Celebrity clairvoyant Eva Petulengro from Brighton has died

Romany Gypsy Eva Petulengro, also an astrologer for The Argus and a Sunday Times best-selling author, died yesterday aged 85.

She was a popular character on Brighton seafront for 50 years and gained such a reputation that her clients grew to include The Beatles, stars of stage and screen, politicians and members of the Royal Family.

Eva was born in a painted caravan and was a member of the last generation of true Romany Gypsies.

She gave up life on the road at 21, when her family reluctantly moved into a flat in Brighton, and her own children were brought up in bricks and mortar in the “gorger” (non-Romany) fashion.

Eva Petulengro (Image: Submitted)The move to Brighton turned out to be the making of Eva, who set up her own booth for “dukkering” (fortune telling) on the seafront and through a relationship she’d struck up with Victor Gorringe, the editor of The Argus in the early Sixties, ended up with her own horoscope column in the paper, which she was later to syndicate nationally.

It was at a charity ball thrown by The Argus she first came to read the palms of the rich and famous and developed her reputation as a showbiz clairvoyant.

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She was then flown to Hollywood to read the fortunes of stars such as Michael Caine and Joan Collins.

Eva Petulengro with George Harrison from The Beatles (Image: Submitted)Eva read George Harrison and Paul McCartney's palms at the London Hippodrome in 1964.

She recalled informing George they were going to be hugely successful and telling Paul he would not marry then-girlfriend Jane Asher but an artistic American girl.

In 1970 she urged singer Kathy Kirby not to ditch boyfriend Bert Ambrose because he would die in 12 months’ time (which did happen) and she would hate herself for it.

Eva also met a young Prince Edward and told him how he would leave the theatre (he worked for a production company at the time) and when he would marry.

Eva Petulengro with Dynasty's Joan Collins (Image: Submitted)“After the reading, I asked him if he had any questions, he said, ‘Yes, do you know any good jokes because I have to do an awful lot of after-dinner speaking?'.”

Eva met and married Jonnie, the love of her life, in Brighton and had four children including Claire Petulengro, who followed in her mother’s footsteps to become a well-known astrologer and author in her own right.

Eva's first book, The Girl In The Painted Caravan, was in the top five in the Sunday Times’ non-fiction paperback bestsellers list.

Eva died peacefully on Sunday, May 26, surrounded by her family.