Olivia: My family were just as racy as those Royals
New Crown star discovers steamy affairs and sudden deaths
AS OLIVIA Colman prepares to play the middle-aged Queen in the next series of The Crown, she must have reflected on the difference in her family history and the complex, sometimes turbulent story of the House of Windsor. Olivia always believed her ancestors were ‘fairly boring’ – until taking part in the BBC’s TV show Who Do You Think You Are? It uncovered a racy ancestry every bit as eventful as that of the Royals – riven with secret love affairs, illegitimate children and tragic deaths. ‘ I thought there was nobody exotic in my family,’ says Olivia, 34. But she discovered her greatgreat- great- great- grandparents Richard and Sarah Bazett had a clandestine love affair. Bazett petitioned Parliament for a divorce from his first wife Margaret after she ‘committed adultery’ with a harpist, Frederick Dizi.
Yet by the time of his rare divorce, on March 13, 1809, he – like many of the privileged men of his era, including the Royals – had two illegitimate sons, William, then three, and Charles, two, who was Colman’s great-great-great-grandfather.
‘ Richard has made a big deal about his wife being eing unfaithful,’ said id Colman. ‘ Mean- while, he’s having it away with Sarah. What a hypocrite.’
But it was the story of Charles’s wife Harriot – Col- man’s great- great- at- great-grandmother – which brought tears to her eyes. Born in 1807 in a remote town in north-east India, she was ‘probably’ the result of a relationship between her father, wealthy merchant William Slessor, and a local Indian woman.
Tragically, Harriot’s father died in a shooting accident when she was three and when she later fell in love and married a lieutenant in the Indian army, he died a year later.
Finally Harriot met Charles Bazett and returned to India, where they had four children, including Col man’ s great-greatgran grandmother Mary. ‘H ‘ Harriot’s story is in incredible,’ said Colm man. ‘ To find out her mum was local has made me feel more exotic.’
Who Do You Think T You Are? is on BBC1 on July 9.