Our little miracles
Tycoon and wife have twins a year after losing 3 children in bombings
‘Life-affirming part of family’
SCOTLAND’S biggest landowner and his wife are celebrating the birth of twin girls – just under a year after terrorists killed three of their children.
Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen and wife Anne were devastated when son Alfred, five, and daughters Agnes, 12, and Alma, 15, were killed in bombings in Sri Lanka last year.
However, there was joy for the couple yesterday when they announced the arrival of their twin girls, describing yesterday’s birth in Denmark as ‘life-affirming’.
A statement from their private secretary Kristine Mønster said: ‘[Yesterday] Anne and Anders Holch Povlsen became the parents of two healthy girls, after a good pregnancy and a birth with no complications. The family greets these two little miracles with all their hearts. They welcome them as a life-affirming part of their family.’
The Povlsens were on holiday at the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, over Easter last year when a series of bombings across the country killed 290 people, including eight Britons.
The attacks, which were carried out by Islamic suicide bombers, targeted civilians in churches and luxury hotels in Colombo.
The 47-year-old billionaire, his wife and their youngest daughter, Astrid, ten, survived the Easter Sunday attacks. Mr Povlsen – through his company Wildland Ltd – owns 13 estates in Scotland, including Glenfeshie in the Cairngorms, covering a total of more than 220,000 acres. The acquisitions have cost more than £100million.
He and Anne, 41, have said their vision for the land will be passed to their children, making it clear he and his family are committed to the estates for the long term.
A special church service was held in Tongue, Sutherland, in the wake of the bombings to ‘quietly reflect’ on the tragedy, with prayers offered for the Povlsens.
The family then wrote an open letter thanking the people of Scotland. The message read: ‘The Scottish Highlands has granted us abiding, special memories for our family. It is for this reason that the many words of comfort have fortified us and touched our hearts.’