Mail On Sunday

Billy O'Brien, 22, (inset, right with Miss Howard) has spoken of his heartbreak after his girlfriend Faye Howard, 23, (left) hung herself in Dunham Massey Park near Altrincham, Greater Manchester. The former bank worker had struggled to come to terms with a debilitating bowel condition called Pelvic Floor Dyssynergia. In a statement former City youth team player Mr O'Brien, who now plays for Macclesfield Town, said: 'It was very hard because we loved each other more than anything else in the world.'

Revellers took to the UK's bars and clubs as the countdown to Christmas continues, resulting in a busy night for the nation's police officers. Hundreds were spotted out in Newcastle city centre as festive jumpers were donned (pictured, bottom right) and Santa hats sported into the early hours of this morning as others were carried to cabs (pictured, bottom left). In Bristol, some party-goers had to be helped across the street (pictured, top right) while others took festive fancy dress to new heights (pictured, top left).

Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, however the attempts by these Scrooge's will struggle to get you in the festive mood. Among some of the poor decorating attempts include a Christmas tree wrapped in clingfilm (left), a lights display which shows the residents true feelings on Christmas (top right) and even a ball of tangled lights which greets visitors (bottom right).

Britain will eventually pay between £35 billion and £39 billion as part of the so-called Brexit 'divorce bill' - provided the EU agrees to the future trade and transition deal the Prime Minister wants. The Government hailed the deal because the payment is much lower than had been expected.

It was a dramatic night of shuttle diplomacy that capped off an extraordinary political week - even by the standards of life at Westminster. Theresa May had been warned by the EU that she effectively had until midnight on Sunday to salvage an agreement or face a long delay in starting Brexit trade talks. So late on Thursday, the Prime Minister raced against the clock to get a last-minute deal on the table and agreed by all sides in time for a critical EU summit next week. Incredibly, the No 10 staff Christmas party was 'going on around' her as she worked to secure the breakthrough. Once the final details of the deal had been hammered out and the PM had grabbed only 'a couple of hours' of sleep, she caught a pre-dawn flight to Brussels.

Amir Khan has become the seventh person to be evicted from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Outta Here. And on his exit the boxer, who celebrated his 31st birthday the same day, finally admitted he let Iain Lee take the blame for the strawberry debacle, which saw the duo demolish the tasty treats without their campmates. The British star was greeted by his dad as he left the show, but pregnant wife Faryal Makhdoom was noticeably absent from the episode.

When Janet Wilson (bottom right, centre) booked a £216 afternoon tea at the Ritz (inset) for a family celebration, she expected the 'epitome of high standards'. After all, the five-star hotel on Piccadilly boasts on its website that the treat is 'exquisitely presented' and 'the finest slice of life'. Mrs Wilson, her husband Roger, 73, a retired British Telecom worker, and their daughters Karina, 17, and Adele, 20 (both left), went to the Ritz on May 24 to celebrate Adele achieving her gold Duke of Edinburgh award. But Mrs Wilson said the family had to contend with 'rock hard' scones and spilt tea, while staff failed to present the tea 'properly', serving 'over them, rather than to the side'. She complained and asked for a 50 per cent refund of £108 but the hotel refused - even sending her clips from its CCTV cameras which it said showed that no tea had been spilt.

A furious Twitter row has erupted after drivers stuck in seven mile tailbacks on the M5 urged police to push a man off a bridge in a bid to clear a four-hour traffic jam. The motorway was shut at around 4pm following concerns for the welfare of a man near Junction 28, Devon and Cornwall Police said. Motorists including parents with young children were left 'trapped' in the cold for hours during the delays which began just before rush hour on Friday evening. Officers are said to have refused to help stranded drivers until they had run out of petrol. Furious Twitter users branded some drivers - including Natalie Creese, pictured top right -'insensitive' after they posted tweets branding the man on the bridge a 'selfish idiot'. Writing on the social networking site, Shaun Strachan, pictured bottom right, said: 'Several hours for one guy on a bridge? Push him the f*** off or pull him the f*** down.' Twitter users leapt to the man's defence while slamming the lack of 'compassion' from drivers stuck in the traffic jam.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert enjoyed a passionate private life that saw them share nine children. Victoria, portrayed by Jenna Coleman in the ITV drama of the same name, famously refused to obey the conservative standards of the time, even going as far as calling her many pregnancies the 'shadow side' of marriage. But what is little known is the fact the queen and her husband also had a tenth child after adopting a Nigerian princess following the brutal murder of her royal parents. Sarah Forbes Bonetta (left) was brought to England when she was just five and for the rest of her life shared a special bond with the queen. The princess' remarkable story will be told in the Victoria Christmas special (right).

Israeli warplanes rained down missiles on Gaza overnight in retaliation for rockets shot into Israel as violent protests continued today following Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the country's capital. Targets included two weapons manufacturing sites, a military compound and an arsenal. Reports in Gaza said that 15 people were injured in the strikes, including a six-month-old boy. Two members of Hamas were killed by strikes on the Hamas facility at Nusseirat in central Gaza, officials said.

While Meghan's pals - a glamorous girl gang of fashion designers, actresses and LA socialites - have been tripping over themselves to welcome Harry, the Prince's inner circle has been rather harder to impress, especially given the whirlwind nature of their romance. Indeed, the couple - who met in July last year but until recently lived 5,400 miles apart - have had a mostly long-distance courtship, so there has been little time for cosy London suppers or country house bonding sessions with the Prince's notoriously cliquey pals. But sources say Meghan, 36, who has already shown herself to be poised and polished in her new role as royal fiancee, has played a blinder, winning over not only Harry's male friends but, crucially, their wives and girlfriends, too. In fact, wooing the women of the Royal Family has been a sensible strategy on Meghan's part, which she has used to cement herself in Harry's life within a remarkably short time.

The listing for the seven-pound Wenger 16999 Swiss Army Knife Giant has attracted the attention of online jokers making up stories about the product. Some reviews praise the contraption for fixing nearby engines and performing minor surgery, while others lament it for performing unwanted amputations. The reviews range from one star to five, with one customer lamenting that the purchase 'didn't work' because 'like everything else they've tried, this device is not capable of fixing the Cleveland Browns.'

McGowan made the remarks on Twitter this week after seeing Milano (left with her in 2007) describe Weinstein's wife Georgina Chapman (right together) as a 'good woman' who is going through some 'very dark times'. McGowan, who claims to have been raped by Weinstein in 1997, blasted her former co-star as 'fake'. 'You actually gave me a body flashback. Well done,' she said. Chapman, whose fashion label Marchesa was propped up by her husband's money, announced she was leaving him in October.

An alcoholic who, at his lowest, drank half a bottle of scotch a day turned his life around on his first day of sobriety. John DeCaux (pictured left before sobriety) says he has 'never felt better' 600 days after giving up alcohol (right) and wants to share his life-changing results with others. 'I have lost about 17 kilograms so far and I'm now going to the gym at least three days a week,' the South Australian man told Daily Mail Australia.  

MTV bosses are holding crisis talks after Geordie Shore star Scotty T was pictured appearing to snort a substance after exposing himself to a woman contestant on a new reality show he is hosting. The 29-year-old was spotted puffing a cigarette while appearing to flash his genitals at the giggling female on the set of Just Tattoo Of Us at Leighton TV Studios. He was then seen heading into a toilet and doubling over with a white object held to his nose amid concerns from insiders over his increasingly bizarre behaviour.

Meredith Masony, 37, a mother and wife, created a hilarious spoof video, The 'man cold' vs. the 'mom cold' and it has since gone viral with over 25 million Facebook views. The video depicts a married couple who are both sick and how the wife gets frustrated while putting up with her husband's demands.

The TV star (inset with wife Liz), who is demanding £300million compensation from the bank after 'large-scale industrial fraud' he says left him on the brink of suicide, has owned the 18th-century villa (pictured) for 13 years. But the 68-year-old has now put the grand estate on the market for £2.97million after moving into a luxury apartment in Monaco. The sprawling six-bedroom manor - said to be the 'home he adores' - is at Grasse on the French Riviera, a 30-minute drive from Cannes. Called the Perfumed Garden, the mansion (top left) is spread across three floors and comes with a swimming pool (bottom right) and glorious views of the surrounding vineyards. Pictured bottom left: A table on the patio. Top right: The beautiful kitchen.

The medal ceremony was one of the most unusual over which His Majesty King George VI ever presided. Curtseying before him at Buckingham Palace was a pretty four-year-old. Wearing a puff-sleeved dress, with her hair in ribbons, the little girl looked ready for a birthday party. Yet there Tania Szabo (inset) was, being presented to the monarch and having a George Cross for bravery pinned to her chest. The award had been made posthumously to Tania's mother Violette Szabo (main, played by Virginia McKenna and right), one of the most courageous British agents to have operated behind enemy lines during World War II.

When maths teacher David Crosby (left) was told his 16-year-old protege Stephen Geddes (left with David and right with his parents), raised in one of the poorest areas in Britain, had won a scholarship to study at £38,700-a-year Eton College (inset), he took his glasses off and wept. 'It was probably the proudest moment of my teaching career,' says Crosby. 'To see the look on the faces of his mother and father, to see the look of shock and disbelief on Stephen's face - to have the knowledge that this was really going to change his life and change this community's life...' Mr Crosby, a teacher at Liverpool's King's Leadership Academy - a school which was in special measures until just over two years ago - struggles to find the words to describe that overwhelming moment.

The British Dental Association (BDA) warned recently about a ghastly new affliction called the 'prosecco smile', seen in women whose front teeth have been rotted by 'a triple whammy' of acidic carbonated bubbles, alcohol and sugar (one heaped teaspoon present in every flute.) So is the BDA just being a seasonal spoilsport - or are our teeth really in peril? To discover the truth, the Mail asked the UK's leading dental scientists at the Oral Health Foundation to investigate the effect of prosecco on tooth enamel. We also tested other popular drinks which have a reputation for rotting teeth, including a sports drink, an energy drink, cider and cola (examining the oft-repeated claim that a tooth dissolves if it's left in a glass of cola overnight). Pictured top shows the effects of prosecco on teeth after 48 hours and 14 days and bottom shows the effects of cola on teeth after 48 hours and 14 days.

Christine Keeler was 19 when she met Minister of War John Profumo and found herself rocketed to fame when her simultaneous affairs with him and Russian embassy military attache Yevgeny Ivanov erupted in 1963. As the scandal unfolded, she was described as a 'good time girl', while osteopath to the rich and famous Stephen Ward was accused of pimping Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice-Davis (top right). Keeler died of the lung complaint chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the Princess Royal hospital in Bromley, south-east London on Monday. She was 75. In his first full interview since the death of his mother this week, Seymour Platt (left, with Keeler) said she was victimised - and spoke of his hope that women will never again be 'blamed for men's urges' as she was.

They've set tongues wagging over the status of their relationship ever since being partnered together on Strictly Come Dancing. And Mollie King, 30, continued to fuel speculation as she enjoyed a cosy lunch with her dance partner AJ Pritchard, 23, in between ballroom rehearsals in London on Wednesday.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott released the video and street surveillance footage on Thursday night, showing Keita 'Icky' O'Neil (top right), 42, jumping out of a stolen minivan and running by a patrol car. The newly hired officer fires through the glass window and O'Neil falls to the ground. Scott said the officer who fired the single fatal shot from the passenger seat of a patrol car was riding with a training officer on his fourth day of duty. Police did not release his name.

Chinese web users are enthused over a new product that claimed to be a China-made 'quantum of invisibility cloak'. Amateur video emerged on Weibo showing a man disappears in front of the camera as he holds a transparent-looking table cloth in front of him. The video has over 21.4 million views and shared by various news media as well as Chen Shiqu, deputy head of Criminal Investigation Department at Ministry of Public Security.

This is the incredible moment a lioness was reunited with the man who raised her as a cub. Kiara, who was named after the Lion King character, leapt on her former owner in delight when the pair were reintroduced at her new home in Mexico City. Adolfo rescued the big cat when she was a baby but she was later moved to the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation to receive specialist care.

The 'Hot Felon' was seen cooing over the child while on a date with Green in a Los Angeles restaurant on Thursday. The pair were pictured frolicking with the youngster as Meeks and his wife continue their ugly divorce battle. Mother-of-three Melissa claims he has stopped paying child support and barely sees their seven-year-old son, and her three other children who saw Meeks as a 'father figure'. She also claimed that the pair were expecting another child together, but she suffered a miscarriage when the first pictures emerged of him being unfaithful with Green. In November, she revealed she was in the early stages of pregnancy with their second child when she saw the incriminating images of Meeks and the Topshop heiress on a romantic break to Turkey.

A candid home video obtained by DailyMailTV shows an 18-year-old Meghan Markle driving around with her best friend in Los Angeles in the summer of 1999. Ninaki Priddy, the actress's childhood best friend, is behind the camera for most of the 45-minute movie as the girls talk about boys, shop, and listen to music. Meghan points out her license plate cover which reads 'CLASSY GIRL' and admits, 'The ex-boyfriend got me that.' The two gal pals are seen driving around until it's time for Meghan to head to an audition for a Shakira music video where she was asked to 'dance wildly.' And Markle reveals she has a crush on Mark McGrath, the Sugar Ray frontman, telling her friend 'he's so hot'.

Le Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc in the French Alps has become arguably the biggest husky race in the world as 25 mushers compete over nine legs for their share of a £50,000 prize pot. MailOnline Travel's Kate Pickles took time out from the newsroom to cheer on racers while making the most of the spectacular scenery by trying her hand at a spot of Alpine and Nordic skiing.

The 'soul-crushing' footage was taken by photographer Paul Nicklen and filmmakers from conservation group Sea Legacy after they arrived on northern Canada's Baffin Island. The former biologist who has now turned his hand to wildlife photography has seen over 3,000 bears in the wild, but this particular encounter (pictured) will no doubt linger in his memory. The photographer shared the haunting moment with his Instagram followers, attracting over one million views.

A man who decided to buy a toy polar bear because it looked like his dog was in stitches when he realised it bore an astonishing resemblance to his pooch in more ways than one. Kelvin Tan, of Singapore, found the cute toy on the web, which changes faces when it is squeezed. And the same the can be said for his snow-white Chihuahua, Dao Hui, which makes a strikingly similar face to the toy when he is given a squeeze. 'I had previously seen the toy online and I found out that it actually looked similar to my dog,' said Mr Tan.

The heartwarming moment a three-year-old girl lights up with astonishment as she hears for the first time following cochlear implant surgery has been caught on video. Little Harper Rollinson's face said it all when she was finally able to hear her parents Luke and Katie when the implants were activated on Monday morning at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. The Rollinsons started their newborn baby daughter on chemotherapy when she was just 12 days old after she was diagnosed with aggressive eye cancer, according to the Illawara Mercury. The chemotherapy saved the tiny girl's life, but one of the side effects was severe hearing loss. The family from Illawara in New South Wales were forced to choose between using hearing aids or five-hour-long cochlear implant surgery for their daughter or cochlear implant surgery.

The clip, captured at Martin Mere nature reserve in Tarlscough, Lancashire, shows a mesmerising starling murmuration being rudely interrupted by incoming geese. Animals that move and live in close proximity to one another have developed complex methods of navigating without crashing. A common theory is that these animals have developed zones around them to tell them where others are.