Standing outside a swanky restaurant in the posh London enclave of Notting Hill, Jemima Goldsmith looked quite happy with herself.
Next to her was Gary Lineker, looking dapper in a white shirt and jeans. They were seen giggling together after a fun dinner at Dorian, a bistro that is a favorite haunt of A-list celebrities including Victoria Beckham.
The sighting got tongues wagging as Lineker also attended Jemima’s 50th birthday party in January and rumors that they have become more than just good friends have been circulating in society circles for months.
Perhaps it is simply the fact that they are both single and are thought to have been for some time that has the bush telegraph buzzing.
But if they are actually together, it would certainly put a smile on Jemima’s face after years of not being able to find Mr Right, something she has admitted has caused her immense grief.
Gary Lineker and Jemima Goldsmith were spotted outside a chic restaurant in the posh London enclave of Notting Hill this week
The same applies to 63-year-old Gary, who has been officially partnerless since he split from second wife Danielle Bux in 2016.
Jemima, who was as chic as ever in a simple white T-shirt, tucked into black wide-leg trousers and a blazer, insists that any talk of a relationship is untrue.
But an onlooker who saw the pair smiling and laughing outside the restaurant said: ‘They seemed very familiar to each other.
‘They had a good old time, as if they had known each other for ages.
“They stood outside for a while before saying goodbye and going home separately, or so they would have you think. People walking by must have thought, ‘What’s going on here?’
The pair spent hours at Dorian, eating and drinking wine before leaving, with Gary carrying two takeaway boxes of food.
Sources close to Jemima say it is only the second time she has seen Gary all year – the first, believed to be during the milestone birthday celebrations at her estate, Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, which she bought in 2010 for a reported £15 million.
A friend tells me, ‘Jemima is absolutely convinced that there is nothing going on between her and Gary. She says that they have known each other for years and have a great friendship. She insists that there is nothing more to it than that and that of course he would be at her birthday party because they are friends.
Lineker, 63, has been officially partnerless since divorcing second wife Danielle Bux in 2016
Jemima married Pakistani cricket legend Imran Khan – with whom she has two sons, Suleiman, 27, and 25-year-old Kasim – but the couple divorced nine years later
Jemima also had an unlikely romance with comedian Russell Brand, which raised some eyebrows
‘The show was full of famous people and it was a cheerful affair, but he wasn’t there in the capacity of her boyfriend. So she says it anyway, but would she admit it? Probably not. These things don’t come out of nowhere.’
As for Gary, he is known for being “very secretive” about romantic matters.
Sources close to Jemima say she is also a good friend of Gary’s ex-wife, Danielle, 44. Jemima declined to comment, but a friend of hers pointed out to me that she “doesn’t have to justify it every time.” time she has dinner with a man’.
Joining them in Dorian, just a few miles from Jemima’s home in South West London, was a ‘third wheel’ in the form of filmmaker Leila Bartell, who is believed to be a mutual friend of both Gary and Jemima. And Bartell is no stranger to the spotlight. Fans of Johnny Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard will remember that she spent a lot of time with Leila in California in 2017. The pair were spotted dining together in Los Angeles following her split from the Hollywood actor.
Apart from Danielle, Gary’s only other notable relationship was his first marriage to beautician Michelle Cockayne, the mother of his four sons: George, Harry, Tobias and Angus.
Jemima, a famous beauty who is a successful film writer and producer in her own right, as well as former associate editor of the political magazine New Statesman and European editor-in-chief of the American magazine Vanity Fair, has a more colorful love life.
In 1995, she married Pakistani cricket legend Imran Khan – with whom she has two sons, Suleiman, 27, and 25-year-old Kasim – but the couple divorced nine years later.
Since then, she has dated several high-profile men. After the end of her marriage to Imran, Jemima started dating Notting Hill actor Hugh Grant.
They quickly became one of the most written about couples in London, but in February 2007, just a few days after Valentine’s Day, they announced they had split. Jemima is said to have been the one to call it off, although a spokesperson for Grant said it was “completely amicable.”
The aide added: “Hugh has only positive things to say about Jemima.”
Then came her most unlikely joke of all: Russell Brand. The romance between the late billionaire tycoon Sir James Goldsmith’s daughter and his third wife Lady Annabel and the controversial comedian certainly raised eyebrows.
According to reports, Jemima’s half-brother Robin Birley, owner of the exclusive members club 5 Hertford Street, hated the union so much that he banned Brand from ever walking through the club’s doors.
However, that hasn’t stopped the pair from being regularly spotted at some of London’s best restaurants and on walks with Jemima’s beloved white Alsatian, Brian.
Their relationship ended in September 2014, much to the relief of not only Birley, but also Jemima’s other brothers, Zac and Ben.
It was later rumored that she and television pundit Jamie Redknapp had romanced, although he denied the claims. Jemima told her friends that they were “just friends.”
Her most recent confirmed relationship was with the writer of the Netflix series The Crown, Peter Morgan, a hookup revealed by The Mail on Sunday in 2021.
Very soon after Morgan announced his divorce from X-Files star Gillian Anderson, Jemima moved in with Peter, apparently leaving Gillian ‘stunned’. Like her and Lineker, she and Peter were old friends and some claimed that Jemima had been ‘trying to make it work for some time’. However, just over six months later, she and Morgan split, with him apparently wanting Gillian back.
The breakup clearly affected Jemima, because a few months later, in an interview to promote her 2022 film, What’s Love Got To Do With It? – starring Lily James – she said she would have preferred an arranged marriage to ‘a lot of heartache and headaches’.
‘Honestly personally, [arranged marriage] “I could have saved myself a lot of heartache and headaches if I had someone to take care of it for me,” she said, although she admitted she was “someone who did absolutely the opposite.”
But in the wake of her fiftieth birthday, could her Mr Right be sitting under her nose, or rather, across from her at a dining table in a very posh restaurant in Notting Hill? “Watch this space,” says a friend.
