Vodka swapped for mocktails and drugs replaced by nature… we look at where the notorious Primrose Hill set are now
DUBBED the Primrose Hill Set, they were the party girls and boys of the Nineties and early Noughties.
From their “House of Sin” HQ in North London, the It Crowd were glamorous, beautiful, successful and wild – everything the rest of us wanted to be.
On Tuesday, members Kate Moss and Sadie Frost turned back the clock and partied together as they did 20-odd years ago.
Only this time round the vodka was replaced by mocktails and the chat probably revolved around yoga and their grown-up kids.
The pair were spotted at upmarket restaurant Isabel, in central London’s Mayfair, and they both headed home before 10pm.
Kate Jackson takes a look at how the former hellraisers have now turned into the Prim And Proper Set.
KATE MOSS
From wild to (fairly) mild
THEN: Our most famous supermodel was also our most legendary party animal. She would down so much champagne and vodka, her friends nicknamed her The Tank.
The catwalk queen partied with Brad Pitt, dated Johnny Depp and appeared in rock videos. But after famously getting caught snorting cocaine in 2005, Kate was dropped by high-end labels Chanel, Burberry and H&M.
Her career survived, and in January this year the 47-year-old appeared on the front of Vogue, marking nearly 28 years of covers with the fashion bible.
NOW: Her latest project, revealed last week, is a collaboration with Kim Kardashian, fronting the reality TV star’s SKIMs underwear line.
Kate ditched the drink three years ago and is now in bed by 11pm, saying she gets “groggy” if she doesn’t have eight hours shut-eye. She also keeps fit with yoga and Peloton bike sessions.
With all her experience, Kate now mentors the modelling career of her daughter Lila Grace, 18, and has been with German aristo and photographer Nikolai von Bismarck, 34, for five years.
DAVINIA TAYLOR
The wellness guru
THEN: The daughter of a millionaire toilet roll tycoon, Davinia shot to fame in 1996 as party girl Jude Cunningham on Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.
Life imitated art when the actress moved to London and started hanging around with Kate, Sadie and co. But it wasn’t as fun as it appeared.
Davinia, 43, battled alcoholism, and has since recalled the loneliness and depression. She said: “I likened it to screaming under water.”
NOW: Booze and excess have been replaced by paleo dieting and intermittent fasting. Transformed into a wellness advocate, her book It’s Not A Diet made it on to The Sunday Times bestseller list last month.
Davinia, who is divorced from sports agent Dave Gardner, a pal of David Beckham, has been teetotal for 12 years and now runs marathons.
The mum of four, who is dating builder Matthew Leyden, 41 — who she has known since she was a teen — says she is a “completely different human being”. She adds: “I don’t hanker after the good times now.”
PEARL LOWE
Ex-addict now into country living
THEN: As lead singer of Britpop band Powder, and married to Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, 47, Pearl was right at the heart of the party.
She once said: “There was a general belief in our world that you couldn’t have fun unless you were slightly out of it.” So skilled was she at vacuuming up drugs, she was nicknamed Dyson.
At the height of her addiction the mum of four was smoking £80 worth of heroin a day, which she described in her 2007 memoir. But she said: “I remember reading an article headlined, “I Want To Be In Pearl’s World”, and I thought, ‘What, going to bed every night, crying and wanting to slit your wrists?’.”
NOW: Life could not be more serene. Pearl, 51, lives in a stunning, 11-bedroom Georgian home surrounded by rolling countryside in a peaceful village in Somerset.
A successful fashion designer, she specialises in vintage-style clothing and homeware. Pearl, whose eldest child is underwear model and Strictly star Daisy Lowe, 32, has published books on vintage interiors and crafts, as well as an autobiography.
During the pandemic she turned her Liberty floral fabrics into face masks and donated the profits to the NHS and the South West Ambulance Trust.
PATSY KENSIT
The ‘boring person’
THEN: When Patsy was 26, her mother died, sparking what she described as, “Seven years of sex, drugs, infidelity, failed marriages — you name it”.
The Emmerdale actress dumped her second husband, Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr, 62, for Liam Gallagher, 48, tying the knot with the Oasis frontman in 1997.
Eleven months after their wedding, Liam fathered a love child, Molly, with singer Lisa Moorish, 49. Patsy, 53, who split with Liam in 2000 and with whom she shares son, Lennon, 21, later said she cried every day in their relationship. She went through rehab as well as therapy with Narcotics Anonymous.
NOW: Married four times, she divorced her most recent husband, DJ Jeremy Healy, 59, in 2010, and later said: “With one million per cent conviction, I definitely won’t be getting married again.”
She did hint at a new romance in February, saying: “There’s so much I could say but won’t. It puts too much pressure on relationships.”
The mum of two runs daily, eats healthily and has the “odd gin and sour”. Patsy said: “I’m the most boring person. I like the quieter, personal life I have. It’s something I cherish as it hasn’t always been that way.”
JUDE LAW
The new dad
THEN: The heart-throb of the cool crew, Jude wasn’t just gorgeous but one of our most successful actors, starring in The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and the Alfie remake in the late Nineties and early 2000s.
After splitting from Sadie Frost in 2003, he fell for Layer Cake actress Sienna Miller, 39.
Two years later he apologised to her for having an affair with his kids’ nanny. Jude, 48, then went on to have two children with two other women.
NOW: He has settled down with his second wife, psychologist Phillipa Coan, 32, and last year they welcomed their first child together — his sixth in total.
Jude is still acting and racking up screen success. He starred in 2019 film Captain Marvel, as well as last year’s Sky Atlantic thriller The Third Day and Netflix series The New Pope.
He is also part of the JK Rowling Fantastic Beasts franchise, with the third instalment coming next year. And he will play Captain Hook in a new film version of Peter Plan, due out in 2022.
SADIE FROST
Teetotal businesswoman
THEN: A ringleader in the Primrose Hill Set, it was Sadie and then husband Jude Law’s £8million mansion that became the gang’s headquarters. So much jaw-dropping behaviour happened there, the place was dubbed “The House of Sin”.
Sadie, 56, who sold the plush pad last month, said: “The Kings Of Leon did a mini impromptu gig on the climbing frame.” And Notting Hill actor Rhys Ifans, 53, once, “Lived in the Wendy house”.
Sadie’s daughter Iris was rushed to hospital as a toddler after swallowing half an ecstasy pill while at a kids’ party at a London club. Neither parent was there at the time.
NOW: Sadie, whose first husband was Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, 61, with whom she has a son, Finlay, 30, has long been a yoga devotee. And she has recently launched a clothing range to wear for the exercises. She also runs film production company Blonde To Black Pictures.
Sadie divorced Jude, with whom she shares three children, after six years of marriage in 2003.
Like Kate, she is now teetotal and spends time supporting her kids’ careers. Son Rafferty, 24, appeared in Sky Cinema’s Oliver remake Twist, while Iris, 20, is filming series Pistol, about the Sex Pistols.
MEG MATHEWS
Middle-aged sexpert
THEN: Married to Oasis star Noel Gallagher, now 54, from 1997 to 2001, Meg could splurge £4,000 on booze and drugs with pals at London’s posh Claridge’s hotel.
She said: “Everybody would be in the room, drinking all the mini bar, calling loads of dealers — £3,000 later walking down the stairs with the mascara running down my face, a heel broken off my shoe and going home for what? It would be £4,000 later. And for what? The walk of shame. But by the end you don’t care.”
Noel once said he binged on cocaine “every night in the Nineties”. In 2006 Meg went into rehab for two months. She said: “I was drinking too much and it wasn’t having a good effect on me.”
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NOW: Meg, 55, has ditched booze and regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. When, aged 50, she began to experience the first signs of menopause she was shocked at the lack of information and support available.
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So she went on to found website and carry out campaign work.
She also has her own brand of products, including lube, aimed at middle-aged women. She said: “I wake up in the morning and I have a purpose.”