With this BLING I thee wed!
Trader’s 10-YEAR campaign to woo Pippa
FOR Pippa Middleton the path of true love has been long, winding… and never less than luxurious.
The Diary can reveal that last weekend’s long-expected engagement to 40-year-old hedge fund millionaire James Matthews involved a decade of waiting, meticulous planning – and a dazzling campaign of gifts and treats that extended to her parents too.
Thanks to the millions earned from Eden Rock Capital Management, the financial company named after his parents’ Caribbean hotel, James has been in a position to woo Pippa in the most extraordinary style.
Today she wears not just a £250,000 art deco engagement ring with a three-carat Asscher-cut diamond, but the £14,500 Cartier Ballon Bleu watch he gave her too.
Soon she will be driving a £100,000 classic car, as James is said to have enlisted the help of dealer Ed Lovett to source a ‘sporty, sexy number’ for his fiancée to zip around London in. A 1960s Mercedes Pagoda, like that driven by Kate Moss, is apparently top of the wishlist.
It turns out that even before they became an ‘item’, James had flown the whole Middleton clan to St Barths, and his parents’ hotel.
They travelled on his private jet, of course.
James has pursued his bride-to-be for a full 10 years – strategically planning his advances while waiting for Pippa to outgrow the eightyear age gap between them.
And while other privileged young men might busy themselves with a series of girlfriends, James used the time to build a business and a fortune so vast he could treat her like a princess.
There was no shortage of trophies on display this week, when he hosted a lavish summer party for a select group of upmarket friends at his home in Chelsea.
But only James knew there was yet another glittering show of wealth inside the house that night – one that was kept well hidden – the £250,000 (€300,000) diamond ring he would present to his girlfriend on bended knee three days later.
For Pippa’s 33rd birthday on September 6 it is expected that James will put on his most lavish display of wealth to date.
Friends say he has a ‘huge surprise’ planned and will fly the whole Middleton family on his private jet to St Barths for yet another vacation at Eden Rock.