Mermaid wife gives a joyful Mountbatten clan new heir
HEARTBROKEN by the death of her confidant Prince Philip, with whom she spent much time during his final years, Countess Mountbatten of Burma has received some joyful news: her son, Nicholas Knatchbull, has become a father.
And his son is a boy, so the Earl Mountbatten title has been guaranteed for another generation.
I can reveal that Knatchbull, 41, has had a son with his wife, Ambre Pouzet, 38, who was once a ‘merlesque’ artiste, or performing mermaid, under the surname Saint- Clare. They have named their boy Alexander.
‘Nick’s whole family is delighted,’ one of his friends tells me. ‘Nick’s had a difficult life, so hopefully fatherhood will be the making of him.’
The news will please Knatchbull’s godfather, Prince Charles, and the Queen, who invited the Countess, Penelope, to Philip’s funeral — the only friend present at the service held during pandemic restrictions.
Knatchbull — whose father, the Earl, 74, is in poor health — quietly married Ambre last May after a twoand-a-half-year engagement. The wedding was held at his family’s 60room stately home, Broadlands, where the Queen and Prince Philip spent their honeymoon.
The wedding certificate gave Knatchbull’s occupation as ‘music producer and gardener’ and Ambre’s as ‘behavioural therapist’.
The tattooed former drug addict uses the names Deep N Beeper and Five Dimensional Nick in his work as a musician.
He is thought to do gardening work at Broadlands, where the couple live in a nearby cottage on the 5,000-acre estate near Romsey, Hampshire.
Knatchbull, whose great-grandfather, the 1st Earl Mountbatten, was Prince Philip’s uncle, was educated at Eton, where he helped mentor the young Prince William.
He does not use his courtesy title, Lord Brabourne.
Knatchbull, engaged three times before, describes himself and Ambre
as the ‘dynamic duo’. French by birth, her work as a mermaid included giving performances which involved donning a custom-made Swarovski crystal- encrusted mermaid tail for underwater shows and photoshoots.
A spokesman tells me: ‘The Earl and Countess would not like to comment on what is a family matter.’