We're All Going On a Summer Holiday
Cliff takes 80 pals on a £400,000 cruise to celebrate his 60th birthday
By Alison Boshoff, Showbusiness Editor. Pictures by Eliot Fraser
SIR Cliff Richard sails spectacularly into his 60th birthday today-after whisking 80 of his closest friends off on a luxurious Mediterranean cruise to help him celebrate.
The star has hired Cunard’s sumptuous Sea Goddess yacht at a cost of around 1400,000 for the weekend jaunt, which started at Nice on the French Riviera.
With a smile and a salute, he welcomed his gurata aboard the 343-ton vessel, which boasts a health spa, casino, pool and Jacuzzi.
They included his former sweethearts Sue Barker and Olivia Newton-John and his new ‘special friend’, 34-year-old Karon Maskill. She was his PR girl until the beginning of the year, when he started a sabbatical.
The couple have continued to see each other and she was at hit side at a Christian arts festival in Glas tontiury in the summer.
Miss Maskill’s boss, Mark Borkowski who is also Sir Cuff’s spokesman dismissed rumours that the couple are planning to announce their engagement.
‘Karon is on the cruise, and they nee each other back in Britain, but they are just friends,’ he said.
“They both like the theatre and have the same interests. Karon does not talk to us about the relationship, but if there is an engagement, I would be astounded.”
Miss Newton-John flew in from her native Australia, As she saw Sir Cliff, the 51-year-old singer ran along the gangplank into his arms and the delighted pair embraced before she went aboard.
Former tennis star Miss Barker 43. now a BBC television sports presenter, was with a female companion.
Also arriving by coach after being flown in from Heathrow was Sir Cliff’s longtime friend Gloria Hunniford, with her husband Stephen Way plus comedian Bobby Davro, television presenter Cheryl Baker and songwriter Sir Tim Rice.
Asked who was on the yacht, Sir Cliff said: “Oh, about 86 people, all friends of mine. I had everyone on this list - Cilla, Sue, Gloria- but not all were free to come. When I had finished the list, I had about 900 people. I realised I’d have to use some criteria, so I broke it down to people that I see very regularly and it seemed to be the only fair thing.”
“There’s a load of people I’d like to have had, but I’d need the Oriana to get them on.”
He and his guests will tonight enjoy a gala black-tie birthday dinner and dance in the yacht’s art deco dining room.
During the weekend, they will redan amid the opulent ambience of the Bea Goddess described as ultra-deluxe’ and “a new dimension in elegance”.
Cunard markets trips aboard the showpiece vessel as the thinking man’s cruise at a cost of £600 or more per day.
Revealed, the Peter Pan jab
THE secret of Sir Cliff’s ever-youthful Peter Pan of pop’ looks was revealed yesterday-he uses a special anti-ageing drug to reduce facial wrinkles.
He has had Botox-a muscle relaxant refined from the highly-toxic botulinum bacteria, injected into his forehead to smooth away frown lines.
In an interview with OK! magazine, the star tells how he underwent the procedure after being introduced to it by his sisters. It costs around £300 and works for up to six months. The cosmetic results are said to be as good as those produced by a full brow lift done by a plastic surgeon.
But Sir Cliff admits he may consider even more radical treatments as the years catch up with him.
Asked if he would consider plastic surgery, he said: “Yes I would. If I wasn’t a celebrity, then I wouldn’t care about how much things dropped or drooped.”
“So I wouldn’t think twice, other than the fear maybe of what might go wrong.”
More photos from Cliff’s birthday cruise in OK! magazine.