The Londoner: Melania won’t leave Trump —they have banter, says ex-adviser

In the Londoner: Phoebe Saatchi Yates on her new gallery / William Boyd says wait for the great coronavirus novel / Skepta and JME’s mum takes aim at trolls / Boris Johnson has something to cheer about
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff & Melania Trump
Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
3 December 2020

Melania Trump’s former adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff said there’s “no way” Melania Trump will leave US President Donald Trump because they have “banter” together, as Melania reportedly plans a memoir.

Winston Wolkoff added that she will release “mind-blowing” recordings of her conversations with Melania if her book is not truthful. Winston Wolkoff helped plan Mr Trump’s inauguration events but left the White House in 2018 and wrote a tell-all memoir Melania & Me, released this year, after controversies over spending.

“I am curious to see if she’s truthful or not because if I have to come out and protect myself I will,” she said.

On the First Lady’s post-office plans, Winston Wolkoff says: “She envisions herself in the south of France on a big yacht.” But she believes Melania will stay with Trump: “In privacy and around the dining table they have a banter.”

The artistic way to cheer up WFH

Phoebe Saatchi Yates and Arthur Yates
Saatchi Yates

PHOEBE SAATCHI YATES, the daughter of Charles Saatchi, tells us “being at the gallery feels as close as you can get to seeing an old friend at a cocktail party”, as she reflects on opening her London gallery with her husband during the pandemic. Saatchi Yates, pictured, said another plus was that “quite a number of collectors” were now “buying art in order to feel a sense of excitement and change around their homes with new works. Having a new painting can mean being stuck at home can be quite uplifting”. What else to do but decorate?

Boyd: It’s too soon for a Covid novel

25-sept-gc-william boyd-04.jpg
Author William Boyd
GLENN COPUS

Novelist William Boyd says we’re a long way off the great coronavirus novel. “As a writer you need a decade or so to relax and make sense of what you’ve lived through,” he explains. Boyd admits there’s a “temptation” to write “about something cataclysmic like Covid” but that it must be resisted. The A Good Man in Africa author asks “where’s the great novel of 9/11? It hasn’t arrived yet, maybe it will come in 10 years’ time”.

Skepta’s mum shuts down trolls

Launch Of 'Silent Madness' At NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula, By Fashion Designer Mowalola
Skepta 
Getty Images for Greenwich Penin

Ify Adenuga, the mother of grime stars Skepta and JME, says she used to make MySpace accounts to take on anyone writing negative comments about her children. But Skepta “got really vexed” so she tells The Face: “I’ll be cussing the person, but I won’t say anything. From my laptop I’ll be saying, “Silly idiot!” If only they knew. 

SW1A

BORIS JOHNSON has something to cheer about other than vaccines. Polling on the Conservative Home website shows approval for his handling of the Covid crisis has increased. The only catch is that it’s up from last month’s all-time low. Now only 53, not 63, per cent say he’s handling it badly. Ouch.

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Dan Rosenfield appointed No10 chief of staff
Dan Rosenfield
PA

PERHAPS Boris Johnson could do with fans — or a fan — who is as keen on him as his new chief of staff is on Manchester United. Dan Rosenfield is such a devoted supporter, the Jewish Chronicle report, he picked Munich for his student year abroad because the team were due to play one match there  that year.

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