EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: BBC chairman Richard Sharp gives his £180,000 pay to charity… including donation to opera house aiming to bringing classical music to the masses

Moaning BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, who publicly griped about his enormous salary of up to £429,999 per year, has been put to shame by the Corporation’s new chairman, Richard Sharp.

Sharp is donating his entire annual pay packet of £180,000 to charity and, I can disclose, has begun by pledging a large part of it to an opera house committed to bringing classical music to the masses.

‘Richard loves excellence — that’s what he’s all about,’ says Wasfi Kani, founder of Grange Park Opera in Surrey, who confirms the donation. ‘I know people think opera is just a pile of rich people, but it’s not.

‘Really, supporting opera is sort of cherishing culture. If we just left culture to dwindle, as it has in the last year, there would be nothing left, and everyone suffered.

Moaning BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, who publicly griped about his enormous salary of up to £429,999 per year, has been put to shame by the Corporation’s new chairman, Richard Sharp (left) 

Earlier this month, Edwards — who’s the BBC’s fourth highest-earning presenter, after Gary Lineker, Zoe Ball and Steve Wright — wailed that it was ‘a nightmare’ and ‘very tedious’ to have had his salary disclosed by the organisation

‘Richard does believe culture should be cherished.’ The former Goldman Sachs banker, 65, replaced Sir David Clementi as BBC chairman in February.

Kani has already earmarked part of Sharp’s donation for a major new venture. ‘It’s my new secret project,’ she tells me. 

‘It’s a wonderful project and it has a massive educational element, so 4,000 school children will benefit.’

BBC chairman Sharp is donating his entire annual pay packet of £180,000 to charity

Earlier this month, Edwards — who’s the BBC’s fourth highest-earning presenter, after Gary Lineker, Zoe Ball and Steve Wright — wailed that it was ‘a nightmare’ and ‘very tedious’ to have had his salary disclosed by the organisation.

The autocue reader used to earn between £550,000 and £599,999 a year, but was one of six male presenters who agreed to take a pay cut in 2018 to redress the balance with female stars.

His salary has gone down every year since, but he’s also on the books of the JLA agency and can be hired to present awards or give an after-dinner speech for £10,000 to £25,000.

Michelin-starred restaurants often leave diners hungry — even after 12 courses. Now, MasterChef judge Marcus Wareing is to make portions at his restaurant in Knightsbridge’s The Berkeley Hotel even smaller — for very woke reasons.

To help save the planet, he says, ‘I’m not going to take meat and fish off my plates; I’m not going to become vegan. 

What I will do is reduce that on the plate.’ So diners shelling out £49 for Galloway beef fillet may find more cauliflower than meat, and those who choose the £43 Herdwick lamb with courgette could end up with more greens than they bargained for.

Wareing expects diners to be pleased with their paltry portions. After giving up big steaks, he says: ‘I feel better for it, and I believe that the workforce going back to their desks will do, too.’

Olympic boxer Nicola Adams (pictured with her girlfriend Ella Baig) looked the perfect partner to her girlfriend Ella Baig’s Cinders at a gala performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s big new West End musical Cinderella

Olympic boxer Nicola Adams looked the perfect partner to her girlfriend Ella Baig’s Cinders at a gala performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s big new West End musical Cinderella.

Adams, 38, won over Strictly Come Dancing fans last year when she competed as part of the show’s first same-sex couple with Katya Jones.

She has been with model and beauty blogger Ella, 23, for three years now.

They already share a home and a pet dog, Brooklyn. And now they’re talking about having children. ‘Yes, we want kids,’ Baig has said.

Perhaps it’s time for an engagement ring — or a fairy-tale glass slipper?

Pointless host Richard Osman has a problem with air travel — and not just when it comes to squeezing his 6ft 7in frame into a seat.

The author of The Thursday Murder Club says he’s always interrogated by border guards when he enters America. 

‘My surname, Osman, is a Muslim and Turkish surname, so every time I go to the States I get stopped and questioned,’ says Osman, 50. 

‘I always get taken to the back room with the guys with the guns and they question me, just because of my surname.’

The TV star adds that he’d like to trace his ancestry.

‘I’m only sticking around in showbusiness on the vague chance that I get famous enough to go on Who Do You Think You Are?’

Now we’re cooking with gas! Adrian Dunbar, who plays Ted Hastings in the hit BBC drama Line Of Duty, is to become a grandfather.

His cabaretstar daughter Madeleine is five months pregnant. ‘It was hard keeping this one a secret — I’m excited,’ says Madeleine, 34, who is to marry East End roofer Callum Lazenby-Todd, 31. 

Dunbar, 63, also has a stepson with his wife, the Australian actress Anna Nygh.

Would you go on holiday with your ex, and make him leave his partner behind? That’s what Prince Harry’s pal, the socialite Sophie Stanbury (pictured with her ex-husband), has done, jetting off for a sizzling summer break on the fashionable Greek island of Mykonos with her ex-husband, Alex

‘We’re really good friends, so why wouldn’t we?’ declares the London-based interior designer

Would you go on holiday with your ex, and make him leave his partner behind?

That’s what Prince Harry’s pal, the socialite Sophie Stanbury, has done, jetting off for a sizzling summer break on the fashionable Greek island of Mykonos with her ex-husband, Alex.

‘We’re really good friends, so why wouldn’t we?’ declares the London-based interior designer, 45, who used to spend weekends in the countryside with Prince Harry and their mutual friends.

She has two sons with investment banker Alex Stanbury, whom she divorced in 2016, and says: ‘The boys want us together.’ Alex has a girlfriend, but Sophie does not name her.

Sophie adds: ‘I don’t love travelling on my own with the boys — I find it stressful, so I like having a man around.’

TV heart-throb Gethin Jones, who allegedly broke off his engagement to classical singer Katherine Jenkins because her middle toes were longer than her big toe, has opened up about the extent of his foot fixation. 

‘I used to have to wash my feet before getting into bed,’ admits the former Strictly star, 43. 

‘I couldn’t go to sleep otherwise. I’m so weird. Is that too much information?’ 

Jones adds: ‘I also used to suck my hand when I was a kid — my fingers are bent. I put my whole hand in my mouth and that’s why I had to have braces.’ 

And he wonders why he’s still single.

Sleeping with Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham is a dangerous business. The 43-year-old sleepwalks, and admits her habit is so bad that she attacks her husband, businessman Owain Walbyoff, at night

Sleeping with Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham is a dangerous business.

The 43-year-old sleepwalks, and admits her habit is so bad that she attacks her husband, businessman Owain Walbyoff, at night.

‘It’s so embarrassing,’ confesses the mother-of-two. ‘It’s probably hardest for my husband as I do such bonkers stuff in my sleep.

‘The other night he felt this presence over his face. He opened his eyes and I said, ‘Don’t panic, but you are completely green.’ I was squeezing his face and he was saying, ‘Get off me, you nutter!’ ‘

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