New tragedy for City boss Horlick as husband dies

NICOLA HORLICK, whose eldest daughter died from leukaemia at the age of 12, has suffered new heartache. Yesterday, her husband, Martin Baker, lost the battle against cancer that he had been secretly fighting for four years. ‘He died this morning,’ she tells me. ‘He did really well to live so long.’

Horlick, 61, who was dubbed ‘Superwoman’ for juggling her high-flying career as a City fund manager with bringing up six children, says of Baker: ‘He was a fighter, and I am heartbroken.’

Financial journalist Baker, who turned 64 last month, was diagnosed with stage- four prostate cancer in 2018.

He became Horlick’s second husband in 2006. They had met when he interviewed her for the Sunday Telegraph the previous year. When Baker, above right with nicola, wrote a thriller novel set in the world of high finance, Meltdown, she acted as technical editor. Her six children were with her first husband, fellow investment banker Tim Horlick, whom she divorced in 2005 after a 21-year marriage.

Their daughter Georgina battled leukaemia for ten years until 1998. Her death is said to have been the catalyst that ended Nicola’s marriage — her husband had an affair with a receptionist.

She doesn’t blame him, however, saying that grief manifests itself in many different ways.

Talking about meeting Baker, the authorised biographer of West Ham manager David Moyes, she says: ‘Martin came along to interview me for his newspaper and I thought, “Oh, he is quite nice.” We were talking about Georgina and he started crying, because he is very emotional.

‘He said he had three children himself, and that he just couldn’t contemplate the death of one of them. So I ended up comforting him.’