EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey, who was said to have an £80 million fortune, leaves no money in her will

Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey was haunted all her life by witnessing, as a seven-year-old girl, bailiffs removing furniture and household goods from her family home after her father, who had owned a central heating company, went bankrupt.

She used the experience as motivation as she went on to make a reputed fortune of £80million from the pallet company she set up using money from selling her home and car.

There has, however, been an extraordinary final twist in her life story, 16 months after she died in Morocco at the age of 65, after a long illness.

I can reveal that Devey left not a single penny in her will.

Newly published probate documents disclose that, in the will made in 2021, she left her large diamond cross to her friend Audrey Mulligan, and her personal effects to her trustees – her son, publicist and lawyer – so they could distribute them as she had wanted in a letter of wishes, which is not public.

Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey was haunted all her life by witnessing, as a seven-year-old, bailiffs remove furniture from her family home after her father went bankrupt

Born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, Devey, a one-time chain smoker, had a stroke in 2009 that left her with a paralysed arm. She gave generously to charity, especially to the Stroke Association, of which she became patron, and she was vice president of Carers’ Trust.

She sold her business, Pall-Ex, to focus on her charity work in 2019. Devey once said, ‘I didn’t want my son to go without so I pushed myself hard to build a life for us. Fortunately, I was always good with numbers and I loved the cut and thrust of business.’

She paid a high price for her success, however. In 2011, she said that she feared her career had been the catalyst for her son to become addicted to heroin, which he gave up in 2006.

‘My son, Mevlit, has always said that there was nothing that I could have done to have stopped him getting in with the wrong crowd and becoming an addict, but it still troubles me.’

Devey was married three times, firstly to Malcolm Sharples, then Ed Devey, and finally Phillip Childs. Her son, Mevlit, was from her relationship with Hussain Ahmett before she discovered that he was already married and had five children.

Her own mother had suffered the same misfortune, discovering that her husband Arthur was married with four children.

After such an extraordinary life and with such a savvy, business-centric mind, did Devey really let her money evaporate into thin air?

Celebrated heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, a close friend of Princess Diana, says she impressed upon her son, the Prince of Wales, the importance of empathy.

‘She taught Prince William well — that if he is going to be King he needs to feel the pain of the people,’ Sir Magdi tells me at the launch party for his biography A Surgeon And A Maverick, by Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman, at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, London.

‘I think he will be great. He is a sensitive person,’ he says, adding: ‘But, as for the other one [Prince Harry] — no comment.’

Celebrated heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, a close friend of Princess Diana, says she impressed upon her son, the Prince of Wales, the importance of empathy

Nigel Farage, who helped win the Brexit vote, has a new target in his sights.

He’s angry that the Welsh Parliament, which is dominated by Labour, has just banned GB News, on which he’s a presenter, from airing on its premises as the channel is ‘offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our Parliament’s values’.

He tells me: ‘I’m going to have a chat with them.’ Referring to his ‘debanking’ row, he adds: ‘The last people who took me on were NatWest — and I won.’

Nigel Farage is angry that the Welsh Parliament, which is dominated by Labour, has just banned GB News, on which he’s a presenter

Ex-wild child Lily’s award high 

How times have changed for Lily Allen, who was kicked out of the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in 2008 for allegedly being high on drugs.

Now sober, the pop singer turned actress, 38, won the Theatre Actor gong this year for her roles in 2:22 A Ghost Story and The Pillowman.

‘Back then, I still had anxiety and feelings of inadequacy at events like this and I dealt with those in unhealthy ways,’ Lily, who is married to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, 48, tells me. ‘I’m so glad those days are behind me.’

How times have changed for Lily Allen, who was kicked out of the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in 2008 for allegedly being high on drugs

Boris Johnson became a godfather this week — to a 45-year-old

It’s Boris the godfather… 

Boris Johnson became a godfather this week — to a 45-year-old. His ‘godchild’ is Sergei Tikhanovsky, the jailed husband of Belarus’s leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ after standing against its leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, in 2020.

‘Boris Johnson has become godfather to my husband,’ Sviatlana tells me at the launch party for Lord Ashcroft’s book, All To Play For: The Advance Of Rishi Sunak, at the Banqueting House in London.

This gives the former prime minister ‘official sponsor’ status, allowing him to write to Sergei. ‘People in prisons often commit suicide,’ Sviatlana says. ‘But if they get a letter from someone in the UK or U.S., they get more energy — they know they’re being taken care of.’

Could there be a fairytale ending to Prince Christian of Denmark’s lavish 18th birthday celebrations in Copenhagen?

Staff found a gold stiletto apparently abandoned by a partygoer. Rather than go from house to house seeking his Cinderella, the Prince instead asked the Palace to post a photograph of the shoe on social media.

An old comrade of Prince Harry in the Armed Forces is helping to evacuate people from Israel. Dean Stott, 46, who attended the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding, flew to the Middle East within 24 hours of the Hamas attacks earlier this month, after Jewish friends rang him. 

He is helping people leave via Jordan and is looking at chartering boats to Cyprus. ‘The phones are going wild with requests for help,’ he says. 

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