Tara Palmer-Tomkinson’s death left Prince Charles ‘devastated’, says Dame Joan Collins, as she opens up about the socialite’s tragic death aged 45
DAME JOAN COLLINS was shocked by TARA PALMER-TOMKINSON’s death last month – but revealed the socialite’s godfather PRINCE CHARLES was most cut-up of all.
Speaking yesterday during her first-ever Bizarre guest edit and Facebook Live, Dame Joan revealed for the first time the extent of Charles’s devastation at Tara’s death aged 45.
She told me: “It was terrible, terrible news. A lot of people were broken up. Prince Charles, too. Shortly afterwards, I went to a thing for The Prince’s Trust and said to him, ‘I’m so sorry, Sir, about your friend Tara’. And he looked very sad. She was his godchild.”
Prince Charles led the tributes after her death from a perforated ulcer.
Dame Joan said: “I saw her last year. She came to my book launch. She was full of life and talking about what she was going to be doing.
“She said, ‘I’ve been off the radar because I haven’t been well. I’m happy now I’m back’. It’s very sad. She was quite young.”
Dame Joan was an epic Bizarre guest editor as she stood in for me yesterday — saucy, revealing and naughty. The legendary actress is back with her brilliant new film The Time Of Their Lives.
But she swapped the big screen for a day to take part in her first Facebook Live session on my page.
Dame Joan, you’re welcome back any time.
READ ON FOR THE REST OF DAN WOOTTON'S BIZARRE COLUMN
Red-hot Hurley
JOAN’s good friend ELIZABETH HURLEY was a guest at Wednesday’s film premiere and brought along her teenage son Damien.
Joan, who plays Elizabeth’s mum in TV’s The Royals, said: “I love this picture. Damien goes through Elizabeth’s lines with her. He absolutely adores her, and she adores him.”
But Joan, who cuddled up to husband Percy at the London bash, gave a very stark warning over her pal: “Do not call her Liz!”
JOAN still hasn’t got over the death of her sister, novelist JACKIE, from breast cancer in 2015. She said: “Grief is something you go through in stages and you don’t expect to lose a sibling. To lose Jackie was a huge shock.”
Steer clear of acting Car-eer
CARA DELEVINGNE has followed in the footsteps of her godmother Joan – by swapping modelling for an acting career.
And the move has turned her into a fully-fledged Hollywood star.
But it was not exactly the path Joan told her to take. Joan said: “When she talked to me when she was 15 or 16 about being an actress, she said, ‘What is your advice?’
“I said, ‘DON’T!’”
Despite making hundreds of film and TV appearances – and winning a Golden Globe award for Dynasty in the process – Joan would not recommend the career to everyone.
She added: “It’s a very tough profession, you have to have skin like a rhinoceros. The rejection you get is unbelievable.
“There is so much rejection. People don’t realise this. They think it’s going to be easy.”
Vic's tall order
VICTORIA BECKHAM once described Dame Joan as her “real mother”, but Joan wasn’t impressed by what Posh wore in London yesterday, right.
Joan said: “I would not have worn that. You can only do baggy if you are over 5ft 10in. Does she smile?” But she did reveal her SPICE GIRLS alter-ego saying: “I’d have been Posh, of course.”
And she was impressed by DAVID’s Barry’s Bootcamp session in London saying: “My husband did that. I’ve never seen anybody more exhausted.”
JOAN reckons the Royal Family are avid viewers of E!’s drama The Royals, which she stars in. She said: “Of course they have watched it. How could they not have? It’s the naughtiest show on television. A lot of fun.”
Skinny Lily was told to slim
FILM bosses’ obsession with weight is still a big problem for Hollywood actresses, as Joan found out from her namesake, LILY COLLINS – the daughter of rocker PHIL.
CARING Joan is the patron of the amazing charity Shooting Star Chase, a hospice for children with life-limiting conditions and their families.
She explained: “It doesn’t get any money from the State and they are supporting 700 families.
“It’s very sad because so many of the children do not make it, but the families have this tremendous support.
“SIMON COWELL is also very involved with it as well. I was the first patron 30 years ago.
'Warren needed glasses'
THE Oscars gaffe which saw La La Land mistakenly named Best Picture before the prize was given to real winner Moonlight stunned Joan as much as me.
Not only is she a member of the Academy and on the Oscars voting panel, but her ex-fiance WARREN BEATTY was handed the wrong envelope. Joan said: “It wasn’t Warren’s fault. I mean, he should have worn his glasses. He was looking at it and knew something was wrong. I knew he was thinking, ‘This isn’t right’. And he gave it to FAYE DUNAWAY and she read it.
“It’s a mistake. It will go down in history like the 1974 streaker with DAVID NIVEN.”
Bizmeter: flashback
“THIS is from my film The Bitch, based on my sister JACKIE’s novel. I think I was in The Sun quite a few times around that period. Am I proud of the picture? I don’t remember when I last saw it.”
“THAT was the most hideous dress I wore in Dynasty because I knew I was going to have to go into the lake several times. I’d said I didn’t care what I wore, so they brought out this rather cheap dress, nylon or something like that. But it sort of worked well.”
“ON a plane with Jack and Vera in Coronation Street spin-off Viva Las Vegas! I was pretending to be one of the flight attendants.”
“POOR CLIFF RICHARD. It’s terrible what they did to him. We were at an awards ceremony a few months ago and he’d just been exonerated. He said, ‘They might have exonerated me but I went through hell for two years’. Shocking.”
“THIS is me meeting THE QUEEN. I became a Dame in 2015. Sometimes people call me Dame Joan Collins, some call me Mrs Gibson. When we go to hotels I usually do Gibson and in America they don’t even know what Dame means. They don’t understand it.”
“THIS is me and PAULINE COLLINS in our new film The Time Of Their Lives. It’s like Thelma & Louise: The Next Generation. It’s a road movie and I play a washed-up, broken-down, pathetic actress.”