At home with the Ecclestones
TAMARA AND PETRA HAVE SWAPPED LIFE IN THE FAST LANE FOR FAMILY TIME. BUT, FINDS HATTIE CRISELL, THEY STILL KNOW HOW TO TURN ON THE GLITZ – AND THEN SOME…
Iam standing in what, for a certain kind of woman, could reasonably be described as paradise. It is Tamara Ecclestone’s plush-carpeted walk-in wardrobe (technically her ‘overflow room’; apparently the main wardrobe is much larger) at the top of her jaw-dropping mansion near Kensington Palace. Our hostess and her sister Petra, glammed up to the nines, are getting ready to be photographed, and a stylist is helping Tamara into a pair of neon shoes. ‘Are these mine?’ asks Tamara.
To be fair, it must be hard to keep track. Lined up around us are hundreds of pointed stilettos: a very expensive army comprised mostly of Christian Louboutins, but also Aquazzuras, Saint Laurents, Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks. They are studded, jewelled, patent, velvet, beaded, sparkly, transparent, suede, coral, gold and – in their dozens – nude. On show in the middle of the room is a rainbow of Hermès Birkin bags, and on nearby shelves sit Tamara’s collection of slides (Chanel, Balenciaga, Gucci). ‘I always wear flats in the daytime,’ she says cheerfully. ‘ When I was younger, I used to wear heels to the supermarket!’ She is rumoured to be worth around £230 million.
Getting to the wardrobe has been an experience in itself. After being ushered into a basement entrance where my picture was taken by a security guard, I am accompanied into the house. I say I need the loo, and I’m directed through the gym – a hall of mirrors – to a black bathroom. When I say it’s black, I mean everything in the room is black, and because I can’t understand the hi-tech light switch and am terrified that I’m pressing some kind of alarm, I end up having an anxious pee in near darkness. To add to the confusion, the toilet roll is black, too.
Upstairs, I catch glimpses of the world’s best-stocked playroom, where the kids – Petra’s five-year-old daughter Lavinia and three-year-old twins James and Andrew, and Tamara’s four-year-old daughter Sophia (Fifi) – are being kept busy during the shoot by two entertainers, one of whom is in a full Spider-man suit. Elsewhere, there’s a cocktail lounge and a marble-floored salon. Neon artworks are dotted around the house; they include a
commissioned Tracey Emin that reads ‘ Tamara and Jay Always’ [ Jay Rutland being Tamara’s husband]. In the dressing room, a sign on the wall beams out the message: ‘Need money for Birkin’.
Looking around the house, I think the owner has more than enough money. But I’m also struck by the fact that it’s full of family. A two-metre chandelier over one staircase is surrounded by dozens of huge framed photos of the children as babies. Petra, who lives in Los Angeles, is also everywhere, in sweet, albeit glamorous, portraits with her sister and their kids. The two – who were born into their wealth, thanks to their father, Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone – are best friends.
When we sit down to talk, however, the differences between them are very evident. Tamara is jovial and outgoing; Petra, in her sister’s words, is ‘such a private person – more shy’. She is polite but unsmiling at first, though she relaxes as we chat. Anyone who has followed her story in recent years can understand why she might feel a little guarded. A year ago, she went through a very public divorce from her ex-husband, James Stunt. The Ecclestone family visibly rallied around her, which she says was hugely important. ‘Going through that by yourself would be really lonely. At that time I was living in London, so we were together all the time.’
There are other reasons, too, why this family might justifiably be wary of outsiders. I mention the tight security on the house, and Tamara explains, ‘ Well, our step-grandmother got kidnapped, my dad has been robbed and beaten up twice, I’ve had a kidnap threat – so it’s definitely something we don’t take lightly.’
‘I’ve had my London house vandalised twice,’ adds Petra. ‘Someone threw a petrol bomb at it, where the kids’ rooms are. They never found who it was. That shit just doesn’t happen in Beverly Hills.’ She’s been criticised in the press before, she points out, for admitting that she feels safer in LA, but says it’s just the truth. ‘I feel like London’s crime numbers have gone up. Walking down the street pushing a stroller, I feel like there are no limits – there are acid attacks, knifings…’
She’s careful online too. Her Instagram account is private. ‘It’s the constant judgement that aggravates me. I don’t really care so much what people say about me, but I don’t want people to have a perception of my parenting or my kids.’
Tamara’s account, on the other hand, is public, and though she was widely criticised earlier this year when she revealed that she was still breastfeeding Fifi at age four, she remains upbeat. ‘On the whole I’ve had such good feedback, and I feel like it was a nice thing for me to be able to make other people feel less ashamed. It’s ridiculous that there’s this stigma attached to it. If I’m being judged then maybe they won’t feel so bad about being judged too. Everyone is trying to do their best, and I think that mum-shaming is pretty much the lowest of the low.’
Petra will turn 30 in December; Tamara is 34. They speak multiple times a day by phone and live very similar lives, despite
‘I THINK THAT MUM-SHAMING IS THE LOWEST OF THE LOW’
the miles between them. A typical day consists of ferrying the kids to and from school, interspersed with meetings ( Tamara founded Fifi & Friends, a gentle skincare range for kids, while Petra has recently opened an autistic therapy centre, Petra’s Place).
Both are hands-on mums. Though Tamara has ‘maybe 25’ staff (she’s not sure of the exact number) working in her home, she does not have a nanny. ‘It’s manageable to look after one kid by yourself. If we have another one, I’m not going to say I would never have a nanny.’ Petra hired help only when she had the twins: ‘ With three kids it was just too much. You don’t have the luxury of taking a nap when the baby is sleeping. You’re constantly moving.’
Life has changed dramatically since the children came along. Tamara and Petra used to be London’s answer to the Hilton sisters. Life was more selfish, says Tamara. ‘But you take it for granted at the time, and then you have kids and your priorities completely change. I wouldn’t change having her for the world. This is the happiest time of my life and I don’t have any FOMO. And I think that’s why me and my sister are so close, because we both focus on our kids, families and each other.’
I ask if how they dress has also evolved over the years and they start to laugh. ‘I used to wear those velour Juicy Couture tracksuits,’ says Tamara. ‘I had a green fucking Juicy tracksuit!’
‘My eyebrows have grown, which is great,’ says Petra drily. ‘I’m less tanned, which is also great.’ She still looks pretty tanned to me, but I keep this to myself because they both seem in agreement that there’s been a big change. ‘Oh my god, I looked like an Oompa Loompa,’ says Tamara. ‘I wore too much make-up.’
Fashion is still a big deal for the Ecclestone sisters. Their favourite brands are at the glitzy end of the spectrum – Balmain, Alexandre Vauthier, Fendi – but for day-to-day they like sportswear from Off-white and Adaptation (sample cotton sweatshirt price: £625). They guess they have 20 or 30 Hermès bags each. ‘ We could open a Birkin shop!’ jokes Petra. They shop mostly online or via EIP (Extremely Important Person) services, in which luxury retailers will come to a customer’s house with suggested pieces for them to try. Tamara admits that while she wears all her casual clothing, 60% of her more dressy purchases go unworn.
If this extravagance makes your stomach turn, you might like to know that Tamara employs a full-time member of staff who continually goes through hers and Fifi’s wardrobes, removes anything that hasn’t been worn for a season and puts it up for sale on ebay. ‘One hundred per cent of the money raised goes to Great Ormond Street,’ she says, smiling. She’s also helped to raise millions of pounds for the hospital through Formula One events.
Meanwhile, Petra’s charitable ventures are deeply personal. As a toddler, her daughter struggled with delayed development, and Petra began to research autism. Lavinia did not turn out to be autistic, but Petra’s interest in the condition stuck, and now she’s found a way to help other children.
‘ We’ve opened Petra’s Place in London, which is a therapy centre for kids on the spectrum,’ she explains. ‘ The main difficulty in the UK is the waiting list for the NHS – first to be seen and then to be diagnosed. Before the age of three is when the brain is best able to soak in what it’s learning, so if a child isn’t seen before the age of four or five, and not diagnosed until five or six, that’s wasting the most critical time. At Petra’s Place we’re offering diagnosis and then therapy straight after.’
It’s perhaps not the most obvious venture from an heiress with a Birkin habit and a year-round tan. But then, like black loo roll in a downstairs toilet, these two are not quite what you’d expect. For more information on Petra’s Place, visit petrasplace.co.uk, or to donate visit petraecclestonefoundation.com. Fifi & Friends is available at fifiandfriends.co.uk
‘life was more selfish before we had kids’