Princess Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer married her fiance, the South African multimillionaire Michael Lewis, in a lavish ceremony in Italy at the weekend.
The model and philanthropist, 30, is the eldest daughter of Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, and Princess Diana’s brother. She and Lewis, 62, had reportedly been dating for two years, before their engagement was announced in January 2020.
The ceremony, held at Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, was attended by the couple’s close friends and family, including Lady Kitty's sisters, twins Eliza and Amelia, and Viscountess Emma Weymouth and her husband Ceawlin Thynn, the Marquess of Bath.
Lady Kitty's brothers Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp and Samuel Aitken walked her down the aisle, according to the Daily Mail.
Celebrity friends in attendance included singer Pixie Lott, Idris Elba's wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba, and Made In Chelsea star Mark Francis Vandelli, People reports. Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, was also spotted at the wedding.
Cousins Prince Harry and Prince William did not attend.
For her big day, Lady Kitty wore five Alta Moda dresses specially designed by the Italian duo Dolce & Gabbana, for whom she is the brand ambassador.
The brand posted a behind-the-scenes video on their social media.
"@kitty.spencer chose to wear Dolce&Gabbana on the most important day of her life. For this unique event, #DolceGabbana created a number of exclusive handmade gowns, each celebrating the beauty of the bride, the passion for #AltaModa and the absolute joy of the occasion," it said.
The wedding gown, a Victorian-inspired piece, featured a high neck, puff sleeves and a cinched waist, which the bride paired with a lengthy train and hoop earrings.
She later changed into a baby blue tulle gown for the reception, complete with a cape embroidered with cross-stitched flowers.
Among the five dresses was also a double organza hand-painted silk gown embellished with flowers and crystals.
"Once she had received the proposal, she told us she had thought of us immediately, and we were very happy of that," designer Domenico Dolce told Tatler.
"One of the inspirations is definitely her love for Italy. Kitty is in love with our beautiful country and its rich history, art and culture. But she is also a girl who is very attached to her origins, to England; to her heritage of the great Victorian era. And like all the English people, she has a great passion for all kinds of flowers."
Stefano Gabbana added: "Lady Kitty Spencer is a girl who is very respectful of her origins, so she certainly started from her Englishness, her memories, her childhood and the traditions of her country. Then, she also let herself be carried away by her passions and her refined and elegant taste. We accompanied her on this journey full of emotions and it was a real honour for us."
Lady Kitty has a special relationship with Italy, having studied Italian and art in Florence for three years. She first walked for Dolce & Gabbana at their show in Milan in 2017 and has also worked with other brands including Bulgari and Alberta Ferretti.
According to the Daily Mail, guests were treated to a feast and dancing followed by a fireworks display after the ceremony.
While the couple have been linked for a couple of years, Lady Kitty has been guarded about her relationship with Lewis, the fashion tycoon and chairman of South Africa’s Foschini Group.
“I feel less vulnerable when I don’t discuss things like my love life. I just think, ‘Really, what’s that got to do with anyone else?’,” she told Town & Country in May. “It shouldn’t make a difference to anyone’s day. Who I love or don’t love, or have a crush on or don’t have a crush on, or go on a date with, I don’t know why that should be what somebody reads over their cornflakes."
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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The years Ramadan fell in May
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Hili 2: Unesco World Heritage site
The site is part of the Hili archaeological park in Al Ain. Excavations there have proved the existence of the earliest known agricultural communities in modern-day UAE. Some date to the Bronze Age but Hili 2 is an Iron Age site. The Iron Age witnessed the development of the falaj, a network of channels that funnelled water from natural springs in the area. Wells allowed settlements to be established, but falaj meant they could grow and thrive. Unesco, the UN's cultural body, awarded Al Ain's sites - including Hili 2 - world heritage status in 2011. Now the most recent dig at the site has revealed even more about the skilled people that lived and worked there.
Correspondents
By Tim Murphy
(Grove Press)
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Review: Tomb Raider
Dir: Roar Uthaug
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Walter Goggins
two stars
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
T20 World Cup Qualifier
October 18 – November 2
Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya
Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan
Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed
Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3ECompany%20name%3A%20Shipsy%3Cbr%3EYear%20of%20inception%3A%202015%3Cbr%3EFounders%3A%20Soham%20Chokshi%2C%20Dhruv%20Agrawal%2C%20Harsh%20Kumar%20and%20Himanshu%20Gupta%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20India%2C%20UAE%20and%20Indonesia%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20logistics%3Cbr%3ESize%3A%20more%20than%20350%20employees%3Cbr%3EFunding%20received%20so%20far%3A%20%2431%20million%20in%20series%20A%20and%20B%20rounds%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Info%20Edge%2C%20Sequoia%20Capital%E2%80%99s%20Surge%2C%20A91%20Partners%20and%20Z3%20Partners%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE%20HOLDOVERS
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
ANATOMY%20OF%20A%20FALL
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJustine%20Triet%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESandra%20Huller%2C%20Swann%20Arlaud%2C%20Milo%20Machado-Graner%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Brief scoreline
Switzerland 0
England 0
Result: England win 6-5 on penalties
Man of the Match: Trent Alexander-Arnold (England)
Without Remorse
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Michael B Jordan
4/5
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'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPAD%20(2022)
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