A New Age as Lady Cowdray splits from her husband
ADEVOTEE of Silent Meditation and Qigong, artist and sculptress Viscountess Cowdray is so dedicated to well-being that she became an adviser to the Oxford Centre of Mindfulness.
So I am sorry to report that all is not well at Cowdray Park, the 17,000-acre estate in West Sussex. Marina, 63, has separated from her husband, the 4th Viscount Cowdray, 79, after 36 years of marriage, and is being comforted by her chiropractor.
‘It’s highly acrimonious,’ a family friend claims. ‘Marina has walked out of the marriage. Michael [the viscount] is devastated. The New Age stuff has changed her.’
Any divorce could be expensive as the Cowdrays are one of Britain’s richest aristocratic dynasties.
Lord Cowdray, a former film producer, owns a significant chunk of the Pearson media empire and his fortune is estimated to be more than £400 million.
The split is the talk of their social set and will have come to the attention of the Royal Family.
King Charles’s goddaughter, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, is the girlfriend of the Cowdrays’ son, Peregrine Pearson, 28, a property developer, who is heir to the viscountcy. Lord Cowdray hosts the annual Gold Cup at his Cowdray Park Polo Club, where Princes William and Harry have played.
When the couple’s eldest daughter, Eliza Pearson, 35, married Ned Rocknroll in an open-air pagan ceremony led by a druid in 2009, Princess Beatrice was among the guests. After Ned split up with Eliza, he went on to marry Oscar winner Kate Winslet.
Marina is the viscount’s second wife. He was previously married to Fritzi (Ellen) Erhardt, daughter of a German industrialist. He has three daughters and two sons with Marina and a son with model Barbara Ray.
A spokesman for Lord Cowdray says he and his wife do not wish to comment.