Claire's a real star at predicting what the future holds

She may be good at telling celebrities what's in store, but clairvoyant failed to see Mr Right who would propose.

GIVEN her profession, you would think astrologer Claire Petulengro would be certain of what destiny had in store for her.

However, while she is a dab hand at predicting the future fortunes of her celebrity clients, her own stars are often shrouded in mist.

"Being a clairvoyant, predicting things for yourself is the hardest thing," she says.

Certainly it was a complete surprise to Claire when she met the love of her life and her now husband Nick on a charity trek in China.

Even though it was her heart's desire to follow in her mother and grandmother's footsteps, the only certainty was that theirs would be a hard act to follow.

The Petulengro name, steeped in Romany heritage as it is, is synonymous with things mystical, and Claire's mother Eva counted Joan Collins, Michael Caine and Prince Edward among her trusted confidants.

She even cut short a meeting with The Beatles so she could meet Claire's dad Johnny.

It turned out to be a fortuitous decision given his planned proposal of marriage.

However, as an established author, television regular and celebrity astrologer in her own right these days, Claire is certainly living up to the Petulengro family tradition.

Tomorrow, she will embark on her latest quest – to predict the fortunes of Evening News readers in her new daily column.

"We all want to know about ourselves and we all have dreams and aspirations," says Claire, "and I hope with my astrology I can give honest, sometimes humorous and uplifting advice."

Although she is just 36-years-old, Claire already boasts a wealth of experience as a clairvoyant, palmist and astrologer.

Her first brush with the family trade was at the age of six, when her Uncle Leo decided her professional status by paying her to read palms.

Then, at the tender age of 15, she stepped up to take over the family clairvoyancy business on Brighton Pier after her grandmother, who was also called Eva, suffered a stroke.

"I always dreamt of doing what my mum did," says Claire, "and it's taken me a long time to catch up with her because by the time she was 25 she was writing columns for more than 80 newspapers and magazines."

One thing Claire has always been certain of, however, has been her gift as a clairvoyant – something she says marked her out from other children at school.

"I thought it was normal to tell people what you felt about them, and my earliest memory is being at school in the playground and realising that people thought I was strange to give them predictions," says Claire.

"Then I got to high school and became extremely popular because all the girls wanted me to read their palms and tell them who fancied them." Despite her new-found popularity, because she was often on tour with her mother, school was not somewhere Claire spent a great deal of time.

Her mother Eva's celebrity status guaranteed long queues wherever they went, and there was usually a stop in Edinburgh at the King James Hotel.

"I could tell when I was getting near Edinburgh because of the atmosphere and the amazing and incredible scenery," recalls Claire.

"I used to take great delight in taking Scottish money back to school and showing my friends where I had been.

"My memories are of the wonderful accents and the people being very kind and generous. I got a lot of my training there really.

"My mother would be giving readings and I would be sitting with her and telling her clients what I thought about them – that's how she nurtured my gift.

"So really it's nice for me to be writing for publications in Scotland and following in my mother's footsteps."

As well as satisfying an eager public, Eva and her daughter were always on call to attend private sessions organised by the rich and famous.

"Michael Caine, Michael Crawford and Joan Collins – I came across them all when I was a child and the thing is, when I used to go home, you never used to know what would be going on," says Claire.

"Sometimes my mother could have bags packed waiting for us to go to the airport, or we'd be woken up in the middle of the night."

These days, Claire is the soul of discretion, eagerly changing the subject whenever details of clients' identity may become an issue.

"I've got a lot of famous clients now but I'm not allowed to talk about them because they wouldn't pay me if I did," she laughs.

Her widespread appeal was sealed when she successfully predicted, on the primetime ITV show Predictions, that Eric Cantona would leave football. This year, Claire has foretold romance for fallen songstress Britney Spears and tough times ahead for footballer David Beckham.

However, one thing she didn't see coming at all was meeting with her second husband, adventurer and tour guide Nick Ledgard, whose star sign is Aquarius.

A family wedding resulted in Claire arriving late for a charity trek and secured her meeting with Nick, who had been sent to rendezvous with her.

Claire, a Scorpio, says it was love at first sight and it wasn't long before Nick proposed to her in front of the Taj Mahal in India – the country where the Petulengros are thought to have originated.

"When we met he just knew me as Claire," she says, "and then when I left China he Googled me and he couldn't believe it because on all his travels, his mother used to cut out my column and send it to him abroad."

With three children – Paris, seven, Carmen Valentine, four, and one-year-old Lucy – and another baby on the way, Claire is now busier than ever, penning a new lifestyle book. She is also working with her mother on writing their family history.

Eva, now a sprightly 69-year-old, remains Claire's inspiration when ever she is stuck for ideas, and the devoted grandmother is currently knitting a shawl for her new granddaughter. "Family is very important to Romanies," adds Claire. "I will certainly raise my children to be aware of their heritage.

"I think they will all have the gift of clairvoyance and what I will do is nurture that gift and let my children sit in on readings as they grow up.

"It's certainly the best experience in life. It taught me, from a young age, right from wrong and how to be happy and to do what feels right."

'SCIENCE' THAT GOES BACK 5000 YEARS
ASTROLOGY is a Greek word meaning the "science of the stars" and is thought to have been applied in Babylon as long ago as 3000 BC.

However, frequent studies have failed to find a link between birth dates and life patterns.

Most recent examples include a University of Manchester study of 20million married couples in the 2001 census which found no special compatibility between star signs. Meanwhile, researchers from universities in Germany and Denmark concluded there was "more truth in a comic strip" after applying scientific methods to the charts of over 15,000 people.

Despite these studies, astrological belief can have a real impact on peoples lives.

Former US President Ronald Regan is rumoured to have consulted astrologers, while Winston Churchill was also said to have planned wartime strategy around the stars.