There’s something about Lady Mary
Tangled tale of the supermodel, two rock star husbands and a Scottish aristocrat has society wondering if...
January 2009 when Lady Mary’s grandfather, the 12th Earl of Wemyss, was laid to rest in a secluded corner of Aberlady Kirkyard in East Lothian, his body carried from the Gosford estate to the churchyard on the back of a humble farm cart.
The earl, a respected nobleman and former chairman of the National Trust for Scotland, had been popular amongst the locals in this corner of the east coast, and hundreds turned out to pay their respects. There were also quiet concerns over how his son Jamie, Lady Mary’s father, would carry on the line – and the estate.
SO far, those concerns appear to have been unfounded. In 2010 the house was opened to the public, albeit on an ad hoc basis. It now hosts weddings, fashion shoots, business days and advertises itself as an excellent film location.
But the family has suffered some fallow times. In 2004 they sold one of the family’s Botticelli paintings, which was snapped up by the National Galleries of Scotland for £10million. The money was expected to be used to spruce up Gosford. Instead much of it was spent on the world’s tallest gravity-fed fountain, a 350ft folly at the family’s Gloucestershire estate. Eyebrows were, unsurprisingly, raised.
Lady Mary’s father Lord Neidpath, has never exactly been a conventional earl. He was introduced to the concept of trepanning by his second wife, Amanda Fielding, known to some as the Cannabis Countess for her dedication to reforming current drug policy.
Trepanning, whereby a hole is drilled into the skull, is said to allow more oxygen to the brain and can, say i ts advocates, relieve depression. Fielding persuaded her husband to give it a go and in 1996 the pair travelled to Cairo, where they found a doctor willing to carry out the procedure for $2,000. Lord Neidpath later remarked he had found it ‘very beneficial’.
Lady Mary’s mother’s second marriage has been less joyful. Catherine went on to have four more children with her second husband, wealthy landowner Robert Hesketh, including twin daughters. However, in 2004 Mr Hesketh was found dead during a family celebration – a glass of wine in one hand and a cigar in the other – apparently of a heart attack. He was just 48 years old.
With such a flamboyant family, it is perhaps unsurprising that upon her elevation to It girl, Lady Mary has fallen in with the legendary Primrose Hill party set – whose members include Sadie Frost, Fran Cutler and assorted models and rock stars – including Miss Moss and her husband.
Certainly, Miss Moss and Lady Mary have spent a considerable amount of time in each other’s company in the past two years. They have often been photographed at the same glittering London parties, and in January of this year they, along with their Primrose Hill set of friends decamped to Craigellachie Hotel in Speyside for the 40th birthday of Rosemary Ferguson, the model turned nutritionist. Exactly what Lady Mary does all day is not entirely clear. Her Instagram account portrays the life of a woman who enjoys many holidays, festivals, and parties. One snap from just two weeks ago features Hince clutching a cigarette and a music award, peering into a camera presumably held by Lady Mary.
As well as a smattering of modelling, Lady Mary sings in her husband’s band, an arrangement that came about after Mr Furze heard her singing in the car and suggested she try getting up on stage. She has been criticised for her tiny frame – exposed on social media in a parade of itsy-bitsy bikinis. One commenter describedibed her as looking like a ‘junkie’. Lady Mary lashedd out by saying she was on medication for epilepsy that at caused weight loss.
As for the Moss/Hince Hince debacle, with the know-it-all w-it-all insouciance of the young, Lady Mary seems determined to ridede this one out. Recently, she was asked who she’d ask to help style her for a party and responded: sponded: ‘I suppose… Kate Moss? I suppose she’d doo an OK job.’
Ouch.