Lady Annabel Goldsmith
| Lady Annabel Goldsmith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart 11 June 1934 London |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) |
Mark Birley (m. 1954; div. 1975) Sir James Goldsmith (m. 1978–97) |
| Children | Rupert Birley Robin Birley India Jane Birley Jemima Goldsmith Zac Goldsmith Ben Goldsmith |
| Parent(s) |
Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart Romaine Combe |
Lady Annabel Goldsmith (formerly Birley, née Vane-Tempest-Stewart; born 11 June 1934) is an English socialite and the eponym for a celebrated London nightclub of the late 20th century, Annabel's. She was first married for two decades to entrepreneur Mark Birley, the creator of Annabel's, which she helped make a glamorous success as her husband's inaugural members-only Mayfair club. Known in London as a society hostess, during the 1960s and the 1970s, she gained notoriety in gossip columns for her extramarital affair with Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith, who later became her second husband. A descendant and heiress of the Londonderry family, her primary occupation has been as a mother of six children whose births span 25 years. She is also an author and founder of the Democracy Movement, a Eurosceptic political advocacy group. Her son Zac Goldsmith is the former Conservative MP for Richmond Park.
The second of three children, Lady Annabel was born in London into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family with its roots in Ulster and County Durham. Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart was born the daughter of Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, who later became the 8th Marquess of Londonderry, and Romaine Combe, who was the daughter of Major Boyce Combe, from Surrey. She became Lady Annabel as a young girl in February 1949 when her father became Marquess on the death of his father, the famous Ulster Unionist politician the 7th Marquess of Londonderry. Her mother died of cancer in 1951, but the illness was kept a secret by her parents. She later said, "Cancer was such a taboo then – Mummy didn't even tell her sisters." Subsequently, her father became a chronic alcoholic and died from liver failure at 52 on 17 October 1955. "My father was a really wonderful man but after my mother died, we couldn't talk to him as we had done before. He couldn't face life without her and he turned into Jekyll and Hyde almost overnight", she explained.
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