Karen Millen’s £2.5m closing down sale... of her own mansion
IT IS perhaps the most devastating blow of all in the troubles that have beset one of the fashion world’s most recognisable names.
Designer Karen Millen has been forced to put her immaculate £2.5million Georgian mansion on the market, a year after being declared bankrupt over unpaid tax.
The 56-year-old has lived in the six-bedroom property in the idyllic Kent village of Wateringbury for more than 16 years. It had been her pride and joy, boasting a swimming pool, lake, private cinema and football pitch – and was decorated as elegantly as you would expect from a fashion queen. ‘I’ve really put my heart into it and made it mine,’ she once said of the Grade II listed home.
However, it will soon be someone else’s, as estate agents Hamptons say it is already under offer.
Dating back centuries, the house was remodelled 200 years ago and features tall ceilings and floorto-ceiling sash windows that overlook four acres of landscaped gardens, including mature trees surrounding a lake. There is a modern, stylish kitchen, while downstairs is given over to entertaining,
‘She must be devastated – it’s such a shame’
with a cinema, bar, wine room and games area.
Losing the house is a heartbreaking blow for the woman who built an empire of 400 shops in 65 countries, starting with a £100 loan in 1981. She made £35million when she sold the business that bears her name in 2004. But she has been forced to sell up after losing a legal battle over an unpaid £6million tax bill.
She had been advised to transfer shares to trustees in Mauritius in a tax-avoidance scheme. But HM Revenue & Customs challenged the move, and the Court of Appeal ruled she was still liable for UK tax. At the time, the mother-of-three blamed the bank that backed the sale, rather than her own decisions, saying: ‘The past nine years have been one long legal battle against the banks to try to achieve justice and have now taken their toll.’
A neighbour in Wateringbury said: ‘She has been a good neighbour. Despite having such a grand house, she was very down-to-earth and I think she has quite a few friends in the village.
‘I know she has made a lot of improvements to her home and she must be devastated. It is a shame.’
A woman who answered the intercom at the gates to Ms Millen’s home declined to comment.