Raj and Shilpa

London, March 29: The timing of today’s news report that Shilpa Shetty is expecting to marry her businessman boyfriend, Raj Kundra, in October could not be more unfortunate from her PR point of view, coinciding as it does with details of Jade Goody’s funeral on Saturday.

It is more than likely that Hello! (or OK!) will offer Shilpa a substantial sum — possibly £200,000-300,000 — for exclusive access to her wedding which will take place in Mumbai.

But if the magazine is to protect its property, it will demand other guests are not allowed to take photographs, a ban that will be difficult to enforce in Indian conditions.

This is something that Liz Hurley managed when she married Arun Nayar at Umaid Bhavan in Jodhpur in March, 2007, when Hello! apparently paid her between £1 million and £2 million. But for that she even had to snatch a camera off Arun’s father and throw him out of the palace.

Shilpa may also ponder the “curse of Hello!” which strikes couples who pose for happy pictures in the glossy. It was recently claimed(though not confirmed) that Liz’s marriage to Arun has hit an awkward patch. However, they have been married for two years, which is quite a long time by celebrity standards.

Jade married her boyfriend Jack Tweed but both knew it would last only days since she was in the final stage of cervical cancer. Now, the 27-year-old will be buried in her £3,500 wedding gown, in the first proper celebrity funeral since that of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

Her coffin will go on a tour of London in a Rolls-Royce hearse, followed by mourners in Bentleys. Londoners are invited to the“open funeral”.

Meanwhile, “Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has revealed to The Mail on Sunday that she is to marry boyfriend Raj Kundra this year”.

The paper said: “The pair have set a tentative date in October and plan to have a traditional ceremony in India, surrounded by family and friends. The couple, who have been together for two years, are yet to make an official announcement out of respect for Jade Goody, who appeared with Shilpa in Celebrity Big Brother.”

“I have very traditional views about marriage,” Shilpa was quoted as saying. “I’ve seen my parents maintain a 35-year marriage and I really believe marriages are made in heaven.”

She added: “I’ve always said that the day I decide to tie the knot it is going to be for good. I have often wondered who the right person would be and I’ve come to realise that for me it is Raj. I’m completely sure he is my soul mate.”

The paper pointed out helpfully that “as an Indian woman of 33, Shilpa has been under increasing pressure to find a husband”, and that she and Raj “have been openly together for more than a year and have set up home in a seven-bedroom, £5 million house in Weybridge, Surrey”.

Raj, a 34-year-old millionaire, is said to own a Dubai-based business trading precious stones and metals and has also started to help manage Shilpa’s career.

He is believed to be behind her decision last month to invest £8 million in the cricket team Rajasthan Royals, last year’s Indian Premier League winners.

Of the wedding, he said: ‘I have spoken to Shilpa’s parents and we are doing it the Indian way. In India, you don’t get engaged until just before the wedding, so I didn’t go down on one knee to her or anything like that. But we have definitely set a date for this year.”

Although the couple are happy now, the start of their relationship was surrounded by painful accusations.

When they began dating there were reports speculating that Shilpa may have played a role in Raj’s separation from his first wife Kavita and their then one-year-old daughter.
The paper which carried Kavita’s allegation that Shilpa has helped to break up her marriage was none other than the Mail on Sunday. The News of the World also carried Kavita’s claims.

Shilpa’s response in July 2007 was to issue a 1,000-word statement in which she denied being involved romantically with Raj.

She described him as being “a part of my team” and threatened to take legal action if Kavita continued to claim that the Bollywood actress was instrumental in breaking up her marriage.

“If she continues to TARNISH my name out of any insecurity or otherwise, I will consider taking legal action as I see no reason why my name is being dragged into this mess,” warned Shilpa, who put “tarnish” in capital letters.

Shilpa said she met Raj after his marriage had broken down, and that although he had become a friend, having worked hard on her perfume project, she was not a marriage wrecker.

She lamented: “If I was linked to every friend I had I would have no friends left.”
Curiously, it is Jade who seems to have more friends, quite a few of whom have rushed into print describing her as little short of a saint, conveniently forgetting she behaved like a racist bully on television.

It was reported that “invitations to the funeral will be posted out today to stars, including the Sugababes, Kerry Katona, TV veterans Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan, and even Michael Jackson”.

In a story line that cannot be bettered by Hollywood or Bollywood, Jeff Brazier, the father of Jade’s two young sons, and Tweed, her husband, are said to have become friends and apparently play football together.

“Jack and the boys’ father have vowed to act ‘like two dads’ to Jade’s beloved boys. They have become closer than ever since she died, friends said.”

It was also established today that Shilpa is not keen to pursue legal action against Kavita.