EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: ‘Car-crash’ facelift leaves Prince Andrew’s pal Caroline Stanbury crying blood

Next time Prince Andrew sees his old friend Caroline Stanbury, he may struggle to recognise her.

For the Ladies of London star has revealed that she’s undergone a face-lift in Los Angeles that left her looking like she’d ‘been in a car crash’.

The socialite admits: ‘I decided to have a face-lift with no information whatsoever. I skipped into that surgery like I was having a mole removed. This is LA – so, unlike other places where you’re sort of taken to hospital and feel like you’re having a medical experience, here you’re taken to a back room of an office just as if you’re having a filler. They put you to sleep and remove your face.

‘I looked like I’d been in a car crash and the car definitely didn’t win.’

Stanbury, who has three children, says of the ordeal with the unnamed doctor: ‘He managed to cut off three inches on my neck and then the full width of my ear from my face. The shape of my face is completely wrong for a human: the top half is wider than the bottom half, and my neck is too thick. I have stitches at the front and back of my ear and on my eyelids.’

She explains why she went under the knife: ‘I wanted to look exactly like me but fresh. I did my upper lip, my eyelids, where they take off the excess skin because I’m 47. I did lower neck, and my neck is so tight right now. I really thought it was a half face-lift and I only had one appointment and paid the money.’

She says of the results: ‘There is no sign of my face in that face – which is petrifying. I wanted to sue my doctor because when you slightly look at your face everything is in the wrong place. Obviously after surgery, things swell differently, on each side, nothing looks even, and my neck doesn’t move so it’s like a tree trunk.’

Her Spanish husband, former footballer Sergio Carrallo, who’s 18 years her junior, says he’s been left distraught.

‘There are two wives – the one last week and the wife this week – I don’t recognise her,’ he says. ‘It was the worst experience of my life. I was crying; I was trying to look for her and find my wife.’

He adds: ‘Mentally and emotionally, I’ve been on the floor. No words can describe how much I’m suffering looking at my wife. I don’t want my wife to look fake, I want her to look natural.’

Speaking on their podcast, Uncut and Uncensored, Stanbury, who was previously married to Turkish businessman Cem Habib, says she was also moved to tears. ‘When he was crying, I started crying, but my tears were blood. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done and no one prepares you for it.’

Despite her distressing ordeal, she hopes there’ll be light at the end of the tunnel. ‘They say, by day 11 I should feel more human. My girlfriends that have done it said I’ll feel a lot more like me.’

Confessions of The Crown 

Dominic West adopted a hunch for his portrayal of Prince Charles in The Crown, on the advice of Polly Bennett, the drama’s ‘movement coach’.

Bennett told West to imagine a crown floating just out of reach above his head.

‘That’s a really helpful image for him psychologically, as somebody who’s maybe becoming king,’ she disclosed.

Imelda Staunton’s Queen Elizabeth was told to stand with her big toes firmly planted on the floor, which ‘gives a little zip forward in your spine’, Bennett said.

‘She is always ready to move off, because she doesn’t want to stick around. She’s got things to do.’

Viewers may feel similarly after watching the sensationalist portrayal of Princess Diana as a ghost.

Liz Hurley goes Wild with Testino

Known for capturing the beauty of Princess Diana, Mario Testino was dropped by Vogue and shunned by many after he was accused of misconduct, including sexual assault, by 13 male models and assistants.

The Peruvian photographer denied the allegations and his return to London society is being helped by Elizabeth Hurley, who this week attended the private view of his new exhibition, Mario Testino: Gone Wild, featuring snaps of animals and rare birds, at Tim Jefferies’s Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair.

Hurley, 58, who attended with her son, Damian, 21, also a model, has posed for Testino, 69, several times in the past.

Testino shot more than 60 covers for British Vogue and photographed Prince William and wife Catherine.

At the time of the scandal in 2018, magazine publisher Conde Nast announced it would ‘not be commissioning any new work’ from him for the foreseeable future.

Ahead of ‘Black Friday’, restaurateur Ruth Rogers is fighting back against the tiresome American phrase. Lady Rogers, who owns The River Cafe in West London, is calling the pre-Christmas sales at her own shop ‘Bright Friday’ instead. ‘We want to bring joy and bright colours into everything we do,’ she tells me. ‘I don’t wear black and we don’t have black in the restaurant. In these grey winter months, always go for colour.’ U.S.-born Ruthie’s late husband, architect Richard Rogers, was known for wearing jolly colours. He once complained: ‘I don’t understand why everyone has to wear black, grey and white.’

Madness singer Suggs flagged down a passing Sir Paul McCartney when he was in Soho pub The Toucan with a friend who is ‘the biggest Beatles fan’.

Suggs says: ‘Paul walked past and I asked if he wanted a drink and he said “yes”. He stayed for a little while and chatted. But when he left, my mate drank the dregs of his drink.’

An honour indeed for the thirsty Fab Four fan, although at London pub prices, you can’t blame him.

Lady Cameron models her own label at State do 

Samantha Cameron used the state banquet at Buckingham Palace in honour of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol to show off a dress from her fashion label Cefinn.

While other female guests wore ballgowns, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron’s wife went in a green patterned ‘Aurelie’ midi dress featuring a ruffled hem and sheer floaty cap sleeves.

It costs £390 from her label, which says it sells ‘chic, grown-up designer fashion for the multi-tasking urban woman’.

The baronet’s daughter, 52, matched her dress with a pair of gold hoop earrings and suede black heels.

Lady Cameron entered the banquet with Blythe Dowden, a teacher who’s married to Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister. Mrs Dowden wore a midnight-blue ballgown.

Pointless presenter Alexander Armstrong had the honour of introducing Queen Camilla on stage at the Foreign Press Association’s awards ceremony, which, he says, left him racked with fear. ‘You always hear stories of people who suddenly forget what to do when they’re about to meet a royal and I’m so glad I remembered not to curtsy on this occasion. ‘I think it meant a great deal to her to be there. She’s very plugged in to current affairs.’

David Cameron’s elevation to the House of Lords may mean the Tories’ perma-tanned Jonathan Marland is now only the second smoothest chap at Westminster, but he is nonetheless pleased by Dave’s promotion. ‘It is a boost for those of us who play tennis with him,’ says Lord Marland, because when Cameron was out of politics ‘his game improved and we rather hope it will go back to what it was’.