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Royal wedding joy: Beatrice is engaged!

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Royal wedding joy: Beatrice is engaged!

The parents are delighted – now the push for a ceremony fit for a princess.

After almost seven years together, fun-loving Princess Beatrice is believed to have said yes to a marriage proposal by boyfriend Dave Clark, her high-school sweetheart. Beatrice’s divorced parents Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson both adore Dave and are understood to be thrilled the couple are taking the next step, despite Fergie’s initial worries that her daughter is too young to marry.

Fergie was 26 on her wedding day and although Bea is only 24, the family are expected to unite to send her down the aisle in the style they believe she deserves. The couple met at the birthday party of Pierce Brosnan’s son Sean in 2006 after being introduced by her cousin Wills, who went to school with Dave. Royal reporter Bill Coles tells Woman’s Day: “Prince Andrew is delighted that Bea is finally going to get married.

“My understanding is Prince Andrew will be asking his mother, Her Majesty the Queen, for every possible element of royal tradition to be observed and for all the regal finery she will permit. He’d love to see Bea marry in Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral.

“He’s been pressuring Bea for the last year or two to make it official and stop living in sin. “Andrew really hasn’t liked the fact that Bea and Dave have waited so long to make things official – he’s made his feelings very clear. “But Fergie is warning Bea ‘not to make the same mistakes I did’ by which she means marrying too young and under pressure from the weight of royal expectation.

Read more about Princess Beatrice’s engagement in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 20, 2013.

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Angelina Jolie to play her late mother in biopic

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Angelina Jolie to play her late mother in biopic

Angelina Jolie with her mum Marcheline Bertrand (left).

Angelina Jolie has announced she will play her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand, in a biopic paying tribute to her life.

The announcement was made following Angelia’s incredibly difficult decision to have a double mastectomy as a preventative measure for developing cancer, which claimed the life of her mother in 2007.

The Oscar-winning actress, who only recently discovered she had inherited the defective BRCA1 gene which prompted her proactive decision, will detail her mother’s life, including Marcheline’s short-lived acting career, her marriage to Jon Voight, her battle with ovarian cancer and her passion for humanitarian causes.

The film is yet another example of how Ange continually pays tribute to her late mother. Marcheline chose the name Pax for her first grandson, and Ange’s daughter Vivienne has Marcheline as her middle name in memory of a “loving and gracious” grandmother.

The biopic will be produced by production company Plan B, which is owned by her partner Brad Pitt.

He described Ange’s decision to have a double mastectomy as “absolutely heroic”.

The 37-year-old mother of six now plans to have a hysterectomy and oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries) to prevent the 50 per cent chance she has of developing ovarian cancer.

“I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer was higher than my risk of ovarian cancer and the surgery is much more complex,” Angelina said.

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Would you feed your baby someone else’s breast milk?

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Would you feed your baby someone else's breast milk?

It’s one of the last motherhood taboos — letting another woman breastfeed your baby. Zoe Arnold questions why we’d rather feed our kids animal’s milk than accept milk from mothers who have enough to share.

It’s an ancient practice known as wet nursing — a woman who breastfeeds another person’s baby.

It existed for millennia, and then vanished with the invention of the modern bottle and our preference to give our children animal’s milk over humans.

But now is it making a quiet comeback.

I’m a breastfeeding advocate, unashamedly so. Yet my first reaction was to crinkle up my nose and think “ugh”. But why? What is wrong about sharing breast milk if one baby really needs it, and another mother has too much?

I have had a few conversations with my mummy friends over the years, and most expressed discomfort with the idea, saying it didn’t feel right.

But why do we feel better about providing our babies with milk from a can of powder or a cow’s udder?

Modern advertising has a lot to answer for. The sexualisation of our breasts, which pop out at us from billboards and bus shelters, don’t really equate to the reality of nursing breasts that are over-sized, sore and leaky.

The advertising of infant formula sends a powerful message as well: this is easier, cleaner and less fussy than the natural alternative.

There’s the hygiene factor too: mothers are rightly concerned about the health of their babies. But is there anything dangerous about a baby taking milk from another mother?

In a word, yes, because bodily fluids can carry disease, but the risks are minimal and only exist if the mother providing the milk has an infection or illness. These risks are removed if the milk is taken from a milk bank rather than directly from another mother.

A breast milk bank is just that: a bank of milk provided by women who have too much milk, to give to babies who (for whatever reason) can’t get enough from their own mother.

There are a few publicly funded breast milk banks in Australia: in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and one community-based service in Northern NSW.

All provide screened and pasteurised milk specifically to premature babies, with evidence showing babies born pre-term respond better to human milk than formula.

Milk banks provide a pretty special service: just visit their websites to see how grateful the mothers of tiny; premmie babies are to receive these life-saving donations.

But why doesn’t a similar service exist to share milk for mothers of full-term babies who want to breastfeed, but can’t?

Instead those seeking breast milk turn to the internet, using forums like Human Milk 4 Human Babies and Eats on Feets to source breast milk from women willing to donate.

I love this idea, but without proper hygiene practices in place, there is danger in this method. Wet nursing is an ancient practice, but our understanding of how illnesses spread tells us that checks and balances are essential in the modern world.

Breastfeeding is best for baby. Countless scientific, evidence-based studies show us that. This doesn’t mean formula is bad, but if there is another free, natural alternative, surely we should be pursuing it?

If we’re ok with feeding our kids pasteurised milk from a cow’s udder, we shouldn’t feel any less comfortable with milk taken from another mother.

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Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s Cannes red carpet PDA

They've been married for nearly seven years, but Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban behaved more like newlyweds on the red carpet in Cannes yesterday.
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Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban kissing

They’ve been married for nearly seven years, but Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban behaved more like newlyweds on the red carpet in Cannes yesterday.

The famously private couple couldn’t keep their hands off each other as they posed for photographs at the screening of Inside Llewyn Davis, delighting fans with their public display of affection.

Nicole, 45, looked stunning in a couture L’Wren Scott gown, while Keith opted for a snazzy suit.

The couple married in June 2006 and raise two children together, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

Nicole and Keith kissing at Cannes.

The couple couldn’t keep their lips off each other.

At times they more closely resembled teens than forty-somethings.

The couple had been apart for a few days as Keith lingered in LA.

Nicole was obviously thrilled her husband had joined her in France.

Nicole and Keith have two daughters together.

Nicole looked stunning in a L’Wren Scott couture gown.

Keith jetted in to join Nicole yesterday morning.

Nicole and Keith dressed more casually before the red carpet.

Nicole and Keith also got cuddly on the Golden Globes red carpet in January.

The couple only had eyes for each other.

Their public display of affection delighted onlookers.

Nicole and Keith enjoy a kiss at the US Open tennis in 2012.

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Nicole and Keith’s constant PDAs

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Nicole Kidman doesn’t have to tell the world how much she loves hubby Keith Urban – we can see it for ourselves!

Australia’s most talked about couple are definitely not camera shy. In fact, they aren’t afraid to shower each other with affection at every public opportunity, including the Cannes red carpet recently!

It doesn’t matter where they are — from the red carpet to the stage — no setting is off-limits for these two to share a little love.

Let’s hope their kids, three-year-old Sunday Rose and one-year-old Faith, aren’t too grossed out by it!

Nicole and Keith can’t keep their hands off each other in Cannes.

Nicole leads Keith down the red carpet.

All smiles: The pair can’t hide their love for each other.

Photographers snap the pair looking loved up.

Nicole and Keith lock lips at Cannes.

Nic and Keith at the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Sharing secrets at the 2011 CMT Music Awards.

Liplocked at the 2010 CMT Awards.

Deep gazing at the “Rabbit Hole” premiere, New York.

Sweet cheeks, at the 2011 Golden Globes.

At the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards.

PDAs all round at the 2011 Oscars.

Ready for our closeup, at the 2011 Country Music Awards.

Chivalry is alive at the 2012 Golden Globes.

Getting cosy at a 2010 Golden Globes after party.

Head to head at the 2009 American Music Awards.

Embracing at the Oprah Winfrey Show, Sydney Opera House.

At the 2011 Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

Hand in hand at the 2011 Grammys.

Canoodling at the Country Music Awards.

In love at the 2010 People’s Choice Awards.

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Megan Gale on Nicole Kidman: Stop bullying our brightest star

Reacting to the negative media coverage at home of her compatriot Nicole Kidman's appearance on the red carpet here in Cannes, Megan Gale has launched a broadside against the tall poppy syndrome.
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Megan Gale, Nicole Kidman

Reacting to the negative media coverage at home of her compatriot Nicole Kidman’s appearance on the red carpet here in Cannes, Megan Gale has launched a broadside against the tall poppy syndrome.

Speaking to The Weekly ahead of her own turn on the Cannes red-carpet, Megan said she was angered by media reports that chose to criticise Nicole’s hair instead of celebrating her selection as a juror at the famous French film festival.

“She’s an Oscar winner, she’s been invited to be a member of the jury of the most prestigious film festival in the world, and yet a newspaper article at home about her red carpet appearance was all about how her hair looked shocking,” Megan said.

“I was astonished. Instead of celebrating one of our most successful actresses, who is feted on the world stage, we feel compelled to pull her down.

“If that was happening in a school yard, it would be called bullying and there would be definite repercussions. But for some reason, because she is an international celebrity, she is fair game.”

Megan, who is in Cannes as part of her contract with L’Oreal Paris for whom she is one of several international ambassadors, noted that it was “especially sad that more often than not it seems to be women taking down other women”.

“Women have a habit of attacking other women. You never see men doing that. Men don’t sit around pulling apart Hugh Jackman. They just wouldn’t do it,” she said.

“As women we need to stop doing this to one another. We need to stop cutting one another down and being insulting and feeling as though we are competing with one another. Because no one wins.”

Nicole has been in Cannes since Tuesday, serving under Cannes jury president Steven Spielberg as part of the film festival’s eight person jury that also includes Oscar winning director Ang Lee and Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz.

In a series of public appearances at the beginning of the week, including at the festival’s opening night in which she appeared on the red carpet in Dior couture with her hair in a fashion-forward pony tail, the Australian actress has been hailed by international media here as the style icon of this year’s Cannes film festival.

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The secret life of the Cannes Film Festival

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The secret life of the Cannes Film Festival

Movie stars aren’t the only people who flock to Cannes this time of year — the French city is also overflowing with high-priced call girls, who are paid up to $40,000 a night. Editor-in-chief Helen McCabe reports from the annual film festival.

In the exclusive bar outside Cannes two women sit discreetly eyeing my male companion.

He returns to the table to announce they are clearly working girls flown in for the most lucrative week of the year.

The night gets later and the pair have run out of conversation and look set to leave alone.

But eventually, their ‘dates’ arrive and instead of an empty coffee cup the champagne corks are popped.

It is now 2am and the mood is distinctly upbeat. The staff at the hotel turn a blind eye as well they might given they are traditionally well paid in return for not asking questions.

Five years ago one of the biggest prostitution rings was busted in Cannes when Lebanese businessman Elie Nahas was jailed for supplying more than 50 women to wealthy men during the festival.

Nahas used to work for Mutassim Gaddafi, the playboy son of Muammar Gaddafi.

The high-priced call girls worked the hotel lobbies, the yachts and mansions of the French Riviera earning up to $40,000 a night.

To the trained eye, they are some of the most beautiful and expensively dressed women on the Croisette, the main promenade in Cannes.

The foyers of the most famous hotels are reportedly packed with working girls as one estimate claimed up to 200 walk through the doors a day.

Understandably Nahas feels unfairly treated complaining to The Hollywood Reporter that the police have always turned a blind eye.

His links to Gaddafi led to an eight year jail sentence although he is appealing it in October.

“Please, there are 30 or 40 yachts in the bay, and every boat has about 10 girls on it; they are usually models, and they are usually nude or half nude … It’s been going on for 60 years,” he said.

Women installed in the yachts are creatively called ‘yacht girls’ and according to one report are often also C-grade actresses as the line between the two professions becomes blurred at this time of the year.

“You’d definitely recognise more than a few names from Hollywood” claimed one film veteran.

The trade in girls goes to prove that there is a lot more going on in Cannes than just films.

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Gary Sweet and Joh Griggs: Exes at war!

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Gary Sweet and Joh Griggs: Exes at war!

He plays a devoted father on TV’s House Husbands but in real life, even Gary doesn’t rate his dad skills highly.

Johanna Griggs has always resisted criticising larrikin ex-husband Gary Sweet, who left her to raise their sons as a single mum when she was just 24. But in an extraordinary move, she has made a rare public statement about Gary, revealing their two boys, Jesse James, 17, and Joe Buster, 16, have largely grown up without his presence.

“He’s in Melbourne. But even when he lived in Sydney he didn’t [see them much],” the House Rules host tells the Herald Sun. “It’s always been like that, so I don’t think they’re suffering any great angst. When they do see Gary they have a great time. He’s the fun bags.” Veteran actor Gary doesn’t dispute that, admitting last week he “blew” his chance at being a good dad to his children – including Frank and Sophie, from an earlier marriage.

Now a family friend has joined the feud, telling Woman’s Day exclusively that Joh was being kind. “Gary has just never grown up,” says the friend. “From when he left the marriage and the boys were tiny, he didn’t look back, just charged back into single life with relish – while Joh was left literally holding the babies.

“So there’s no bond to start with – and then if you’re not visiting regularly, making phone calls every week, remembering birthdays, and making an effort at Christmas, it’s harder because you get left behind. “Even when Gary was working in the same city, he wouldn’t see the boys for months at a time. One year, when the boys were teenagers, he didn’t get around to seeing one of them at all. Not once – even though he was living and working in the same city!”

Read more including what Gary says about his own parenting in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 20, 2013.

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Michelle Bridges stole my husband

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Michelle Bridges stole my husband

They may be the most talked about new couple in the country, but a shocking secret lies at the heart of the Biggest Loser’s red-carpet romance.

Heartbroken and betrayed, the former partner of Biggest Loser trainer Steve “The Commando” Willis has finally broken her silence, confirming that her de facto husband and father of her two children has been having an affair with his co-star Michelle Bridges.

In pictures: Michelle and Commando hit the red carpet together

While the celebrity trainers deny they’ve begun a relationship, their public displays of affection in recent weeks have now pushed Froso, who has requested we don’t publish her surname, to speak out about her former partner’s betrayal. With the pair openly flirting on set, at the airport and on the red carpet last week, she has revealed the truth about their secret love, telling Woman’s Day, “Steve and Michelle’s affair was a shock to everyone.”

Froso first learned of the affair when Steve failed to come home after The Biggest Loser wrap party on March 19. Blindsided by the discovery, the mother of the former couple’s two children – Ella, 5, and Jack, 19 months – is understandably distraught. Convinced her relationship was solid, Froso had, until just weeks ago, been planning a future with the man she loved.

Related: Michelle and Commando: A perfect match!

“Froso and Steve had their whole year planned out,” a close friend tells Woman’s Day. “They had planned a holiday and they had just purchased their dream family home. This was completely out of the blue and it’s shattered her.”

Read more about Michelle and The Commandos romance in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 20, 2013.

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Angelina: I had to survive for my children

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Angelina: I had to survive for my children

Discovering she carries the faulty gene that took her beloved mum so early, the star made a heroic medical choice now praised the world over. Here, she and her loved ones open up about that decision.

In her own brutally honest words, the most famous actress in the world broke the news that for much of this year she has been undergoing surgery to remove and rebuild her breasts. Haunted by her mother Marcheline’s premature death from ovarian cancer in 2007, Angelina underwent medical tests which showed a strong possibility she could inherit the same aggressive disease.

For the mother of six, the decision to have a double mastectomy was not an easy one. “But it is one I am very happy that I made,” she revealed in an emotional article she wrote for The New York Times. “My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 per cent to under 5 per cent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me.”

And the gruelling preventive procedures may not stop there. It’s likely that Angelina has been advised to undergo a complete oophorectomy to remove her ovaries, along with a hysterectomy. But according to her close friend and personal photographer John Vandiveer, speaking exclusively to Woman’s Day, Angelina, 37, and her fiance Brad Pitt, 49, are first considering adding to their brood of six.

“There is no-one braver than Angie. She’s seeking top medical advice to see if it’s doable before the final surgery,” reveals John. “If not, there are the options of surrogacy and, of course, adoption is always an option in play.”

Read more in our sixe page special on Angelina in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday May 20, 2013.

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