RICHARD EDEN: Beauty executive Demetra Pinsent quits as director of Prince William and Kate’s Royal Foundation

It has, in its time, been able to call upon the expertise of such disparate figures as ‘Steel Magnolia’ divorce lawyer Baroness (Fiona) Shackleton and former SAS officer-turned-courtier Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton.

But the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales must now learn to live without the high-octane talents of Demetra Pinsent, wife of legendary rower Sir Matthew Pinsent, gold medallist at four successive Olympic games. 

I can disclose that she has just stood down after eight years as one of the foundation’s trustees.

But there’s no chance of Demetra, 50, resting on her laurels. 

A cerebral as well as glamorous figure – she was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where she met Pinsent.

Demetra married Matthew in 2002 and together they have three children. 

Canada-born Demetra, whose ancestry is Greek, met Pinsent at Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, following in the footsteps of former U.S. President Bill Clinton

The Princess of Wales and Prince William (pictured on December 3 during the state visit of the Emir of Qatar)

She remains chief executive of Charlotte Tilbury’s beauty empire, four years after Spanish firm Puig acquired a majority stake in a deal which valued the British company at £1.3billion.

‘I knew I had met my perfect match in Charlotte,’ Demetra previously said.

‘She is as ambitious, determined and opinionated as I am, yet complementary to me in the way she thinks about opportunities.’