Cameron’s pal swaps wife for younger model
DrAMATIC plans by David Cameron ’s friend Nicholas Johnston to trans - form the picturesque Devon village of Bantham horrified locals and left them bemused about his motives.
But it ’s not just in Johnston ’s business affairs that he’s ringing the changes. I hear that he has left his blonde wife, Linda, 48, and is now courting Saskia Winbergh, 31.
Former model Saskia gave birth to her third child with husband Gunnar Winbergh last May . Businessman Winbergh, 39, declines to comment on his wife’s relationship, but a friend tells me: ‘Saskia has been with Nick for some time.’
Before she was married, roedeaneducated Saskia courted Theo osborne, colourful younger brother of former Chancellor George.
Bumptious Johnston, 44, recently enraged locals by announcing that he wanted to build new homes, a beach club and underground car park i n the seaside village of Bantham, which he bought ‘on a whim’ for ‘somewhere north ’ of £12.5 million in 2014. He had enjoyed holidays there as a child.
Johnston first visited the South Devon beauty spot behind his wife’s back, while she was away with their three children. He feared Linda
would tell him that they already had enough on their plate.
The Old Etonian also owns the 4,000-acre Great Tew estate in the Cotswolds, where he hosts the Cornbury music festival attended by Cameron and other members of the Chipping Norton set.
He beat the National Trust to snap up the 728-acre Bantham estate — including 21 homes, a golf course, several farms and a river estuary. He says he made the decision after feeling a sense of ‘freedom and an independence’ there.
He said: ‘My wife initially thought that it was one of my hare-brained mad schemes and that I should get back in my box and worry about the day-to-day things in life.’
Johnston and Saskia decline to comment on their relationship.