TALK OF THE TOWN: Sacre bleu! Britain’s most famous aristocratic supermodel Stella Tennant splits from gallic beau David Lasnet
What on Earth is going on with aristocratic marriages?
Last week I revealed the Earl and Countess of Mornington, Arthur Wellesley and Jemma Kidd, had split after 15 years.
Now I’m told that, sadly, Britain’s most famous aristocratic supermodel, Stella Tennant, has split from her husband David Lasnet after 21 years of marriage.
Britain’s most famous aristocratic supermodel, Stella Tennant, has split from her husband David Lasnet, pictured together at their wedding, after 21 years of marriage
Stella, pictured, met David while at the height of her fame, when he was a dashing French photographer assigned to a New York shoot with her
Stella met David while at the height of her fame, when he was a dashing French photographer assigned to a New York shoot with her.
After a high-profile society wedding, they settled down near her parents’ sprawling 16th Century estate in the Scottish Borders.
David became an osteopath, and the couple went on to have four children, now aged between 15 and 22.
I’m told Stella – granddaughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah Mitford, one of the notorious aristocratic siblings – and her husband quietly separated earlier this year.
The couple own a property empire that includes a luxury mews house in Edinburgh and a stately home near her father’s estate.
Stella, 49, was known for her androgynous looks during her 1990s modelling heyday.
It was revealed last week that after 15 years and three children, the Countess of Mornington, Jemma Kidd, has separated from her husband Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington
‘They were unhappy together for a very long time,’ sources said. ‘They decided to separate during lockdown – a time during which they were barely speaking to each other’
Her first shoot made the cover of British Vogue in 1993, and at the end of that day’s work she was asked to do a Versace campaign in Paris, which ended up as the cover of the Italian edition.
David will now have to eat the words he once uttered in an interview in which he asserted: ‘There’s nothing better than growing old together.’
But then he conceded: ‘And it’s very easy to destroy something.’ Quite so!
Designer Jenny Packham is delighted so many of her dresses have appeared in Bond films – but there’s one problem: 007 keeps removing them before audiences can appreciate them.
Rosamund Pike shed hers very quickly in Die Another Day, Jenny recalls, ‘So when we did the next one for Caterina Murino [in Casino Royale], we made this dress that laced up the back so she couldn’t get it off quickly.’
But that, too, backfired ‘as she ended up dead in it’.
Caterina Murino shows off designer Jenny Packham’s laced-up dress in Casino Royale