EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Harry and Meghan quietly set up a business

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quietly set up a business BEFORE announcing they would quit Royal roles .. and have already used it to apply for trademarks

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declared this week that they planned to become ‘financially independent’ of the Royal Family, courtiers wondered how the couple would go about making their fortune.

Now, I can reveal that Prince Harry and Meghan have already quietly set up a business.

I can reveal that Prince Harry and Meghan have already quietly set up a business. They registered it at Companies House and have already used the business to apply for trademarks

The couple established the company MWX Trading Ltd last August, naming their lawyer, Gerrard Tyrrell, as its secretary and Natalie Campbell, who works for their charitable foundation Sussex Royal, as director.

They registered it at Companies House and have already used the business to apply for trademarks.

One was for the name Travalyst, an initiative which ‘seeks to change how travel impacts local communities’; the other for Travalyst’s logo.

Documents published by the Intellectual Property Office disclosed that the couple had applied for trademarks on everything from ‘emotional support services’ to clothing, including bandanas and sportswear

The news follows my disclosure last month, inset, that Harry and Meghan had revealed the scale of their ambitions in trademark applications they had made for Sussex Royal.

Documents published by the Intellectual Property Office disclosed that the couple had applied for trademarks on everything from ‘emotional support services’ to clothing, including bandanas and sportswear. 

Perhaps most intriguing of all was the application to trademark ‘magazines, newspapers, newsletters [and] periodicals’.

This week, Harry and Meghan aimed another blast at the media and what they call its ‘misreporting’. 

Meghan became the first person to guest-edit British Vogue in its September issue.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman declines to comment. However, a source close to Harry and Meghan says MWX Trading Ltd was set up to support Sussex Royal.

‘This allows us to process items which legally cannot be done through charity accounts.’

The source points out that the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ‘also has a trading company for the same reason’.

Prince William and Kate, of course, have no plans to make a fortune.

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declared this week that they planned to become ‘financially independent’ of the Royal Family, courtiers wondered how the couple would go about making their fortune. The couple are pictured attending the premiere of The Lion King in September

The smart set’s talking about…

Supernova’s model son Lucas Portman

As a child, supermodel Natalia Vodianova would help make ends meet in a poor neighbourhood of Nizhny Novgorod, Western Russia, by working on a fruit stall.

Her son Lucas Portman (with her, right) has found a more glamorous way of earning pocket money: carving out his own modelling career.

Lucas Portman, pictured with supermodel his mother Natalia Vodianova, has found a more glamorous way of earning pocket money: carving out his own modelling career

The teenager — whose father is Natalia’s ex-husband Justin Portman, the son of property heir the 9th Viscount Portman — was hand-picked by Balmain’s creative director, Olivier Rousteing, to walk in his Paris fashion show.

Wearing a silver biker jacket, baggy black trousers, sunglasses, and white trainers, it was a debut job most aspiring models dream of — but Lucas is more than just a flash in the pan.

As well as landing a new Balmain campaign, Lucas, 18, recently appeared on the cover of Vogue Russia’s December issue, which he describes as a ‘fairy tale’. 

And a perfect networking opportunity awaits: the wedding of his mother, who got engaged over Christmas to Antoine Arnault, son of the boss of the world’s largest luxury-goods company, LVMH Moet Hennessy.

Close friend of Lady Kitty Spencer, Lady Jemima Herbert tells me she’s got engaged to insurance broker Hugo Davies

Lady Jemima joins Kitty in the aisle

Lady Kitty Spencer’s engagement to £80 million fashion tycoon Michael Lewis — which I disclosed last week — appears to have already prompted another earl’s girl to win a proposal.

Her close friend Lady Jemima Herbert tells me she’s got engaged to insurance broker Hugo Davies.

‘We are thrilled,’ Lady Jemima tells me. 

The daughter of bohemian late film-maker the Earl of Pembroke adds: ‘We’ve been old friends for a very long time.’

Unlike Earl Spencer’s daughter Kitty, 29, who’s nearly 32 years younger than her fiance, Lady Jemima and Hugo are both 30.

The 19-year-old daughter of film star Jude Law and Sadie Frost is enjoying less success in her love life

Why it’s no more pillow talk for Iris and Jyrrel…

As the face of Burberry Beauty, Iris Law is one of this country’s most sought-after young models.

But the 19-year-old daughter of film star Jude Law and Sadie Frost is enjoying less success in her love life.

She has just split up with her boyfriend, the London-based artist Jyrrel Roberts, 22. 

‘Jyrrel was besotted with her, but sadly it didn’t work out,’ one of her friends tells me.

The couple, who began dating in 2018, had recently travelled to Japan after Iris completed her A-levels last summer.

Last year, they posed in a passionate embrace in an advertisement for Calvin Klein jeans.

She has just split up with her boyfriend, the London-based artist Jyrrel Roberts, 22. ‘Jyrrel was besotted with her, but sadly it didn’t work out,’ one of her friends tells me

Charlie Brocket fears for his ancestral home after an insolvency judge was told that the company which owns it was likely to go into administration.

The 17th-century Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire is run as a golf and conference business after the peer sold it on a 60-year lease in the 1990s while he was serving a prison sentence for insurance fraud. 

This week, Brocket Hall Ltd faced a winding-up petition in court over an undisclosed sum.

‘The thing that makes me very sad is that local traders are going to get hit,’ Lord Brocket tells me. 

The case has been adjourned until next month.

Although rejected by the voters of Richmond Park, who replaced him with a Liberal Democrat at the General Election, Zac Goldsmith has shown there are no hard feelings.

I hear that the son of late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith has chosen the name of his former constituency for his new title in the House of Lords. 

He will be Baron Goldsmith of Richmond Park.

Boris Johnson announced that he would elevate Zac to the Lords so he could continue as an environment minister last month.

‘Zac will continue to live in Richmond and loves the area,’ a friend tells me.

‘He’s not bitter about his defeat at all.’

The 29-year-old owner of jewellery brand Tada & Toy is to wed fund manager Kartik Kumar

Sparkler puts Tansy on top of the world

Queen of the jungle Tansy Aspinall — so called because her father is wildlife park owner Damian — is ready to leap into her next adventure.

The 29-year-old owner of jewellery brand Tada & Toy is to wed fund manager Kartik Kumar, who popped the question on a hike up Chapman’s Peak in South Africa, below.

‘It’s very exciting,’ she tells me. 

‘He proposed with a beautiful Asscher-cut diamond ring.’

Tansy — whose mother is casino owner Damian’s ex-wife, Louise Sebag-Montefiore — met Eton-educated Kartik, 29, on her gap year before they attended Bristol University. 

She was encouraged to play with gorillas from the age of six months. 

Tansy adds: ‘Kartik loves animals, too.’ Just as well.

Kartik Kumar popped the question on a hike up Chapman’s Peak in South Africa. ‘It’s very exciting,’ she tells me

Blood, sweat and beers: Fight to save Churchill pub

Sir Winston Churchill would be pleased by the ‘we will never give in’ spirit being shown by villagers battling to save the pub where he ‘learned to drink’.

His great-grandson Randolph Churchill is backing campaigners trying to raise £495,000 to buy The White House in Bladon, Oxfordshire, which has gone on the market. 

Sir Winston was born at nearby Blenheim Palace and is buried in Bladon churchyard.

‘Our family is very proud of our association with Bladon and the love and care the community gives towards my great-grandfather’s resting place,’ says Randolph. 

The ‘Save Our Pub’ plans, he adds, ‘very much have our family blessing’.

Randolph Churchill is backing campaigners trying to raise £495,000 to buy The White House in Bladon, Oxfordshire, which has gone on the market

(Very) modern manners

Society model Cecilia Chancellor is struggling to find new love in this era of online hook-ups

Society model Cecilia Chancellor is struggling to find new love in this era of online hook-ups.

‘I won’t do dating apps,’ she tells me. ‘I’m allergic to them. So many years of my modelling life were spent being chosen for how I look, and I don’t really like the idea of my romantic life being like that.’

The daughter of late journalist Alexander Chancellor adds that she won’t be following the example of Naomi Campbell and posing for a racy photoshoot.

‘Naomi just has a superhuman body,’ she says. ‘I was never a lingerie model, even in my 20s.

‘I know my strengths.’   

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