Turnip toff who split from wife having baby with racy Hesketh
THE so-called ‘Turnip toffs’ who live near the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s country retreat in Norfolk were delighted when local stately-home owner Ollie Birkbeck exchanged vows in 2018 with Laura Trenchard, a viscount’s daughter whose family’s own pile, Standon Lordship, is so grand that a rock festival is held in the grounds.
Sadly, I can disclose that their marriage has ended and Birkbeck, 48, is to become a father with Sophia Hesketh, 37, the fashion stylist daughter of former Tory treasurer and sometime Formula One team owner Lord Hesketh, after a whirlwind romance.
‘It’s due next Friday,’ Birkbeck tells me of their baby. ‘It’s a bit mad. We’re nervous — we looked at each other just now and wondered whether we really thought this through. We’ve got a nursery, and we’ve hired some nice ladies to help us look after it.’
The baby was conceived three months after their relationship began. Birkbeck insists his marriage was already over. He was introduced to Sophia by a prominent ‘Turnip toff’ he declines to name. ‘I just thought I was going out to dinner,’ he says of their meeting. ‘No one told me anything about the blind date.’
Sophia — whose father sold their magnificent Northamptonshire home, Easton Neston, to Russian fashion tycoon Leon Max for £50 million — is a prominent society figure. Close friends include David Cameron and among her exes are Sam Cam’s brother-in-law, Robert Sheffield, and Robie Uniacke, partner of Hollywood star Rosamund Pike.
Blind date: Sophia and Ollie, top. Above: Laura Trenchard
Lord Hesketh was so angry about her relationship with Uniacke that he offered £500 to any friend of his who would woo his daughter away from the reformed heroin addict.
Birkbeck claims he remains friends with Laura, 33, who is still pictured with him on the home page of his estate’s website. He adds: ‘Our marriage went pearshaped very quickly.’
But will party-loving Sophia adapt to her quiet new life at Little Massingham House and its 2,000 acres? ‘She’s coming round to it,’ he says. ‘She’s not as enamoured as I’d like her to be.’