Scarlett, my 14-year-old majestic standard poodle, had to be put down last year, and every day I miss her. Her followers had hundreds of suggestions. My grief was absolute. Friends and family were forgiving – even writing me letters of condolence – and if they thought I was dippy for being so emotional, well, we Brits have always been daft about our pets. When she went on to share how she’d had the puss cremated, my first thought was: ‘Oh, I wonder what she’ll do with the ashes? But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her and I wept without self-consciousness as she slipped away – and often in the months after. ’s ashes,’ wrote one. Yes, she’d been frail and stiff and I believed the vet when they said it was time. If I was sad or upset, a wet, woolly nose would nudge my hand, then she would bend her head to allow me to hug her. It’s a prettily decorated cardboard container holding her ashes. I couldn’t bury them in our garden because we may not live here for ever and I’m not letting some stranger dig Scarlett over for a new rosebed. Which is why, when I recently read TV presenter Gail Porter’s wail of sorrow about losing her beloved cat, I wasn’t surprised by the chorus of sympathy in the comments below. Since the lockdowns I think people are more forgiving of grief, of s­entiment of any sort. I have a daily reminder of Scarlett sitting on the mantelpiece in my office at home. So when I read Gail Porter’s Twitter thread, I felt I had stumbled among kindred souls. How I needed that comfort when she’d gone. The rise of corgi mania! For nearly a year, I looked at them every day and wondered what on earth to do with them. She was as much a part of our family as my husband and children. She knew I’d feel better for it.

Jennifer Aniston had the ashes of her German Shepherd turned into a diamond necklace. ‘I’m a walking shrine to her,’ said the actress in an interview last week. ‘Scarlett will be confused if she’s divided up between so many things,’ he says. Dakota Fanning skipped the cremation step for her West Highland terrier, Lewellen, and simply had the dog’s white fur pressed into a pendant. It’s when my husband finds me totting up a list that reads, ‘Resin letter ‘S’, keyring, light-up vase, ring and paperweight’, adding up to nearly £500, that he takes me gently by the hand and puts a stop to it. When I investigate the world of pet ash art, at first I am blinded by choice. He says: ‘I have this nightly mantra where I tap the box and touch the award, then I can go to sleep. And so I am now awaiting delivery of a ‘living urn’ – a double-walled plant pot, the outer section of which I will fill with Scarlett’s ashes, keeping a handful aside to mix into the soil underneath the bonsai tree that goes into the main inner section. I will wear the ring on the little finger of my right hand, while the plant pot will travel with us to whichever house we move to in the future. Chef James Martin not only chose a customdecorated treasure box for his dog Fudge’s ashes, but keeps it on his bedside table with one of his many culinary awards. I have also sent off a teaspoon of ashes to be made into a ring. Then I realise that, for most of the mementos, I need only a teaspoon of ashes. Secretly I have done the same for a glass Christmas bauble, but haven’t told my husband. Each December, I will hang her ash bauble on our Christmas tree. She’s not sharing the details, but Heart In Diamond, a UK-founded company that also operates in LA, tops out at £13,500 for a 1 ct white diamond created from pet ashes, setting not included.

Bolkiah is now plying his trade in Thai League 1, where he currently plays for Ratchaburi.

Mention Faiq Bolkiah in casual conversation and, unless you happen to be in south-east Asia, you’re likely to get one of two responses. But while the geography and profile of Bolkiah’s clubs has shifted, the constants in his career have been a passion for the game underpinned by an insatiable work ethic. His path in the game, which has taken him from the youth ranks of Premier League outfits Southampton, Chelsea and Leicester to Portugal’s Primeira Liga, and then on to Thai top-division sides Chonburi (since relegated) and Ratchaburi, has not always been smooth. His refusal to do so says much, for what does comes through loud and clear in Bolkiah’s occasional public utterances is a determination to block out the noise and focus on football. Many will profess ignorance of the 26-year-old footballer – which is not altogether surprising since he currently plies his trade in the backwaters of Thai football, a world away from the bright lights and big money of the major European leagues. That assessment is endorsed by Gary Koh, a Singapore-based freelance writer who is among the few journalists to have been granted an audience with Bolkiah. That being the case, you might think he would do something about it; that he would use his money to reframe the narrative, to shape public perception, to write his own story. Faiq Bolkiah, who has been labelled the world’s richest footballer, is the sultan of Brunei’s nephew. I like to focus on football. To those in the know, however, big money will be the very first thing that comes to mind when Bolkiah’s name comes up, for the LA-born, British-raised Bolkiah is the Sultan of Brunei’s nephew, a status that has seen him cast as the world’s richest footballer. Bolkiah is now plying his trade in Thai League 1, where he currently plays for Ratchaburi. Bolkiah rarely speaks in public, but when he does it is clear he has little time for that tag.

Sterling Silver Ring Loops Attach Beads

When I met him in late May 2015 at Bukit Gombak Stadium in Singapore, he came across as driven and focused,’ says Koh. From what I can guesstimate, that’s not what he’s worth,’ says Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies, a Singapore-based business consultancy. Yet the maths behind that assumption seem dubious: even the net worth of the sultan himself, Bolkiah’s uncle Hassanal Bolkiah, is not thought to exceed £23 billion. Put it this way: Bolkiah is 23rd in line to the throne of Brunei; on what basis would that make him worth 10 per cent of the family’s total wealth? He was unfazed by the attention he received, as he was well protected by two bodyguards and an aide, as well as the Bruneian Games delegation officials. It has been widely claimed, for instance, that as one of several heirs to the Bruneian royal family fortune, he is worth $20 billion (£15 billion). A few things stood out during the interview. Assessments of his wealth are necessarily based on his projected inheritance, a sum that will inevitably be affected by the fact that his father, Prince Jefri, has been married five times and reportedly has up to 18 children. Neither is that the only area in which perception seems at odds with reality. Bolkiah’s determination to block out the external noise has come at a price, however, for his silence has allowed a number of misconceptions to take root. It’s quite complicated within their internal royal framework, who gets what, but if you’re within the circle of the person within which the wealth gets distributed, obviously you get a lot more. So while it seems fair to assume Faiq is probably not short of a few bob – the Bruneian royal family’s fortune, derived principally from the country’s significant oil and gas reserves, has been put at £154 billion – the extent of his wealth appears to have been exaggerated. His replies were crisp and sharp, and gave an indication that he had received some media training when it came to handling my questions. He is one of the heirs to the throne, but he is not the direct heir – and the further you go down the list, the less of the wealth you get. That cannot always have been easy for a man whose family connections resulted in a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2017, a moment that even the publicity-shy Bolkiah could not resist sharing on social media.

Sterling Silver 925

Because of his reputed riches, Bolkiah often gets mentioned in the same breath as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. But while it might make for an arresting headline, the comparison is one of apples and oranges – not least because Bolkiah draws inspiration from a different point of reference. More intriguing is what motivates a man who could pursue a life of luxury at home to instead prolong his career, which stalled when he moved from Leicester to the Portuguese side Maritimo 2020, in the relative anonymity of Thai football. Put simply, the government of Brunei delivers economic comfort in exchange for political liberty. There are worse role models than Ronaldo, a double World Cup and Ballon d’Or winner, yet Bolkiah has struggled to live up to the promise he showed when youth scouts recruited both him and his cousin Ukasyah Wallace for AFC Newbury at the age of 11, following which he was picked up by Southampton. It is a system that has drawn its share of international criticism over the years, and the feeling among some experts is that the royal family has no wish to fan the flames further with more ‘unhelpful’ stories. And perhaps that is fair enough, for money is probably the least interesting thing about Bolkiah. One possible reason for this reticence is the Bruneian royal family’s evident distaste for the focus on Bolkiah’s wealth, an antipathy that seems rooted partly in a desire to let the player pursue his career in peace, but also in the social contract between the sultan and the country’s 458,00-strong population. That’s how I try and emulate my game – I love how direct he is with the ball, every time he gets the ball he’s direct. It doesn’t just come, it takes hours and hours of training to get to that technical level. He has been described as between 12 and 22 times richer than that pair combined – and from there the comments are rarely flattering, given the markedly different trajectory of his career compared with those giants of the game. He’s strong, he’s got the same kind of physique as me, he’s got quite big legs, he’s strong, powerful, fast. Liam Brady, the former head of youth development at Arsenal, for whom Bolkiah featured in the Lion City Cup in Singapore during a brief association with the club in 2013, also declined to comment, as did Ian Cawley, the academy manager at Leicester, where Bolkiah spent four years following a spell with Chelsea. Like many of the people contacted for this article, his manager at that time, Paul Morgan, did not respond to a request for comment.