Queen Elizabeth is to receive a 5 per cent pay rise next year, boosting her annual income to more than $62.5 million.
The announcement comes as the British government announced yet more cost-cutting measures, which is expected to cause some backlash.
But while Buckingham Palace admits the timing is “not ideal” it insists the 87-year-old monarch has earned every penny of her new salary.
New rules mean the Queen’s income is now linked to profits of the Crown Estate, a portfolio of farming land, buildings and property, from Ascot racecourse to London’s Regent Street.
The Crown Estate is owned by the reigning monarch, but all profits have gone straight in the government’s coffers since the early 1800s.
After an extensive review of royal finances last year, the government established the Sovereign Grant, which allows the Queen to keep 15 per cent of the Crown Estate’s earnings.
Yesterday, the Crown Estate announced record revenue of $417 million, meaning the Queen’s income will go from $59.6 million to $62.5 million next year.
But while this seems like an exorbitant sum, most of it will be spent on a “massive backlog” of repairs to royal palaces, which the Queen maintains on behalf of the nation.
Buckingham Palace has long complained of not having enough money to complete urgent repairs on many properties. Buckets catching leaks are a common sight at dozens of premises, while wiring has not been replaced in other for more than 60 years.
“We have a massive backlog of property repairs that we need to get cracking on,” Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Alan Reid said.
She’s been in the online dating game for less than two months, but Martha Stewart, 71, has revealed she’s already had more than a few risqué sexual encounters.
In a television interview that aired in the US on Wednesday night, Martha admitted to having a one night stand and even “sexting”, which involves sending naked photos of yourself to a potential paramour.
She also hinted she had “maybe” had a threesome.
The surprisingly revelations came on Brave show Watch What Happens Live during a special segment called “Did Martha do It?”.
Host Andy Cohen asked Martha a series of quick fire questions to which she had to answer yes, no or maybe.
Martha joined internet dating site Match.com in May. She quickly became one of the site’s most popular bachelorettes, garnering more than 20,000 page views and 1000 messages in the first six days of being active.
Martha Stewart’s Match.com profile.
Martha is online under the alias “thegoodlonglife” and is seeking a younger man, aged between 55 and 70, who is a non-smoker.
Height is important, an extra inch on top of the divorcee’s 5’9″ is among her list of demands, and lucky suitors must earn at least $150,000.
Despite the use of an alias, which she has borrowed from her new book, it’s not difficult to identify the veteran TV celebrity.
“You may recognise me from my pictures. Yes, it’s really me,” her profile reads.
“I’ve been curious about online dating for a long time, but, like lots of people, have been reluctant to take the leap. I’m just now getting around to it for a couple of reasons. After recently writing and publishing my new book, Living the Good Long Life, I was reminded how central good relationships are to happiness and longevity. Also, I’ve always been a big believer that technology, if used well, can enhance one’s life. So here I am, looking to enhance my dating life.”
The grandmother of two, who has been divorced, said she had joined Match.com in an effort to find her ‘next Mr Right’.
“There’s a lot of men who are very nice who have never been married,” she told the Today Show.
Though she hasn’t considered marrying again, Ms Stewart, who has been single for the past couple of years, said she loves dating and is ready to meet somebody new.
“I’m always looking, are you kidding, all women are always looking,” Ms Stewart said.
“I had a longtime boyfriend. That ended a couple of years ago and I haven’t found the next Mr Right.
“I’d like to have breakfast with somebody. I’d like to go to bed with somebody. Sleep with somebody.”
Online dating is more popular than many think among older users, but Match.com executive Tom Yagan said the reaction to Ms Stewart’s arrival on the website was “definitely atypical”.
“There’s no question that Martha is one of the most popular members ever to join Match,” he said.
Spokesperson for Australia’s largest online dating service RSVP, Jane Andrews, says online dating is more popular among older users than most people think.
“The assumption is that it’s the younger generation getting online to find a partner, but the over-50s make up about 20 per cent of our membership base,” she said.
“We’re finding when people have come out of relationships — they might have been married before — they really know what they want and what they’re looking for the second or third time around.
“It allows them to be very choosy and selective, and very specific about what they want.”
RSVP has launched a group for mature online daters called Over 50 and Fabulous, which has about 30,000 members.
If 50 is the new 30, why can’t women find work past their 50th birthday? Zoe Arnold asks why we aren’t taking advantage of our highly-skilled mature workforce.
Jean is university educated. Actually she has three degrees — two undergraduates and a Masters — and she’s been working in her field for more than 30 years.
She has salt and pepper hair. She looks a million bucks since forgoing her dye and embracing her true colours.
Jean wants to move house. A sea change to the coast. Be a bit closer to the grandkids, and the beach. She’s not ready to retire, and nor should she be.
She has worked continuously for decades, across a number of related industries and yet today, she feels almost unemployable.
Why?
Because she’s over 50.
Specifically, 56.
Jean says she won’t bother going to a job interview again with grey hair: explaining her education and experience feels like nothing once a prospective employer sees her.
She’s not alone.
According to Australia’s first Age Discrimination Commissioner, Susan Ryan, a lot of people feel the same.
The Commissioner’s research, a massive 67 per cent of Australians over the age of 55 have been turned down for a position based on their age.
One respondent claimed that “It doesn’t matter what you have learned, you are no longer employable unless you own the agency.”
It doesn’t seem logical. For someone like Jean, she’s potentially got another 20 years of work ahead of her.
Think about it. We are living for longer and longer. It is no longer financially viable to even think about retirement in your 50s, let alone plan for it.
Besides, as a country we should be encouraging people who want to work … to work!
Susan Ryan points out that just a 5 per cent increase in paid employment for Aussies over 55 would result in a boom of $48 billion for the economy, every single year.
So what’s wrong with those over 55 working? Turns out it’s the rest of the population and our ageist attitudes.
The research shows we view old people as slow, forgetful, grumpy, sick … a burden on society.
And again according to our Age Discrimination Commissioner, the media is reinforcing these stereotypes: think about the last time you saw an old person on TV who wasn’t the playing the part of the crotchety old grump?
The fact that we need an Age Discrimination Commissioner at all shows how real this problem is.
Older Australians are just that: older. Not necessarily grumpier, or less capable, but maybe even more willing to work hard do a good job.
For Jean, she’s (sadly) off to dye her hair again, to make herself look younger than the number she really is. For the employers that haven’t hired her, they’ve missed out on a smart, capable, strong and fit 56-year-old.
Maybe they’ve hired someone younger. And maybe they don’t realise that that person, like Jean, will be old someday too.
Your say: Have you experienced ageism? When did you feel “old” for the first time? Contact us [email protected]
They are middle-aged mums, who are battling menopause, juggling family life, and body issues all in the hope of being crowned the winner of the Golden Queens beauty pageant.
TLC’s upcoming series Crown Chasers follows the story of five women, Deborah, Jocelyn, Jennifer, and Jonella aged 30 to 52, who will stop at nothing to be named a beauty pageant queen.
The show takes you into the weird world of these frenemies who starve themselves, wrap their legs in saran wrap and work out relentlessly to win the crown.
“I dream about the moment that crown is on my head,” contestant, Jonella says in a teary interview.
“I know all the times of not eating, and all the cardio, will be so worth it.”
A preview of the series shows the women bickering over who should win, strenuous gym workouts and how they plan to battle the bikini round.
Contestant Jocelyn, who boasts fake breasts and fake teeth, struggles with menopause throughout the series.
“Just keep calm, you cannot let hormones get to you, I am not my menopause,” she reassures herself while preparing for the pageant.
“I am feeling and thinking that I am the best I have ever been. I am stronger, I am smarter, I am wiser and I want my kids to see that their mum is a winner.
“Preparing for a pageant is really insane. Because I have trouble with self-image, I have to actually talk to myself in the mirror.”
Successful career women are 70 per cent more likely to develop breast cancer than other women, according to new research.
The controversial finding — disputed by cancer experts — is linked primarily to work stress, such as prejudice, discrimination and difficult interpersonal dealings.
Researchers suggest this could promote breast cancer by disrupting the body’s system of hormones that is responsible for balancing stress response and exposing breast tissue to high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.
Among successful Australian women affected by breast cancer are Kylie Minogue, Olivia Newton-John and sass and bide designer Heidi Middleton.
The new research argued that “higher incidence of breast cancer among higher-status women may be explained by gendered occupational experiences”.
This included exercising authority in the face of “prejudice, tokenism, discrimination, social isolation and resistance from subordinates, colleagues and superiors”.
A direct link between stress and cancer is not supported by most cancer organisations, although indirect stress-related behaviours like drinking, smoking, lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet are known risk factors.
Yet when the Cancer Council NSW conducted a survey of patients, stress was singled out as the top modifiable risk factor that women believed had contributed to their breast cancer.
Almost 44 per cent thought stress played a role in their illness, while behavioural factors rated just 29 per cent.
But Professor Freddy Sitas, of the Cancer Council NSW, warned that for every study that found there was a link between stress and breast cancer, there was another that ruled it out.
He questioned the new research, arguing that women who were lower on the career ladder or who didn’t work also experienced high amounts of stress.
The new research, led by Dr Tetyana Pudrovska, of Pennsylvania State University, was prompted by the apparent paradox of breast cancer rates being higher among women in higher-status occupations.
This has often been blamed on a combination of other reasons, including higher mammogram rates, not having children or having babies later in life, using hormone replacement therapy and higher alcohol consumption.
The research was based on a 55-year longitudinal study of almost 3,700 women who were aged 36 in 1975 and monitored into old age.
Those with professional or managerial jobs had a “substantially higher” risk of breast cancer by the time they reached 72.
Although career women would have faced more discrimination in the mid-70s, Dr Pudrovska believes the findings remain pertinent.
“Because of the persistence of gender inequality and dominant gender beliefs, our study is still likely to reflect experiences of women [now and in the future].”
Liz Hurley with designer Patrick Cox, her date for the evening.
She might be 48, but Liz Hurley showed off a figure girls half her age would be envious of last night.
The actress and model donned a floor-length asymmetric berry-coloured gown to friend Elton John’s annual White Tie and Tiara ball in London.
The dress showed off her fabulous physique, clinging in all the right places and featuring a large split which put her tanned and toned legs on display.
Paired with large earrings, a sparkly clutch bag, smoky eyes and tousled shiny hair, the dress was a definite show-stopper.
It’s the 15th year Liz has been a guest of honour at Elton’s annual charity ball, which raises money for HIV/AIDS research.
At 44, she’s twice the age of most models but Christy Turlington is taking the fashion world by storm — again.
More than 25 years after she made it big the first time, Christy is making a modelling comeback.
The beautiful mother-of-two has landed three major fashion campaigns in the past month including high profile jobs as the face of Jason Wu and Prada.
She has also signed on to represent Calvin Klein Underwear a quarter of a century after she first modelled for the brand as a fresh-faced 19-year-old.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Christy and was so delighted that she agreed to appear in my fall campaign,” designer Wu said.
“She brings such inimitable charisma and chic to the image.”
Christy stepped off the catwalk for a number of years, preferring to write books about yoga, design workout gear, raise her children and campaign for women’s rights.
After an unsettling encounter on an Indian safari looking for the last of world's Asiatic lions, Mike Dolan explores the national parks and cultural beacons of the Indian state of Gujarat.
After an unsettling encounter on safari with an amorous antelope, Mike Dolan explores the national parks and cultural beacons of the Indian state of Gujarat.
We haven’t even been formally introduced and yet Mr Boo Boo seems determined to rub his large mottled lips against mine. Because he outweighs me by at least 220kg, it’s impossible to push him away. Helplessly trapped with my back to a thorn bush, I’m rescued by a loud thump and a high-pitched shout as Mr Boo Boo reels around to face his aggressor: a skinny little boy, armed with a stout stick.
Later, my host, Micky Desai, owner of Blackbuck Lodge, tells me that Mr Boo Boo was paying me a compliment. “He favours very few,” murmurs Mr Desai over the phone. “He meant no harm, sir. Put it down to high spirits,” he adds soothingly, as if reading a passage from a Jane Austen novel.
Mr Desai is talking to me from Ahmedabad, the Gujarati state capital, a five-hour drive north of the lodge. Covering 40 hectares of savannah, the lodge borders Velavadar Blackbuck National Park, where 2300 blackbuck antelope, 700 nilgai and a small population of grey wolves roam.
A blackbuck stag with its spiral antlers at Velavadar National Park. Photograph by Mike Dolan.
Velvavadar is one of India’s lesser known national parks and a convenient stop-over when visiting several of Gujarat’s safari destinations, including Sasan Gir National Park, home to the world’s last wild Asiatic lions.
It’s advisable to hire a reliable car and good driver on a road tour in India. Our tour of Gujarat began with a flight from Mumbai to Diu, a former Portuguese colony on the Arabian Sea, and then a two-hour drive to Sasan Gir, followed by a seven-hour drive to Blackbuck Lodge, via Palitana, the great mountain-top temple complex of the Jains. From Blackbuck Lodge, it’s a four-hour drive north to Ahmedabad.
Back at Blackbuck Lodge, I’m sitting in the dappled shade on the terrace of one of Mr Desai’s villas, marveling at the blackbuck, with their impressive spiraling horns, grazing among stands of hip-high golden grass and thorn trees.
Mr Boo Boo is lying down in the grass nearby. Happily, cordial relations between myself and the nilgai have been established, and every time I arrive at the villa, he greets me with a lick on the hand. All the animals, tame and wild, are free to wander between the national park and lodge, where an enticing man-made lake is ringed by 14 spacious deluxe villas and restaurant, which serves excellent Gujarati food. Safari drives into the park occur twice daily and if you’re lucky you may see grey wolves, jackals and jungle cats, as well as the blackbuck and nilgai.
A young Asiatic male lion at Sasan Gir National Park. Photograph by Mike Dolan.
Those in search of big cats should head for the Sasan Gir National Park and spend between two to three days in search of lion. The best place to stay is the Gateway Hotel Gir Forest that borders the national park of the same name. Sasan Gir is home to more than 400 Asiatic lions and 311 Indian leopards. The Gateway hotel has a magnificent location overlooking the Hiran River and the forested mountain slopes of the adjoining park.
Three-hour safari drives leave the hotel at 6am and 3.30pm every day and even though I was told lion sightings were more common in the early morning, I saw a pride of four during the late afternoon on my first outing.
The Gateway is owned by Taj Hotels, India’s most pukka portfolio of properties, that owns many of the sumptuous palace hotels of India and is, without doubt, the best available place to stay at Sasan Gir. The river rooms all have spacious balconies facing the river, the food is excellent, the grounds immaculate and there’s also a spa with affordable treatments.
Diu is often compared with Goa, 800km south. Both are former Portuguese colonies with magnificent forts and white cathedrals. But Diu is no tropical idyll; those seeking swaying palm trees and glorious beaches should head for Goa.
That said, Diu is a fascinating island port and the only place in the region where you can legally buy alcohol. Gujarat is a dry state, almost three times the size of Tasmania, and only international visitors can buy a beer after applying for a licence — a laborious process involving India’s notorious bureaucracy.
Between Sasan Gir and Blackbuck Lodge is Palitana, the holiest pilgrimage destination for the Jains. It stands like a beacon on a high ridge above a vast plain. More than 860 gilded temples embellish the mountain top, accessible after a two-kilometre, 600-metre ascent up 4000 steps.
The return walk takes a fit person around three hours and that includes 30-minutes’ exploration at the top. Or you can hire a dholi, a material seat slung between two bamboo poles, carried by two sure-footed men.
The mosque at the Sarkjej Roza in Ahmedabad. Photograph by Mike Dolan.
After Palitana and Blackbuck lodge, Ahmedabad is a three-hour drive from Blackbuck Lodge. A bustling metropolis with superb pre-Mughal architecture, and mosques, the state capital is also famous for its stepwells, intricately carved sandstone galleries that lead to pools of fresh water deep underground. One of the most famous is the Adalaj Stepwell in a village within the suburbs of the city. On a hot day, there’s nothing cooler than milling around at the bottom of a stepwell.
Gandhi’s Ashram on the Sabarmati River, Ahmedabad. Photograph by Mike Dolan.
Lastly, there’s the Gandhi Ashram on the holy Sabarmati River, where the great man lived for 12 years, a peaceful oasis that attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year. Gandhi’s house, his bedroom and living room, with his spinning wheel, are lovingly preserved.
From Gandhi and the simple life of the ashram, it seems strange to enter the House of MG , once the palatial home of the fabulously wealthy Mangaldas Girdhardas family, and now an historical hotel. Great philanthropists, the family built much of the commercial infra-structure of Gujarat, and this rambling palace provides a fascinating insight on how the other half once lived.
Nigella Lawson leaving her sisters flat in London.
Nigella Lawson has begun moving her belongings out of the house she shared with husband Charles Saatchi.
While he continues to maintain that the published photographs of him grabbing her neck merely depict a “playful tiff”, it seems clear that the celebrity chef has made the decision to leave.
Removalists were seen taking Nigella’s belongings, including her clothes, cookery utensils and recipe books, from pair’s $23 million London home.
“It looked very much like Nigella is moving all of her personal possessions out of the house – and isn’t going to be back in a hurry,” an onlooker told the UK’s Daily Mail.
Nigella left the family home with her 17-year-old son Bruno just one day after the publication of the images, but now it looks like the move is permanent.
Nigella was not there at the time of the move which was directed by her sister Horatia. Meanwhile, Charles Saatchi only returned when the move was complete.
Nigella, who has been spotted out without her wedding ring, is due to travel to LA in the coming months to film a second series of The Taste, on which she is a judge, but has now moved her plans forward.
While Saatchi has commented on the images, saying “there was no grip, it was a playful tiff”, Nigella’s spokesman said the celebrity chef would be maintaining her silence on the matter.
A photographer has showcased the toll childbirth takes on the human body in a series of beautiful portraits of real mums.
Dispelling the myth that women snap back into shape within weeks of giving birth, the images show all the stretch marks, lumps and bumps that come with pregnancy and often linger long after.
Mother-of-one Jade Beall has put all the pictures in a book called A Beautiful Body Project, which is set to be published in January. Check out all the amazing photos here.
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