My life with a billionaire turned into a nightmare
Countess in tell-all documentary
Couple during a night out
THE breakdown of the relationship between an English countess and a Russian oligarch is to be laid bare in an eye-popping documentary.
Cameras followed Alexandra Tolstoy and Sergei Pugachev over five years – initially to capture their lavishly privileged lifestyle.
But they were still filming as the dream existence became a nightmare.
Alexandra, 45, has three children with Sergei, who was once worth £10billion and known as Vladimir Putin’s banker.
Formerly married to a penniless Cossack, she says she was besotted with the businessman when they met.
But the relationship soured after
Sergei fell foul of the
Russian government, which claims he owes the state $1billion.
“When I met Sergei it was electric and I fell so in love with him,” says Alexandra, whose family is related to War & Peace author Leo Tolstoy
“I’d never felt such a connection to someone, it was such a love affair.
“I didn’t have to work, I didn’t have to clean, I just spent as much time as possible with my children. He made me feel incredibly protected and safe.”
Sergei fled London in 2015 and exiled himself in the South of France, claiming he was facing death threats.
Visiting his chateaux in Nice a year later Alexandra found his behaviour becoming increasingly erratic.
This, she says, forced her to find the courage to take her children and leave the man she once loved.
It was a far cry from the previous year when the family, and their staff of housekeepers, drivers and nannies, happily divided their time between huge homes in Chelsea, France and St Bart’s in the Caribbean.
Sergei, now 57, accuses Alexandra of stealing their children – who he has not seen for four years – and turning them against him, which she denies.
In the film, he says he has no intention of paying the money Russia says he stole and that powerful friends helped him leave the UK in safety.
He also claims dark forces in his homeland threatened to cut off his son’s fingers and even that Alexandra is a KGB spy. Sergei, described as being “down to his last $70million”, believes that she only ever wanted with him for his money.
And he is keen to be reunited with their kids.
“I love my children,” he says. “I hope they will stay with their father.”
Since their split, Alexandra has returned to her former job, leading riding trips in Kurdistan.
She claims to despise her old lifestyle, in which she collected Chanel handbags and had shelves of designer shoes.
“I hate all those things now, they’re associated with a life I didn’t like,” she insists. “I find them vulgar, just not me.”
Now living in an unassuming cottage in Oxfordshire, near to where she grew up, she is optimistic about the future.
Alexandra says: “I can go back to the things that I love. I’m 45 and have a whole life ahead of me.”
■ The Countess and the Russian Billionaire, BBC2, April 8 at 9pm.
Sergei lives in France