Billionaire Joe Lewis has had a padel court installed on his superyacht as the sport skies in popularity. Padel is the fastest-growing sport in the world with the Bamford Club in the Cotswolds, UK seeing members opting for 'back-to-back padel sessions' rather than work. The club alone can command annual membership fees starting at £2,250 and among the club's benefits are a biomass-heated pool, an ice barrel outside to 'pep circulation', a restaurant serving organic eggs, as well as the two outdoor padel courts in the car park. Tennis courts have become a thing of the past, as padel courts continue to open up all over the world, hotels and resorts are getting in on the action and even estate agents have recognised the value of a padel court at home; helping to replace the traditional swimming pool.
The frenzied speculation and gossip surrounding the alleged recent breakdown of the TV friendship between "This Morning" presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby has sparked PTSD in Emma Beddington who lived through a similar experience with suspended "Good Morning Britain" presenter Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. Emma questions why audiences become so invested in the relationships between TV couples, with many people rushing to declare their allegiances and even speak about the "real" and "true" machinations of their on-screen couple. Emma suggests that TV couples mirror our own domestic frustrations and that viewers are projecting or seeking drama in their own lives.
In late 2012, Philip Schofield interviewed then-prime minister David Cameron on a live broadcast of This Morning and handed him a list of names of alleged Westminster paedophiles taken from the internet - a spectacularly reckless thing to do. The presenter was not sacked despite calls for him to be, but this article suggests that his departure after 18 years from ITV's flagship daytime programme may have finally come due to the incident. The author of the Times piece suggests that Schofield should have been sacked when the paedophile incident happened.
