| Juliet Tadgell | |
|---|---|
Lady Juliet and the Marquess of Bristol on their wedding day (1960). |
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| Born | 24 January 1935 |
| Spouse | Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol (m.1960 div.1972) Somerset de Chair (m.1974 dec.1995) Dr. Christoper Tadgell (m.1997) |
| Children | Lord Nicholas Hervey Lady Ann Hervey Helena Rees-Mogg |
| Parents | Peter Wentworth-FitzWilliam, 8th Earl FitzWilliam Olive Dorothea Plunket |
Lady Juliet Tadgell (born 24 January 1935),[1] previously the Marchioness of Bristol, is a British heiress, race horse breeder and landowner. She is consistently on the Times Rich List, with an estimated net worth inherited in 1945 of £45 million.
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Lady Juliet was born Ann Juliet Dorothea Maud Wentworth-Fitzwilliam to Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, Viscount Milton, the only son of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, and his wife Olive "Obby" Plunket. Through her mother, Juliet is a granddaughter of Benjamin Plunket, Bishop of Osborne, and a great-granddaughter of the 4th Baron Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin.
At age thirteen, her father inherited the title Earl Fitzwilliam; and she became Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam. By this time, her parents' marriage was strained and there was talk of divorce. Lord Fitzwilliam died in a plane crash in France in 1948 with his lover, Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, the widow of the heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire and a sister of future U. S. President John F. Kennedy. As her parents' only child, Lady Juliet, at 13 years of age, inherited her father's estate and vast art collection. The following year, she and her mother left the house and sold much of its contents.[2]
In 1960 Lady Juliet married Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol, 20 years her senior, 18 days after he inherited his title upon his father's death. He had been divorced the previous year and in his 20s was adjudicated a bankrupt, declared the "No.1 Playboy of Mayfair," and jailed for jewel robbery. The couple had two children:
The couple divorced in 1972 as a result of her adulterous affair with her husband's friend, also in his sixties, Somerset de Chair, whom she married in 1974. De Chair was former Conservative MP for South West Norfolk and Paddington South. De Chair had been married three times before and had five children as a result; his political career was ended due to his public admissions of adultery and using prostitutes. The couple had one child:
After de Chair's death Lady Juliet married for a third time in 1997 to architectural historian Christopher Tadgell. The couple live at Lady Juliet's estate of Bourne Park, near Canterbury.[2]
On 26 January 1998, two days after her 63rd birthday, her son Nicholas committed suicide. In 1992 he had been forced to declare bankruptcy as Lady Juliet refused to fund through his trust or otherwise the court judgment of legal fees he owed his father's third wife and prior personal secretary, Yvonne Sutton, for his suit seeking a share of his late father's estate; Lady Juliet had her son subsequently committed to an asylum for treatment of schizophrenia from 1992 to 1994. Her second husband also had a son who committed suicide.
Lady Juliet attended Oxford University for a Master of Fine Arts, her daughter Helena attended the University of Bristol and her son Nicholas attended Eton College and Yale University.
Lady Juliet and her first husband were distantly related, causing their son Nicholas to have a consanguinity index of .01 percent.
As the only child of the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, Lady Juliet inherited his estates, which have since passed into a trust for her benefit, and include his vast art collection, including seven paintings by George Stubbs and six by Anthony van Dyck and properties in England, Ireland and the United States.[3] She consistently makes the Sunday Times Rich List, rising in 2009 to 1550th in the ranking with £35 million, although she suffered a £10 million drop that year because of the recession.[7] She ran a stud farm and continues to own some racehorses.[8]