RICHARD KAY: Mick furious as Jerry airs money woes



No handouts: Model Georgia May Jagger should make her own way, her father has decided

For years they have managed to keep their squabbles over money and other domestic arrangements below the radar.



So when news went public about the private dispute between Sir Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall over their former home, the Rolling Stone did not take it well.



I understand he is furious that the question of their continued shared ownership of Downe House, a £10 million Georgian mansion in Richmond upon Thames has been aired.



Jagger is resisting Jerry’s demands that he relinquish half-ownership in the house which has views over the River Thames and into Richmond Park. He, after all, now lives in a stylish Thameside pile in Chelsea.



At the same time I can reveal the rocker is under pressure to give his children by Jerry a leg-up on the housing market.



‘Jerry desperately wants to do what she considers is the right thing for her three elder children by Mick,’ I am told. And she believes this means purchasing homes for Lizzie, 29, James, 27, and Georgia, 21.



The two girls are in-demand models and James is an enthusiastic but so far unsuccessful guitarist. Gabriel, 15, still lives at home with his mother.

But Mick is very much against so-called parental housing subsidies. Worth around £200 million - and famously careful with his pennies - the rock star considers his children to have had every advantage in life and it will do them no good to be spoon-fed financial help.



They should now stand on their own two feet. In this he has an unlikely ally: Mick’s older daughter Jade, the only child of his marriage to Nicaraguan firecracker-turned-human rights campaigner, Bianca.

Jade has always made her own way in the world, and I am told: 'Jade had this clear understanding from an early age and it helped her to focus on the need to be successful in her own right.’



Now 40, Jade has her own jewellery shop in Notting Hill and says: 'I was never a trust-fund child. Dad’s got a healthy attitude to work. You have to look after yourself.'



But Jerry is not one to give up. She can’t understand, say pals, why Mick, approaching 70 and with five homes around the world, won’t dip into his wealth to help their children.



Of course, if Mick agrees to relinquish his joint ownership of Downe House, then Jerry could always decide to downsize, which would release around £10 million - enough for quite a few starter homes.

Commons Speaker John Bercow has his critics, but he does not have the drink habit of one of his predecessors from the Sixties, Horace King. In a new book, former Tory MP Sir Richard Body recalls being poured a drink by King. ‘He poured about four fingers of brandy into a lager glass and filled it up with the best part of half a pint of sherry.’ Another MP recalls that King was once so plastered he could not climb the steps up to the Speaker’s Chair. He finally fell on the clerks’ table, his ceremonial wig at 45 degrees. Disgraceful? Maybe. But he sounds more fun than crosspatch Bercow.

Selfridge star's home accessory

Big move: Actress Aisling Loftus is setting up home with boyfriend Jacob Anderson

Only 22 and already a rising star thanks to her understated performances in TV’s Mr Selfridge, Aisling Loftus is also taking a new direction in her personal life.

She is moving into a new home with boyfriend Jacob Anderson. Aisling, who starred as Agnes, the department store’s pretty accessories assistant, has been dating fellow actor Jacob for two years and the two have been sharing a house with friends in North London.

‘But now we’ve decided to move in together on our own,’ she tells me. So what about marriage? ‘Oh no, we’re far too young for that.’

Aisling and Jacob were at Selfridges for the paperback publication of the book that launched the show, Lindy Woodhead’s Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge.

There was no sign, however, of French actor Gregory Fitoussi, who played Aisling’s lover, Henri Leclair, and has reportedly been written out of the follow-up series.

‘I think you’ll find that’s completely wrong — although I’m not sure I am supposed to let on,’ says Aisling.

Often mocked for his plummy voice and conservative views, art critic Brian Sewell is nevertheless hugely admired by a man he frequently attacks, Sir Roy Strong, former director of the V&A Museum.

Sir Roy, promoting his new book Roy Strong: Self-Portrait As A Young Man, says of his detractor: ‘He is fantastic. He is by far our most distinguished critic. Over the years he has had endless swipes at me, but if you don’t like the heat, keep out of the kitchen! That’s public life, isn’t it?

‘Never mind your face being your fortune, his voice is his fortune, plus the fact that he’s incredibly knowledgeable.’

He is the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s favourite pub landlord and was a guest at their Westminster Abbey wedding, but John Haley of The Old Boot in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire, has shocked customers by selling up.

His hostelry was a haunt for Kate (whose parents live in nearby Bucklebury) and William when they were dating. The pub, which includes a restaurant and boasts of ‘enjoying royal patronage’, is on the market for £750,000. Says father-of-two Haley, 57, who has run the Boot for 15 years: ‘It’s not that I am losing money or bored, it’s just I’ve worked since I was 15 and never had the chance to travel.

‘I have lots of friends from all around the world who have worked for me, particularly from Australia and New Zealand, so I’ll use the money to go there first.’

Of the royal couple, he says proudly: ‘Kate is a wonderful girl and William is very lucky to have her.’



Secrets? A strong possibility

His honeyed voice has told the secret family history of many a celebrity as the narrator of the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? But actor Mark Strong is in a quandary about being a subject for the show himself.

‘The histories we reveal are fascinating,’ admits Mark, 49, ‘and yes, I’d love it if they turned the attention on me for a change.

‘But then, who would do the voiceover? I could hardly do it myself, doing the surprises, twists and turns when I already know the answers!’

Certainly the Zero Dark Thirty star has the credentials for the show. He was born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia in London to an Austrian mother and an Italian father who left when he was only a child.

‘I really don’t know anything at all about the family history,’ Mark admits.

‘It’s very much a blank canvas, and yes, I’d love to find out much more.’ Mark’s mother changed his name by deed poll, believing he would fit in better at school with something that the other youngsters could pronounce.

He adds: ‘It’s always struck me as odd that I lead a sort of professional double life.

‘Whenever I get cast in something in which I actually get seen, I’m almost invariably the villain. But when I get asked to do voiceovers, in which no one sees me, I’m the Mr Nice Guy character.’