Dead at 49, Kate Moss’s socialite best friend who married a Rothschild
THE glamorous ex- wife of hedge fund billionaire Nathaniel Rothschild has died at 49.
Annabelle Neilson was a British aristocrat, party-loving model and best friends to Kate Moss and the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
Addicted to heroin as a teenager, she went on to marry British financier Mr Rothschild despite his family’s objections, and later starred in reality television show Ladies Of London. She was the last person to see Mr McQueen, who killed himself in 2010, alive.
The cause of her death has not been confirmed.
Only two days before she died, she had appeared in good spirits, posting a photo on social media of a man in a pool with the caption: ‘Fatties get in first!’
She also attended a friend’s wedding less than a fortnight ago. Miss Neilson shocked high society when she married Mr Rothschild, 47, in Las Vegas in 1994 after they met on a beach in India.
The son and heir of banker Jacob, he is in line to become the fifth Baron Rothschild and inherit around £500million.
Mr Rothschild’s parents were said at the time to be ‘appalled’ by his ‘vulgar’ choice. But after three years of marriage, marked by hard partying and rows, the couple divorced. Miss Neilson is understood to have received a generous settlement in return for rescinding the dynastic name and signing a confidentiality deal.
Mr Rothschild reportedly went on to date Natalie Portman and Ivanka Trump, before marrying a topless model, Loretta Basey, two years ago. Miss Neilson dated Edward Spencer Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough’s half-brother.
She enjoyed a gilded upbringing; her paternal grandmother was a second cousin of the late Queen Mother. Her first cousin was the Earl of Warwick and she enjoyed play dates at Warwick Castle as a girl. But Miss Neilson’s life was turned upside down as a teenager when she was the victim of a horrific attack while staying with family friends in Australia.
The assailant, later convicted of killing three women, tied her to a tree and beat her for two hours, leaving her in need of reconstructive surgery. Left depressed, she was a heroin addict by the time she turned 16, and left school without any qualifications. Although she eventually managed to get clean from hard drugs, she claimed they helped her survive the brutal experience.
‘ In a way, heroin saved me because otherwise I would have killed myself,’ she admitted.
It was her work as a muse for designer Mr McQueen that put Miss Neilson on the fashion map.
They met when she was 22 after they were introduced by the late Tatler fashion editor Isabella Blow. While working as a model for Mr McQueen in the early 1990s, Miss Neilson met Miss Moss and Miss Campbell.
The trio became part of the now infamous Primrose Hill set, where all-night parties at Noel Gallagher and Meg Mathews’ Supernova Heights mansion were the norm.