Daily Mail, Thursday, March 5, 2020^ Page 29
Kristin fears roles ‘trap
me in fashion timewarp’
Feuding on the
Ritz: Brother’s
£1bn sale threat
THE very public rift
between twin brothers
who own The Ritz has
escalated sharply, with
one threatening to sue
the other if they sell the
famous hotel for any-
thing less than £1billion.
Estranged billionaires Sir
Frederick Barclay and Sir
David, 58, head up a family
b u s i n e s s e m p i r e w h i c h
bought the five-star Mayfair
hotel in 1995.
But it was revealed at the
start of this year that overseas
buyers were lining up to pur-
chase the London landmark,
which has hosted royal and
celebrity guests throughout its
114-year history.
Sources close to the deal
claim wealthy investors from
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have
expressed an interest, while
Bernard Arnault – the 70-year-
old French billionaire behind
Louis Vuitton owner LVMH – is
also reported to be in the run-
ning. It is understood offers
have been received in the region
of £700million to £800million.
But Sir Frederick and his
daughter Amanda are said to
be afraid that Sir David and his
sons, Aidan and Howard, who
head up day-to-day business
operations through the family
firm Ellerman Investments,will cut them out of proceeds
made from The Ritz sale.
Earlier this year, the Mail
reported Sir Frederick took
legal action in the High Court,
which is ongoing, against his
nephews over accusations they
had bugged a room in The Ritz
in order to eavesdrop on his
conversations with Amanda.
Sir Frederick and his daugh-
ter have a much smaller stake
in Ellerman – a sprawling busi-
ness empire that includes
The Ritz, the Telegraph news-
papers and The Very Group ofonline retailers – than Sir David
and his sons.
While it is Ellerman, under
the leadership of Aidan and
Howard Barclay, which has
been running the official sale
process for The Ritz, Sir Fred-
erick has been courting bid-
ders in separate negotiations,
and, in a warning shot to the
rest of his family, has now sig-
nalled he will pursue legal
action if the hotel is sold for
less than £1billion.
Sir Frederick said: ‘I can dis-
close that there have been anumber of competing offers for
this first-class hotel in excess
of £1billion.
‘There is no place for any sale
at less than full value. A sale
below the proper value would
give rise to further litigation.
‘This would be regrettable. I
hope we can get these family
matters resolved so that we
can all move on.’
A £1billion price tag for the
luxury hotel, which has 111
bedrooms and 25 suites that
cost as much as £5,450 a night,
would be the equivalent of
around £7million per room.
A spokesman for Ellerman
said: ‘Neither Sir Frederick nor
Amanda Barclay have any rel-
evant legal interest which
would allow them to disrupt
the sale process of The Ritz.’
[email protected]Page 26 Daily Mail, Saturday, February 29, 2020 Daily Mail, Saturday, February 29, 2020 Page 27the hotel conservatory, near one of Sir Frederick’s favourite spots where he enjoyed cigars and talking to his only daughter Amanda.
rift involves the disposal of key assets in their empire. The private family company includes Very, the cata-The heart of this gripping family
logue retailer formerly known as Shop Direct, Yodel the delivery company, the newspapers the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
and, of course, The Ritz, which they bought 25 years ago for £75 million. A deal is understood to be on the
table in which a Saudi private invest-ment company would buy the historic hotel on the edge of Green Park for £750 million. But family sources tell
us that Sir David does not want to sell, even though its profits in 2018 fell from £13 million to £7 million.
cated by Sir Frederick’s divorce from his Japanese-born wife Hiroko, 77.Matters are also said to be compli-The words inheritance as well as
family trusts have certainly been heard a lot recently in family circles. This is hardly surprising as the twins
will reach the age of 86 in October. his time between a mock Gothic castle on the tiny Channel Island of For his part, Sir David, who divides
Brecqhou and Monaco, has never c o u n t e n a n c e d r e t i r e m e n t — describing it to friends as ‘God’s waiting room’.
other hand, has been, as he puts it, ‘mostly retired’ since his late 70s. He The reclusive Sir Frederick, on the
is said not to have been directly involved in the business for more than 20 years.The next generation have, mean-
w h i l e , a l r e a d y b e c o m e d e e p l y embroiled in the network of family companies that extend to offshore
bases in Jersey, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.
Shim — has been managing the UK businesses. Then there are Howard, 60, Duncan, 59, and Alistair, 30.IR David has four sons and nine grandchildren. The eldest Aidan, 64, — ‘my Aidan’ as Sir David refers to
together with Aidan’s son Andrew, 28, who are the alleged parties to the bugging. They eavesdropped on their It is Aidan, Howard and Alistair,
uncle, it is said in the family, because they disagreed with the way Sir Frederick was going about holding talks with potential buyers.
claims, because of his habit of talking to strangers whom he meets in The And crucially, their side of the family
Ritz, where he spends much of his time when he isn’t in Monaco.cousin as well as brother against The feud has pitted cousin against
brother. As Desmond Browne QC, representing Sir Frederick and his 41-year-old daughter Amanda, told the High Court: ‘We all remember
Tolstoy saying “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”.’‘Here, children of Sir Frederick and
S i r D a v i d h a v e b e e n a t o d d s concerning the family trusts — andcousin, sadly, has been pitched against cousin.’a w o r d t o d e s c r i b e t h e t o x i c Indeed feud is hardly strong enough
atmosphere that separates the twins once seen as inseparable.are as different as chalk and cheese,’ ‘They look alike, talk alike but they
says one family figure. ‘It’s really quite dreadful. Heaven knows how it will all end.’The family spectacle unfolding in
the High Court has all the bitterness and drama of the huge Amazon Prime hit Succession, in which
members of a media empire battle over its control.
DBarclay) was filmed late on the night of January 13 handling the bug placed in the conservatory at The eSMOnD Browne told the court: ‘The matter came to l i g h t w h e n t h e f i r s t d e f e n d a n t ( A l i s t a i r
Ritz which was known to be often used by Sir Frederick.’nephews and great nephew were Frederick Barclay claims his three
parties to the recording of their pri-vate conversations over several months. He and his daughter are bringing a legal action alleging mis-
use of private information, breach of confidence and breach of data protection laws against their four
relatives and Philip Peters, who holds a number of board positions in the Barclay group of businesses.Recent corporate changes have
fuelled fears on Frederick’s side of the family that they are being side-lined. In January, just a week after
the bugging was discovered, Amanda and an associate were removed against their will as directors of six Ritz companies. They were replaced
by Aidan, Howard and Mr Peters.transcripts had been made of the recordings and the family members Court documents revealed that
then used the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service to discuss what was said between Sir Frederick and
his daughter.noted: ‘There is ample evidence at this stage to suggest that the bug-As the judge Mr Justice Warby
ging of conversations at The Ritz yielded a wealth of confidential busi-ness information, and personal infor-
mation of a confidential and private nature which, on the face of it, the c l a i m a n t s ( S i r F r e d e r i c k a n d Amanda) are entitled to protect from
unauthorised use or disclosure.’included ‘discussions about poten-He said the secret recordings
tial acquisitions and disposals of business assets’, as well as ‘personal financial matters ... relating to the family trusts’.
Unkind words such as ‘wicked’, ‘jealous’ and ‘monster’ have been freely bandied about in family circles.The mud-slinging has been intense.
finale to the mercurial rise of the working-class West London twins nobody would have forecast such a
whose father, a travelling salesman in bakers’ sundries, died when they were 12, and who at 16 set out to make their fortunes.
and success.It is a colourful story of ambition From painting and decorating, the
pair gravitated to running Candy Corner, a tobacconist and sweet shop near their Hammersmith roots. But their lift-off to riches is said to
have owed much to the 4ft 11in girl David married in 1955. She was Zoe newton, who had
trained as a ballet dancer after grammar school and then suddenly found fame and fortune as a model. She rapidly became the most photo-graphed and highly paid model in the country. She was a favourite of colour magazines and appeared on early television commercials as
the national Dairy Council’s ‘drinka-pinta-milka-day’ girl.It wasn’t long before David
established the Hillgate estate agents in 1962 with Zoe — by now his wife and mother of his three eldest sons — as co-director. She
had given up modelling to bring up their family, as her husband began buying and developing
properties across London. And in 1968 brother Frederick replaced Zoe on the Hillgate board.By 1970 their property portfolio
had grown to include the 170-room Londonderry House hotel on Park Lane, the Cadogan hotel in Sloane
Street and two other hotels in Bayswater, near Hyde Park.ducted with a marked aversion to This climb to riches was con-
publicity. They had no interest in trumpeting their successes to the world. Rather the reverse. They
had watched other accomplished men fall foul of fame. ‘They likedto enjoy what they had in private,’ an acquaintance of their early years says. Together the brothers rode out the Seventies property
crash to emerge in the eighties stronger than ever, acquiring a retail chain, newspapers and ultimately The Ritz.
barely knew what they looked like. Meanwhile they had acquired the island of Brecqhou, the sister-Through all this most people
island of Sark in the Channel Islands and a mere 160 acres insize — just the kind of place where a billionaire, or indeed two, can disappear at will.These were times when the twins
could not have been closer.homes on the island for the family and then the creation of some-First they set about building
thing much larger, their private paradise, began.reted castle with walls four-and-a-From scratch they built a tur-
half feet thick rising up the island’s cliffs to castellated battlements,as well as a helipad. They particu-larly enjoyed the huge open-air courtyard. The library ceiling they had hand-painted in a style remi-
niscent of the Sistine Chapel.pictures of the Barclay twins with nelson Mandela, French president In the palatial living room were
Charles de Gaulle and, promi-nently, Margaret Thatcher. In business the Barclays earned a reputation for uncompromising
toughness and yet, it must be said, that after Mrs Thatcher’s fall frompower in 1990 no one could have been kinder to the Iron Lady.provided the multi-million-pound They are understood to have
Belgravia townhouse where she lived, giving her a lease on the property which reverted to them on her death.
strokes, Lady Thatcher was forced to give up the house because she could no longer manage the stairs.In the end, after a series of
provided her with a suite at The Ritz for the last six months of her The devoted Barclays then
life. She made occasional appear-ances in the hotel dining room. The pianist always played the wartime classic A nightingale Sang in Ber-
keley Square when she left the res-taurant — it was a favourite of her late husband Sir Denis.
Trancour. Family fall-outs are hardly new, but the Barclays had always presented a facade of family unity. ODAY there is a very different tune being played in the carpeted corridors — the sound of
Yet now an ugly story of bitterness is unravelling. side claim that great age has Family sources on Sir David’s
robbed Sir Frederick of his sense of discretion. They cite his fond-ness for chatting to hotel guests
about his life story, and — they claim — confidential matters.but this goes against everything ‘I am sorry it has to come to this
the family has held in high value,’ says one. ‘We are not boastful, we are discreet and we want to keep
it that way.’side of the family refused to comment on these allegations.For their part, Sir Frederick’s
cate largely by text — if they com-municate at all. At one business The twins are said to communi-
meeting at The Ritz the brothers were sitting at opposite ends of a long table. They reportedly never spoke to each other and commu-
nicated by writing notes. Their advisers passed them along. They were discussing the possible sale
of the Daily Telegraph.Sir Frederick spoke to his elder brother, a source close to him said: Asked when the last time was that
‘You could just say that this rift has been there for several years.’More shocking perhaps than the
hurling of insults concerns the issue of a newly installed head-stone at Mortlake cemetery in South-West London.
twins’ father, who never fully recovered after being gassed in It marks the death in 1947 of the
the World War I.loving memory of our father’, the black granite stone carries the Inscribed with the words ‘in
name of Sir David and his brother Andrew — but not Sir Frederick.More lurid details of the feud are
expected to emerge as the case continues. For a family which has prided itself on its discretion, the unseemly revelations will bring
with them considerable pain. Above all the image created by the Barclay brothers was one of always
being in control. neither twin can lay claim to that now.W
ITH its elegant panoramic w i n d o w s a n d p o t t e d palms, the conservatory
place to be seen.in London’s iconic Ritz hotel has long been the
to be heard.thought. But in a bizarre development in the But recently it seems it has become a place not the conversations of guests — perish the
lifelong partnership of The Ritz’s owners, the multi-billionaire Barclay twins, one brother’s family has apparently been bugging the other.It is surely the most unexpected of all the twists and turns that have shaped the near 70-year collaboration of the knighted business-men Sir David and Sir Frederick.who had eight other children, they started out Born in Hammersmith to Scottish parentsas 16-year-old painters and decorators. Today with a privately owned empire that encom-passes shipping, retail and The Ritz, as well as the Telegraph media group, they are worth
some £3 billion.seems no time for the brothers — indeed, twins so identical that people could mistake one for Since both are well into their ninth decade, it
the other — to fall out. But as one family source puts it, ‘it’s a feud’.Frederick, the younger by ten minutes, has And as the High Court heard this week, Sir
been secretly bugged by his twin’s sons and grandson for several months. The bugs — described in court as ‘an elaborate system of
covert recordings’ — were allegedly placed inThey were the closest of brothers who built a
£3billion empire ... and a castle on their own
Channel Island. Now they’re embroiled in a
bitter feud, amid claims one’s been spying on
the other with bugs in their landmark hotelby Richard Kay,
and Geoffrey LevyAndrew PierceToxic rift: Sir David (far left) and Sir Frederick Barclay, owners of The Ritz (left) and
the island of Brecqhou complete with castle (below)Pictures: PA/SPLASHNEWS/ALAMY/REXRUMPUS AT
From the Mail, February 29By Lucy White
City CorrespondentElegant:
Dame
Kristin in a
‘trademark’
strapless gownMOST of the women she has played on film
seem effortlessly stylish. But Kristin Scott
Thomas says she fears getting sartorially
stuck in the era when she was at her ‘most
successful and admired’.
Dame Kristin, 59, who starred in The
English Patient, Gosford Park and Four
Weddings And A Funeral, has sworn never
to do another fashion photoshoot as she
is usually put in clothes associated with
her best-known characters.
She told Susannah Constantine’s podcast
My Wardrobe Malfunction: ‘The one thing
I’m terrified of is that we stick to the style
that you are most admired and recog-
nised for. People love me in those strap-
less gowns, they love me with my hair up,
they love me looking like a classic statue-type person. Or they love the English
Patient white shirt-trousers type thing.
‘So every time I go to do a fashion shoot,
which I’ve sworn I will never do again...
they put me in a white Armani shirt and a
pair of pants. It’s so boring.’
Dame Kristin, who was once listed among
the 50 best-dressed women over 50,
added: ‘You get stuck in that period when
you are most successful and most admired
and you keep hanging on to that.
‘You see that with women who won’t
change their make-up, or women who
won’t change the length of their skirt.
That’s so dangerous and I really want to
avoid that.’By Claudia Joseph
Casual allure: In The English Patient