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Newly single millionaire model Amanda Cronin, 54, has a warning for prospective suitors as she reveals the reason she split with Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley

When millionaire model-turned-entrepreneur Amanda Cronin — who claims to have ‘the longest legs in Belgravia’ — broke up with former Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley this year she, rather cryptically, blamed the split on him not being ‘relationship material’.

Given that Ridgeley had a 25-year relationship with fellow 1980s icon Keren Woodward, one third of Bananarama, her remark was something of a blow for women of a certain age, many of whom would once have traded their beloved legwarmers and iced magenta lipstick for just one of his Careless Whispers.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room of her double-fronted three-storey mews house in Belgravia, Central London, her impressive 39 in pins stretched out in front of her, Amanda sheds some light on why Andrew turned out not to be a keeper.

‘I’m looking for a monogamous relationship,’ she says, arching one neat eyebrow. ‘When the next Mr Right comes along, he will have the same set of values that I have. I’m quite traditional, a sweet, country girl. I’m also discerning and want to be around other people who understand what that means.’

By way of acknowledgment that the split may have been by mutual consent, she adds: ‘I’m intelligent, demanding. Not for everyone.’ 

Power couple: Amanda Cronin and Andrew Ridgeley at Wimbledon last year

However, Amanda appears to have no regrets about the year she spent swanning around with one half of Wham! (Andrew’s former bandmate George Michael sadly died on Christmas Day 2016) until she revealed their break-up in the Daily Mail diary back in May.

‘It’s massive — dating Andrew Ridgeley from Wham! — wow,’ says Amanda, who initially didn’t recognise the singer. 

He invited her to join him at Wimbledon after they were seated together at a friend’s birthday dinner.

‘I’m quite proud of it. He’s a good person and it was just great, a lot of fun, and will make a fabulous chapter in my memoir.’

Like most women who lived through the band’s 1980s heyday, Amanda was eager to see the recent Wham! documentary. Only she had the added thrill of having known one of its stars intimately.

‘I think it was very well done,’ she tells me. ‘It was so brave of Andrew to step forward and we talked about the documentary often.

‘He really wanted people, especially the younger demographic — who may only have known of George Michael from negative headlines about his illness and sudden passing — to understand what a wonderful genius he was: a singer, songwriter, producer and amazing friend.

‘Also, that the band had four members, not two [backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie], and each played a massive part.’

When millionaire model-turned-entrepreneur Amanda Cronin (pictured) ¿ who claims to have ¿the longest legs in Belgravia¿ ¿ broke up with former Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley this year she, rather cryptically, blamed the split on him not being ¿relationship material¿

When millionaire model-turned-entrepreneur Amanda Cronin (pictured) — who claims to have ‘the longest legs in Belgravia’ — broke up with former Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley this year she, rather cryptically, blamed the split on him not being ‘relationship material’

However, Amanda (pictured) appears to have no regrets about the year she spent swanning around with one half of Wham! (Andrew¿s former bandmate George Michael sadly died on Christmas Day 2016) until she revealed their break-up in the Daily Mail diary back in May

However, Amanda (pictured) appears to have no regrets about the year she spent swanning around with one half of Wham! (Andrew’s former bandmate George Michael sadly died on Christmas Day 2016) until she revealed their break-up in the Daily Mail diary back in May

While dating a pop icon would be the highlight of most autobiographies, Amanda has had such an interesting life, hers was already set to be a page-turner, beginning to end.

Before Andrew, her biggest claim to fame was featuring in TV show The Millionairess And Me, which documented her unlikely friendship with Martin Read, a once-homeless film-maker, during which she talked about her £10 million jewellery collection and £200,000 chauffeur-driven Bentley, while also, incongruously, helping out in a charity shop in the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil.

The programme attracted a huge audience, many of whom were irked by Amanda’s perceived profligacy and claims that if rich people, like her, were forced to pay more tax we would all suffer because they would simply up sticks, taking their wealth with them.

She has invited me to her beautiful Belgravia home, to talk about her new venture, skincare business Amanda Caroline. Its high-end products — ‘in the prestige category with La Prairie, La Mer, Augustinus Bader’ according to Amanda — were developed during the pandemic and are now on sale globally at stores including Fenwick and Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as online.

While the Haute Lift Duo serum and cream will set you back an eye-watering £260, the Haute Rose Cream Clay Foaming Cleanser is a relatively more affordable £65.

‘We don’t call the products “anti-ageing” — because that’s impossible — but “slow-ageing”.’

Amanda worked closely with a biochemist, previously employed by Elizabeth Arden and The Body Shop’s Anita Roddick, to create the range, which claims to reduce pigmentation and wrinkle depth, while thickening, plumping and firming the skin and providing 72 hours of hydration.

While skincare is a crowded market, Amanda, 54, has her sights firmly set on stratospheric success.

Proud mum: With daughter Sofia in New York City in September 2022

Proud mum: With daughter Sofia in New York City in September 2022

‘It might sound huge, to build a billion-dollar company, and only certain people have done that — men, mainly — but I have all the tools in place, everything that I need around me to get this business to where it needs to be,’ says Amanda, adding, with impressive self-confidence. ‘I’m not fazed at all.’ Known for being one of the wealthiest women in the UK, Amanda certainly has the capital behind her.

In 2019 she divorced Mark Daeche, co-founder of energy and broadband provider First Utility (now sold to Shell), and who is estimated to be worth around £40 million.

The couple married in 2013 and, glamorously, shuttled between London, Monaco, the South of France and Geneva before separating in 2017, having spent ‘increasing amounts of time apart’.

‘We weren’t getting on, he had a lot of work pressure and got very upset and I think I became an easy target,’ she tells me, leaning in, refreshingly candid. ‘I thought, “If you’re going to be in a bad mood, I’ll go to London, be with my daughter, my friends, where I feel comfortable.” ’

While able to talk about this period with some detachment now, it was a ‘very dark time’ for Amanda who developed a tranquilliser ‘habit’.

‘The only time I’ve suffered anxiety was during the breakdown of my marriage,’ she says.

‘It was a very difficult time so I took Xanax. I never did a massive amount, a “mouse’s nibble” I used to say, but it was definitely a crutch during that time and it kind of got me through. But it’s very difficult to get off — I kept some in every bag, purse and travel pouch I owned.’

The pandemic turned out to be Amanda’s salvation. She was one of the first to succumb to Covid, in March 2020, pre-vaccinations, and felt so unwell she decided that ditching Xanax, and the sleeping tablets she also took, would aid her recovery. Any withdrawal effects she may have experienced she put down to Covid.

¿It¿s massive ¿ dating Andrew Ridgeley from Wham! ¿ wow,¿ says Amanda (pictured), who initially didn¿t recognise the singer

‘It’s massive — dating Andrew Ridgeley from Wham! — wow,’ says Amanda (pictured), who initially didn’t recognise the singer

Andrew (pictured right with Amanda in July 2022 in London) invited her to join him at Wimbledon after they were seated together at a friend¿s birthday dinner

Andrew (pictured right with Amanda in July 2022 in London) invited her to join him at Wimbledon after they were seated together at a friend’s birthday dinner

‘As I started to recover, I realised that I hadn’t taken any medication for six weeks and thought, “Oh, I’ll keep going,” ’ she says. ‘So I dug out all the pills and threw them away.’

Although acrimonious for a time, relations with her ex, who was a ‘father figure’ to her daughter, Sofia, 25, born during a short-lived marriage in her 20s, are also now improved: ‘We’ve broken bread, so we’re good,’ she says.

While Amanda comes from an ‘aspirational family’ — her father ran a plastic surgery company with her uncle, a surgeon — and grew up in a ‘big country house’ in Hampshire, she had a state education, attending a convent school in Southampton.

She is, therefore, proud to have been able to give Sofia, an artist with a gallery in Switzerland —whose early works, nudes and embroidery pieces, adorn Amanda’s walls — ‘the best education money can buy’.

Sofia went to Hill House, the same Knightsbridge primary school as King Charles, before moving to Queen’s Gate, the senior school in South Kensington attended by Queen Camilla, then heading to Parsons School of Design in New York.

Fees at Hill House are now £18,000 a year, while at Queen’s Gate they are almost as much as the average annual UK salary, at more than £25,000, and Amanda takes great pride in having paid for every penny of Sofia’s education herself.

As a single mum for most of her daughter’s life — she separated from Sofia’s father, a commercial property developer, when Sofia was young — it’s important to her to be financially independent.

‘I highly recommend it,’ says Amanda. ‘I think it’s very dangerous territory when women have to rely on men for finances.’

Robert Redford and Amanda Cronin attend the 2015 Princess Grace Awards Gala at Monaco Palace on September 5, 2015 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco

Robert Redford and Amanda Cronin attend the 2015 Princess Grace Awards Gala at Monaco Palace on September 5, 2015 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco

With work meetings along the way, her jet-setting this summer has already taken her to Florence, Finland and the U.S., to visit New York and the Hamptons, and will be rounded off with a stay at the exclusive Hotel du Cap — ‘a home from home’ — on the French Riviera and a week in Monte Carlo.

Marrying, and divorcing, a multi-millionaire must surely have helped her maintain this glitzy lifestyle, but Amanda is keen to stress that she worked hard throughout her marriage, managing investments and property portfolios, as well as acting as a sounding board on matters relating to her ex-husband’s business.

Given her already enviable lifestyle, I can’t help wondering where the drive comes from to build a billion-dollar business at a stage of life when most of us would happily, given the option, rest on our laurels.

‘I feel great,’ she says. ‘I like the way I look and I feel peaceful, calm and happy. My drive in the work-place is because I’ve got this opportunity and I’m running with it.

‘I’m 54 — that’s young as far as I’m concerned. I’ve got a lot of experience behind me and potentially another good 40 years ahead and I want to make the most of them.’

Amanda has perhaps more cause than many to appreciate the prospect of a long life, having been diagnosed with skin cancer in her early 30s.

She spotted a suspicious-looking black mole on her inner thigh, while in the bath, and the doctor who diagnosed ‘the worst, most aggressive’ malignant melanoma said that, had she left it another six months, the cancer would have been terminal.

The life-saving surgery left a huge scar which, in the days before Photoshop, pretty much ended Amanda’s £800-plus-a-day modelling career because much of her work involved swimsuits and hosiery.

However, as a single mum to a then six-year-old, her main focus was on recovery and staying in remission. She now wears SPF50 at all times and has regular checks on her moles.

Having given little thought to such matters beforehand, her ordeal led Amanda to take a keen interest in skin, ‘our biggest organ’, finding the best ways not only to protect but to nourish it, leading eventually to her decisi on to develop and launch her skincare range. She describes herself as ‘an alpha female’.

‘I’m a boss, a CEO,’ she says. ‘I don’t run with the pack,

‘I’m not part of a big crowd. I’ve never understood why, but that makes me feel uncomfortable.

‘Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of lovely friends. I’m so blessed with people who love and care about me — but I’m a free spirit, a visionary leader, an independent woman.’

Amanda says she has a penchant for crisps and chips, but maintains her size 8 figure, battling her body’s greater tendency to gain weight since midlife through swimming, practising yoga and strength training under instruction from a former Russian athlete. She can lift weights of up to 70 kg.

Although through the menopause, she also started on HRT last year to help with digestion issues, adding testosterone, prescribed privately, a few months ago.

‘Testosterone has definitely helped with my libido,’ says Amanda, who is now happily single. ‘It helps with my energy and strength too.’

While she is no stranger to tweakments — collagen-boosting treatments and occasional Botox injections — Amanda is surprised to find that, in her mid-50s, though she could easily pass for a decade younger, she hasn’t yet felt the urge to go under the knife.

One abiding sadness is that she wasn’t able to have a bigger family — ‘it just never happened’.

She admits to feeling broody from the age of 16 and imagining herself as a mum of three.

‘I thought I would have more children but that makes me even more grateful for my daughter,’ says Amanda with customary positivity.

‘That’s why I’ve got my little white poodle, Monty. He’s 12 and does a very good job of being my son.’

Amanda doesn’t rule out settling down again, if ‘Mr Right’ comes along.

‘I don’t feel deficient being single and, as my daughter is in a good place, I can focus my energy on my business and doing what I want, so it would have to be someone very special,’ she says.

Former pop stars, unless they can prove themselves to be ‘relationship material’, need not apply.

Amanda Caroline Skincare is available at The French Pharmacy, Fenwick nationwide and amandacarolinebeauty.com. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12354223/Newly-single-millionaire-model-Amanda-Cronin-warning-prospective-suitors-reveals-reason-split-Wham-s-Andrew-Ridgeley.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 Newly single millionaire model Amanda Cronin, 54, has a warning for prospective suitors as she reveals the reason she split with Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley

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