300 over that span.

The governor’s income included his government salary, which ranged from $167,647 in 2021 to $192,087 in 2024.

Newsom also was paid more than $150,000 during that period as an author. In recent years, Newsom has published a book for children with dyslexia and a memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry.”

The tax returns showed the family paid from $154,000 to almost $200,000 each year for household employees from 2021 through 2024. The returns showed that they paid for Social Security coverage, Medicare and the state’s unemployment benefits fund as part of those expenses.

The governor and his family donated more than $200,000 to charity from 2021 to 2024. While most of those donations were in cash, they also gave $4,900 in “Armani Business Wear” to the Oakland nonprofit organization Restorative Justice, and toys, furniture, appliances, books and other goods to Goodwill in Sacramento.

Among their listed expenses in 2021 was $3,542 in storage costs for silver and platinum holdings. Previously, the couple made nearly a half-million dollars trading silver bars in 2011 alone.

Kizza Besigye, who faces treason charges, is reported to be ‘unconscious’ in hospital after collapsing in court.

Detained Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been hospitalised in an unresponsive state after he collapsed during a court hearing on Wednesday, according to his wife.

Besigye, who has been in prison since late 2024 on treason charges, is now “unconscious, unable to speak, and unresponsive”, his wife, Winnie Byanyima, said in a post on X on Thursday.

He has been admitted to the intensive care unit at Mulago National Referral Hospital in the capital, Kampala, added Winnie Byanyima, who also ‌heads the United Nations AIDS programme UNAIDS.

Byanyima has called for her husband to be transferred out of Mulago hospital, a public facility, and into a private facility where he can be treated by his personal physician.

“[Besigye’s] family is saying he needs special treatment and they do not trust the government hospital,” reported Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi from Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya.

“There’s a lot of frustration. The court has not granted that permission for him to be transferred.”

‘Not responding to anything’

Besigye, 70, was seen falling into the dock during his Wednesday courtroom session while protesting against his trial without lawyers of his own choosing, after authorities also detained and charged his main lawyer, Erias Lukwago.

“Before he collapsed, he cried out that he was being injured,” said Byanyima.

Ingrid Turinawe, a close confidant of Besigye, told The Associated Press that she and others were not allowed to see Besigye at Mulago hospital.

“He is in the ICU, and he is not responding to anything,” she said, adding that Besigye’s personal physician was able to see him several hours after he collapsed.

Besigye, a former ally-turned-critic of longtime President Yoweri ‌Museveni, has been in custody since November 2024. He was jailed together with his aide Obeid Lutale in Kenya and ⁠both were repatriated to Uganda where they were subsequently charged with treason.

Besigye’s lawyers, ⁠supporters and rights activists say ⁠that the charges are politically motivated and that his prolonged detention is part of an ongoing crackdown on opponents by ‌Museveni.

Both Museveni and his son, military chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba, have already weighed in against Besigye.

Kainerugaba, alleging that Besigye plotted to kill his father, has previously described the opposition figure as “a dead man walking”. And Museveni himself has said Besigye must answer for “the very serious offences he is alleged to have been planning”.

In recent days, prosecutors have moved to present evidence they say will prove Besigye and others plotted to overthrow the government

Museveni, 81, was declared winner of the last election in January although the results were rejected by ‌runner-up ‌Bobi Wine, who has since gone into exile in the United States.

A HUGE US singer shared the agonising moment that a fish hook was stuck in his HEAD.

In a gruesome video, Tyler Hubbard, who is best known for the band Florida Georgia Line, was seen with a wounded head as his wife Hayley pulled the hook out.

The horrifying moment came during a family fishing trip with his wife and their three kids.

The family were camping by the lake, when their vacation took a turn.

Posting on Instagram, the American star shared a video called: “Breakfast had to wait.”

Next fans were shown Tyler’s wife wrestling with the hook in his head.

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Although he didn’t reveal how he ended up with the fish hook buried in his head, Hayley was seen gently trying to prise it out.

She was then heard asking her family: “Are there any tricks to this?”

One of their children then reassured their dad that there was “no need to worry”.

“Mom is just going to pull it out right away,” the kid said.

After much wrestling with the hook, Hayley finally said: “Oh, we got it!”

The horrifying fish hook moment comes just days after Tyler teased more reunion plans with his former Florida Georgia Line bandmate Brian Kelley.

The pair called it quits four years ago after being together for a decade.

However this summer they reunited for a several performances, which included CMA Fest in June.

In the Mid-City neighborhood where Syd grew up, lots of people now refer to this 34-year-old musician as the mayor.

“During COVID, I’d spend all day on the grass waving at everybody,” she says with a laugh. More recently, a bunch of “unruly teenagers,” as Syd describes them, have been doing doughnuts in the street near her parents’ house.

“I’m out there talking about, ‘Hey! Stop!’ I had one of my trucks parked in front, so I was like, ‘Y’all ain’t finna mess my s— up.’ But also they were hanging out the window — it was really dangerous.” She laughs again.

“I’m an old head when it comes to safety.”

Syd’s new album happily embraces a sense of maturity — of “feeling more sure of myself than I ever have,” she says. Released last week, “Beard” — the title was inspired by Syd’s wife’s request that she maintain the peach fuzz on her upper lip — sets thoughts of romantic commitment and professional achievement against gleaming R&B grooves that occasionally nod toward Afrobeats or bossa nova. It’s Syd’s third solo LP since she emerged nearly two decades ago as a member of the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future; it also comes eight years after her most recent album with the Internet, the Grammy-nominated soul-music combo she shares with Matt Martians and Steve Lacy (the latter of whom dropped his new “Oh Yeah?” on the same day Syd dropped “Beard”).

Yet for all the growing up she’s done, “ironically, I feel younger than I’ve ever felt,” Syd says. “Beard’s” blurry cover photo, which shows her shaved head and slightly doleful eyes, “captures exactly what I was trying to portray with the music,” she adds. “It’s kind of this nonbinary image, where if you’re looking at it and you don’t know who I am, you might wonder: Is that a 12-year-old boy?”

Syd and I are talking over coffee at a crowded spot on Jefferson Boulevard that she says she visits every day. (So many people say hi to her that I’m inclined to believe it.) The restaurant isn’t far from her house, which itself is just an eight-minute drive from her folks’ place; eventually, she says, her parents plan to swap homes with Syd and her wife, the model Simone Clay, so that the couple can fulfill their dream of becoming foster moms in the larger house.

“With all my privilege and with all the peace I’ve been able to create for myself, I would love to spread that,” says Syd, whose full name is Sydney Bennett and whose younger brother Travis (known as Taco) also came up through Odd Future before finding success as an actor.

Syd recorded “Beard” between a studio she built at her parents’ place and a studio in North Hollywood owned by Raphael Saadiq, the veteran R&B star whom Syd counts as something of a mentor. The singer says she can relate to the way Saadiq moves between making solo records, working in a band (in his case Tony! Toni! Toné!) and writing and producing for other artists, as Syd did on Beyoncé’s 2022 “Renaissance” album.

“Syd is just looking for things in music that are breathing,” says Saadiq, who plays bass and co-produced several cuts on “Beard.” “She keeps developing, and she’s not developing to be relevant — she’s developed because she loves doing it. People like Syd and myself, we’ve been at this since we were kids. We were the ones in the neighborhood who’d walk outside and say, ‘Anybody want to get on this track? Anybody want to play?’”

Songs on “Beard” like “Closet” and “My Love” reflect recent changes in Syd’s life, not least her decision to get hitched last year, which she attributes in part to an uncertainty about how long same-sex marriage will remain legal in the United States.

“You know the Supreme Court,” she says with a shrug.

She also quit drinking after realizing that she was waking up more often than not with a hangover. “People around me weren’t like, ‘She be drinking,’” Syd says. “But it was every day, and it was just at the crib. Everybody has a different relationship to it, and I found that mine was tied to boredom, which I think is probably better than it being tied to sadness. But that’s also what made it a little bit harder to call it a problem, you know what I mean? I had to realize: OK, this might not be a problem for someone else, but it’s not serving me.”

So two and a half years ago, she stopped — and on a holiday some can’t imagine without booze.

Says Syd: “I raw-dogged New Year’s Eve, bro.”

“Ironically, I feel younger than I’ve ever felt,” Syd says.

(Nabil)

“Beard” encompasses shifts in Syd’s business too. After fulfilling her contract with the Columbia label, the singer signed last year to Warner Records, where an old high school pal, Tim Hinshaw, oversees a boutique label called Free Lunch. The new deal inspired her to mix up her creative process and hold a songwriting camp with an assortment of writers and producers, among them the duo Nova Wav, who’ve also worked with Beyoncé; on “Beard,” the duo co-wrote and co-produced the hooky “Callin” and “Jasmin 17,” a lusty boudoir jam titled after the unisex fragrance. (Additional collaborators on the album include James Fauntleroy, Van Hunt, Rodney Jerkins, Big Sean and Jordan Ward.)

Given her high-profile gig writing and producing Beyoncé’s “Plastic Off the Sofa” — a sensual retro-soul number that went on to win a Grammy — I tell Syd that I assume the offers came rolling in immediately afterward to join other A-list acts in the studio.

“To be honest, that opportunity didn’t give me any more producing opportunities,” she answers, to my surprise. “Nobody was reaching out — like, ‘Hey, can I get beats?’” She’s not bothered, though, since what the experience did do was “give me the confidence to produce this album for myself.”

And anyway, she’s got a solo tour coming up, not to mention a long-awaited Internet LP to finish. The band has been recording intermittently at her place, and last month she spent a week working at Martians’ studio in rural Georgia.

“We’re closer than we’ve probably ever been,” Syd says of the band, whose drummer, Christoper Smith, put out yet another solo record on the same day as “Beard” and Lacy. Syd doesn’t want to reveal too much about the Internet’s new music. But she will say that so far the group has avoided using Auto-Tune, the vocal-processing software that she feels has become sadly ubiquitous.

“I want nuance, I want texture, I want the lack of perfection,” she says. “I’d rather mess up naturally than not mess up unnaturally.”

Malcolm-Jamal Warner‘s widow and his mother are on opposing sides of a legal battle over $1.2 million, a year after “The Cosby Show” star died suddenly at age 54.

Tenisha Warner, the actor’s wife and mother to his daughter, on Monday filed a civil complaint against her mother-in-law alleging breach of contract. The complaint, filed in DeKalb County Superior Court in Georgia, alleges that Pamela Warner — trustee of the Warner Family Trust — owes her daughter-in-law an approximate total of $1,276,042.46 stemming from the spouses’ premarital agreement and the actor’s other alleged financial obligations to his wife, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show,” died on July 20, 2025, in an accidental drowning while on vacation at Playa Grande, Cahuita, Limón. He married Tenisha in May 2022.

According to her complaint, Tenisha and Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s premarital agreement stated that the actor should purchase and maintain a term life insurance policy of $1 million with his wife as the sole beneficiary. Malcolm-Jamal also agreed in their prenup to maintain and contribute the maximum annual amount to a Roth IRA account for his wife, a financial obligation worth $30,500, according to court documents. Tenisha also claims Malcolm-Jamal agreed to pay her $16,000 a year for each wedding anniversary and a monthly salary of $5,500 “for her service as his Chief of Staff.” The complaint includes a copy of the premarital agreement.

In a statement shared with The Times on Wednesday, Tenisha said she has attempted to privately settle Malcolm-Jamal’s “complicated estate and honor his last wishes” and that the actor “had every intention to provide for our nine-year-old daughter and me.” Tenisha also said her late husband intended to finalize a new estate plan — “the stale plan created [was] in 1996 when he was 26 years old” — but was unable to do so before his death.

“I have been struggling to care for our daughter as a single mom and now as her sole provider. Legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired,” she continued. “We thank you for your support, love, and understanding as we work through this painful process while honoring Malcolm’s life on the first anniversary of his death.”

According to the complaint, Malcolm-Jamal died “without having satisfied his obligations” to his wife and Tenisha has not received payments related to her agreements with the actor. “The full amount of the obligations described herein remains due,” the complaint said.

Tenisha’s complaint also seeks a declaration confirming the validity of her premarital agreement.

Pamela Warner commemorated the anniversary of her son’s death on Tuesday, sharing photos from their past on the Instagram page dedicated to her son’s memory. In between photos from Malcolm-Jamal’s childhood, Pamela included a lengthy statement about moving forward amid a year of “pain, hurt, loss and emotional de-stabilization.” Her statement talks about purpose, healing and a journey to “be better, improve and transform our spiritual selves.”

“During my year long journey, I have discovered how cruel, evil and greedy a human can be,” she wrote, seemingly alluding to the legal battle but not naming her daughter-in-law. “I have also discovered the depth of love, care, concern and support that humans are capable of. All of which I have been the recipient of. The good, the bad, and the ugly. These are the lessons that I apparently will need as I continue my journey.”

Clive Masters has officially arrived in Walford, and while he gets to know Linda Carter, let’s take a look at the actor’s family life off-screen

EastEnders newcomer Jason Durr has a famous wife who television and gardening fans will know.

During Wednesday’s (July 22) episode of the BBC soap, Jason officially arrived in Walford as Clive Masters, a local Councilor and potential love interest of Linda Carter (Kellie Bright).

As the local community centre is at risk of closing down and being redeveloped, Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) put Linda in touch with Clive, who might be able to help with their fight to save the venue.

During their first meeting, it was clear that there was romantic chemistry between Linda and Clive as they opened up about their former partners, and they were set to grow closer in forthcoming episodes.

Will the pair take a chance on a little romance? The former Queen Vic landlady is yet to find love following the presumed death of her beloved husband Mick, played by Danny Dyer, who disappeared at sea on Christmas Day 2022.

Speaking about joining the cast of the BBC soap, Jason, 58, said: “Few shows command their place in the national conversation quite like EastEnders, so I’m delighted to be joining the cast as Clive Masters. Working with the wonderful Kellie Bright has been an absolute joy and pleasure from day one.”

He added: “All the cast, crew and production staff have been incredibly generous, welcoming and good humoured. I’m excited for audiences to meet Clive and see what’s in store.”

Who is Jason Durr married to?

Former Heartbeat star Jason has been married to TV presenter Kate since 2004, after they met while in Majorca, Spain. Kate, a former actor and model, is a garden designer and has even won a Royal Horticultural Society gold medal for her expertise.

In 1984, Kate enjoyed a brief stint in the children’s drama Grange Hill and starred in the television series Perfect World and Sam’s Game, both of which aired in 2001.

She has had success presenting, hosting Dream Ticket, Night Fever, and An Audience with Lennox Lewis, and is best known for her Guinness World Records presenting work.

The couple lives together in Wiltshire, and Kate often shares pictures on her Instagram of her stunning garden and many gorgeous outdoor designs.

Jason and Kate have three children together, two daughters and a son, and they usually keep their family out of the spotlight.

On Wednesday afternoon (July 22), Jason appeared on This Morning to talk about his latest acting role on EastEnders and paid a sweet tribute to his “lovely” wife.

Speaking to ITV daytime hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond about learning his scripts, he said: “You’ve got to be absolutely pinpoint perfect with your dialogue, and it’s just a joy to be working with other regulars, who get it.”

Jason added, “Keep reading it. It’s one of those things, repetition, parrot fashion, you know, that kind of thing. The kids help me, my lovely wife helps me.”

Before marrying Kate, Jason was married to an Australian named Jeanine between 1995 and 2000. She was a singer-songwriter, and the pair were together for five years before splitting.

EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One and iPlayer

JENNIFER Lopez’ ex-husband Marc Anthony has become a dad for the EIGHTH time aged 57 after his fourth wife Nadia Ferreira, 27, welcomed their second child together.  

Singer Marc and model Nadia – who also share three-year-old son Marco – took to social media to reveal their happy news, telling fans they’d welcomed a baby girl named Myla. 

Their caption, translated from Spanish, read: “What a great blessing to be able to share with you the arrival of our precious MYLA.

“You can’t imagine the happiness we have at home, we are over the moon.”

Marc and superstar JLo, 56, who split in 2011 after 10 years of marriage, are parents to 18-year-old twins Emme and Max. 

He is also dad to Chase, 35, and Arianna, 31 – who he shares with ex-girlfriend Debbie Rosado – and Cristian, 25, and Ryan, 22, from his first marriage to Dayanara Torres. 

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Marc and Nadia tied the knot in 2023 in a star-studded ceremony at Perez Art Museum in Miami.

In 2014 – three years after he and Jennifer called time on their marriage – Marc married model Shannon Di Lima.

But he filed for divorce less than two years later.

The news came just weeks after Marc kissed JLo on stage at the Latin Grammy Awards.

They reunited for a performance and ended with a kiss after she presented him with a career achievement award.

JLo told the crowd at the time how Marc would “always be many things in my life — a mentor, a soulmate, a father”.

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, announced the birth of their fourth child, the first born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years.

Born Sunday, Alec Neel Vance joins older siblings Ewan, 9; Vivek, 6; and Mirabel, 4.

Vance announced the birth Sunday on social media with a statement signed by him and his wife.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning. Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” the statement said.

They thanked doctors and staff at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and with the White House medical team.

The Republican vice president’s growing family is in keeping with his passionate advocacy for Americans to have more children. He has also suggested that the 2025 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was his friend, factored into the decision to have another child.

Vance, a former U.S. Marine, repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates in America as he launched his political career in 2021 with a bid for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio. As vice president, he said in Washington at the 2025 March for Life anti-abortion rally, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

The vice president, who’s 41, has been accompanied on overseas trips by Usha Vance, 40, and their children, with the kids often pajama-clad as they board Air Force Two for the overnight flights.

Usha Vance, the daughter of immigrants from India, had already been the subject of some public fascination because of her husband. Her pregnancy, which was announced in January, amplified that spotlight since it is rare for occupants of the United States’ highest public offices to add to their families while serving.

The last time a sitting vice president became a new father was in the 1800s.

Schuyler Colfax and his second wife, Ellen Wade, had a son, Schuyler Colfax III, in 1870 when Colfax was serving as vice president, according to the White House Historical Assn. Decades before that, John C. Calhoun and his wife, Floride Bonneau, had a son, William, in 1829 when Calhoun was vice president, the association said.

Usha Vance recently came under scrutiny after The New York Times’ fashion critic called attention to the stomach-hugging, coral maternity dress she wore for a Father’s Day episode of “Storytime with the Second Lady,” a video podcast she launched during the pregnancy.

The Times wrote that the attention that Vance, Miller and Leavitt had put on their pregnancies offered “an image of idealized womanhood that gives literal shape to the pronatalist movement,” which encourages couples to have as many children as possible to counter declining birth rates.

The second lady responded on social media, writing, “Now that we know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic-waistband pants and compression socks! In the meantime, enjoy my pregnancy fashion (or lack thereof) and a good story with your kids on Storytime with the Second Lady.” She later shared the receipt for the dress, and her husband applauded her frugality.

“She bought a $50 dress for $8.75. America: meet your next director of the federal budget!” the vice president wrote on social media.

Superville writes for the Associated Press.

SOAP actor Jack P Shepherd and his wife Hanni Treweek have given fans a glimpse of their new baby girl.

The Coronation Street star appears in family snaps alongside his press office partner and three-week old daughter.

Alongside the pictures, Jack’s spouse wrote: “The best three weeks of my entire life with my baby girl.”

Looking glowing, the new mum can be seen in various pictures cradling the little one and pushing her pram.

Another photo showed the loved-up new parents sharing a kiss.

While they have kept the baby’s face out of shots, you can see her delicate hands and body in a range of tiny floral dresses.

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Followers commented: “So gorgeous!!!”

A second added: “Awww, your lives will never be the same again… enjoy every moment of her.”

A third gushed: “Look at those little toes! Precious!”

The David Platt actor and his wife have named their daughter Constance Ita Shepherd.

In February, Celebrity Big Brother winner Jack and Hanni revealed they were expecting their first child together.

Hanni shared the happy news on Instagram with a photo of the newborn and wrote: “Our beautiful baby girl has arrived, born peacefully at home, surrounded by love.”

Jack, who plays David Platt in the ITV soap, met Hanni when she worked behind the scenes on the show.

They tied the knot July 2025 in a stunning wedding ceremony up in Manchester after popping the question in 2024 on safari in Africa.

After years of rejecting the idea of reality TV, Jack finally decided to take the plunge after being offered an impressive pay cheque on Celeb BB.

It’s thought he agreed to take part in Celebrity Big Brother to help pay for his wedding.

Jack entered the house alongside Mickey Rourke, Ella Rae Wise and JoJo Siwa.

The star – who is thought to make £250k a year playing David Platt – previously explained how they fell for each other at a mutual friend’s wedding.

The Coronation Street alumni will make his pantomime debut playing the lead role of the Prince in Sleeping Beauty in North Wales later this year.

The dad-of-three will star as the fairy tale prince starting from December 12 through to January 2.

The reality TV winner has played David Platt on Corrie for 26 years but it will be his first time ever starring in a Christmas panto.

Jack already has three children, two with his ex-fiancee and performing arts teacher Lauren Shippey.

The childhood sweethearts called it quits after 15 years and two children together.

Jack was just 14 years old when he began seeing Lauren.

In February 2009, the couple welcomed their first child together, a daughter called Nyla.

The couple then went on to have another baby, a son called Reuben, in December 2013.

JD and Usha Vance welcome a baby boy, the first child born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years.

United States Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, have announced the birth of their fourth child.

In a statement, Vance and his wife said their son was born on Sunday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning,” the statement said.

“Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” it added.

Vance, an Ohio native, and Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, met while attending Yale Law School, where they graduated in 2013.

Their first son, Ewan, was born in 2017, followed by another son, Vivek, in 2020. The couple’s daughter, Mirabel, was born in 2021.

Alec Neel Vance is the first child born to a vice president in more than 150 years.

The last time a sitting vice president became a new father was in the 1800s.

Schuyler Colfax and his second wife, Ellen Wade, had a son, Schuyler Colfax III, in 1870, when Colfax was serving as vice president, according to the White House Historical Association.

Vance, a former US Marine, is a passionate advocate for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates in the US as he launched his political career in 2021 with a bid for a US Senate seat from Ohio.

As vice president, he said in Washington at the 2025 March for Life anti-abortion rally, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

The newest addition to Vance’s family was part of a recent mini baby boom among top members of President Donald Trump’s administration.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie, recently gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had her second child with her husband, Nicholas Riccio, in May.

PIERCE Brosnan, 73, has been spotted with his rarely seen wife Keely, 63, as they went out to lunch at celebrity hotspot E. Baldi in Beverly Hills.

The former James Bond actor, was all smiles as he left the restaurant with a bag and a cold drink.

Keely, looked stunning in a white summer dress and lemon cardigan which she paired with Chanel sandals and sunglasses.

The pair looked as loved up as ever as they drove back home after their lunch date.

Pierce and Keely have been married for 25 years and met at a beach party in 1994 – she was a journalist and had flown out to interview Cheers actor Ted Danson, who had attended the same party.

When Ted left, Keely found herself talking to Pierce, and the two hit it off.

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They shared their first date a few days later in Mexico, sitting under the stars as they held hands and talked until 3am.

The couple married at Ballintubber Abbey in County Mayo, Ireland, in 2001, just six months after welcoming son Paris.

“He was captivating. Tall, dark, and handsome. Everything that everybody would immediately be attracted to,” she said.

“He had a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.”

Pierce has said that when he first laid eyes on sultry brunette Keely at the beach party, he fell head over heels.

But in January this year, Pierce, who says he still fancies the pants off his “passionate” wife who makes him “weak at the knees”, was left blindsided by a cruel post targeting Keely online, which ended up going viral. 

Shared on X, it featured two snaps: one from the 1996 Governors Ball for the Academy Awards and another of the couple at the 2008 Mamma Mia! premiere.

The vile troll captioned it: “Dear men, this is why marriage should be avoided.”

The cutting words, which took a cruel swipe at Keely’s weight, sparked outrage. She was inundated with comments of support.

But insiders told us that Pierce, who shares sons Dylan, 29, and Paris, 25, with Keely,  has reached his limit with it all.

A pal of the star told me “He was really furious about it and finds it incredibly sad that their whole marriage is reduced to talk about Keely’s weight. 

“It is truly devastating for him that her body is all anyone talks about. For him, Keely is everything.”

Pierce has described his wife, who he tenderly calls “my girl”, as “a strength I wouldn’t be able to live without”.

He gushed in the past: “I love her vitality, her passion. When Keely looks at me, I go weak at the knees.”

Last week teaser images were released of Pierce in MobLand alongside telly hardman Tom Hardy and Dame Helen Mirren in what is gearing up to be the most explosive season yet.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell on Sunday revealed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization, breaking the silence about his condition after weeks of speculation about the Kentucky Republican’s health.

McConnell, 84, said in a statement that he has undergone a battery of tests as doctors try to determine what led to his fall. He explained the long silence about his condition by saying that “folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older.”

“Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct — I can’t help it,” he said.

McConnell said he is now in a rehabilitation center and will not be returning to the Senate “quite yet.” He said he continues to work with his staff on Senate business in the meantime.

The statement included a smiling picture of the senator with his wife, Elaine Chao, a tacit response to speculation online that McConnell had died or was incapacitated.

It comes following his hospitalization on June 14. McConnell’s office for weeks provided little information, saying only that he was “receiving excellent care” and recovering.

As his hospital stay grew longer, speculation about his condition became so intense that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, took the extraordinary step of asking that McConnell update the public about his health in a “transparent manner.”

Don Iwerks, an Academy Award-winning special effects pioneer whose innovations transformed film and Disney theme parks, died peacefully Thursday at the age of 96, the Walt Disney Co. announced.

For Disney and his own studio, Iwerks Entertainment, Iwerks helped develop technologies and techniques like Circle-Vision, the 360-degree camera behind “America the Beautiful” and other early Disney attractions, and the 3-D effects used in attractions like Captain EO and the Star Tours ride.

“There was a ‘can-do’ attitude I learned from Walt and my father,” Iwerks said, according to a statement shared by the Disney Co. “Walt gave everyone a feeling that they were creating things that others had never thought of before, of being a part of history.”

Born July 24, 1929, Iwerks received his first camera at age 14 as a gift from his father, animator Ub Iwerks.

The elder Iwerks met fellow artist Walt Disney when both men were teenagers working at a Kansas City, Mo., art studio. They would go on to work together at the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where Iwerks designed and animated “Plane Crazy,” the first Mickey Mouse cartoon.

After a stint at his own animation studio, Ub returned to Disney as a special effects engineer, pioneering techniques like the 360-degree motion-picture camera.

“He was absolutely my inspiration because he was technically minded. He made my childhood and formative years one of the greatest times of my life,” Don Iwerks told The Times in 1998.

The Iwerks family moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1936, where Don graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1947.

He served as a photographer in Germany during the Korean War and joined his father at Disney following his 1952 discharge from the U.S. Army. An allergic reaction to chemicals used to develop film led to his transfer to the company’s Studio Machine Shop, where he spent the next 34 years.

Don spent three months in the Bahamas manning underwater cameras for the 1954 Disney film “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” He then worked as the camera technician on “A Tour of the West,” an original Tomorrowland attraction at the soon-to-be opened Disneyland. The immersive 360-degree film was shot on the Circarama camera system his father invented.

Together, Don and Ub developed technologies like the “endless loop” system that enabled a single film print to run for up to 10,000 performances with minimal intervention and refinements to the photography processes used in “Mary Poppins” (his favorite of the Disney films) and other movies.

His own hands were used as the model for those of the Abraham Lincoln Audio-Animatronics figure in “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” which opened at Disneyland in 1965. The “Iwerks Hands” now appear on similar figures at Disney parks around the world, according to his family.

In 1986, he co-founded Iwerks Entertainment, which soon became a major player in the film and theme park industries. The company specialized in large-format films and created the 3-D projection system used in the Terminator rides at Universal Studios parks in Hollywood and Florida.

His innovations were honored with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ honorary Gordon E. Sawyer Award and an Academy Scientific and Technical Award, among other prizes.

“It’s very obvious that computers are playing a big role in motion pictures today. The digital technology in film is able to put elements of scenes together on a film and have them look lifelike. It’s hard to know where that will go,” Iwerks said in a 1998 interview.

“My view is that technology should support a good story and add to it. Technology for technology’s sake?” he said with a shrug. “You still need good films.”

Iwerks is survived by his wife of 54 years, Betty; his sons, Larry and John; John’s wife, Chris; his daughter Leslie, and great-nephew,Mike, both of whom have also worked for Disney, according to an obituary shared by his family. His daughter Tamara preceded him in death.

“Like his father, he was a humble genius, a consummate problem solver, and delighted in sharing knowledge, encouraging others, and approaching every challenge with confidence and grace,” his family said in the statement from Conejo Mountain Funeral Home in Ventura.

Both Don and Ub Iwerks are commemorated in a storefront window on Main Street U.S.A. in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Located above the Main Street Bakery, the window is a lasting tribute to a family who made some of the park’s magic possible.

“Iwerks-Iwerks Stereoscopic Cameras,” the lettering reads. “No Two Exactly Alike.”