I will inherit Duchess title, insists estranged wife of Beaufort heir
WHEN the 11th Duke of Beaufort, who died at the age of 89 this week, is laid to rest, his titles and estate will fall to his eldest son, Harry, Marquess of Worcester.
As is traditional, the heir to the Beaufort Dukedom will become the new Duke and his wife will be styled as Duchess and chatelaine of the sprawling 52,000-acre Badminton Estate.
But, though the laws of succession may have been modernised somewhat in the past four years, it seems peerage law has not caught up entirely with the realities of modern life, as the incumbent Duke of Beaufort knows all too well.
Tracy Worcester – from whom he has been separated for four years and is said to be “nearly divorced” – insists that, despite their lengthy separation, she will inherit the title after her father-in-law’s funeral.
The Worcesters have been estranged since 2013, with the Marquess having been in a relationship with Georgia Powell, the Daily Telegraph journalist, for two years, but as their divorce has not yet gone through, it is Tracy, not Georgia, who is set to become Duchess of Beaufort. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph from her bohemian town house in Chelsea, Tracy – who currently holds the title Marchioness of Worcester – suggested that, despite her estrangement from her husband, she had no plans to relinquish her right to be referred to as “Duchess”, saying: “My name is Tracy Worcester, and it will remain Tracy Worcester.”
Once described as “a reluctant marchioness”, Tracy was an actor when she married Henry “Bunter” Somerset, a stalwart on London’s social scene, in 1987.
She has been separated from her husband and father to her three children – Robert, Earl of Glamorgan, Lady Isabella Somerset and Lord Alexander Somerset – for four years, all the while continuing to live in the family home in Chelsea, from where she runs a charity that campaigns for sustainable farming. An unconventional aristocrat, she insisted on not flushing the lavatory to save water when she moved to the Badminton Estate at the start of her marriage, and once told a journalist how she felt she had “lost” her children to boarding school. “I don’t respect these institutions,” she told The Independent in 2012.
But despite the fact that she seems in so many ways to turn her back on a traditional, society way of life – not to mention the
fact that the Marquess has been in a new relationship for the past two years – it is she who will inherit the family title by law.
Patrick Cracroft-brennan, editor of Cracroft’s Peerage, explained that though Tracy will indeed be Duchess by name – as the Worcesters’ marriage has not yet been dissolved – the title will not grant her any control over the Beaufort estate. “The separated partner is perfectly entitled to describe herself as the Duchess of Beaufort, but not chatelaine. How could she be the chatelaine if she is not actually living there and running it?”
Instead, Ms Powell could, upon moving to Badminton House, choose to style herself as chatelaine, though the term is ceremonial, and not legally binding.
Meanwhile, the Worcesters’ divorce will now not go through until after the Duke is buried, meaning the proceedings may be far more complicated, as the Marquess will inherit a £150million fortune.
And once they are divorced, Tracy Worcester will still be entitled to use her title. According to Debrett’s Correct Form, if a marriage to a Duke has been dissolved, his former wife “continues to use her title as a Duke’s wife, preceded by her Christian name”, meaning she would be styled Tracy, Duchess of Beaufort.
“And divorced wives do tend to keep their title,” says Cracroft-brennan.
‘How could she be the chatelaine if she is not actually living there and running it?’