What the hell? This is where Duke’s relationship with the British press sours. He can stomach the odd staged shot or even let the occasional genuine candid pass by if it goes on to afford him some peace, but what’s all this about Evie and her mum? It doesn’t even make sense – if her mother is ill, it goes without saying that Evie would leave her behind in a care home. This is her work. You can’t be expected to bring a sick parent (a sick anyone!) to work. It was likely only a matter of time before they found some way to demonise her – she is a woman, after all. Duke doesn’t get much of that. They’ve never touched his family history and mostly only cover his shirtless beach pics or whoever he happens to be talking to on a film set, which, of course, is exactly how this whole thing with Evie started.

He doesn’t have her number to call and see if she’s okay, as per their fight last night. He’s mad. Humiliated, really. It was immature to think that life changes just like that – he might be the leading man in many a fairy tale, but they’re on screen, like Evie says, for entertainment. It’s officially time to become more realistic about love, because he can’t keep going on this way, falling head over heels and thinking every next woman is the one who is going to save him from the loneliness of his own making.

Something else has shifted for him, too, this morning. Evie is the straw that broke the camel’s back: he’s not going to keep on this way, held hostage in his golden cage. His stardom is getting in the way of him being able to live how he wants to live, which is to say it’s in the way of him being free. Maybe I’ll call Ashton Kutcher, he thinks, remembering that last time they bumped into each other Ashton was waxing lyrical about ethical investing, about having his money make money instead of being on a film set. Or he could do a Clooney and star in some coffee adverts and make his money that way, and then focus on producing. All in all, there must be another way for him to do this life.

What did he reveal to Evie? That really, it was all for his mother’s attention? Well, he’s got it. She’s sober. She seems happy. She wants a relationship with him. He doesn’t need the world to applaud him if he has his mother back. Suddenly, ever wanting that seems ridiculous to him.

‘Daphne,’ he says, as they ride to set together later that day. ‘Ages ago you said you wanted to set up a production company. I don’t suppose you’d want a partner in crime for that, would you?’