My drunken night with Chris Martin that explains exactly why he’s split from yet another A-list beauty: KATIE HIND

The basement of a slightly trashy Soho nightclub, usually frequented by low-rent Chelsea footballers, was an unlikely setting for the unrivalled A-list gathering held to celebrate Jay-Z’s sell-out performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

But there, under neon purple lights in the VIP room of Movida, the American rapper held court, flanked by his wife Beyonce Knowles who had jetted into the UK for his tour.

Also on the guest list were the couple’s close friends, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and his then-wife Gwyneth Paltrow, who at the time, back in October 2006, lived in north London’s trendy Primrose Hill.

I watched as the world-famous foursome sipped on what I assumed was exorbitantly expensive red wine – rather stunned, even as a showbiz reporter, to see the quartet of global stars in front of me.

After a few minutes Chris, who appeared somewhat uncomfortable among such celebrity royalty, rose from his chair and moved a few steps towards me. What happened next astounded me.

He addressed me by my name, recalled that we had met some months before in Lisbon – and introduced me to ‘Gwyneth’.

Indeed, we had met – at the MTV Awards 11 months earlier in November 2005. The night before the event, during a raucous evening at the Portuguese capital’s Four Seasons Hotel with the likes of Robbie Williams, American rock band Green Day, and television presenter Emma Willis, Chris, I and a handful of other tabloid showbiz hacks had drunk the bar dry.

Chris, who was performing at the award ceremony, had talked at length about Devon – where he had grown up and where I used to go on holiday as a child.

Still, it came as a surprise that Chris, one of the most famous musicians in the world, remembered me by name.

This is so far from the norm. Neither Beyonce nor Jay-Z, for example, would engage in conversation with me at their party.

It’s the same with so many celebrities, even those much less famous. And that is why I am not at all surprised that Chris has split from his fiancee, Fifty Shades Of Grey star and acting dynasty scion Dakota Johnson.

Because – despite the brickbats Chris sometimes receives for being woke, slightly boring and a little too earnest – he is, in fact, very normal and down to earth.

So it’s no surprise to see another relationship with an A-lister – he split from Paltrow in 2014, before a passionate four-month tryst with Tinseltown beauty and Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence – come to an end.

On Wednesday it was revealed by the Mail that Dakota, 35, and father-of-two Chris, 48, who first got together in 2017, have now gone their separate ways.

A source told the Mail: ‘Their relationship has been over for a long time, they just haven’t been able to figure out how to make it official. Dakota held a flame for them to be together because she loved him so much and loved his kids so much [Chris shares 21-year-old daughter Apple and 19-year-old son Moses with ex-wife Gwyneth].’

‘Dakota is devastated that she isn’t going to be around his kids as much any more, but wants them to know that she is always there for them.’

The source said they tried the age-old technique of spending time away from each other but alas the absences didn’t lead to their hearts growing fonder.

While Dakota may not be quite as high profile as Gwyneth, she is the daughter of Miami Vice actor Don Johnson, 75, and Working Girl star Melanie Griffith, 67. She grew up in a 13-bedroom mansion in LA’s upmarket Hancock Park neighbourhood and enjoyed all the privileges expected for such starry offspring.

It was a childhood spent on film sets and at premieres.

Chris’s upbringing, could not have been more different. The oldest of five children, he grew up in the small village of Whitestone and attended Exeter Cathedral School before moving to Sherborne, the Dorset public school, and on to University College London.

His mother Alison, originally from Zimbabwe, was a music teacher while his father, Anthony, is a retired chartered accountant.

Chris’s grandfather, John Belsey Martin CBE, was a Sheriff of Exeter who served as the city’s mayor in 1968, having founded a caravan and motorhome sales company in 1929.

People who know Chris tell me that while he is estimated to be worth £160million thanks to hits such as Yellow, Viva La Vida and Fix You, fame hasn’t turned him into a ‘monster’. ‘He has tried to not become an arrogant prat,’ is how one of his colleagues puts it. ‘Instead he has tried to use his position for good.’

Chris has campaigned for Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign and travelled to Ghana and Haiti to observe the effects of unfair trade practices.

He’s also discussed his experience with Lyme disease (an infection transmitted by ticks), revealing how he was finally diagnosed in March last year after struggling with fatigue and muscle weakness for more than a decade. Added to which, he’s a committed environmentalist who has tried to reduce the carbon footprint of Coldplay’s tours.

Many of his friends were shocked when he began dating Gwyneth – arguably another Hollywood nepo baby whose parents were the late director and producer Bruce Paltrow and actress Blyth Danner – as they feared that she would be ‘too dramatic’.

But after they first met backstage at a Coldplay concert in October 2002, they proved the naysayers wrong, secretly marrying in Santa Barbara, California on December 5, 2003 – with no family members in attendance. The following year they welcomed Apple and then Moses in 2006, raising their children first in London before relocating to Los Angeles in 2012.

However, in 2014 they were widely ridiculed when a joint statement revealed their plan to ‘consciously uncouple’ – which meant prioritising their children and maintaining a close relationship even after their romantic partnership ended.

I’m told Chris had at times ‘cringed’ at the term. They divorced a year later and Gwyneth married actor Brad Falchuk in September 2018.

Chris is now busying himself with Coldplay’s ongoing three-year world tour, which is already the most attended in history. The upcoming UK leg will bring the band to Hull for two dates in August, before ten performances at Wembley Stadium.

And, I’m assured, there won’t be a tacky basement nightclub in sight.