Sophie Dahl’s mother isPage charged with theft in US
HER father, Roald Dahl, was one of the 20th century’s most brilliant children’s writers while her American mother, Patricia Neal, was an Oscar-winning actress.
But Tessa Dahl, 60, appears to have suffered a massive fall from grace – as she has been arrested in Connecticut and will appear in a US court next week on a theft charge.
At times, Tessa has seemed to have it all, being named one of the five most beautiful women in the world by Time Magazine, as well as being the mother of voluptuous supermodel Sophie Dahl, 40.
Yet Tessa’s life has been scarred by tragedy, alcoholism and drug addiction. But, even in her darkest hour, she eluded the shame that has now enveloped her. If convicted, she could face from one to five years in prison.
And the police mugshot of Tessa strips bare the vestiges of her once-radiant glamour.
The squalid episode began when Tessa checked into a Connecticut hotel, the Interlaken Inn, on October 27 last year, signing in as ‘Chantal Dahl’ – Chantal being the Christian name which appears on her birth certificate.
By the time she departed on November 3, she had run up a bill of more than $5,300 (€4,400) – which she left without paying, prompting the hotel’s management to call the state police at about 6.30pm.
Later that evening, the Interlaken called police again, to alert them that Tessa had contacted them from a nearby hotel, the White Hart Inn, allegedly announcing she would not be paying her bill and informing staff ‘they would never see her again’.
Shortly before 11pm that evening, police arrived at the White Hart, arrested Tessa, took her into custody and charged her with a theft offence. After giving a home address in Massachusetts, she was released on payment of a $5,300 bond.
It is the latest incident in Tessa’s unconventional life. She has recalled how her father doped her with tranquillisers from an early age to cope with a series of family tragedies. She was aged just three-and-a-half when, in 1960, she saw her brother Theo’s pram hit by a taxi, leaving him with brain damage.
Traumatised, she began wetting the bed and author Roald found a doctor to prescribe drugs. Tragedy struck again in 1962, when her sister Olivia died of measles aged seven. Tessa later described herself as a ‘train wreck waiting to happen’, and she had four children by three different fathers.
Her father said of Tessa before he died in 1990: ‘She’s by far the most complicated of my children, but she’s the most interesting.’
Seven years ago she began living at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut, in preparation for life as a nun. Mark Sherman, Tessa’s US lawyer, said the case arose from a misunderstanding. He said: ‘The hotel has been paid in full and we expect a quick resolution in court.’
‘Told staff she wouldn’t pay bill’