Leonardo DiCaprio will fly into space with one lucky fan

Vasily Klyukin and girlfriend with Leonardo DiCaprio(bottom right)

A trip into space with Leonardo DiCaprio has sold for just over one million pounds.

A seat beside The Great Gatsby actor on Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space flight attracted the huge bid at amfAR's annual gala and auction at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Seats on similar flights – which Richard hopes will begin to launch from New Mexico by the end of 2013 – usually sell for £132,406 although a pair of tickets on Leonardo's shuttle sold for £1.19 million at the auction.

The auction brochure for the gala held at the five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France said Leo and the winning bidder will be among the first 1,000 people to leave the planet on the Virgin Galactic flight.

After winning, Monaco based Russian estate agent Vasily Klyukin, 37, said: 'I want to be a bit daring. I will have to give up smoking now for sure!'