Will new lover join Duke and his wife at castle?
HOME of the aristocracy’s most extraordinary living arrangements, Belvoir Castle has just become even more colourful. I can disclose that the Duke of Rutland has a new lover — but his wife, Emma, will continue to live at the Leicestershire landmark in a separate wing.
The Duke, David Manners, is courting Tiggy Maconochie, agent to Helmut Newton, the late fashion photographer known for his stark, often sado-masochistic portraits of nude women in chains and bonds. ‘We’re very happy,’ the Duke tells me.
A friend of Tiggy’s tells me: ‘She and David have been seeing each other for some time. They are serious about each other, but I don’t think Emma would be very happy if they decided to get married.’
When Emma’s 28-year marriage broke down after the Duke embarked on an affair with a woman who lived on his 15,000-acre estate, she declared they would continue to live under the same roof, in her roles as mother of their five children and chief executive of the estate. And she added that she had also embarked on a romance of her own — with her estate manager, Phil Burtt.
Two years ago, I disclosed that the Duke had split up with his Brazilian-born lover, Andrea Webb. Nine months earlier, police were called to Belvoir (pronounced ‘beaver’) following a row that flared up when Andrea was told by staff that she was excluded from a shooting party on the estate. Andrea had reportedly refused to leave the castle grounds unless the Duke told her himself that she should go. Eventually she relented and left the castle followed by the police officers. It was far from the only colourful incident in the love life of the Duke, who separated from his wife in 2012 when she found out about his affair — the second such straying. The couple, whose estate is said to be worth £146 million, are the parents of Ladies Violet, Alice and Eliza Manners, stalwarts of the London social scene.