Why Nicky Clarke’s ex is finally washing him out of her hair!
She left Britain’s most famous hairdresser after he cheated, but still lived two doors down and ran his empire — even when he set up home with a salon junior. Now, in a scissor-sharp interview, we reveal...
HOW would you cope if your ex lived a couple of doors down with his — much younger — partner and their two small children?
Quite admirably, it seems, if you’re lesley Clarke, the dynamo behind celebrity hair stylist Nicky Clarke and their shared £ 60 million business empire. ‘Nicky pops in quite often,’ she says. ‘He brings Nico — his three-year-old — to see me sometimes. Nico calls me “Aunty lesley”. I sit him down in here with some of the grandchildren’s toys and he plays while we talk — usually about business.’
lesley and I are chatting in the vast, airy drawing room — all restful cream hues and scented candles — of her fivestorey mansion in St John’s Wood, north london; a glorious £ 12 million pile, currently on the market, with views onto the velvety lawns and swaying palm fronds of the garden.
‘I had my grandson Casper’s third birthday here and Nico came along with his nanny. The children all muck in together. They do, don’t they? They’re
kids!’ she smiles. It is now 23 years since Lesley, 67, and Nicky, 62, — as famous for his luxuriant (dyed) blond hair as his legions of celebrity clients — separated when he had an affair. Yet the couple remain inextricably bound.
they have two grown- up children together — Harrison, 33, and tellisa, 31 — as well as a brace of grandkids aged three and one (exactly the same age, incidentally, as Nicky’s two little ones) and a shared business built from nothing with a blend of hard graft, Lesley’s acumen and Nicky’s creativity with the scissors.
their personal partnership ended with his infidelity: ‘Nicky had an affair and when I found out, he stopped seeing the woman [susie Bick, then a Vivienne Westwood model] immediately. there was no confrontation. But the damage was done,’ Lesley says, recalling their break-up.
HOWEVER,
even in the rancorous aftermath of the split, when Lesley felt ‘pain was raining down on her’, they did not contemplate severing their business links and she remains Ceo of the family business as she has been for 29 years.
Neither, it now emerges, did they even separate their personal finances.
‘the business was always going to carry on,’ says Lesley. ‘It’s like a third child and you don’t abandon a child if you split up, do you? We built it from scratch with a £20,000 loan together.
‘We worked so hard life was just a blur. I don’t think either of us ever thought for a second of relinquishing it.’
she adds: ‘Neither of us could have done it without the other. so of course we carried on running it together when we were no longer a couple.
‘as soon as Nicky and I split up I wished I hadn’t, and yes, I continued to regret it. I thought: “that was a drastic decision.” But I’d made it when I was vulnerable and you have to live with your choices.
‘success is not looking back. that’s my mantra.
‘Do I still regret now?’ she sighs heavily. ‘It was such a long time ago . . .’ is all she says.
‘after we separated I bought the house down the road for Nicky to live in. I know it’s very unusual but we kept everything in joint names.
‘ We continued to have a shared bank account and the houses were owned by both of us. We shared all the bills. right up until a couple of years ago everything belonged to both of us. and until only a few Christmases ago we continued to buy each other presents. Nicky gave me a beautiful Cartier diamond watch for my 50th.
‘over the years he’s given me lots of jewellery; diamonds, bracelets from tiffany. He’s a very generous person.
‘and I’ve given him art works, sculptures, a Harley-Davidson motorbike. all sorts of things since we separated. then a couple of years ago I said, “It’s silly. Let’s not do presents any more”.’
so now she is selling the glorious house they’ve co-owned for all these years and they are both finally extricated from the complicated web of their shared personal finances. I wonder, was the decision prompted by Nicky’s relationship with his current partner — Kelly simpkin, 37 — whom he met in their Mayfair salon when she was a junior stylist?
and is Lesley selling her home because she finds its proximity to Nicky’s menage — he and Kelly have a one- year- old daughter CeCee as well as Nico — just too close for comfort?
she insists not, on both counts, although a froideur descends when she talks about Kelly. Does she see her socially? ‘umm no,’ she says. ‘she came to Harrison’s wedding but I just said, “Hello”. I hardly have anything in common with her. there’s a 30-year age gap!
‘If I see her in the street I say hello. I don’t feel awkward. Why would I? I honestly don’t give her a second thought.
‘I don’t even remember her from the salon. she was just one of the juniors. I mean, I had a salon manager and I don’t get involved with the juniors.’
I ask if it is galling for Lesley that Kelly has stepped into a life of comfort and luxury that Lesley, a milkman’s daughter with a keen eye for figures and a relentless work ethic, helped build from scratch.
she deflects the question. ‘I like working. Kelly doesn’t work in our business. I have no idea what she does,’ she says.
‘I always earned my money and couldn’t imagine not being independent.’ W E TALK a bit about grandchildren and although she adores her two, Lesley admits: ‘ I love looking after them but it’s nice to come home to some peace and quiet. after a day with them, at my age, you’re exhausted.’
I point out that Nicky, embarking on parenthood for a second time round in his sixties, must be permanently shattered. ‘More fool him,’ she smiles. ‘I know how tired I get looking after little ones.
‘But he’s made his bed. We make choices in life and we have to own them.’
she insists, too, that her decision to sell her vast and elegant six-bedroom house is merely