How Donna Air went from Geordie lass to dating multi-millionaires and Kate Middleton’s brother
THERE is no denying Donna Air has had a whirlwind life.
From child star and partying with the coolest of celebs to becoming a millionaire and dating near-royalty, it has been one heck of a ride.
This week, The Sun is celebrating the women who shot to fame on the covers of lads’ mags in the 2000s.
Donna’s path to stardom began at the same Newcastle theatre group attended by fellow Geordie stars Jill Halfpenny and Ant McPartlin.
Now 42, she got her first big break aged ten when she was picked to play Charlie Charlton on children’s soap Byker Grove in the early Nineties, alongside telly faves Ant and Dec.
By the time Donna had finished her GCSEs, she had moved to London and was preparing for a worldwide tour as part of Crush, a pop duo formed on Byker — despite admitting she could not sing a note.
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More success came with a presenting role on MTV UK, followed by Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast.
So in demand was the vivacious northern lass that she was welcomed into the heart of London’s notorious Primrose Hill set.
Known for their hedonistic lifestyle, the gang comprised THE biggest names in showbiz at the time.
Kate Moss, Sadie Frost, Noel and Liam Gallagher — if you were part of Cool Britannia and lived in that hip northern part of London, you were in.
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Of the group’s reputation for sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, Donna said: “We must have all seemed like man-eating alcoholics.”
But being a good Catholic girl, she insisted: “There was an element of misbehaving but I’m quite good at staying a relative distance from any trouble.”
Years later, having moved into more elite circles, she hinted at the toll her reputation as a party girl had taken on her ambitions.
‘I’VE NEVER REALLY BEEN DRIVEN BY MARRIAGE’
She said: “That takes a bit of time to shake off. It does take longer to then get a serious acting role or walk into a business meeting and be taken seriously.”
It did not help that she had acquired the unfortunate nickname of Donna Airhead.
Living up to that moniker, she once famously asked the Irish sibling quartet, The Corrs, how they met.
Violinist Sharon Corr referred to the blunder as the “most stupid question of all time”, adding: “I looked at my brother and sisters and our hearts just sank.”
Years later, in 2012, the barrister who helped get Donna off a fraud charge, in relation to applying for parking permits in two London boroughs, argued in court that there is “not a great deal going on in Miss Air’s head”.
By then Donna was busy juggling life as a single mum and says she left chores such as filling in forms to her “mother’s help”, blindly signing the permit application without reading it.
Five years earlier she had broken up with multi-millionaire animal conservationist Damian Aspinall, who is dad to her daughter Freya.
She was just 21 when she met and fell in love with Damian — then nearly twice her age at 40 — having been introduced at a dinner party in 2000 by their mutual pal, former It Girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
We must have all seemed like man-eating alcoholics.
Donna Air on the Primrose Hill set
He once said: “I asked her if she liked animals and she said, ‘Not really’, and it was such a relief after all these women who had gone on about animals just to get close to me.”
Theirs was a lavish life, with a large townhouse in central London’s affluent Knightsbridge, adorned with art by Andy Warhol and David Hockney.
Damian, now 62, who was said to have made £45million from his casino and property empire and previously dated supermodel Naomi Campbell, has said he liked to test out potential girlfriends by giving them a credit card.
He explained: “If a girl goes out and blows it, she is a waste of time. I then feel relieved — it’s an easy way to find out.”
Donna, the daughter of a receptionist and a mechanical engineer, later admitted there were subjects she did not talk about during their early relationship, “for fear of being seen like a money-grabber”.
Their daughter Freya, 18, is an aspiring model who also works with her dad’s animal foundation.
The parents never got married though. Damian, who has since married his second wife, was dubbed a “commitment-phobe” and Donna has insisted: “I’ve never really been driven by marriage.”
The pair raised eyebrows when they announced they would be handing their baby over to a 200lb gorilla at Damian’s Howletts Zoo in Kent.
It was a ritual Damian had carried out with his first two daughters, Tansy, 33, and Clary, 30, from his 15-year marriage to Louise Sebag-Montefiore.
He said of the gorillas: “Why would I not trust them? I know them, I grew up with them. They are my friends.”
Damian’s dad John bought Howletts with his gambling winnings in 1956 and moved the family there from central London’s Eaton Square, where they lived with a capuchin monkey, a Himalayan bear and a leopard he would walk in the early hours of the morning.
I’ve never really been driven by marriage.
Donna Air on her split from Damian Aspinall
During their relationship, Donna spent most of her time in London, only heading to Howletts for a couple of days each week. And when her old Newcastle friends descended, Damian would escape to the top floor of their home.
She said of their relationship: “There are a lot of differences between us.
“All those things didn’t matter when we fell in love, but I think they do a little bit.”
After the pair split in 2007, the petite star was described as “rail thin”. Explaining her tiny frame, she once joked: “I get up at 4am, work out for four hours, then just eat lettuce. No. As if.
“I do have a low body mass.
“I’ve always been able to eat what I want.”
Donna was horrified, years later, when she discovered her pictures were being used on pro-anorexia sites as “thinspiration”.
She said: “I hope these girls get the help they need.”
For a few years, the star focused on building “stability” for herself and Freya. It was not always an easy time.
In 2011, she broke both legs in two separate incidents, which forced her to pull out of appearing in the play The Watcher.
Then there was the fraud case, which she described as “very scary.”
She revealed much later: “It has been an uphill struggle, as any woman starting again knows. It ain’t no picnic.”
In 2013, she met Kate Middleton’s younger brother James at a private members’ club in London, which sparked a five-year relationship.
‘IT’S NOT THAT MUCH OF A STRETCH’
Moving in royal circles was not something that fazed Donna — she was already friends with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
But it frustrated her that some assumed being James’s plus-one had elevated her social status.
She said: “We had mutual friends. We all eat in the same restaurants, go to the same places.
“It’s not that much of a stretch, but the trouble is that if a woman has anything, people assume it has been given to her by a man.”
James, 35, whose marshmallow business Boomf went into administration in December, recently married French financial analyst Alizee Thevenet.
Donna said of their relationship: “It wasn’t meant to be. He’s a great guy, we had a lot of fun. The timing wasn’t right. I wish him nothing but happiness.”
Work-wise, she competed in TV reality show Splash! in 2013 as a last-minute replacement for Hollyoaks actress Jennifer Metcalfe.
She appeared on Dancing On Ice five years later.
Most recently, we have seen her in BBC drama The Split, which starred Spooks actress Nicola Walker.
In 2020, Donna said she was enjoying “having some Donna time” by doing reflexology, reading books on Buddhism and saying no to parties. She went on to have a brief romance with vaping millionaire Gunnar Winbergh.
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In May, she was spotted enjoying a cosy dinner in West London with company director Ashley Smatt.
Looking fabulous in her forties, it seems that Donna has got her groove back.
