Double loss for Goldsmith

FoR amiable financier Ben Goldsmith 2019 truly was an annus horribilis.

After tragically losing his 15-year-old daughter Iris in a quad bike accident in July, his half-brother, Manes, has now died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 60.

Ben, 39, son of the late billionaire business tycoon Sir James Goldsmith, was particularly close to Manes, who moved to Mexico in the midEighties to become a football club owner. ‘ He lived in Richmond with us when we were little and we adored him,’ Ben tells me. ‘Manes was big-hearted, eccentric and funny — and we’ll miss him very much.’

Manes was Sir James Goldsmith’s eldest son from his marriage to Ginette Lery, his former secretary.

The couple were married for 22 years and divorced in 1978 — the same year Sir James married Annabel, with whom he had three children, including Ben, former Tory MP Zac and film producer Jemima.