Hello! Canada January 17, 2022

Happy New Year! We’re kicking off 2022 with a milestone birthday issue as the Duchess of Cambridge turns 40. It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since a 25-year-old Kate Middleton appeared on Hello! Canada’s cover as Prince William’s university sweetheart (1). “Their lives are so entwined that it is difficult to think of one without the other,” noted a source, and that bond would only strengthen over a few years, culminating in Kate’s fairytale moment as a princess bride at Westminster Abbey (2). Next came her first overseas tour, which saw the glamorous royal couple grace Parliament Hill on Canada Day and walk the BAFTA red carpet in Hollywood (3), with the new duchess leaving the most A-list of celebrities completely starstruck. “She was just lovely and warm,…

When Nicole Power arrived at Toronto’s Gardiner Museum for her wedding, her fiancé, Adam Minster, was waiting outside. But she had told him in advance to keep his back turned until she was ready for the big reveal. “He was facing the museum as I was getting out of the car and our photographer was getting ready to capture the moment. Then there’s this group of people that are walking down the street and they recognize me from the show,” says the star of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience and its spinoff, Strays. “They were like, ‘Oh my God, Shannon’ – which is my character’s name – and they started taking pictures and asking for photos in the middle of our first sighting. We both started laughing and Adam was like, ‘OK,…

‘Archie made us a “Mama” and a “Papa,” and Lili made us a family’ It was the photo their millions of fans had been longing to see. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released the first photo of their baby daughter, Lilibet Diana, to mark their first Christmas card as a family of four. Wearing a sweet dress, little Lili, as she is known, beams at her adoring parents while mom Meghan lifts her in the air. Also in this precious family portrait, Archie – his red hair just like dad Prince Harry’s – is seen clearly for the first time since he was a baby. The proud parents unveiled the image with the message: “Happy Holidays. This year, 2021, we welcomed our daughter, Lilibet, to the world. Archie made…

Most spouses call their other half “honey” or “babe” as a nickname. Not Jessica Chastain, whose husband, Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, comes from nobility and, in Italy, is recognized as a count – making Jessica a countess! But she discards any formalities. “His name is beautifully long so I just call him, ‘Hey, you!’” jokes the Molly’s Game actress. The couple --who met in Paris in 2012 on the same day that Jessica found out she was nominated for an Oscar for her breakout role in The Help --will celebrate five years of marriage this year. (Guests at their 2017 nuptials included celebrity pals Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt.) “I love being married and I never thought I would, but he is a spectacular human being,” says Jessica of…

For Betty White, laughter was always the best medicine. “There is a funny side to aging, if one has a warped sense of humour,” the comic icon wrote in her memoir If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t). “If one has no sense of humour, one is in trouble.” And Betty kept that sense of fun right up until the end, when on New Year’s Eve, just 17 days shy of her 100th birthday, the last Golden Girls star passed away at home in Los Angeles. Tributes quickly poured in from around the world for the almost-centenarian, showing just how much she has meant to people of all ages. “Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” her friend and agent Jeff…

JEAN-MARC VALLEE HOLLYWOOD REMEMBERS THE ‘MAGIC’ OF QUEBEC’S STAR FILMMAKER The world’s biggest stars are remembering a giant of Quebec filmmaking, who also took Hollywood by storm. Montreal-born Jean-Marc Vallée, known for the Oscar-nominated films Wild and Dallas Buyers Club, as well as for directing the first season of the Emmywinning series Big Little Lies, died on Dec. 25 at his cabin in Berthier-sur-Mer, near Quebec City, reportedly of a heart attack. He was 58.Shocked and saddened, Big Little Lies star Nicole Kidman (left, middle) shared, “I’m shattered … His friendship, kindness and love were an inspiring force I will carry with me.” Reese Witherspoon (bottom, with Big Little Lies co-star Laura Dern, Dallas Buyers Club star Matthew McConaughey and Jean-Marc) worked with the director on the HBO series and…