Jools Oliver Sells Children's Clothing Brand for £2.3 Million

Jools Oliver, wife of TV chef Jamie Oliver, has sold her children's clothing brand, Little Bird, to the retailer Next for £2.3 million. The sale comes as Jamie Oliver previously invested £25 million of his personal wealth in an effort to save his restaurant chain, which collapsed into administration in 2019.

The £2.3 million received by Jools Oliver is £800,000 more than the £1.5 million dividend she shared with her husband from his private company, Jamie Oliver Group, in the previous year. Profits at their cookery and media business had nearly halved in the past year, leading to a more than 40 percent decrease in that dividend.

Little Bird was launched by Jools Oliver in 2012 and is marketed as a "nostalgic, inclusive lifestyle brand that your kids will love to wear." Next, which already stocks Little Bird items, describes the brand as being "influenced by Jools’ own happy childhood." Some of the brand's collections have also been inspired by personal challenges; Jools Oliver created a "My Rainbow Baby" bodysuit collection for Mothercare to support the charity Tommy's and raise awareness for baby loss, following her five miscarriages.

Documents filed at Companies House indicate Jools Oliver has resigned as a director of Jools Enterprises Ltd, the company through which she manages much of her earnings. The company's address is now registered at Next's headquarters in Leicestershire, and Next executive Jeremy Stakol has been appointed as a director.

In other celebrity news, MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers is continuing her treatment for breast cancer, which included a mastectomy in July. Miers, 50, described chemotherapy's nausea as the worst side effect but stated she is managing fatigue by resting, dancing, walking, and napping when possible. Actress Joanne Froggatt, who plays the wife of Tom Hardy's character in the series 'MobLand,' has described Hardy as a "great teammate," in contrast to previous reports of strained relations between Hardy and Dame Helen Mirren during filming.

Separately, actor Andrew Garfield recounted an experience at a theme park where he felt overwhelmed by a marijuana-laced edible. Garfield, 43, consumed a legal cannabis sweet before a 3D ride at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, describing the experience as "just horrible" and leaving him "too dizzy."