Dad

KELLY Osbourne was seen breaking down in tears live on stage as she paid tribute to her late dad Ozzy.

Legendary rocker Ozzy was 76 when he sadly passed away on July 22, with the cause of death later revealed to be a cardiac arrest.

Heartbroken Kelly, 40, took to the stage to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her late father in his native Birmingham.

Ozzy was honoured at The Birmingham Awards, held at The Eastside Rooms.

Accepting the award, Kelly told the audience: “While most singers go their whole career without winning one but impressive as those awards are, this recognition tonight tops them all.

“He was proud to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame but what he was most proud of was his star on the Walk of Stars on Broad Street.

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“He was forced to spend much of his life in America because of his work but Birmingham was always his heart and soul.’

“He loved this city, he loved the people as they loved him back. That’s why it was so important to come home one last time in July to say goodbye.”

At this point Kelly’s voice started to crack with emotion and she said: “The tens of people who lined the streets and brought the city to a standstill, the affection you all had for him, my family and I were so so moved by the outpouring of love.

“He performed thousands of shows for more than five decades but the most important gig he ever played was in Aston. Despite his health challenges in later years, he was determined his final concert had to be right here.

“He was a proud Brummy in the beginning of his career and he was a proud Brummy at the end.”

Kelly could hardly hold back the tears, as she ended her speech by saying: “Again, on behalf of my dad and my family, thank you for this wonderful lifetime achievement award. I know he’s looking down on us tonight smiling with pride.”

JACK’S TEARS

Kelly’s brother Jack Osbourne recently gave a heartbreaking update on how his mum Sharon is coping after his father’s death.

In an interview on Good Morning America earlier this month, Jack was asked how Sharon has been doing since her husband’s tragic passing.

Sharon was married to Ozzy for 40 years.

“She’s okay, but she’s not okay,” Jack said.

The interviewer, Chris Connelly, then asked if Sharon can “feel the affection and appreciation” from supporters.

Jack responded: “Oh my god, yeah. I know she feels the love.

“None of us expected it to be like this, with that outpour of love.”

He continued: “Every child sits there and kind of has this thought about one day that their parents won’t be there, and what will that be like.

“It’s just a part of being human. We just didn’t think of it. It was a different weight to it, you know?”

At one point during the interview, emotional Jack broke down in tears while talking about his father’s final concert.

He said: “Before he went on stage, I ran back into the dressing room…”

Choking back the tears, Jack explained how he gave him a “big hug”.

He said: “I just kissed him. I just said, I was like, ‘Crush it. You’re going to do so good.’

“And I was crying.”

SAD DEATH

Legendary rocker Ozzy passed away in July “surrounded by love” just weeks after he took to the stage one final time with his band mates at Villa Park in Birmingham.

In recent years, the star had been battling numerous health conditions, including Parkinson’s.

His official death certificate lists ‘acute myocardial infarction’ and ‘out of hospital cardiac arrest’ under the cause of death section.

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It also listed coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction as “joint causes” of Ozzy’s death.

The document described his occupation as a “rock legend, songwriter and performer” in a heart-warming nod towards Ozzy.

“Harper & Hal,” premiering Sunday on the cinema-centric streamer Mubi, is a gorgeous, generous limited series that has nothing to show you other than people, how they are and how they do or do not get along. Its elements are not unfamiliar, because they’re drawn from life, rather than from the movies — or just from the movies, as they’re subjects to which the movies have often turned.

But, like this year’s “Adolescence,” which it (differently) resembles in its mix of naturalism and artifice, the series, written and directed by and starring 28-year-old Cooper Raiff — writer-director-star of the indie features “Shithouse” and “Cha Cha Real Smooth” — demonstrates that something fresh can still be done in an oversaturated medium.

While the story spreads out over eight episodes, the cast is compact. Harper (Lili Reinhart) is the daughter of Mark Ruffalo’s character, credited only as “Dad”; Hal (Raiff) is her younger brother. Alyah Chanelle Scott plays Jesse, Harper’s longtime girlfriend; Havana Rose Liu is Abby, Hal’s shorter-time girlfriend; Kate (Betty Gilpin) is Dad’s girlfriend. The company is completed by Audrey (Addison Timlin), divorced with two small children, who shares an office with Harper, and Hal’s roommate, Kalen (Christopher Meyer).

In scenes set in the past, Reinhart and Raiff play their younger selves, a la Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle’s “Pen15,” with less overt comedy, though Raiff’s performance as very young Hal, whom no one in the series describes as hyperactive (though I will — not a doctor) is often funny. It’s not a gimmick but a device — much as the one-shot production of “Adolescence” was not performative cleverness, but the right fit for the material — both in the sense of the child being the parent of the adult, and because it allows for a different, deeper sort of performance than one is liable to get from a first or a third grader. (As spookily good as small child actors can be.) Significantly, it unifies the characters across time.

A confluence of events triggers the drama. The house Hal and Harper grew up in — and which Dad, who spends much of the series seriously depressed especially, can’t let go — is being sold. (Harper and Hal are in L.A.; the house, and Dad and Kate, are elsewhere.) Kate is pregnant; there’s a chance the baby might have Down syndrome, which leads Dad to reflect that with “a disabled kid … you gotta meet them where they are every day” and that he might have been a more present parent to his older children. Jesse has a job offer in Texas and wants Harper to come with her. Hal, a college senior who isn’t pointed anywhere in particular, though he likes to draw, breaks up with Abby after learning — when she tells him she’d like them to become “exclusive” — that up until then they hadn’t been. And Harper has become attracted to Audrey.

The loss of their mother and their father’s unresolved grief has made Hal and Harper unusually close; she’s a caretaker to her brother, who, even though he’s grown, sometimes wants to crawl in bed next to her; at the same time, Harper’s internalized the feeling that she’s holding everything together, which makes it hard to move on. They’re on an island together.

“Are we friends?” young Hal asks Harper.

“We’re brother and sister,” she replies.

“Not friends.”

“I guess we can be friends, too.”

There is an almost complete absence of expository dialogue. The characters are not afflicted with speechifying; silences allow the viewer to enter into the spaces between them, and to let their experience echo with one’s own. (If you’ve lived long enough to be reading television reviews, you’ve felt some or all of these things.) There’s no wall of declaration erected between the viewer and the viewed, but the actors, Reinhart and Gilpin especially, can destroy you with a look. (Although some writers and actors love them, there’s nothing that feels less true to life than a long monologue.)

Though the story feels organic, it’s also highly structured, stretching the length of Kate’s pregnancy, shot through with resonances and reflections — “I Will Survive,” sung by adult Harper at karaoke and in a flashback as part of a children’s chorus, or a precocious young Harper reading “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” “It’s about this family where everyone’s super lonely,” she tells Hal, shining a light back on her own, “but then it gets even worse because they withdraw and they became selfish and so miserable. But maybe it gets better.” (We see her often with a book.) There’s a slow-fast rhythm to the cutting; short scenes alternate with long; memories explode in montage. Just as Raiff doesn’t bother overmuch with explanations, he eliminates transitions. We’re here, then we’re there. You won’t get lost.

Once or twice, I fretted Raiff might be steering his ship to some cliched dark outcome, but I needn’t have worried.

A Grammy Award for best new artist. Four top 10 hits since September 2024. Sold-out gigs packed with admirers in pink cowgirl hats wherever she goes.

At 27, Chappell Roan has unquestionably become one of pop’s new queens. But let it never be said that this powerhouse singer and songwriter rules without mercy.

As her band vamped on the intro to her song “Hot to Go!” on Friday night, Roan surveyed the tens of thousands spread across the leafy grounds surrounding the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

“We’re gonna teach you a dance,” she said, though few in the audience probably needed the lesson at this point in Roan’s ascent. For more than a year, social media has been awash in video clips of Roan’s fans doing a “Y.M.C.A.”-like routine in time to the frenzied chorus of “Hot to Go!”

But wait a minute: “There’s a dad in the crowd that’s not doing it,” Roan reported with practiced disbelief. The band stopped playing. “There’s a dad that’s not doing it,” she repeated — less incredulous than reproving now.

“But he looks really, really nice, so I’m not gonna do anything about it.”

Roan’s show Friday was the first of two in Pasadena to wrap a brief U.S. tour.

(Brian Feinzimer/For The Times)

Friday’s show, which Roan said was the biggest headlining date she’d ever played, was the first of two at Brookside at the Rose Bowl to conclude a brief run of U.S. concerts she’s calling Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things. The performances in New York, Kansas City and Pasadena can be seen as something of a victory lap after the slow-building success of her 2023 debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” which beyond “Hot to Go!” has spun off numerous other hits including “My Kink Is Karma” and the inescapable “Pink Pony Club.”

That last song, which has more than a billion streams on Spotify and YouTube, documents a young queer woman’s sexual awakening at a West Hollywood gay club; Roan’s music sets thoughts of pleasure, heartache and self-discovery against a gloriously theatrical blend of synth-pop, disco, glam rock and old-fashioned torch balladry.

Having spent this past summer on the European festival circuit, she’s said that Visions of Damsels represents “the chance to do something special before going away to write the next album”; the mini-tour also keeps her in the conversation as nominations are being decided for next year’s Grammys, where she’s likely to vie for record and song of the year with “The Subway,” one of a handful of singles she’s released since “Midwest Princess.”

Yet as clearly as it showcased her natural star quality — the stage was designed like a gothic castle with various staircases for Roan to descend dramatically — this was really a demonstration of the intimate bond she’s forged with her fans, many of whom came to the show dressed in one of the singer’s signature looks: harlequin, majorette, prom queen, construction worker.

An hour or so into her 90-minute set, Roan sat in a giant throne with a toy creature she called her tour pet and recalled her move to Los Angeles nearly a decade ago from small-town Missouri.

“I had a really, really tough time the first five years,” she said, adding that she’d lived in Altadena when she first arrived. (In a bit of now-infamous Chappell Roan lore, she was dropped by Atlantic Records in 2020 after the label decided “Pink Pony Club” was not a hit.) She talked about how much she loves this city — “F— ICE forever,” she said at one point to huge applause — but bemoaned the “weird professionalism” she can feel when she’s onstage in L.A.

“I know there’s a lot of people in the music and film industry here, and I don’t want you to think about that,” she said. “Don’t f—ing talk about it. Don’t talk about work here. I just want you to feel like you did when you were a kid — when you were 13 and free.” She laughed.

“I’m just gonna shut up — I’m so dumb,” she said. Then she sang the lovelorn “Coffee” like someone confessing her greatest fear.

Roan said Friday’s show was the biggest headlining date she’d ever played.

(Brian Feinzimer/For The Times)

Though the castle set was impressively detailed, Roan’s production was relatively low-key by modern pop standards; she had no dancers and no special guests and wore just one costume that she kept removing pieces from to end up in a kind of two-piece dragon-skin bikini.

But that’s because at a Chappell Roan show, Chappell Roan is the show: a fearsomely talented purveyor of feeling and attitude whose campy sense of humor only heightens the exquisite melancholy of her music.

Her singing was immaculate yet hot-blooded, bolstered by a killer band that remade songs like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Red Wine Supernova” as slashing ’80s-style rock; Roan covered Heart’s “Barracuda” with enough strutting imperiousness to compete with Nancy Wilson’s iconic guitar riff.

“The Giver” was a stomping glitter-country hoedown, “Naked in Manhattan” a naughty electro-pop romp. For “Picture You,” which is about longing to know a lover’s secrets, Roan serenaded a blond wig plopped atop a mic stand — a bit of absurdist theater she played completely straight.

The heart of the concert was the stunning one-two punch of “Casual” into “The Subway,” Roan’s most grandly emotional ballads, in which her voice soared with what seemed like total effortlessness.

After that is when the singer noticed that kindly dad shirking his duties in “Hot to Go!” Maybe the poor guy was just too dazzled to take part.

HOLIDAY booze cruises promise a carefree escape with sun, sea and endless partying – but beneath the decks and pounding music lies a darker reality.

For Nakita Colville, a pirate-themed boat trip in Turkey turned to tragedy when her father, Peter, suddenly died while swimming – but instead of rushing back to shore, staff told his shell-shocked daughter, “he’s dead, he’s gone”, covered his body with a towel, and told guests they would go ahead with a planned foam party.

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In her first exclusive interview since her father’s heartbreaking death just nine weeks ago, on July 27, she told The Sun how “unbothered and clueless” staff on board just stood there watching as her dad died in front of his children and grandchildren.

She also warned that this wouldn’t be the last tragedy at sea onboard unregulated party boats with shoddy safety standards.

She tells The Sun: “I don’t think people are aware of how dangerous it can be until something like this happens to your family.

“Unless things change, I don’t think this will be the last death.”

Despite thousands of tourists signing up for boat parties and trips every year, what was once a thrill-filled novelty is now a high-risk activity, where the line between fun and danger is perilously thin. 

And the risks are compounded once you step outside UK waters, where regulations can be patchy and enforcement inconsistent – and lax safety measures, unlimited drink offers, and drugs circulating on board create a perfect storm.

On one booze-filled stag-do party cruise in Lisbon, laddish “banter” led to the tragic death of city worker Nishanthan Gnanathas.

Thrown from a yacht into the River Tagus in November 2019, Nish – best man and beloved friend – hit his head on a balustrade before crashing into the icy water. 

The coroner’s conclusion was stark – what happened was “horseplay that went tragically wrong”.

Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a conclusion of misadventure, saying: “This was an absolutely tragic accident that could not have been reasonably anticipated.”

Maritime police chief Malaquais Dominguez said “it was a stupid joke between friends”.

“He was pushed and he went overboard. He disappeared in the water. I have no doubt they will live with this terrible moment for the rest of their lives,” Dominguez said. 

The story echoes the growing unease around stag and party-boat culture abroad – where cheap alcohol, bravado, and ritualised pranks can lead to tragedy.

In Amsterdam, Neil Stewart’s fiancée arranged a surprise weekend in the Dutch capital – and told her it was “the happiest time of his life”.

But by the end of a night on a party boat, Stewart was dead, swallowed by the inky waters of the Noordzeekanaal after what witnesses believe began as a prank on board.

The Newcastle coroner’s inquest heard Stewart had taken cocaine and cannabis before boarding the boat for the Bounce Til I Die event. 

Post-mortem tests later confirmed both in his system, along with traces of cannabis from a “space cake” eaten earlier in a café.

A witness said she saw Stewart “deliberately jump” from the smoking deck and initially thought it was “a silly prank” – especially as he seemed to be laughing in the water before he drowned, and Stewart’s body was recovered two weeks later.

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‘Pirate ship’ tragedy

On July 27, grandfather Peter Colville, 60, from Woking, died on board a pirate-themed boat trip in Alanya, Turkey.

Daughter Nakita, 27, told how her father and nine other family members, including children, had boarded the boat.

The “luxury pirate ship” promised entertainment, DJs and a foam party, along with two swim stops for guests to go snorkelling.

The family paid over £200 for tickets to board the “luxurious six-deck yacht” – called Legend Big Kral – at an excursion centre.

Everyone was enjoying the music, blue seas and stunning views of the Mediterranean as the boat, carrying some 600 passengers according to Nakita, set sail.

Unless things change, I don’t think this will be the last death

Nakita Colville

Nakita, an admin assistant, said: “My dad is very safety-conscious, and I remember as we walked onto the boat, he said it was strange they didn’t seem to tick off names, hand out wristbands or get waivers signed.

“At that point, we just brushed it off – we never could have known what was to come.”

The first swim stop came and went, with most of Nakita’s family getting into the water, including property maintenance boss Peter – who was an avid snorkeller. 

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Nakita recalled feeling strange that only the children were given life jackets.

So, being a weaker swimmer, when the second swim stop came at Cleopatra Beach, she opted not to go back in.

But confident swimmer Peter, and Nakita’s brother-in-law, Ben Diamond, 35, were keen to get back in the water again.

The pair were happy snorkelling together one minute – and the next, Nakita heard screams of panic.

She says: “I looked into the water and saw my dad’s face, floating, and people scrambling to get him out of the water.

“My sister and I ran down – and she screamed, ‘Oh my God, he is going purple’.”

Nakita said guests dragged Peter, a dad-of-seven and grandfather-of-six, onto the deck, and one began administering CPR.

As Nakita’s family – along with countless other guests – crowded around, “screaming and horrified”, she claims “unbothered and clueless” staff on board “just stood there watching”.

She alleged staff on board repeated, “he’s dead, he’s gone” before a member of the team suggested covering Peter’s body with a towel – before the coastguard even arrived.

Nakita says: “There didn’t seem to be any system in place to deal with an emergency situation. There didn’t seem to be a plan.

“He was laid on the deck – and then nothing. No proper procedure, no clearing the deck of onlookers, no immediate CPR. They stood there with their arms crossed, clueless.

“Some seemed like they weren’t bothered, some of the younger staff members looked like they felt bad that they didn’t know what to do. 

“It didn’t feel like they were adequately first-aid trained. It was the guests giving my dad CPR.”

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She claims she asked staff if the boat carried a defibrillator and was told by a crew member that they didn’t have one as they “couldn’t keep it charged”.

She said: “I found that strange, as they had electricity for the DJ decks and foam machines.”

According to UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency advice, all ships should undertake a risk assessment, but “as a general guide, vessels in regular operation carrying in excess of 100 persons” should carry a defib.

But many holiday booze cruises operate in foreign ports with looser safety standards, overcrowded decks, and minimal oversight. 

Life jackets may be scarce, crew training is often insufficient, and emergency procedures can be a little more than a box-ticking exercise. 

Nakita said the event was so traumatising that her mother and Peter’s wife, Rosalind Colville, 53, collapsed from shock.

And Nakita says it was also guests on board helping Rosalind by bringing her water and getting her a chair – rather than staff.

I was told the remaining guests were told ‘sorry for the delay’ and they carried on with the party. Apparently it was disturbing – nobody else on board even wanted to party after what they had just witnessed

Nakita Colville

Nakita says: “My sister and I were just holding my dad’s hand, screaming.

“As far as we knew, or he knew, he was healthy – we have no idea what happened.

“He was smart – if he had been, or felt, unwell, he wouldn’t have got in the water.

“They had covered him with a towel before the coastguard even arrived.”

When they did finally arrive 40 minutes later, Peter was taken to hospital.

The family were asked whether they wished to remain on the boat for the rest of the trip, or get off and go to hospital with him.

The family – including two of his grandchildren – were taken off the boat, and at the hospital Peter was confirmed dead.

Nakita says she learned from other guests at their hotel, who were also on board the boat, that after her family left, the party continued.

She claims she learned the crew even hosted a foam party for the remaining traumatised passengers.

She said: “I was told the remaining guests were told ‘sorry for the delay’ and they carried on with the party.

“Apparently, it was disturbing – nobody else on board even wanted to party after what they had just witnessed.”

Nakita had to break the news by phone to her four brothers and their families back home.

Postmortems were conducted in Turkey and back in the UK when his body was brought home.

Nakita said neither could find a cause of death, so investigations are ongoing as the family tries to grieve the loss of their beloved father and grandfather.

One Tripadvisor review from the day of the tragedy read: “The way it was handled by the crew was nothing short of horrifying.

“It is unsafe, unprofessional, and the crew is neither trained nor emotionally capable of handling emergencies – or tragedies.”

There didn’t seem to be any system in place to deal with an emergency situation. There didn’t seem to be a plan

Nakita Colville

But Nakita fears tourists don’t realise the risks associated with excursions like this one.

She says: “With these trips, even if safety measures are in place, there are always risks.

“Thinking back, I don’t think there were enough crew members for the number of people on the boat, and to be able to watch all the people swimming in the water.

“We can’t say it was the company’s fault that he died, but maybe he could have been saved.”

Legend Big Kral did not respond to a request for a comment, but a representative did contact Nakita directly after her original story was shared. 

They claimed that all ten staff members were first aid trained. 

Nakita says the representative also claimed that Peter passed of a heart attack – a fact which has not been confirmed yet by two post-mortems. Coroners say it is still being investigated. 

For many Brits, holiday booze cruises start as a fantasy: sun, cheap drinks and a chance to let loose, far away from the office or family life. 

But increasingly, these trips are leaving more than just a hangover in their wake. 

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Holiday-maker Jason Hall was heading home after a nine-day break in Cyprus with his 13-year-old daughter when they found themselves ‘abandoned’ at the wrong airport

A holidaymaker vowed to boycott an airline after he and his daughter were left ‘abandoned’ overnight.

Jason Hall, 54, had been enjoying a nine-day getaway with his 13-year-old daughter in Cyprus, and they had been due to land at Birmingham Airport at 5.30pm on August 6. But, after a small aircraft crash-landed on the runway, their flight was diverted to Cardiff Airport, arriving at 6.10pm.

Passengers on the aircraft were promised that return transport would be arranged for them – but, according to Jason, that did not take place. He has gone on to slam the company’s ‘shocking’ after-care.

Jason, of Clayton, told StokeonTrentLive: “I can’t complain about the holiday – it was lovely. Coming back was where the trouble started. We were promised that we’d be provided with coach travel back to Birmingham – I didn’t mind, these things happen sometimes.

“We spent an hour-and-a-half collecting our bags because they weren’t expecting two massive 300-passenger TUI planes in. But once we’d got our things, we couldn’t see a single member of TUI staff in the whole airport. We left for the car park, and there were around 450 people stood waiting for these coaches.”

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He continued: “Eventually, a member of staff from Cardiff Airport – not a member of TUI staff – came out to tell us that three coaches had already been and gone. But if you think that a coach can hold roughly 50 people, that was nowhere near enough for the 600 of us who had landed.

“There were young families, children, kids in wheelchairs, all sorts of people left with no way of getting home. We stood in the car park for around an hour waiting for some sort of direction. Then everybody’s phone went off at the same time. It was an email from TUI informing us that they could not get us home and that we’d need to make our own arrangements.”

Passengers left stranded at Cardiff Airport were told that the airline was ‘having issues sourcing transport’ and encouraged passengers to pay for their own travel arrangements. TUI promised customers it would compensate them in full for any extra costs after their journey.

“We were all just abandoned by TUI,” Jason explained. “There were students and people who didn’t have the money to pay for this up front. Some people were getting local taxis that were costing £350. Others were getting Ubers which were costing £450. Within half an hour, you couldn’t even book one. They’d all gone.

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“I made a decision to get a nearby hotel room for me and my daughter, as I didn’t want to make her sleep in the airport. We got a little room down the road for £85. We couldn’t physically get home. There were no taxis and you couldn’t get a train until the next day.

“The next morning, we went to the station and caught four different trains. We went from Cardiff to Bristol, Bristol to Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham New Street to the airport. When we finally arrived back to the car, I’d got a parking fine.”

Jason’s disastrous journey home led him to miss a day’s paid work as well as the £85 hotel bill, £100 in train fares, and the £60 parking ticket. But he claims TUI refused to compensate his costs in full.

He added: “They only offered to pay for my train fares. I explained the rest of my additional costs, but they just weren’t interested. They made out as if I should have just gone straight back, but that wasn’t possible. The duty of care and customer service was just non-existent.

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“It was absolutely shocking. I’ll never use them again. They’re fine so long as everything runs smoothly. But as soon as there’s some kind of incident, it seems they just don’t want to look after you at all. The bare minimum is ensuring they can get you to your destination – not just abandon you somewhere else.”

TUI has since repaid Jason in full.

A spokesperson for TUI UK & Ireland said: “We would like to apologise to all customers impacted by this unexpected flight diversion, which was unfortunately out of our control. We always strive to provide our customers with the best possible travel experience, and we understand that this situation impacted the end of their holiday.

“We have been in direct contact with all customers, including Mr Hall, and have arranged refunds for out-of-pocket expenses.”

There are times when you want a vacation that challenges you. But there are other times when you crave a familiar scene, a traveler’s version of comfort food.

What is it that brings people back to the same destination again and again?

Charlotte Russell, a Manchester-based clinical psychologist and founder/editor of the Travel Psychologist blog, didn’t see value in visiting the same place twice when she was in her 20s, but as she got older, her opinion changed.

Now one of her most frequent destinations is Seville, a short, direct flight from her home airport. However, her travel cadence is strategic. “I don’t want to spoil the connection I have to the place by visiting too frequently,” she says. “For me, once every few years seems to be about ‘right.’” Once there, she savors “the beautiful buildings, the orange trees, the smells and flavors of the food,” enjoying the chance to get to know the culture more deeply than a one-time visitor might.

Then again, Russell acknowledges, maybe we can never truly visit the same place twice.

So says psychology professor Andrew Stevenson in his 2023 book “The Psychology of Travel.” In his view, “places change all the time, and so do we. Yes, we can visit the same location again, but are likely to experience it in a completely different way when visiting again, as the place becomes more meaningful, more full of memories, more vital, each new time we arrive.”

We asked Southern California readers to tell us about their most prized repeat destinations. The answers took us all over — Hawaii, Utah, Arizona, England and Hermosa Beach, for instance — for all sorts of reasons they share with us below.

Stacey Solomon was joined by her ex-boyfriend Dean Cox on the latest episode of her BBC series Stacey & Joe, as they celebrated her son Zach’s 17th birthday

Stacey Solomon showed a lovely example of a happy blended family on the latest instalment of her reality TV show as her ex, and father of her eldest son, made a cameo on screen.

The 35-year-old mum-of-five used first-born son Zach’s 17th birthday to recall on the moment she found out she was expecting him at the age is he now and how her loved ones reacted to her teen pregnancy.

The BBC One series, Stacey & Joe, which also stars the Loose Women star’s husband Joe Swash, follows the happy couple and their busy lives. Stacey shares her three youngest children, daughters Rose, three, and Belle, two, and son Rex, six, with the former EastEnders actor.

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Stacey, who discovered she was expecting her first child at the age of 17, also shares Zach with ex boyfriend Dean Cox, and 12-year-old Leighton with former fiancé Aaron Barnham.

On Tuesday night’s episode of Stacey & Joe, the pair invited Dean into their home to mark Zach turning 17. As the blended family enjoyed fish and chips they looked back on when Stacey discovered she was pregnant at the same age Zach had just reached.

When asked how old he was at the time, Dean responded: “I was just 18.” Speaking about learning she was set to become a teenage mum when she was 17, Stacey recalled: “My step-mum was the first person who knew I was pregnant, because she guessed it.

“We were at a cafe, me, her and my dad, and I was like, ‘oh, my God, your onions stink, Dad’. And he didn’t even have any onions. Someone, like, at the other end of the cafe had onions, and I remember her pulling me to the side and being like, ‘When was the last time you had a period?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.'”.

“She immediately made me tell my dad straight away. And then my dad made me ring my mum, and then everyone else that was in the house, Jemma, Matthew, everyone, my brothers and sisters, were all there to hear the fallout.”

Tuesday night’s instalment of Stacey & Joe was actually filmed back in March, coinciding with Zach’s real birthday. The doting mum took to Instagram at the time to celebrate her son’s 17th birthday with an emotional tribute to her first-born.

Stacey has previously spoken about the ‘rocky road’ she and husband Joe faced when blending their families. In addition to Stacey’s two older children from previous relationships, Joe shares his eldest child Harry, 16, with ex-partner Emma Sophocleous.

“The blended family situation has been a rocky road,” Stacey admitted on the Parenting Hell podcast in 2022. “That has never been easy. We have always had to work really hard to make sure everyone feels secure.”

She went on to reveal how wedding a few months earlier, where her and Joe’s four eldest son’s made speeches, made her feel more reassured about her blended family and confessed the kind words from their children left her in floods of tears.

“It was so funny we didn’t say to the boys you need to do a speech,” she recalled, before adding: “Joe was an emotional mess the whole day. People coming up to me saying ‘Joe is a mess down there’.”

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VICKY Pattison and Dani Dyer’s dad Danny have rallied around her after she was forced to quit Strictly Come Dancing due to injury.

Strictly contestant Vicky and actor Danny led the stars sharing messages of support on Instagram last night after the Love Islander broke the news of her exit.

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Mum-of-three Dani was due to perform in her first live show on Saturday night with professional partner Nikita Kuzmin, but said: “I had a fall on Friday in rehearsals and landed funny.

“I thought I had rolled my foot but it swelled up badly over the weekend and after an MRI scan yesterday, it turns out I have fractured my ankle.”

Dani, 29, continued: “Apparently doing the Quickstep on a fracture is not advisable and the doctors have said I am not allowed to dance, so I’ve had to pull out of the show.

“To say I’m heartbroken is the biggest understatement.

“I am so going to miss dancing with Nikita but will of course be watching closely and cheering all the couples on.”

Her dad left a broken-heart emoji beneath her post, and Vicky replied, saying: “Absolutely devastated for you Dani.

“I’m going to miss you so much… Love you loads x”

The ex-Geordie Shore star added a string of photos of them together in a separate post on her Instagram grid.

She revealed they formed a close bond during their time together on the show.

Vicky said: “I am absolutely gutted for you!! I have loved every minute of our little @bbcstrictly journey together and I’m devastated this is the end..

“But I know you’ll be back next year with your incredible energy, amazing dance skills and beautiful soul… AND YOU’LL SMASH IT!!!

“I’m already peanut butter and jealous of whatever lucky sod gets to be your dressing room buddy… because you’re the best roomie ever.

“Love you mate and wishing you a speedy recovery… this series won’t be the same without you…”

Dani replied: “Going to miss you, love you millions.”

Just days ago Dani shared her nerves ahead of the live shows.

She said last week: “I’m absolutely petrified about dancing live on Saturday nights.”

Speaking to The Sun about her upcoming Strictly adventure, she was asked if her famous dad Danny Dyer was going to watch – and if he would get emotional.

The mum-of-three revealed: “He’s going to. He will try and keep it together. Him and my mum are making a little date day of it.

“They’re coming on the launch show together. They’re really excited.”

Asked whether she could persuade The Football Factory star to do Strictly in the future, she said: “When it [Strictly] was announced, someone said Dani Dyer is doing it – they thought it was my dad. It’s not Danny Dyer – it’s the other one. 

“I don’t know. You can never say never.”

Strictly Come Dance 2025 lineup

Strictly Come Dancing news and the latest line up

TV legend Johnny Ball has revealed he has been secretly fighting prostate cancer.

The 87-year-old, who first found fame presenting Play School in 1967, was diagnosed in August 2022. 

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He then underwent three months of daily radiation treatment and is now in recovery.

He told The Mirror: “I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in August 2022 and, thankfully, after three months of daily radiation treatment, starting in the September, I’m through it, I’m fine.”

Johnny, who has regular annual checks, says he knows how fortunate he has been to survive.

He said: “My friend Harry Secombe didn’t survive it, Bob Monkhouse didn’t survive it. I’m 20 years younger than them and I am lucky, because now we can cure it.”

It wasn’t the greeting I was expecting from my dad when I stopped by for lunch Wednesday at his Anaheim home.

“¿Quién es Charlie Kirk?”

Papi still has a flip phone, so he hasn’t sunk into an endless stream of YouTube and podcasts like some of his friends. His sources of news are Univisión and the top-of-the-hour bulletins on Mexican oldies stations — far away from Kirk’s conservative supernova.

“Some political activist,” I replied. “Why?”

“The news said he got shot.”

Papi kept watering his roses while I went on my laptop to learn more. My stomach churned and my heart sank as graphic videos of Kirk taking a bullet in the neck while speaking to students at Utah Valley University peppered my social media feeds. What made me even sicker was that everyone online already thought they knew who did it, even though law enforcement hadn’t identified a suspect.

Conservatives blamed liberalism for demonizing one of their heroes and vowed vengeance. Some progressives argued that Kirk had it coming because of his long history of incendiary statements against issues including affirmative action, trans people and Islam. Both sides predicted an escalation in political violence in the wake of Kirk’s killing — fueled by the other side against innocents, of course.

It was the internet at its worst, so I closed my laptop and checked on my dad. He had moved on to cleaning the pool.

“So who was he?” Papi asked again. By then, Donald Trump had announced Kirk’s death. Text messages streamed in from my colleagues. I gave my dad a brief sketch of Kirk’s life, and he frowned when I said the commentator had supported Trump’s mass deportation dreams.

Hate wasn’t on Papi’s mind, however.

“It’s sad that he got killed,” Papi said. “May God bless him and his family.”

“Are politics going to get worse now?” he added.

It’s a question that friends and family have been asking me ever since Kirk’s assassination. I’m the political animal in their circles, the one who bores everyone at parties as I yap about Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom while they want to talk Dodgers and Raiders. They’re too focused on raising families and trying to prosper in these hard times to post a hot take on social media about political personalities they barely know.

They’ve long been over this nation’s partisan divide, because they work and play just fine with people they don’t agree with. They’re tired of being told to loathe someone over ideological differences or blindly worship a person or a cause because it’s supposedly in their best interests. They might not have heard of Kirk before his assassination, but they now worry about what’s next — because a killing this prominent is usually a precursor of worse times ahead.

I wasn’t naive enough to think that the killing of someone as divisive as Kirk would bring Americans together to denounce political terrorism and forge a kinder nation. I knew that each side would embarrass itself with terrible takes and that Trump wouldn’t even pretend to be a unifier.

But the collective dumpster fire we got was worse than I had imagined.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with moderator Charlie Kirk, during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, March 22, 2018.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

Although conservatives brag that no riots have sparked, as happened after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, they’re largely staying silent as the loudest of Kirk’s supporters vow to crush the left once and for all. The Trump administration is already promising a crackdown against the left in Kirk’s name, and no GOP leaders are complaining. People are losing their jobs because of social media posts critical of Kirk, and his fans are cheering the cancel cavalcade.

Meanwhile, progressives are flummoxed by the right, yet again. They can’t understand why vigils nationwide for someone they long cast as a white nationalist, a fascist and worse are drawing thousands. They’re dismissing those who attend as deluded cultists, hardening hearts on each side even more. They’re posting Kirk’s past statements on social media as proof that they’re correct about him — but that’s like holding up a sheet of paper to dam the Mississippi.

I hadn’t paid close attention to Kirk, mostly because he didn’t have a direct connection to Southern California politics. I knew he had helped turn young voters toward Trump, and I loathed his noxious comments that occasionally caught my attention. I appreciated that he was willing to argue his views with critics, even if his style was more Cartman from “South Park” (which satirized Kirk’s college tours just weeks ago) than Ronald Reagan versus Walter Mondale.

I understand why his fans are grieving and why opponents are sickened at his canonization by Trump, who seems to think that only conservatives are the victims of political violence and that liberals can only be perpetrators. I also know that a similar thing would happen if, heaven forbid, a progressive hero suffered Kirk’s tragic end — way too many people on the right would be dancing a jig and cracking inappropriate jokes, while the left would be whitewashing the sins of the deceased.

We’re witnessing a partisan passion play, with the biggest losers our democracy and the silent majority of Americans like my father who just want to live life. Weep or critique — it’s your right to do either. But don’t drag the whole country into your culture war. Those who have navigated between the Scylla and Charybdis of right and left for too long want to sail to calmer waters. Turning Kirk’s murder into a modern-day Ft. Sumter when we aren’t even certain of his suspected killer’s motives is a guarantee for chaos.

I never answered my dad’s question about what’s next for us politically. In the days since, I keep rereading what Kirk said about empathy. He derided the concept on a 2022 episode of his eponymous show as “a made-up, new age term that … does a lot of damage.”

Kirk was wrong about many things, but especially that. Empathy means we try to understand each other’s experiences — not agree, not embrace, but understand. Empathy connects us to others in the hope of creating something bigger and better.

It’s what allows me to feel for Kirk’s loved ones and not wish his fate on anyone, no matter how much I dislike them or their views. It’s the only thing that ties me to Kirk — he loved this country as much as I do, even if our views about what makes it great were radically different.

Preaching empathy might be a fool’s errand. But at a time when we’re entrenched deeper in our silos than ever, it’s the only way forward. We need to understand why wishing ill on the other side is wrong and why such talk poisons civic life and dooms everyone.

Kirk was no saint, but if his assassination makes us take a collective deep breath and figure out how to fix this fractured nation together, he will have truly died a martyr’s death.

You Bet! host and TV favourite Stephen Mulhern has made a rare admission about his father following his death as he revealed how he gave him his start in magic

Stephen Mulhern has made a rare admission about his father following his death. The magician, 48, was left devastated in November last year when his father Christopher passed away at the age of 76.

In the weeks that followed, coupled with a reaction an anaesthetic, the former Dancing On Ice host collapsed in front of diners at Pizza Express in Sunningdale, Berkshire. It is believed Stephen had the bad reaction to some medication after having a few drinks with his meal. Earlier in the day, he underwent a procedure, for which he was administered the anaesthetic.

Since then, the TV star has remained relatively private about the tragedy, but during an appearance on Friday’s This Morning, he was able to open up about his father when host Dermot O’Leary sensitively reminded him about his dad, who was also a magician, played a major part in kickstarting his career.

READ MORE: ITV You Bet! On Tour viewers say the same thing about Stephen Mulhern’s new showREAD MORE: Stephen Mulhern’s heartbreaking reason for first cry on television in new show with Ant and Dec

Dermot began: “There’s a lovely story, I remember we were eating dinner together and you were telling me about what a great man your dad was. He was almost responsible, wasn’t he?”

Stephen replied: “My dad loved magic and he was a brilliant magician. I started when I was 11 and he would teach me tricks.”

Dermot added: “Wasn’t one of the acts ill or something?” and Stephen, shocked at what the TV star could remember replied: “God, you’ve got a good memory!

“Yeah, so [at Butlin’s] one of the acts didn’t turn up and my dad said, ‘Well my son’s a magician and he’ll fill in for you.’ I got my spot on stage and I feel incredibly lucky.”

Just weeks after losing his father, Stephen was back on screens at the Royal Variety. He took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall, performing a magic trick in front of His Majesty The King and millions of viewers at home.

Upon completion, the star dedicated the performance to his late father saying: “That was for you dad.”

Following his two-year stint as a Redcoat, Stephen joined The Magic Circle as its youngest-ever member at the age of just 17, and gained an appearance on Blue Peter off the back of this.

After appearing on The Big Big Talent Show with Jonathan Ross in the late 1990s, he was invited to perform at the Royal Variety before becoming a regular on CITV alongside Holly Willoughby.

In more recent years, he has hosted Britain’s Got More Talent and regularly fronts Catchphrase, but due back on the box with a new series of You Bet for ITV1, in which stars such Josie Gibson, Josh Widdecombe and Alesha Dixon bet on of members of the public and their ability to carry out certain tasks.

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Ten days after a Russian man was mysteriously killed amid a crowd of tens of thousands at the Burning Man festival, Russian media is reporting that the man’s father has asked President Donald Trump to have the FBI investigate.

Vadim Kruglov, 37, had been living in Washington state and, according to friends’ Instagram accounts, was making his first pilgrimage to Burning Man. He was killed sometime between 8 and 9:30 pm on the night of August 30, his body found “in a pool of blood” around the time the giant wooden effigy of a man was lit on fire.

The Pershing County Sheriff’s Department, which has jurisdiction over the Black Rock Desert where the annual event takes place, is leading the homicide investigation but has made no public comments about what might have happened. The agency has issued public appeals for information about “any person who would commit such a heinous crime against another human being.”

The agency has also announced that Kruglov’s family has been formally notified of his death, and that “our sincerest condolences from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office go out to Vadim Kruglov’s family for their tragic loss.”

The sheriff’s department declined to comment on reports of the father’s appeal, or his criticisms of the pace of the investigation.

The Moscow Times reported Thursday that the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a video from Kruglov’s father Thursday. In it, the father, Igor Kruglov bemoaned that “ten days have passed” and yet the investigation is “being conducted by one local sheriff.”

“Evil must be punished,” the father continues, “therefore, I appeal to you, dear Mr. President, and ask you to order the FBI to immediately begin investigating the murder of my son.”

Kruglov’s friends have been pushing a similar message to their tens of thousands of Instagram followers.

One post claimed that Kruglov died “from a professional knife strike to the neck —a single fatal blow. This happened in a place where more than 80,000 people from all over the world were gathered.” The Pershing County sheriff’s office declined to comment on the manner in which Kruglov was killed or say whether the friend’s post was accurate.

The Instagram post contained several photographs of Kruglov enjoying himself at the festival.

“A young and talented man, who made a big contribution to this world, has been killed,” the friend wrote. “And the person who did this is still walking free.” The post added: “We strongly believe a federal investigation is needed.”

My dad’s passport is among his most valuable possessions, a document that not only establishes that he’s a U.S. citizen but holds the story of his life.

It states that he was born in Mexico in 1951 and is decorated with stamps from the regular trips he takes to his home state of Zacatecas. Its cover is worn but still strong, like its owner, a 74-year-old retired truck driver. It gives Lorenzo Arellano the ability to move across borders, a privilege he didn’t have when he entered the United States for the first time in the trunk of a Chevy as an 18-year-old.

The photo is classic Papi. Stern like old school Mexicans always look in portraits but with joyful eyes that reveal his happy-go-lucky attitude to life. He used to keep the passport in his underwear drawer to make sure he never misplaced it in the clutter of our home.

At the beginning of Trump’s second term, I told Papi to keep the passport on him at all times. Just because you’re a citizen doesn’t mean you’re safe, I told my dad, who favors places — car washes, hardware stores, street vendors, parks, parties — where immigrants congregate and no one cares who has legal status and who doesn’t.

“Exagera,” my dad replied — Trump exaggerates. As a citizen, my dad reasoned he now had rights. He didn’t have to worry like in the old days, when one shout of “¡La migra!” would send him running for the nearest exit of the carpet factory in Santa Ana where he worked back in the 1970s.

Then came Trump’s summer of deportation.

Masked migra swept across Southern California under the pretense of rounding up criminals. In reality, they grabbed anyone they thought looked suspicious, which in Southern California meant brown-skinned Latinos like my father. The feds even nabbed U.S. citizens or detained them for hours before releasing them with no apology. People who had the right to remain in this country were sent to out-of-state detention camps, where government officials made it as difficult as possible for frantic loved ones to find out where they were, let alone retrieve them.

This campaign of terror is why the ACLU and others filed a lawsuit in July arguing that la migra was practicing racial profiling in violation of the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. A federal judge agreed, issuing a temporary restraining order. The Trump administration appealed, arguing to the Supreme Court that it needed to racially profile to find people to kick out of the country, otherwise “the prospect of contempt” would hang “over every investigative stop.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed.

In a 6-3 vote, the justices lifted the temporary restraining order as the ACLU lawsuit proceeds. L.A.’s long, hot deportation summer will spill over to the fall and probably last as long as Trump wants it to. The decision effectively states that those of us with undocumented family and friends — a huge swath of Southern California and beyond — should watch over our shoulders, even if we’re in this country legally.

And even if you don’t know anyone without papers, watch out if you’re dark-skinned, speak English with an accent or wear guayaberas or huaraches. Might as well walk around in a T-shirt that says, “DEPORT ME, POR FAVOR.”

The ruling didn’t surprise me — the Supreme Court nowadays is a Trump-crafted rubber stamp for his authoritarian project. But what was especially galling was how out of touch Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion was with reality.

Kavanaugh describes what la migra has wrought on Southern California as “brief investigative stops,” which is like describing a totaled car as a “scratched-up vehicle.” A citizen or permanent resident stopped on suspicion of being in this country illegally “will be free to go after the brief encounter,” he wrote.

The justice uses the words “brief” or “briefly” eight times to describe what la migra does. Not once does he mention plaintiff Brian Gavidia, the U.S. citizen who on June 9 was at a Montebello tow yard when masked immigration agents shoved him against the fence and twisted his arm.

Gavidia’s offense? He stated he was an American three times but couldn’t remember the name of the East L.A. hospital where he was born. A friend recorded the encounter and posted it to social media. It quickly went viral and showed the world that citizenship won’t save you from Trump’s migra hammer.

Would Kavanaugh describe this as a “brief encounter” if it happened to him? To a non-Latino? After more cases like this inevitably happen, and more people are gobbled up by Trump’s anti-immigrant Leviathan?

Brian Gavidia stands in a parking lot next to East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park. A video of him having his arm twisted and held by an immigration officer against a wall despite being a U.S. citizen went viral. He’s currently a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit alleging the Trump administration is violating the 4th Amendment with indiscriminate immigration raids.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Anyone who applauds this decision is sanctioning state-sponsored racism out of apartheid-era South Africa. They’re all right with Latinos who “look” a certain way or live in communities with large undocumented populations becoming second-class citizens, whether they just migrated here or can trace their heritage to before the Pilgrims.

I worry for U.S.-born family members who work construction and will undoubtedly face citizenship check-ins. For friends in the restaurant industry who might also become targets. For children in barrios who can now expect ICE and Border Patrol trucks to cruise past their schools searching for adults and even teens to detain — it’s already happened.

Life will irrevocably change for millions of Latinos in Southern California and beyond because of what the Supreme Court just ruled. Shame on Kavanaugh and the five other justices who sided with him for uncorking a deportation demon that will be hard to stop.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor recounts Gavidia’s travails in her dissent, adding that the Real ID he was able to show the agents after they roughed him that established his citizenship “was never returned” and mocking Kavanaugh’s repeated use of “brief.”

“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” she wrote. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

I will also dissent, but now I’m going to be more careful than ever. I’m going to carry my passport at all times, just in case I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even that is no guarantee la migra will leave me alone. It’s not a matter of if but when: I live in a majority Latino city, near a Latino supermarket on a street where the lingua franca is Spanish.

And I’m one of the lucky ones. I will be able to remain, no matter what may happen, because I’m a citizen. Imagine having to live in fear like this for the foreseeable future for those who aren’t?

There’s nothing “brief” about that.

A WOKE horse charity has barred its members from using the words “mum” and “dad” to describe parents. 

The British Horse Society’s advice is in a newly unveiled, socially inclusive language guide. 

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The guide asks members to call maternity leave “parental leave” to try to stamp out outdated gender references. 

Chairman should be “chairperson”, while it suggests that ethnic minorities should be called the “global majority”.

Foreigners are “people from overseas”. 

The guide also suggests “humankind” instead of mankind while able-bodied people become known as “non-disabled”. 

It states: “The BHS wants to create a culture of inclusion, which means maintaining positive and respectful communication with peers who may not have the same characteristics as us. 

“We are antiracist and antidiscriminatory.

“We will work to break down barriers and enhance voices who have not yet been heard.” 

The BHS was set up in 1947 “to protect and promote the interests of all horses and those who care about them”. 

Members fork out up to a staggering £204 a year to join the UK’s “largest and most influential equestrian charity”. 

Its advice follows universities and councils issuing guides with alternatives for widely accepted terms. 

Having earned three national championship rings playing volleyball for UCLA, 6-foot-8 Tom Stillwell knows a little bit about competition and commitment to sports excellence.

Nothing, though, compares to his joy being a Girl Dad.

“That’s a full-time job, and being a volleyball dad is the best,” said Stillwell, an All-American at UCLA.

It was never planned that his two daughters, Maya, a 6-4 senior, and Lucy, a 6-0 sophomore, would become volleyball players at Harvard-Westlake. Stillwell and his wife, Julie, met at UCLA. She’s 5-6 and neither was thinking how tall their kids might be. But it happened. They were raising giants.

“We felt they needed to be involved in something and as they started to get really tall, I started to talk to friends who had tall females and their recommendation was get them involved in sports because it’s going to turn their tall from being awkward to cool,” Stillwell said. “For them, whether it was tennis, swimming, basketball or volleyball, it didn’t really matter to us. It was whatever they became connected with. They both had journeys.”

Maya had little interest in sports growing up.

“I was not athletic,” Maya said. “It was originally a way to get my body moving. I was into art and music. I started in club when I was 12 and hated it. It wasn’t for me. When COVID happened, we were forced to move to another club and I loved my teammates and coaches and started to like it.”

She became a top middle blocker, playing on a national championship club team and receiving a scholarship to Northwestern. She’s taken advantage of a mini-grass court in the family backyard and her father’s experience having switched from basketball to volleyball during his high school days at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

Lucy followed her sister into volleyball after trying other sports. She’s a backup at Harvard-Westlake, which started the season 7-0 until running into Marymount. The team is 10-2. Both have grade-point averages above 4.0.

Except for their mom, the Stillwells share a common experience — receiving stares because of their height.

Said Maya: “People at school are used to it, but walking outside, it’s like, ‘Oh you’re so tall. Do you play basketball?’ I never get, ‘Do you play volleyball?‘”

“It’s very funny,” Tom said. “I think all tall people have a similar experience with people coming up to you and asking, ‘Do you play basketball?’ When you play sports it helps to have that community because of a lot of their club people are similar height.”

But who gets the extra leg room when flying?

“I’m older and taller,” Maya said.

“She does,” Lucy said.

“Let me tell you who gets the worst seat. Julie, my wife,” Tom said. “She’s like, ‘I’m the mom. I birthed you. I get the worst seat?’”

The daughters never got to meet their legendary grandmother, Liz Shapiro, who was always at Tom’s games at Notre Dame and UCLA. Her generosity to both schools in terms of support will never be forgotten. She died of cancer after Tom’s volleyball career had ended.

“She was a rabid fan,” Tom said. “She would have been at every game, every tournament, club, high school, probably trying to watch practice.”

Tom, 51, has been helpful offering tips whenever his daughters ask, but he has tried to let them listen and learn from their coaches and not impose his own athletic beliefs on them.

“Volleyball just connected with them. It was fun to watch,” he said. “I told them they’re not doing it for me or my wife. They have to enjoy it and if they don’t, they shouldn’t do it. This is their journey, not mine.”

As a Girl Dad, Tom has adopted a specific philosophy no matter what he sees or hears.

“All I’m trying to be is their dad,” he said. “That’s my No. 1 focus. Not their volleyball coach, not their mentor in volleyball. It’s hard enough for these teenage girls. They don’t need to hear their dad yelling.”

A BRIT dad who allegedly tried to drown his daughter-in-law on holiday has reportedly been freed from jail.

Mark Gibbon, 62, has been released on a £19,200 bail but he must wear an electronic tag and surrender his UK passport until his trial takes place.

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Gibbon and Jasmine Wyld, 33, got into a heated drunken row when on holiday together in Florida last month.

The grandad from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, was initially accused of attempted murder after repeatedly holding Ms Wyld’s head underwater in a hotel pool, according to police.

It was later revealed the pair had been in a relationship for some time before the incident.

At a court hearing last week, the second degree attempted murder charge Gibbon was facing was downgraded to a charge of battery by strangulation.

And after almost a month behind bars, the Brit was allowed to leave his Florida jail cell after making bail.

Court records obtained by the Daily Mail show Gibbon met the terms of the £18,500) bail over the battery by strangulation charge.

He also had to pay £700 bail on a second charge of simple battery.

Last night a police spokesman confirmed: “Mr Gibbon has been in Polk County Jail since his arrest on August 3 because he was considered a flight risk. 

“He was granted bail but has to wear an ankle monitor, surrender his passport and stay within a restricted area.”

Gibbon is due back in court later this month with his trial expected to take place early next year. 

He faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted on the battery by strangulation charge.

Investigators are continuing to look into the allegations first made by Ms Wyld in August.

She claimed that Gibbon, who also runs hairdressing business Sage Hairdressing, pushed her underwater after telling her she was not the main beneficiary of his will.

He reportedly admitted to pushing her but denied trying to kill her.

He claimed they had both been drinking when she slapped him as the situation escalated.

Ms Wyld initially told prosecutors she “could not breathe” and feared “she would drown”, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s office.

Her nine-year-old daughter is said to have been forced to leap into the hotel pool to try to “save” her.

Police reports added that Gibbon’s alleged attack left the mum with scratches and bruising.

Police were also making inquiries into whether the case should be treated as domestic violence.

Neighbours in Beaconsfield described Ms Wyld as the Brit granddad’s “girlfriend” – and said she was often seen at his £800,000 semi-detached home.

Family insiders also claimed Gibbon’s son Alex allegedly found Ms Wyld in his father’s bed around four years ago.

This is said to be around the time Alex and Ms Wyld called off their engagement in 2021.

One source told the Daily Mail: “Alex went up the stairs and found Jasmine in his father’s bed.

“They had a massive row. It’s torn the family apart… there’s been so much bad blood between Alex and his dad.”

The feud deepened when Alex was jailed for driving an £80,000 Porsche Cayenne into his father during a public row.

He was released seven months ago and the pair no longer speak.

A MAN tried to kill his wife using a “murder kit” in a “brutal and ferocious attack”.

Muhammad Khan, 53, slashed his estranged wife’s neck with a Stanley knife, repeatedly stabbed her, and beat her with a hammer on January 18 this year.

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The horror, which also saw the victim strangled with an exercise band and knifed 15 times, unfolded inside her Rochdale home.

Khan had come to the property under the guise of collecting his belongings.

But instead he took with him weapons, bleach and white spirit, with the plan to murder his victim.

She was eventually rescued when her family arrived and her brother broke into the house.

He restrained Khan, who was “smirking”, as his wife lay fighting for her life.

The terrified family members tried to lock him in the garage but he escaped.

Witnesses reported seeing him dump his “murderous kit” before cops later detained him.

He callously asked officers what the sentence was for murder and how long he’d be in prison.

Prosecuting, Chloe Fordham, told Minshull Street Crown Court: “During the attack, she was pleading with the defendant not to kill her, and telling him to think of their children, saying if he killed her, they would not have their parents.

“The defendant didn’t seem to care. He pulled out a hammer and hit her hard on the head. He then tried to strangle her.”

In a victim impact statement, the woman said: “The calculated and brutal nature of the attempted murder by my husband has left significant physical injuries and deep lasting psychological trauma.

“This was not a crime of impulse, but deliberate, premeditated and planned.

“This was not an attack by a stranger, but by the person I should have been able to trust the most, somebody who was meant to protect me.”

Addressing Khan, she said: “The only request I ask is that you declare the words ‘I divorce you’ in front of my family, to release me from this marriage. I hope after all I have endured, you can grant me this freedom.”

The victim, who shares a son with her abuser, said the attack has also scarred their child.

Their eldest son had said in the statement: “The last time you hurt Mama you said you would never do it again. I don’t understand why you have now.

“If you killed her, we would be orphans. I never want to see you again.”

Defending, Ian McMeekin said: “He knows himself that the behaviour was inexplicable and inexcusable.”

Khan was sentenced to 27-and-a-half years behind bars for attempted murder.

The judge told him: “This was a murderous kit you had bought specifically – the knife to attack her and the bleach to clean up afterwards.”

Khan, of Bernard Street, Rochdale, was jailed for 27-and-a-half years.

He will spend an extra five years on licence and made the subject of a life-long restraining order for life.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or chat at thehotline.org.

JACK Osbourne has revealed the heartbreaking moment he was told of his father Ozzy’s death.

The rock legend died at the age of 76 on July 22, and was laid to rest next to the lake in his Buckinghamshire home.

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Ozzy’s tragic passing came just weeks after his last concert in Birmingham.

It was also the last time son Jack saw his dad, he shared in a new YouTube video.

“My dad was great. He was in a good mood he was happy,” he said.

“I woke up in Los Angeles to a knock on my house door at around 3.45 in the morning.

“Someone who has worked for my family for about 30 years now was knocking on my door and when I looked through my window and I saw it was him, I knew something bad had happened.

“I was informed that my father had passed.”

The grieving son continued: “So many thoughts, there was a level of like “okay, he’s not struggling. He’s not suffering anymore”. And that is something. 

“I wish he was still here, you know? I wish he was still with us all, but he was having a rough go and I think people saw that at the show.”

Jack rushed back to England to support his family, and prepare for the funeral, as well as a procession through Birmingham in his father’s memory.

Thousands of mourners lined the streets and left tributes at the Black Sabbath Bridge.

“I speak for the family when I saw this. We are so grateful for that and it meant so much…. it was validating because I know we weren’t alone”, Jack added.

The late rock legend’s son previously shared a heartwarming clip to Instagram and explained how hand-written letters, memorabilia, and merch were being “carefully preserved”.

Jack told how every item will be recorded on a digital database and given to the Osbourne family.

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The icon’s funeral, a private ceremony held at the family home in Buckinghamshire, took place the following day.

Jack continued: “I actually shared this at my at my father’s funeral.

“There’s an interview with Keanu Reeves. He’s on some nighttime talk show or whatever and they asked him, ‘What do you think happens when you die?’

“And Keanu Reeves answer was, ‘I don’t know what happens when you die, but what I do know is the people that love you miss you the most’.

“I felt that immensely. He wasn’t just a father to me. He was my colleague. We worked together in so many capacities.

“I had recently moved, there was a period where I was between houses and I moved back in with him.

“So, he was my housemate in my late 30s and it was awesome. Me and the kids were living here. Just a friend, a text buddy, a joke cracker.”

The dad-of-four described Ozzy as “funny, and weird and awkward and clumsy and just hilarious and so insightful”, throughout his health battles.

Concluding the interview, Jack said: “He’s exploding through the universe and we’re all seeing it. So, I’ll just end with this, you know, thank you.”

‘HE LIVED HIS LIFE FULLY’

Shortly after his father’s death, Jack took to social media to share a touching tribute.

He said: “I haven’t really wanted to post anything since the passing of my father. My heart has hurt too much. 

“I’m gonna keep this short because he certainly hated long rambling speeches.

“He was so many things to so many people, but I was so lucky and blessed to be apart of a very small group that got to call him “Dad.” 

“My heart is full of so much sadness and sorrow, but also so much love and gratitude.”

Jack continued: “I got 14,501 days with that man and I know that is such a blessing. I think this quote best describes my father.

“Hunter S. Thompson once said: “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body… but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!'” 

He added: “That was my dad. He lived and he lived his life fully. I love you dad.”

In recent years, Ozzy had been battling numerous health conditions, including Parkinson’s.

His official death certificate lists ‘acute myocardial infarction’ and ‘out of hospital cardiac arrest’ under the cause of death section.

It also listed coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction as “joint causes” of Ozzy’s death.

In his final performance, Ozzy sang five songs in his own set, with fans waving torches from their phones during Mama, I’m Coming Home.

He finished his performance with Crazy Train, before confetti rained over a packed Villa Park.

FAMILY UNITED

The Osbourne family have fiercely defended their late patriarch since his death.

Jack yesterday hit out at Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters in a sweary rant over comments about Ozzy.

Roger told The Independent Ink: “Ozzy Osbourne, who just died, bless him in whatever that state he was in his whole life.”

He added: “We’ll never know. The music, I have no idea. I couldn’t give a f**k.”

Roger finished by saying: “I don’t care about Black Sabbath, I never did.

“Have no interest in biting the heads of chickens or whatever they do. I couldn’t care less, you know.”

Taking to his Instagram Story, Jack soon fired back at these comments.

He penned: “Hey @rogerwaters. F*** You. How pathetic and out of touch you’ve become.

“The only way you seem to get attention these days is by vomiting out bulls*** in the press.

“My father always thought you were a c**t – thanks for proving him right.”

Meanwhile, sister Kelly Osbourne last month slammed WWE star  Becky Lynch for her comments.

The wrestler made a fiery promo ahead of her Intercontinental Title match with Nicki Bella this Sunday.

Addressing the crowd Lynch said: “The only good thing that came outta here died a month ago.”

She added: “But in fairness to Ozzy Osbourne, he had the good sense to move to L.A. Because if I lived in Birmingham, I’d die too.”

Kelly said in a post afterwards: “Becky Lynch you are a disrespectful dirtbag! Birmingham would not p*** on you if you were on fire.

“Shame on the WWE for allowing such things to be said about my father and his home!”

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WITH the new school year right around the corner, millions of parents are back to looking for lunch inspiration for their kids.

While fresh fruit, a sarnie and yoghurt are go-to picks for many families, one ”stay-at-home-dad” has left the internet stunned with his kid’s packed lunch.

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Foodie Tyler Yan regularly shares mouth-watering recipes on his TikTok, such as the viral Japanese Sando with strawberries and refreshing smoothie bowls for his wife.

But it’s not just Tyler’s partner who gets to enjoy his talent at cooking – their daughter, too, gets treated to luxury lunch boxes for school.

In a now-viral video posted on social media, the stay-at-home dad revealed he gave his daughter three glass jars full of fresh caviar which he served on ice to keep it cold.

The bizarre lunch also included crackers, a generous amount of cream cheese, which he hoped the girl would enjoy with smoked salmon.

For dessert, the child was given fresh figs – a lunch that ”sounded good”.

”Felt like a solid Wednesday move,” Tyler wrote in the caption.

The daughter, whose age is unknown, indeed gets to experience the finest things in life, as another clip saw Tyler filling her lunch box with octopus.

The ”Mediterranean-style box” also came with herby lemon quinoa, tomato cucumber salad, fresh figs, and marinated olives on the side.

On a different day, the girl went to school with a fresh arugula salad topped with cheese and steak cooked to perfection.

The epic lunch box, he shared in the video, also consisted of truffle fries, sauteed shiitake mushrooms, as well as sliced apples with peanut butter for something sweet.

But while Tyler created the jaw-dropping lunches with love and care, social media users weren’t so sure if his daughter actually enjoyed them.

Thousands of TikTokers insisted that the child must be trading her lunches with other kids and were in disbelief how luxe the food was.

”That lunch costs more than my rent,” one person thought about the caviar-rich box, which has racked up over 19million views.

”And she swapped it with a friend for stringy cheese, a yoghurt and a cookie,” another was convinced.

”Meanwhile all she wanted was a lunchable,” someone else agreed.

”bro just called me poor in so many ways,” a fourth chimed in.

However, not everyone came to share their criticism, as a fellow luxury foodie hit back at the trolls.

”as someone who grew up on stuff like this. no.. she doesn’t want the Lunchables or string cheese. She knows what she’s got.”

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