Family in legal row with Jemma face losing £2m home
FORMER model Jemma Kidd and her aristocratic husband Arthur Mornington, the future Duke of Wellington, lead a gilded life of wealth and glamour.
As the Marquess and Marchioness of Douro and heirs to a £75million fortune, they live with their three children on the stately Stratfield Saye estate in Hampshire – bequeathed by the grateful nation to the first Duke of Wellington after his victory at the Battle of Waterloo.
But I can reveal there has been a sad falling out with friends and former business partners over a dispute set to be aired in a court in Guildford next month.
The ex-friends concerned, Grace Watson – a one-time marketing consultant for High Street chain Boots – and her husband Tom were even invited to the Morningtons’ glamorous June 2005 wedding at the Kidd family’s Barbados estate. And the Watsons were partners in Jemma’s business, Jemma Kidd Make-Up Ltd, which was dissolved five years ago.
Today, though, the Watsons say that they could lose their £2million Surrey farmhouse to the Queen’s bank, Coutts as a result of the dispute – which centres on the closure of Jemma’s business. The private bank is suing after the Watsons used their property to guarantee a £1.1million loan to the cosmetics firm.
The Watsons learned last October that Coutts was trying to repossess their home. Jemma has previously said claims by the Watsons about how the business was wound up are ‘groundless’. She said: ‘We worked tirelessly to save the business and it was with huge sadness we were unable to do so.’ Coutts said: ‘We are unable to comment as legal proceedings are live but will outline our case in full at the forthcoming trial.’