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Man spends $7,000 on royal piece of cake

<p dir="ltr">A man has spent almost $8,000 on a piece of cake from Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ wedding.</p> <p dir="ltr">Avid royal fan Gerry Layton from Yorkshire in the UK purchased the 41-year-old large slice of cake which came from one of the 23 wedding cakes used at the couple’s wedding in 1981.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 62-year-old first bought the piece of cake for £2170 ($3840) at an auction last year in August before deciding to donate it to a local charity ball auction.</p> <p dir="ltr">It was only last week that the slice of memorabilia which has the royal coat of arms in gold, red, blue and silver went up for auction again and Gerry realised he hadn’t even tasted it. </p> <p dir="ltr">"After some free champagne, I suddenly got the urge and thought 'I haven't even had a bite of it yet'," he told The Yorkshire Post.</p> <p dir="ltr">This time round, Gerry paid £2100 ($3700) for the cake and said “I don't care if it kills me” but he will taste it. </p> <p dir="ltr">"It's 41 years old but I definitely am going to have a bite."</p> <p dir="ltr">Gerry has not ruled out donating the piece of cake again but only after he has tasted it. </p> <p dir="ltr">Dave Avery who was the head baker of the Royal Navy said he had met up with Princess Diana before her big day. </p> <p dir="ltr">"She said to me, 'I want a wedding cake and not a monument', so she was quite happy.</p> <p dir="ltr">"There was nothing much [known] about Diana, so it ended up being more of a naval type of cake – all I could do was the Spencer crest.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Twitter</em></p>

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"Nobody left the table that evening”: Explosive new claim in Madeleine McCann case

<p>A US private investigator has worked undercover at the holiday resort in Portugal where Madeleine McCann vanished and has made explosive new claims that cast doubt on the McCann’s parenting checking system.</p> <p>The system the McCann family told police that they conducted checks on the children throughout the evening whilst they were at dinner at a nearby restaurant.</p> <p>However, in an interview on the <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.9news.com.au/maddie" target="_blank">Maddie</a> podcast, Boston-based investigator Joseph Moura claimed a bartender and waitress told him otherwise.</p> <p>This bartender and waitress had served the McCanns and their friends that evening and told Moura that “nobody left the table that evening”.</p> <p>Nobody working at the tapas restaurant where the McCann family and their friends dined that evening knew that Moura was a private investigator.</p> <p>"[The employees] had no idea that I was working with<span> </span><em>48 Hours</em><span> </span>and CBS. I was just a tourist who happened to speak their language. So, I got to know them pretty well in that period of time, when you're spending a lot of time by the pool and you're spending time at the bar and the restaurant," he said.</p> <p>"They clearly told me that that particular night that nobody left the table. That goes by the bartender and that goes by the waitresses. Nobody left the table that evening."</p> <p>However, it is possible that the bartender and restaurant wait staff did not see Mr and Mrs McCann and their friends getting up to check regularly on their children.</p> <p>What do you think about the claims? Let us know in the comments.</p>

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Are Madeleine McCann's parents still together?

<p>After their three-year-old child Madeleine McCann disappeared on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, Kate and Gerry McCann have been through hell.</p> <p>After being named and cleared as official suspects in the investigation and having faced intense media scrutiny as the world developed an intense interest in the case, it’s any wonder whether or not the family have found peace.</p> <p>Although the McCanns have accepted a life where their eldest daughter is permanently absent, it’s safe to say that they’re tough circumstances for any couple.</p> <p>Which begs the question: Are they still married after all these years?</p> <p>The couple are both doctors and met in Glasgow in 1993. They have been described by friends as “inseparable” and have been together ever since, according to <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.nowtolove.com.au/parenting/family/madeleine-mccann-parents-still-together-54839" target="_blank"><em>Now To Love</em></a>.</p> <p>They had Madeleine in 2003 after going through IVF treatment and still currently live in the same house they have always lived in. The family live in Rothley, which is a small English town in Leicestershire.</p> <p>Kate McCann has said things haven’t always been easy. She explained in her 2012 autobiography <em>Madeleine: Our Daughter's Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her</em> that she withdrew into herself after the disappearance of Madeleine.</p> <p>The couple were horrified by fears that their daughter might have been kidnapped by a sex trafficker or that she was taken by a paedophile.</p> <p>"Tortured as I was by these images, it's not surprising that even the thought of sex repulsed me," Kate wrote in the autobiography.</p> <p>"I worried about Gerry and me. I worried that if I didn't get our sex life on track our whole relationship would break down."</p> <p>Kate explained that if it wasn’t for her husband’s supportive nature and kindness, their marriage wouldn’t have survived.</p> <p>"He would put his arm round me, reassuring me and telling me that he loved me," she recalled.</p> <p>Kate also mentioned that she visits Praia da Luz, which is the Portuguese resort town where their daughter disappeared.</p> <p>She told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-27236457/kate-and-gerry-mccann-interview-in-full" target="_blank">the BBC</a>:</p> <p>"I do go back for personal reasons...</p> <p>"It's obviously the last place we were with Madeleine and I still walk those streets and I guess try and look for answers. It helps me, most of the time."</p> <p>Have you seen the Madeleine McCann documentary on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.</p>

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New police investigation: Was Madeleine McCann killed by a drunk driver?

<p>She disappeared at the age of three and has been missing for 11 years. Madeleine McCann was on a holiday in Portugal with her family when she vanished in 2007 while her parents were having dinner in a nearby restaurant.</p> <p>Sadly, there hasn’t be a credible sighting of her since that night.</p> <p>For 11 years British police, Scotland Yard and the toddler’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have worked endlessly over the past decade to try and locate her.</p> <p>In what could be a positive sign, a new lead came into play recently. As reported by <span><em><a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7820354/madeleine-mccann-looking-for-parents/">The Sun</a></em></span>, British police are re-examining the theory that the toddler woke up in the middle of the night, left the apartment and began walking around the villa looking for her parents.</p> <p>According to the theory, Madeleine walked out of the complex and could have possibly been struck by a drunk driver, who placed her body in a car and buried her later.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Scotland Yard officers are looking into the possibilities of a kidnapping or burglary gone wrong.</p> <p>“A meeting took place at the HQ of the General Attorney’s Office, which was attended by the prosecutor from Portimao, who is in charge of the Portuguese inquiry,” a Portugal informant said.</p> <p>“One of the lines of investigation that continues to be pursued is that Maddie could’ve walked out of the holiday flat herself,” shared David Edgar, a former investigator on Madeleine’s case, as he explained his theory.</p> <p>As reported by <span><em><a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7779795/madeleine-mccann-investigator-claims-missing-could-be-alive/">The Sun</a></em></span>, Edgar is adamant the toddler was kidnapped by a child sex gang.</p> <p>“She is most likely being held captive, possibly in an underground cellar or dungeon and could emerge at any time,” he added.</p> <p>The former investigator also believes Madeleine is still in Portugal and is being held against her will and that someone in Portugal knows what happened to the young girl.</p> <p>Edgar urged that now is the time to come forward with information.</p> <p>“Unless a body is found there is hope. Everyone hopes for a positive outcome and Kate and Gerry will never give up, even when the funding runs out. I hope they get an answer, they’ve been waiting for so long,” he pleaded.</p> <p>British Home Office has announced that it has allocated an extra 150,000 pounds ($265,275 AUD) to Scotland Yard so they can continue their investigations to find Madeleine. Metropolitan Police are following two new leads which they have informed Maddie’s parents about, and they are “hopeful of getting a result”.</p> <p>Edgar hopes they’re chasing up his theory which he didn’t have the resources to pursue himself when he was working on the case.</p> <p>“Not for want of trying, but as a private investigator, I was faced with certain restrictions and stumbling blocks unlike the official authorities,” he explained.</p> <p>Kate McCann wrote a heartbreaking letter to the <em>Telegraph</em> where she revealed that each year she still buys presents for her daughter at Christmas time.</p> <p>“The presents I buy for her usually have to jump out at me,” she wrote. “She would be a teenager now so I always try and pick something that would be suitable and enjoyable for her no matter what age she is when she gets to open them.”</p> <p>The heartbroken mother added, “In my head I guess I just want everything to be right for her when she comes back home. The loft is filled with the presents I have bought for Madeleine and her wardrobe too.”</p> <p>Kate also shared that she hasn’t touched her daughter’s bedroom since she went missing and that it’s in the same condition as it was before her disappearance.</p> <p>She confided in the letter that during the time Maddie went missing she felt “numb”, and now, over 10 years later, everything she does on a daily basis is tinged with sadness.</p> <p>Do you think this new investigation will finally lead to answers? Let us know in the comments below.</p> <p> </p>

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