Obliged to leave the BBC in 2025 after re-posting a video which juxtaposed an image of a rat with the headline ‘Zionism explained in less than 2 mins’, Gary Lineker has breezed ahead with barely a backwards glance.
Indeed, the podcast company in which he owns at least a 25 per cent share pulled in revenues of £37.9 million last year alone.
But the former England striker is not the only Lineker successfully getting to grips with the world of new media.
I can disclose that his younger brother, Wayne, 64, a restless entrepreneur best known for ownership of O Beach Ibiza, the liveliest club on the party island, has been inserting his fingers into the pie.
Rather than settling himself in front of the microphone, Wayne has been lending a helping hand in what might be described as the pictorial end of the market, taking a particular interest in OnlyFans.
That’s the online service which allows subscribers to see photographs and videos – including, in the latter category, those that are ‘live streamed’ – provided by specific people, known as ‘content creators’.
Wayne Lineker, Gary’s younger brother, has been encouraging attractive women to sign up with an ‘agency’ that represents OnlyFans content creators
These include actors and actresses, musicians and fitness trainers.
But the most lucrative sector is what is known, rather coyly, as ‘adult content’, which can be provided by anyone willing to strip off in front of paying viewers and entertain them by indulging in intimate acts which leave nothing to the imagination.
Wayne’s role has been to encourage attractive women to sign up with an ‘agency’ specialising in representing OnlyFans ‘content creators’. His spokesman refuses to name the ‘agency’ and claims he approached only women who were already on OnlyFans.
It’s not difficult to see why management agencies concentrate on ‘adult content’.
Lottie Moss, 28, half-sister of supermodel Kate, consistently made £30,000 a month during her time as a ‘content creator’. But that’s little more than pocket money compared with the superstars, who earn millions a year.
On the face of it, it would seem a natural fit for Wayne.
Aside from fathering three sons and a daughter, now adults, without publicly naming all their mothers, he is, as his older brother once put it, ‘good at business’.
Added twice-married Gary, 65, who is now happily reconciled with Wayne after a protracted estrangement: ‘He has always been able to turn a penny into tuppence.’
But not, I’m assured, on this occasion. ‘No payment was ever received by Wayne,’ his representative insists. The spokesman adds the arrangement has now ended.
Who knows, perhaps it’s an example of how charity begins at home – in this case at O Beach?
The smart set’s talking about… Harry pal’s ex storms Fringe
The Duchess of Sussex may have turned her back on Britain, but another glamorous American with royal connections is finding herself right at home on this side of the pond.
Former model Alessandra Ford, the ex-fiancee of Prince Harry’s close friend Arthur Landon, is making her Edinburgh Fringe debut with her one-woman comedy – 30 And F***ed – and has sold out every performance so far. The 36-year-old daughter of Chiltern Firehouse owner Andre Balazs and Ford Models founder Katie Ford says: ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better start.’
Alessandra launched her comedy career just over a year ago, and for her new show mines her real-life misfortunes, including how she found herself back in her childhood bedroom at 30 following her split from filmmaker Arthur, 44 – experiencing the ‘absurd humiliation of starting over’.
Alessandra Ford, ex-fiancee of Prince Harry’s close friend Arthur Landon, started her comedy career just over a year ago
How Depp helped Kelly smile again
Johnny Depp has helped put a smile back on Kelly Osbourne’s face.
She watched the Hollywood star pay tribute to her father, Ozzy Osbourne, who died last year aged 76.
Depp was performing with his band the Hollywood Vampires, featuring Alice Cooper, at the O2 Arena in London. Kelly, 41, has faced scrutiny over her dramatic weight loss and split from Sid Wilson, 49, keyboard player with heavy metal band Slipknot, with whom she has a three-year-old son, Sidney.
Kelly says: ‘I have not laughed so hard with my friends in well over a year.’
Kelly Osbourne watched Johnny Depp play tribute to her late father, heavy metal legend Ozzy
Engaging mystery as Dara Huang flashes sparkler
Dara Huang is a dreadful tease. The ex-fiancee of Princess Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has posted photographs online suggesting she’s engaged.
US-born Dara, 43, shared a picture of her hand entwined with that of a man. On her ring finger was a huge sparkler.
‘Kinda chic to still believe in love,’ she wrote. Dara, who declines to comment, also posted a picture of her wearing a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a B. Could it be B for Brett?
In May, I disclosed she was enjoying a blossoming friendship with film director Brett Ratner, 57. Yet he tells me it’s ‘not true’ they’re engaged.
The ex-fiancee of Princess Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has posted photographs online suggesting she’s engaged
Dara also posted a picture of her wearing a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a B. Could it be B for Brett? wonders Richard Eden
A huge sparkler was on her ring finger and her hand entwined with a man’s
Hirst’s old flame on art of living
Damien Hirst’s ex-girlfriend Roxie Nafousi, who is 25 years his junior, admits she didn’t always date men for the right reasons.
The former party girl, 36, was in a relationship with the artist, whose fortune is estimated to be more than £315million, for three years until 2015. She relied on powerful men for validation. ‘In the past, I was always as good as the men I dated,’ Roxie explains. ‘So if I could date someone that was successful, that had money, that was famous, then I was, like, “Oh, maybe that means that I’m good enough.”’
After her split from Damien, Roxie wrote Manifest – the best-selling self-help book on how to turn their dream lives into reality – and says she no longer needs a high-status man to feel confident.
She adds: ‘Now I’m successful in my own right, I have my own financial independence, I don’t need to look for someone with those things to prove anything to me.’
Roxie Nafousi, Damien Hirst’s ex, says she no longer needs a high-status man to feel confident
Callum’s fans prove a distraction for Monica
Monica Barbaro found it difficult to keep her mind on the job while filming her steamy new romance with Callum Turner, dashing husband of pop star Dua Lipa.
The Hollywood actress, 36, appears opposite the British actor, 36, in One Night Only, about single people in New York who are allowed to have sex only one night of the year.
But shooting in the city caused problems.
‘I have ADHD, so I would just get really distracted,’ Monica admits. ‘The paparazzi shoot so many sets, so you can be like, would you mind moving out of my eyeline? And they know what you’re talking about, and they stay out of it.’
She adds: ‘Also, crowds gather. We’d be mid-scene and someone would be, like, “Is that Callum Turner?” I’m, like, “I’m sorry, I lost my place in the scene.”
‘Callum would be able to just keep going, and he’s very patient with me, but I would just be like, “What? Where are we?” ’
Monica Barbaro found it hard to focus when paparazzi were taking pictures of her and co-star Callum Turner
(Very) modern manners
Sir David Beckham’s at it. As for Lily James, well, she’s mad for it.
So will the Princess of Wales soon be at it, too? I refer, of course, to the game of padel, dreamt up in Mexico in the late 1960s but now taking the world by storm – even, it transpires, Hurlingham, the £1,400-a-year club set in 42 perfectly manicured south-west London acres to which Catherine takes her children for tennis lessons.
I can disclose that it’s seeking permission to tear up one of its hallowed tennis courts, and a mini tennis court, and replace them with two padel courts, which are enclosed by glass and wire-mesh. Each will have eight 20ft floodlights – enough, perhaps, to put Catherine off?
Frank Skinner is dismayed that his Hollywood-style Walk of Fame star in his native Birmingham has been ripped up without warning.
The comedian, 69, visited the city’s Broad Street recently to show his son Buzz, 14, the tribute he was awarded in 2009 alongside fellow local heroes including rock star Ozzy Osbourne.
‘I took my son to see my star. But now that they’ve got the trams, they had to change all the pavements, and it’s gone. It’s been torn off,’ Frank says. ‘It was very disappointing.
‘Apparently they’re in some underground storage, somewhere. Ozzy’s star was in the exhibition at the museum. It’s all horrible breeze blocks.’
Frank Skinner is dismayed that his Hollywood-style Walk of Fame star in his native Birmingham has been ripped up without warning
‘Fun and flirty’ star sought to play the young Camilla
Do you bear a resemblance to the Queen? The search has begun for a ‘fun and flirty’ actress to play Camilla Parker Bowles in an ‘explosive’ film about her younger days.
‘It’s time we gave audiences a chance to look at this through Camilla’s eyes,’ American producer Brent Roske tells me.
The film, called Camilla, will be a prequel to his 2023 drama, Diana In Love, which explored the Princess of Wales’s romance with Dodi Fayed.
‘I’m looking for an incredible talent who can capture Camilla’s wit, laugh, and effortless charm,’ Roske says. ‘She was often the life of the party, fiercely independent, and utterly magnetic. It’s time audiences see that side of the story.’
