The new Lady Lucan: I do NOT believe the Earl murdered nanny

of my life – funny, clever, kind, warm. [The murder] had nothing to do with him – he was a small boy asleep in his bed when it happened.

‘It was a dark time for my husband. He lost his father, mother and nanny. But it’s time for everybody to move on. It’s a new era. Those were very, very dark times for George, and like any of us, he doesn’t like to dwell on dark times.’

The relationship fizzled out after a few months. ‘ I was broken- hearted, but I do think if there is magic, it finds itself again.’

In 2013 they began dating again and married last year. One important person who was not there, despite being invited, was George’s mother. She had been estranged from her three children – George and his sisters Frances and Camilla – for years.

But their attempts to heal the rift were in vain, perhaps because they all adored their father and never believed him guilty. Anne- Sofie says: ‘The children remember their father as being funny, warm and kind.’ And her own view of the crime? ‘It seems to me the evidence is weak. I don’t care.’

Now the new chatelaine has sealed the modern Lucan ‘brand’ by launching a range of outdoor clothing for men and women under that name.

‘It’s a fresh start for the name,’ she says defiantly.