SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: I wish I hadn't wed BEFORE sex, says Jane Seymour

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Well aware that all four of her marriages have failed, actress Jane Seymour has decided to give some advice on the subject.

The 64-year-old star of Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman says women are making a mistake if, like her, they rush to the altar because they won’t sleep with their boyfriends until they have a ring on their finger.

Seymour met her first husband, Michael Attenborough, while appearing in his father Richard’s film Oh! What A Lovely War. ‘I’d tell my younger self not to get married so early,’ she says. ‘When I was 20 we got married. And when I was 21 we got divorced. I perfected the art of getting married too soon.’

Ill fated: Actress Jane Seymour with her first husband, Michael Attenborough, son of director Richard Attenborough

Four years later, she tied the knot with artist Geoffrey Planer but their marriage ended after just a year

Four years later, she tied the knot with artist Geoffrey Planer but their marriage ended after just a year. ‘I had two short marriages,’ she says. ‘It doesn’t look good on paper. But in my household there was a pressure that you weren’t supposed to have sex until you were married. Which is completely insane.

‘I think you should learn to live together before you consider marriage. And have some really great rows and break up a couple of times before you contemplate it, because you have to learn how to come back from those things.’

Don't look now, Harry! Cressida's moving on

Any hope that Prince Harry may have had of reconciling with ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas will surely now be dashed after the blonde enjoyed a date with her new man on Tuesday night.

Dancer turned actress Cressida, 26, dined out at the fashionable restaurant Le Caprice in London with her actor boyfriend Edward Holcroft, who most recently played George Boleyn in the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall.

New relationship: Cressida Bonas dined out at the fashionable restaurant Le Caprice in London with her actor boyfriend Edward Holcroft. She was later seen ducking for cover in the car with him

Judging by the pictures, however, the Mulberry muse tried her best to keep a low profile as she hid her face when they got in the cab after their two-hour date.

This is not the first public foray for Cressida and Edward, 27, as they were spotted shopping together three months ago at the Westfield centre in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, near to where Cressida lives.

Kitty Spencer has followed in her aunt Princess Diana’s philanthropic footsteps

Kitty's on course to be new Diana  

It’s barely a year since I reported Kitty Spencer had decided to follow in her aunt Princess Diana’s philanthropic footsteps, and already she is getting kudos.

Kitty, the eldest daughter of Earl Spencer, relocated from South Africa to London last summer to work for Give It Time, a charity which provides holidays for military personnel on leave. 

In recognition of her work, she’s been invited to the Women of the Year lunch.

‘I am so super proud of this recognition,’ she says.

Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown famously promised to eat his hat on election night if the exit poll proved to be accurate. But, two months on from that fateful remark, it’s not his appetite for hats that he’s lost.

‘Whenever I’m at a party with canapes, I always want to have one but then I’m always wary of having an Ed Miliband moment,’ the 74-year-old tells me at a party in Kensington, referring to the former Labour leader’s botched attempt to scoff a bacon sarnie.

However, unlike Miliband, Ashdown is a man of his word. Reflecting on his hat comment, he adds: ‘I’ve eaten eight of them now; I’ve eaten a hat in chocolate, a hat in marzipan, a Cornish pasty shaped like a hat — and I can’t even remember the others. I’ve eaten lots of hats. It was all good fun.’