The truth about Stella's new man

There is a celebratory lunch being held today at an Italian restaurant in Notting Hill. A small group of well-dressed young men who, until recently, worked together at the lifestyle magazine, Wallpaper*, will be toasting the fact that their former colleague and close friend, 32-year-old Alasdhair Willis, has become engaged to his long-term girlfriend, the fashion designer Stella McCartney. But, according to one of Stella's closest friends, there is another piece of news which will see Alasdhair not only wearing his habitual Gucci loafers but an extra-wide smile, too.

"There is a dot-dot-dot to the engagement story, you know," the friend says enigmatically. "Rumour is that Stella's pregnant."

According to the friend, when Stella's father, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, married Heather Mills earlier this year, she said to herself, "I've got to make my own family now." And, apparently, she couldn't have made a better choice - her close girlfriends and her sisters absolutely adore Alasdhair, a really good sign that he is Mr Right. Every one of her friends I spoke to insists he is not a hanger-on, is unimpressed by celebrity, and has supported Stella through thick and thin - particularly at the difficult time when she decided to leave her job as head designer at Chloe to set up her own label at Gucci. "He's a real dreamboat, you know," another of her friends told me yesterday. "I was at a party with them recently and they were surrounded by the most beautiful women in the world - models, actresses - but he only had eyes for Stella. He is so attentive, and she leans on him. Al is so in love with that girl."

They met just over a year ago at a party to launch a new Chloe collection held at 1 Lombard Street in the City. Apparently, they got talking, and the next day Stella asked her PA to phone him to see if he would like to have dinner with her - and, by the way, would he wear the same suit as the other night, as she really liked it.

Everyone at Wallpaper* knew they had started seeing each other but, according to Tim Clark, former executive editor at the magazine and still a close friend, "Al never ever talked about her; he didn't say a word. He is a real gentleman."

The one person who might disagree is Alasdhair's former girlfriend, Lisa Helmanis, the homes and travel editor of She magazine. They met at art school, and went out for about five years until they split up two years ago. "Lisa was really in love with Al, but he started hanging out with celebrities, got a flash car and stopped inviting her to parties," says one friend. "She remained very down to earth - she likes a beer, she isn't a label queen, and he just became a different person.

"When they broke up she went through hell." Neither Lisa nor Alasdhair has spoken out about what happened. An old friend, who, in her job as a fashion editor, bumps into Alasdhair occasionally in the front row of the shows in Milan and Paris, confirms that he is annoyingly discreet. "When I ask, 'How is that certain lady, then?' he always replies, 'Very well, thank you.' You'll never get him to say anything more. And Stella appreciates that." Even his best friend, Simon Clark, says he only learned of the engagement by reading about it in the Evening Standard.

As the publisher of a glossy magazine, Alasdhair moved in the same circles as Stella, went to the same parties, and it was inevitable they should meet. She was immediately impressed by his twinkly green eyes - and the fact he wasn't remotely starstruck. According to Tim Clark, she also likes the fact that Alasdhair is intelligent, well-read, and at ease mixing with the rich and famous. "Al likes beautiful things," he says. "His house in Camden is immaculate; he doesn't just know about fashion, he appreciates good furniture, good design. He likes the high life, eating at Sheekey's or The Ivy. He loved the whole schmoozing side of the industry, flying all over the world to woo clients for the magazine. I'm sure having lunch with Sir Paul doesn't faze him at all."

Another friend says their relationship reminds her of the one between Kate Moss and Jefferson Hack - who is also a magazine publisher, "although a bit scruffier than Al". She says that she thought Stella had felt a bit left out when both her best friends, Kate and the actress Sadie Frost, got pregnant. "We were at the baby shower, and I'm sure she felt a bit broody. Also, she turned 30 this year, always a bit of a milestone."

Even when he was a fine-art student at Winchester School of Art in 1988, Alasdhair was always groomed and smart. "For his degree private view he wore a beautiful cream suit," says a friend who was a couple of years below him. "His trousers were always exactly the right length. He was a clean boy, the type your mother would be thrilled for you to bring him home. I never saw him go through the scruffy English-boy phase. Lots of girls fancied him - he had one pretty, dark-haired girlfriend, but nothing too serious."

Another fellow student says: "I was in the same year as Alasdhair and Stella Tennant, who became a model. They were in very different groups, though - she hung out with the scruffy, bohemian crowd, which was not Al at all. He was the only student I ever met who used a sun bed - he reminds me a bit of Tim in Big Brother. He shagged around a bit - there wasn't anyone really special - and I think he was trying to reinvent himself; I'm sure when I knew him he was plain old Alistair. He used to wear a T-shirt with 'Vogue 100 years' on it, which we thought was a bit odd. He started to lose his Geordie accent. I remember one night we all got drunk and sang Fog on the Tyne to him, and he got really angry."

Alasdhair is indeed a Geordie, having grown up in Middlesbrough on Teesside - albeit in the posh, leafy suburb of Marton. He went to Brackenhoe school in the town, where a fellow pupil, Graham Reid, says even then he was "dead stylish. He was into labels like Tacchini and Fila. He was popular with the girls, a good skier and a keen footballer - he still supports Middlesbrough FC."

After Winchester, Alasdhair studied art at the Slade school in Gower Street, which is where he met Lisa Helmanis. The relationship was so serious that she even moved into his house in Camden. "Lisa is a natural blonde, with lovely blue eyes and a good sense of humour," says one of her colleagues. "Like Al, she is a Geordie, although she has never lost her accent. I remember she told me about the time she went for an interview at Condè Nast. Although she eventually got a job on a bridal magazine, much later she saw a note on her file that said, 'Not very CN' - ie, not posh enough."

After leaving the Slade, Alasdhair shared a flat in Kilburn with a friend, and got a job at Dennis Publishing selling advertising space on magazines, including the men's title Maxim. He was quickly spotted by Tyler Br°lè, the flamboyant editor of the then newly launched Wallpaper* magazine, who offered him the job of publisher. Gradually, he and Lisa started to drift apart.

However another friend doubts that it was Lisa's unstarry qualities that drove them apart. "It's not a crime to split up with a girlfriend. Stella might come from a famous family, but she is so unlike the fashion crowd. She loves the fact Al makes her laugh. She loves her life away from the fashion world - riding horses, being quiet in the country, and Al loves that, too."

At Christmas, Alasdhair took Stella to Middlesbrough to meet his parents, and although friends say they love their future daughter-in-law, they have already grown tired of all the attention ("I'm fed up with you lot," his father said, when we rang his home for a comment).

Alasdhair accompanied Stella to her father's wedding, and, according to a fashion editor who was present, "he seemed very ensconced and comfortable with the family. He fits right in."

According to Tim Clark, at today's lunch Alasdhair is going to let his friends into the secret of his next career move - like many of his colleagues on the magazine, he left "by mutual decision" soon after Br°lè parted company with the magazine's new owners, IPC Media.

One insider says she thought Willis had been overpromoted at Wallpaper*, where he was on a salary of about £60,000. Whether or not he follows Br°lè to work on a new publication to be launched next year is one of the rumours that might be put to rest today, but it is more likely to be wedding bells and Babygros that dominate the conversation over a chilled bottle of Chardonnay.