[‘I don’t think it would be right to
talk about that,’ she says. Never
mind. There are plenty of clients
who are happy to publicly endorse
her – including Serena Hood and
the Countess of Mornington’s sister,
Jodie Kidd. Perhaps they have been
won over by the glow she exudes.
Gabriela is a walking advertisement
for her own products – and good
company, too: intelligent, funny and
self- deprecating.
‘I think people like me because I
never judge,’ she says, noting that
friends WhatsApp her for nutrition
advice ahead of big events. Her
response? ‘I believe in balance. I don’t
think we have to be restrictive all
year round. Whoever says that either
has no fun in their life or is lying,’
she smiles, qualifying the statement
by placing a basket of chocolates on
the table and ordering a coffee from
her housekeeper. She swears by
Deliveroo, enjoys the odd pizza and
wine-fuelled lunch, and rotates five
types of nut milks in the fridge.
Of course, it would be easy to
write Gabriela off as the bored, rich
housewife with serious connections
playing at the latest wellness fad,
but that would be wide of the mark.
Indeed, when she quit modelling,
Gabriela started a biochemistry de-
gree at Westminster University. ‘I
wanted to use my brain. The reason
why I got into nutrition was all the
irresponsible myths and facts about
foods I was exposed to while I was
modelling – I was always intrigued.’
It took six years to graduate as
Gabriela struggled with the written
English needed to complete the
course. Yet she persisted: ‘It was the
most intense thing I’ve ever done
and, next to the birth of my
children, is one of the things I am
most proud of,’ she says of her 2:1,
which she achieved after handing in
her final dissertation while she was
on maternity leave with Maia. She
says, ‘I started to realise that what
you put in your mouth really affects
your body. The power of nutrients
is so strong and goes with my belief
that diseases can be prevented.’
One of her first clients was
Tamara Beckwith Veroni, whose
sister Claire she persuaded to intro-She’ll mark her 40th
with a fabulous
party in St Tropez.
No doubt the
Princesses of York
will be there – and
her neighbour,
Dame Joan Collinsduce her to the Queen’s GP, Sir Tim
Evans. ‘It was at Emilia Wickstead’s
party. I heard he was going to open
a holistic practice at Grace Belgravia
and so I wanted to be a part of it.’
Given Gabriela’s passion for nutri-
tion and the breakneck speed and
enthusiasm with which she talks
about her specialism, it’s no wonder
that Sir Tim was won over. The pair
worked together until the £5,500-a-
year club closed in March. Since
then, Gabriela’s home clinic has be-
come the GP Nutrition hub, as well
as being the most perfect entertain-
ing space. There’s a glamorous sub-
terranean dining room-cum-night-
club, decorated with an orbed and
gilded ceiling, a marble wall with an
inset gold fireplace, wallpaper by
Hermès and a neon ‘DP-10 London’
sign – a nod to the Ibizan mecca DC-10,
which Gabriela commissioned for
David’s birthday.position, ‘I probably would have
done the same thing.’ She moved
to Paris and ‘there were a lot of bad
parts, because you are the pretty
girl and people like to take advan-
tage of that. There are some parts I
kept away from my parents.’ She
continues, ‘Being 15 in Paris and
not having any English is tough.’
A year later, as her contract was
running out, a modelling boss
convinced Gabriela’s parents she‘We’ve had some amazing parties
in here,’ she says, pointing out a bar
aglow with spirits. The whole room
is soundproofed to muffle raucous
after-parties. In fact, only once have
the police almost been called out,
but that was down to Gabriela: ‘It is
so quiet down there, I didn’t realise
David and his friends were there
after dinner,’ she says, remembering
with a laugh how she set the alarm
and went to bed, only to awake
‘terrified’ when David went to the
kitchen for more ice and set it off.
Not that Gabriela is all that easily
shaken. She endured some hard
knocks as a model and tells me that
initially her first career wasn’t the
fairy-tale dream she or her parents
had hoped for. They let her leave
home at the age of 15 because ‘they
wanted something better for me.’
And she concedes that in theirLEVEL UP
Above and top,
every floor is
enlivened with
taxidermy –
much of it from
Deyrolle in Paris- and the couple’s
eclectic fine art
collection
HAIR & MAKE-UP: CHARLOTTE COWEN. PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: CHRIS BROMLEY. PRODUCTION: MUFFIE SPROATTatler October 2019 tatler.com10-19BYST-GabriellaPeacock.indd 84 09/08/2019 13:03
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