The Celeb 4 Life

By Ed Harris, Evening Standard 3 January 2006

Kate Moss's love life appears to have taken a turn from the ridiculous to the sublime. Weeks after dumping bad boy rock star Pete Doherty, her newest boyfriend is a former public schoolboy 11 years her junior with a reputation for being prim and proper.

Jamie Burke, who has been seen kissing and smooching with Moss at the fashionable ski resort of Aspen, Colorado, is a former boarder at Charterhouse, the £24,000-a-year Surrey school whose former pupils include Peter Gabriel and Jeremy Paxman.

The 20-year-old's family has a country home in Sussex and a townhouse in Kensington but he is currently based in New York, where he describes himself as a "singer-songwriter" and is trying to establish himself as a musician.

Former classmates of Burke were astounded that he was dating the model from Croydon. One said: "Up until recently he was a conservative dresser who was considered very prim and proper. He's changed."

However, another former pupil said: "Jamie always liked to think of himself as a bit of a bad boy at school.

"He kept getting caught smoking when he shouldn't have been, and thought he was a bit cool. Jamie also fancied himself as a bit of a ladies' man - now he's pulled Kate Moss there'll be no living with him."

It is believed that Burke and Moss met before
Christmas while staying on the Caribbean island of Necker owned by Sir Richard Branson. Both are friends of Sir Richard's 19-year-old son Sam.

Burke signed with the model agency Models One after leaving school but gave it up to concentrate on music. His parents are divorced.

A neighbours at the £3 million townhouse in Kensington described Burke as a "sweet boy".

The neighbour, whose god-daughter had been in a relationship with Burke, added: "There haven't been any wild parties around here, it's a very quiet area." Moss, 31, has only just put her disastrous relationship with Doherty, 26, the frontman of Babyshambles, behind her.

She went into rehabilitation in Arizona after being exposed for allegedly taking cocaine, but has started to rebuild her career with a series of new multi-millionpound contracts.

A source close to Moss said: "Kate is well over Doherty and seems to be really enjoying her time with Jamie. Everyone is a bit surprised about it, but she seems happy and that's the most important thing."