Blessed with poise and presence, she won accolades and adoration alike for her portrayal of Samantha ‘Sam’ Stewart in Foyle’s War, appearing in every episode of Anthony Horowitz’s award-winning ITV series, only for her stellar career to falter as her turbulent marriage unravelled. 

But after divorcing her husband, raffish grandee Lorne Stormonth Darling, and doing an 18-month stint as a washer-upper – in her words, ‘a lesson in humility’ – Honeysuckle Weeks triumphantly resurfaced last year, shedding inhibitions, and clothing, on stage in a musical version of Calendar Girls.

Suitably renewed, the effervescent 45-year-old actress is now evidently once more ready for battle… a very personal battle, it would seem. She’s taken to social media to name the woman who, she claims, was her husband’s mistress.

This is made all the more startling by what follows, for the woman in question – asserts Weeks – is none other than Daphne Hall, niece of legendary Texan model Jerry Hall and daughter of Jerry’s late, equally glamorous sister, Rosy Hall, who, as a 19-year-old, was one of the original cheerleaders with the Dallas Cowboys.

After divorcing her husband, Lorne Stormonth Darling, and doing an 18-month stint as a washer-upper, Honeysuckle Weeks triumphantly resurfaced last year

Weeks claims that Daphne Hall (pictured), niece of legendary Texan model Jerry Hall, was her husband’s mistress

Weeks, who married Stormonth Darling in 2007, recalls how she was once invited to a barbecue by Jerry, only for the invitation to be rescinded. ‘Her niece Daphne forbade me going,’ she claims, adding bluntly: ‘Daphne was my husband’s mistress.’

It’s easy to see why Daphne might turn a man’s head. She has the same long-limbed beauty as her mother and aunt, and is not hide-bound by convention. The father of her children, from whom she is now estranged, is Roc Sandford, who divides his time between London and his own private Hebridean island, Gometra.

Son of Old Etonian film-maker Jeremy Sandford whose final property was a Jacobean pile in Herefordshire where naked meditation and Dervish dances were encouraged, Roc is an ardent eco-warrior. 

So are two of his children by Daphne: his son Lachlan Blaze, known as ‘Lazer’, and his daughter Isla Bluebell, known as ‘Blue’ though sometimes described as the British Greta Thunberg.

Their campaigns have included a 2021 attempt to thwart the building of the high-speed rail, HS2, by living 15ft below ground in a tunnel they’d dug close to London’s Euston station, where for weeks they resisted eviction by the contractors’ bailiffs.

By then, though they couldn’t have known it, their mother’s – alleged – lover, Stormonth-Darling, only had two years left to live.

Pictured: Cindy Hall, Jerry Hall and Rosie Hall

Honeysuckle had marked her 2019 divorce from Lorne by posting a striking image on social media – a sign bearing the initials L&H, alongside pink hearts burning on a bonfire, with the caption: ‘Bye bye marriage’.

Stormonth Darling died last year, aged 60. His father, Robin, had been eminent chairman of City stockbroking firm and living at the other end of the spectrum from life on Gometra, where Daphne and Roc had brought up Lazer and Blue without cars, electricity or hot water.

On the other hand, the Stormonth Darlings do own Balvarran, a 2,500-acre estate in Perthshire. Perhaps Daphne and her children hoped that it might become a New Age haven of the sort that Blue and Lazer’s grandfather established in Herefordshire, with some tactical training for eco-warriors thrown in for good measure.

Daphne could not be contacted for comment. But she’s certainly on the move: her house in north-west London – bought for £715,000 in 2010, by what appears to be a family trust, whose members include her aunt Jerry – is up for sale. 

Neighbours say it’s been empty for weeks. Another property in the same street is on the market for £1.7million – enough to pay for some new tunnelling equipment, in case Honeysuckle lets fly with something stronger than an online post…