Viscountess Weymouth mourns the loss of an ‘adorable’ rare koala just months after it was brought to Longleat safari park from Australia

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Viscountess Emma Weymouth is devastated by the death of one of the koalas that came to live at their stately home Safari Park Longleat last year

Stop all the clocks. One of Lord and Lady Weymouth’s beloved koalas — brought over from Australia just a few months ago to Britain amid great fanfare — has suddenly died.

The five marsupials were flown from their natural habitat Down Under to the grounds of the Weymouth’s stately home at Longleat safari park in a pioneering conservation project aimed at ensuring the survival of the species.

Lady Weymouth was photographed with a koala on a visit to Australia last summer (right), when she said she was looking forward to them becoming part of the Longleat menagerie. ‘They are the most extraordinary and adorable animals, wrapping their limbs around you almost like an infant,’ she said.

While northern koalas can be found at Edinburgh Zoo, this was the first time southern koalas had been brought to Europe. Despite the best efforts of koala experts, Wilpena succumbed to oxalate nephrosis, a kidney disorder.

Wilpena, aged three, arrived at Longleat along with three other females and a male, in October from Cleland Wildlife Park in South Australia. Emma’s husband Viscount Weymouth, who runs the Longleat estate, is patron of the International Koala Centre of Excellence (IKCE) which protects koalas in the wild.

Lord and Lady Weymouth aim to use the death of Wilpena as a catalyst for fundraising and research into the mystery of why koalas succumb to kidney disease.

Cleland Wildlife Park director Professor Chris Daniels said: ‘Wilpena’s passing does bring into stark relief why we need initiatives like IKCE.’

Emma Weymouth arrives at The Fashion Awards 2018 In Partnership With Swarovski at Royal Albert Hall on December 10, 2018

Known for doing little more than chewing gum leaves and napping for up to 22 hours a day, the animals will be the prime attraction at Longleat’s Koala Creek, opening this Easter.

Unfortunately there is a high incidence of oxalate nephrosis in southern koalas. Longleat’s head of animal operations Darren Beasley tells me: ‘All of the koalas were given kidney score checks prior to coming to Longleat. If any had a high score, which suggested there were underlying issues, they would not have been permitted to travel.

‘Some koalas are capable of living with the disease for many years, but sadly others, like Wilpena, are much more seriously affected.’ I am delighted to report the health of the remaining four koalas is excellent.

Cherie Blair’s latest property business has got off to a shaky start after making a loss of £76,600 in its first year. The company was set up to manage rental income from her and Tony Blair’s £7 million investment in a West End office.

But, somewhat sheepishly, Mrs Blair, sole director of Harcourt Ventures, was obliged to acknowledge the financial shortcomings.

The report for the company’s first accounts said: ‘The director notes the company’s net liabilities of £76,609 at the period end. The director is confident that they will be able to repay sums due from future profits.’

Les Mis star Dominic West takes a year break for family  

Les Miserables star Dominic West, who turns 50 this year, reveals he’s taking a break from work for the sake of his children.

Dominic West as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables 

‘I’ve always been a bit frightened of death. What I’m really frightened of is the worry that I didn’t do as much as I might have.

‘But really, it’s all about my kids,’ he says.

‘I’m very conscious right now that I’m at the stage when it’s my last chance to be a big thing in their lives. 

'So I’m taking a lot of the year off to do that.’

The Old Etonian, who has four young children aged between one and 13 with his wife, Catherine Fitzgerald, adds: ‘I don’t have a great foreboding about the future, but I do feel I’m in the summer of my life. And it can’t last for ever.’

Known for her turbulent love life, actress Sheridan Smith, 37, so far child-free, says she could never be a single mother, like the character she plays in her new ITV drama, Cleaning Up.

‘I don’t know how people do it. How do people do this for real? How do they manage to juggle having a job and being a single mum? Hats off to anyone who has to do it. They really do deserve a medal.’ Sheridan’s fiance, Jamie Horn, 28, whom she met on Tinder, take note!

Nescafe star is still hot stuff  

It's been 32 years since the steamy advert for Nescafe’s instant coffee first hit our TVs, but its star, Sharon Maughan, finds it hard to let go.

The Liverpudlian blonde, 68, was delighted to discover a jar of the beverage this week on holiday with her husband, Waking The Dead star Trevor Eve, in Central America.

‘Look what I found!’ she captioned this selfie online.

After more than three decades, Sharon, whose daughter is Hollywood bombshell Alice Eve, still has the same piercing blue eyes that caught the attention of Anthony Head, her smoothie neighbour in the ads, inset.

Bake Off Sue’s holiday fare? Rats and spiders  

Comedian and former Great British Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins is used to sampling some tasty delights.

However, she admits she once ate barbecued rat.

‘I ate it as part of a banquet in Yunnan, China,’ she says. ‘There’s an awful lot of “When in Rome” type eating in deepest Asia.

‘Same goes for roadside spiders garnished with pig guts in Cambodia. Etiquette-wise, you have to weigh up a brief window of indigestion with this wonderful experience of community with the locals.

‘My advice is drink through it. Get a tumbler of the local grog and just wash it down. Don’t ask too many questions.

‘Drink the undrinkable. Eat the inedible. Dance all night.

‘That’s what Imodium is for.’

Cold Feet actress Fay Ripley is no fan of roughing it at music festivals. ‘How I always do a festival is to arrive immaculately dressed and have a hotel booked,’ insists the 52-year-old mother-of-two, who is married to Australian actor Daniel Lapaine.

‘A sleeping bag is not for me. It’s the hygiene.’

Cold Feet actress Fay Ripley, 52, who is married to Australian actor Daniel Lapaine, is not a fan of slumming it at music festivals

 Princess Anne to visit Rose West jail  

While Meghan Markle gets the glamorous royal jobs, Princess Anne carries out the donkey work without so much as a murmur of complaint.

Next week, the Queen’s daughter will visit HM Prison Low Newton, whose inmates include the serial killer Rosemary West, convicted of ten murders. Anne is visiting in her role as patron of prisons charity the Butler Trust.

Let’s hope she doesn’t have to eat anything prepared by West, 65.

Last September, the child murderer reportedly won first prize in a prison baking contest after impressing fellow lags with her Victoria sponge.

Prince William will be relieved that the attempted coup against Ali Bongo Ondimba, president of the West African republic of Gabon, has ended in failure.

The president has been one of William’s staunchest allies in the battle against ivory poaching in Africa. In 2014 he was an honoured guest at the Illegal Wildlife Trade conference, hosted in London by the British Government and attended not only by William but also by the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry.

Ali Bongo’s influence is generally considered more beneficial than that of his autocratic father, Omar Bongo, who amassed an immense fortune.

The president, a devoted Anglophile who sends his sons to British public schools, is convalescing in a royal palace in Morocco after suffering a stroke.

A call from his friend William would surely pep him up.

Tamara Ecclestone’s husband shows off his new £200,000 toy  

Just back from holiday in Mexico, Jay Rutland lost no time posting this snap on social media of his new Range Rover and personalised number plate.

‘Have been looking forward to this coming for a while,’ writes Rutland, 37, who is married to billionaire Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter, Tamara, 34.

Since posting a photo of him and Essex pal Sam Palmer — engaged to Tamara’s sister Petra, 30 — and captioning it ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’, Rutland has defensively commented that money is ‘not what really matters’. But it helps when buying bespoke Range Rovers which go for up to £200,000-apiece.

Jay Rutland (left), husband of billionaire Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Tamara, has a new Range Rover

Unflappable Ann Widdecombe reveals that she’s only ever once been lost for words. ‘I was once asked by a member of the audience at a show: “Why would anyone want to have an affair with John Prescott?”’ says the 71-year-old Tory MP turned TV celebrity referring to the former deputy prime minister, who had a fling with his diary secretary. 

‘And I still don’t know the answer to that question!’