Kate Winslet's boyfriend, Ned Rocknroll, has been granted a divorce from Eliza Pearson, Viscount Cowdray's daughter.
Kate Winslet and boyfriend Ned Rocknroll hand in hand at San Francisco Airport on Saturday morning Photo: SPLASH
Just days after speaking of the torment that followed the breakdown of her marriage to the director Sam Mendes, Kate Winslet can begin her "new narrative". Mandrake learns that the actress's lover, Ned Rocknroll, has divorced his wife, the heiress Eliza Pearson.
"The decree absolute should come through soon, maybe this month," Pearson tells me, in her first public comments since Rocknroll began his relationship with Winslet.
Ned, the nephew of Sir Richard Branson, changed his surname from Abel Smith by deed poll before he married Pearson, the eldest daughter of Viscount Cowdray, in an open-air pagan ceremony led by a druid in September 2009.
The lavish wedding took place at her family's 17,000-acre Cowdray Park estate in West Sussex. Princess Beatrice, the daughter of the Duke of York, was among the guests.
However, the couple separated after just 20 months. Winslet's friends say she did not begin her relationship with Ned, 33, who works for his uncle's space venture Virgin Galactic, until after his decree nisi was granted on August 10.
Pearson, 23, does not dispute this version of events. "I broke up with Ned," she tells me. "I won't disclose the reason, but the split was very amicable. We're still the best of friends. I'm not seeing anyone else."
The heiress, whose family's wealth is estimated to be more than £1 billion, declines to comment on his relationship with Winslet. Last Sunday, I reported that Rocknroll had bought a vintage love locket for the 36-year-old star of Titanic that cost thousands of pounds.
"They are very serious about each other," says another of Winslet's friends. The couple have, however, tried to avoid being photographed together.
Confusingly, Pearson declared in July: "I've changed my mind about divorce. I am hoping this will turn out to be more of a break than a total separation, because the longer we are apart the more it's making me realise how much I miss him."
She added: "It went wrong, but it's not as if it was a shotgun wedding – we'd been together for four years. I have never stopped loving him and we are soulmates – that doesn't come along very often."
Winslet, who announced her separation from Mendes, the director of American Beauty, in March last year, said: "One thing I will say about me and Sam is that it's fine, it's really fine.
"We're grown-ups, and, however hard it's been for me, it's been equally hard for him."
The actress has a son, Joe, aged seven, by Mendes. She also has a daughter, Mia, who turned 11 on Wednesday, by her first husband, Jim Threapleton.
The heiress, whose family's wealth is estimated to be more than £1 billion, declines to comment on his relationship with Winslet. Last Sunday, I reported that Rocknroll had bought a vintage love locket for the 36-year-old star of Titanic that cost thousands of pounds.
"They are very serious about each other," says another of Winslet's friends. The couple have, however, tried to avoid being photographed together.
Confusingly, Pearson declared in July: "I've changed my mind about divorce. I am hoping this will turn out to be more of a break than a total separation, because the longer we are apart the more it's making me realise how much I miss him."
She added: "It went wrong, but it's not as if it was a shotgun wedding – we'd been together for four years. I have never stopped loving him and we are soulmates – that doesn't come along very often."
Winslet, who announced her separation from Mendes, the director of American Beauty, in March last year, said: "One thing I will say about me and Sam is that it's fine, it's really fine.
"We're grown-ups, and, however hard it's been for me, it's been equally hard for him."
The actress has a son, Joe, aged seven, by Mendes. She also has a daughter, Mia, who turned 11 on Wednesday, by her first husband, Jim Threapleton.
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