Tracy Ward: I will be the Duchess of Beaufort!

THE DUKE of Beaufort’s death this week at the age of 89 has provoked much speculation about who will be the new duchess.

Would she be Tracy Ward, the 58-year-old actress turned environmental campaigner, who’s been estranged from the Duke’s colourful son and heir, the Marquess of Worcester, for the past four years?

Or would she be his mistress, Georgia Powell, 48, the beautiful writer he’s determined to marry?

‘Bunter’, as Harry Worcester, 65, is known to friends, told me last year that he was ‘nearly divorced’ from Tracy, with whom he has three grown-up children.

However, I can reveal that it will be Tracy, not Georgia, who’s the new Duchess of Beaufort and chatelaine of the magnificent 52,000-acre Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire.

In her first-ever comments about her marriage breakdown, Tracy tells me she remains Bunter’s wife and that talks will go on while she is the new duchess.

‘Harry and I will continue to amicably negotiate our separation,’ she says.

It was certainly not in her interests to rush into a divorce. Because of the delay until after the death of the Duke, who had been in poor health for several years, the divorce will be much more complicated.

Bunter’s father David Somerset, the 11th Duke of Beaufort, leaves an estimated £150million fortune, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, and Tracy, granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Dudley, could lay claim to a sizeable chunk of it.

Tracy married Bunter, a stalwart of London’s social scene, in 1987 after appearing in the detective series C.A.T.S. Eyes. Her sister is Rachel Ward, who starred in Dynasty and The Thorn Birds.

Georgia, who is the granddaughter of celebrated author

Anthony Powell, will be writing about the Duke’s death in her role as deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph’s obituaries page.

Bunter will be Britain’s first duke to be a rock musician. He sings with a progressive rock band called The Listening Device and has released an LP with the title View From The Asylum. ‘We’ve just finished our album after five years of trying to get it together,’ he told me before his father’s death.

Badminton is best known for the annual horse trials. Perhaps Bunter could help pay for his divorce by turning it into the new Glastonbury?

Beaufort scale: The Marquess of Worcester and his estranged wife Tracy Ward (left) and with his mistress, Georgia Powell. Top, Badminton House