I want to help addicts, says heartbroken Lola
SHE has endured her fair share of tragedy including the death of her beloved father Johnny Dumfries, the 7th Marquess of Bute, three years ago.
A self-confessed party girl, Lady Lola Crichton-Stuart’s heartache at losing her dad from cancer aged 62 came less than two years after she had to deal with her boyfriend’s suicide and the death of her best friend from a suspected drug overdose.
Now the ‘It Girl’ is determined to put her experience and knowledge of grief and substance abuse to good use by working with a charity that helps people to ‘break the cycles of addiction’.
The 23-year-old aristocrat was recently unveiled as an ambassador of the Forward Trust, which has the Princess of
Wales and Sir
Anthony Hopkins as patrons. ‘I have experienced first-hand that mental health and problems with addiction are the epidemic of my generation,’ Lady Lola said.
‘I feel compelled to give back to those who I have loved and lost and help make a difference for those still suffering.’ The youngest child of Dumfries, who won the 1988 Le Mans race, she splits her time between the Crichton-Stuart ancestral home, Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, and her fashion designer mother Serena Bute’s London pad.
This year, Lady Lola was ranked sixth in
Tatler’s Social Power Index – a list led by the then Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall. The magazine has also named her as one of the ‘most eligible’ young Scots.
Despite her glamorous persona, however, she has insisted that her frequently updated social media presence ‘isn’t the real me’, saying: ‘It’s probably really easy to look at me as just another Instagram girl but there’s so much more to me than bikini pictures.’
In 2020, she set up the Eternity Movement to help remove ‘the stigma surrounding addiction, mental health and suicide’.
She has in the past admitted to being on a ‘destructive path’ after her boyfriend Kai Schachter-Rich, 21, took his own life following an alleged argument between the pair.
Another wake-up call came when her close friend Ila Scheckter, the daughter of 1979 Formula 1 world champion Jody Scheckter, was found dead aged 21 after a suspected accidental drug overdose.
Lady Lola added: ‘There’s such a misconception around addiction. These are all just outlets for an emptiness within.’