Lady Annabel Goldsmith
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Lady Annabel Goldsmith (b.13 June 1934 -) is an English socialite and the widow of Sir James Goldsmith.
Born Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart, she is the daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry and Romaine Combe.
When Lady Annabel was a teenager she lost her mother to cancer. Years later her father eventually succumbed to illness brought on by his alcoholism.[1]
On 10 March 1954 she married businessman Mark Birley at Caxton Hall in London. Her husband famously paid tribute to her by naming his Mayfair nightclub Annabel's in her honour. They had three children Rupert, Robin and India Jane.
In 1964 Annabel met her first husband's friend, the entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith and became one of his several mistresses. Both her first marriage to Mark Birley and her second marriage to Sir James Goldsmith were polyamorous. While visiting family friend John Aspinall's private zoo with her lover, Annabel's 11 year old son Robin Birley was mauled and almost killed by one of Aspinall's tigers. The accident left him severely disfigured.[2] Nevertheless, the Aspinall-Birley-Goldsmith clique remained on good terms and when John Aspinall encouraged her to "breed" with Goldsmith, Annabel took his advice.[3]
In 1974, whilst still married to her first husband, Annabel had a daughter, Jemima by Goldsmith. Her second child by Goldsmith, Zac was born 20 February 1975. In 1975 she and Birley were divorced.[4]
Of her romances Lady Annabel has stated,"Oh, we were all notorious then, I'd had two children - Jemima and Zac - before I divorced Mark and that was all seen as being a bit naughty."[5]
In 1978, she and Goldsmith were married in order to legitimize their children. A third child Ben was born in 1980. In 1981 Goldsmith moved to New York with his new mistress Laure Boulay, Comtesse de la Meurthe[6], a member of the Bourbon family[7] with whom he had two more children.[8] Annabel remained married to Goldsmith until his death. Though she initially balked at her husband's infidelities, she eventually came to accept them and befriend his paramours, including his ex-wife Ginette.[9] She even encourage his extended affair with her own young niece Lady Cosima Somerset, daughter of Annabel's brother, the 9th Marquess of Londonderry.[10]
In 1986 her son Rupert died in mysterious circumstances whilst working in Togo,West Africa.[11]
Lady Annabel's social circle included the notorious Lord Lucan, who disappeared in 1974 after murdering the family nanny.
Lady Annabel was widowed in 1997 when Sir James died of pancreatic cancer. Annabel inherited an estimated £1.48 billion fortune.[12]
In 2000 while returning to London from Nairobi with her son Ben, daughter Jemima and two grandsons they were almost killed when a mentally ill passenger attempted to commandeer the plane.[13]
Her autobiography is entitled Annabel: An Unconventional Life, followed up by the "autobiography" of a dog, Copper.
[edit] Bibliography
- Goldsmith, Annabel (2004). Annabel: An Unconventional Life: The Memoirs of Lady Annabel Goldsmith. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-82966-1.
- Goldsmith, Annabel (2006). Copper: A Dog's Life, illus. India Jane Birley, London: Time Warner. ISBN 0-316-73204-4.
