Surprise! Damien Hirst to be a dad again at 58
HE’S pickled a shark in a tank, chopped up cows and sold a diamondencrusted platinum skull for $100 million. But now Damien Hirst has pulled off his greatest surprise.
I can disclose that Britain’s richest artist is to become a father again at the age of 58. His girlfriend Sophie Cannell, who’s 29 years his junior, is expecting her first child.
‘Sophie is looking forward to becoming a mother,’ a source tells me. ‘She has spent most of her pregnancy concealing her bump, but she’s happy to share the news now.’
The former ballerina showed off her baby bump in this picture, which she posted online, of her wearing a bikini while sitting at the edge of a swimming pool. ‘He’s a water boy,’ she says.
If her child is indeed a boy, he will be Hirst’s fourth son.
He is the father of Connor, 28, Cassius, 23, and Cyrus, 17, with fashion designer Maia Norman. They split in 2012 after 20 years together.
He then took up with model Roxie Nafousi, now 33, before enjoying a three- year romance with another mannequin, Katie Keight, also now 33, that ended in 2017.
The former enfant terrible of the art world has been with Cannell for five years and they live at his £36 million, 14-bedroom home in Regent’s Park, London, which even has its own stripper pole.
They share the property with their beloved three French bulldogs, Pablo, Chapo and Blanco, and their new chihuahua.
Hirst has an estimated fortune of £300 million and his sons are directors of his art production company Science ( UK), which is worth £ 20.3 million, and boasted a turnover of £5.6 million, according to its latest accounts.
The artist has yet to propose to Cannell, but he has showered her with gifts including a £166,600 18-carat gold Rolex Pearlmaster watch studded with 713 gems.
He immortalised his love for her last year when he created a sculpture based on her body as one of his four works for new Mayfair restaurant Bacchanalia, inspired by stories from Greek mythology.