{"id":299094,"date":"2026-02-15T09:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299094\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:02:22","slug":"how-luckiest-girl-in-the-world-leonora-smee-is-taking-her-fans-for-fools-real-story-behind-richtok-influencers-pricey-valentines-advent-calendar-from-her-much-older-husband-how-shes-cashing-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299094\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘luckiest girl in the world’ Leonora Smee is taking her fans for fools: Real story behind ‘Richtok’ influencer’s pricey Valentine’s advent calendar from her much older husband, how she’s cashing in – and who’s really behind it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beneath a towering Christmas<\/a> tree in the drawing room of their Oxfordshire mansion, Leonora Smee let out a perfectly pitched squeal as her husband showed off 24\u00a0immaculately wrapped presents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was, he announced, in December last year, a ‘very special advent calendar<\/a>‘.\u00a0There would be one present for every day until Christmas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first surprise box yielded a \u00a3695 Aspinal handbag and a \u00a3150 silk scarf. \u2018This is insane!\u2019 Leonora gasped. \u2018I can\u2019t believe we\u2019re going to do this every day.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018How on earth have I not seen this?\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

Within hours of that first video in December, millions were watching. What appeared to be an extravagant romantic gesture catapulted Leonora from a niche countryside influencer into the glossy upper tier of social media\u2019s newest enclave, \u2018Richtok\u2019 (a\u00a0TikTok<\/a> subculture featuring the lives of wealthy content creators).<\/p>\n

In fact, the concept had not been dreamt up by her husband, Mark Cosgrove-Smith, but by her astute social media team, who had spotted a similar format gaining traction across the app and reworked it into a tightly produced daily series engineered for maximum engagement.<\/p>\n

Each two-minute instalment followed the same formula. Every day viewers were treated to the ritual opening of the ribbons, the big reveal, Leonora\u2019s gasp and the glamour of the gifts.<\/p>\n

It worked. Leonora\u2019s first \u2018Advent Calendar\u2019 video has now amassed more than 8.7million views. Now, barely two months later, the spectacle has returned, this time for Valentine\u2019s Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Leonora <\/p>\n

Leonora Smee with her husband, Mark Cosgrove-Smith, at Cheltenham last year<\/p>\n

\"Mark <\/p>\n

Mark and Leonora in South Africa, in one of their Valentine’s Day present videos<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The couple at Christmas, when they first did the present-opening videos<\/p>\n

Again, there are pristine present boxes. Again, Leonora appears blindsided by her husband\u2019s generosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Filmed by a member of her social media team at a multi-million-pound home overlooking Cape Town, she reclines beside an infinity pool as she delivers her lines.<\/p>\n

\u2018It honestly feels like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu,\u2019 she says. \u2018Mark has surprised me with a gift every day until Valentine\u2019s Day! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and so unbelievably grateful for the effort he has put in to surprise me even when we are in South Africa.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far the present list reads: A \u00a3180 Dior ribbon scarf on day one and a box of Anastasia Beverly Hills make-up, a Biodance face mask and Merit lipsticks on day two. Day three featured Miu Miu sunglasses retailing at more than \u00a3400.<\/p>\n

Another morning brought tableware from Chandler House, a studio and gallery in Cape Town, followed by chocolates from the supermarket Woolworths in South Africa.<\/p>\n

But as well as the engagement from her viewers, Leonora can cash in on this present spree in other ways.<\/p>\n

Several of the items, or near-identical versions, feature on her LikeToKnowIt (LTK) page, an affiliate platform that allows influencers to earn commission when followers purchase through their links.<\/p>\n

The products also appear via RewardStyle links on her YouTube channel. In the days before the series launched, Leonora had posted affiliate links to the luxury fashion site MyTheresa.<\/p>\n

\"At <\/p>\n

At Royal Ascot in 2023. The pair married in 2021 and live on a \u00a320million, 80-acre estate<\/p>\n

\"Leonora <\/p>\n

Leonora at Glorious Goodwood Ladies Day in 2014, when she was a competitive showjumper\u00a0<\/p>\n

Days later, in one caption she wrote: \u2018Mark mooched in my MyTheresa basket and bought my favourite Miu Miu sunglasses!!\u2019<\/p>\n

The Chandler House plates align neatly with a curated \u2018Valentine\u2019s Edit\u2019 on her LTK storefront, where a \u00a3171 cocktail shaker set is listed for followers to shop.<\/p>\n

LTK, the world\u2019s largest creator-guided shopping platform, enables influencers to monetise curated products directly: when a follower clicks and buys, the creator earns a percentage. Romance, in other words, now comes with commission.<\/p>\n

Some viewers have grown sceptical. \u2018I don\u2019t know (or care) what is in those gift boxes,\u2019 one wrote, \u2018but you can guarantee it wouldn\u2019t be happening if it wasn\u2019t videoed or shown off to the world.\u2019<\/p>\n

Another said they \u2018turned it off\u2019 when the Valentine\u2019s instalments began, calling the repeat performance \u2018vulgar\u2019 and questioning its sincerity. Others accused her of being \u2018out of touch\u2019, pointing out that many are struggling to \u2018put food on the table\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Christmas series proved lucrative. Just 15 days of gifts from the 25-day run totalled up to more than \u00a310,000, including a trip to Paris and a pair of Louboutin heels.<\/p>\n

The idea, I revealed in December, had been orchestrated by Leonora\u2019s two-woman social media team, Anna and Anoushka, who had seen fellow creator Isobel Lorna gain 30,000 followers in three days using a similar format.<\/p>\n

\"Another <\/p>\n

Another one of the couple’s Valentine’s gifting videos, featuring Chandler House tableware\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In another instalment of the Valentine’s Day series, Leonora gets a pair of Miu Miu sunglasses<\/p>\n

Leonora gained hundreds of thousands of followers during her December advent run. This Valentine\u2019s series has delivered a more modest uplift, around 3,000 so far.<\/p>\n

Leonora, 30, describes her platform with 300,000 followers as showing a \u2018luxury lifestyle in the English countryside… effortless elegance meets heritage\u2019.<\/p>\n

A former international showjumper, she founded Luxury by Leonora, a brand consultancy for high-end firms, after a career-ending riding accident.<\/p>\n

Leonora\u2019s posts are saturated with #luxurylifestyle and #luxurylife and at one stage, television executives reportedly considered a reality show based on her life. It never materialised, though renewed online attention may yet revive the idea.<\/p>\n

Her background reads like a study in modern British privilege. Born into wealth, she spent part of her childhood in a gated community in Lake Nona, Florida, before returning to the UK at six and settling near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.<\/p>\n

At 14, she was sent to train at the prestigious Eric van der Vleuten stables in the Netherlands. By 20, she had moved to Belgium, then Germany, as her showjumping career progressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was educated at St George\u2019s School, Ascot, where fees can reach \u00a318,000 per term, and is also a classically trained opera singer, a detail that complements the old-money aesthetic she now curates online.<\/p>\n

She met Mark, now 42, at a horse show when she was 16. \u2018I thought: \u201cWho is that old man?\u201d\u2019 she has joked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They reconnected two years later in Saint-Tropez. Mark, who made his fortune in asset management and now runs Smith Equestrian Ltd, joined her on the summer tour. \u2018We fell head over heels,\u2019 she has said. They married in August 2021.<\/p>\n

Leonora won the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix before a devastating accident ended her competitive career. \u2018The horse hit a pole and rotated… she came down on top of me. I shattered my collarbone and ruptured everything from my neck through to my shoulder.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unable to return at the same level, she pivoted\u00a0\u2013 leveraging high-net-worth contacts from the equestrian world to enter luxury brand consultancy. She organised events for Cartier before launching her own firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today she works as a full-time influencer, social media marketer and brand ambassador, with clients including Rolls-Royce, Cartier and Jo Malone.<\/p>\n

The couple live in a farmhouse on her family\u2019s estate near Henley-on-Thames. The 80-acre property, Crazies Hall, reportedly worth \u00a320million, has ten bedrooms and five reception rooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The family portfolio also spans Majorca and, potentially, South Africa, where she has recently been house-hunting.<\/p>\n

Her father, Roger Smee, 77, is a property tycoon awarded an MBE in 2013. A former Reading FC player and later chairman, he blocked Robert Maxwell\u2019s attempted merger of Reading with Oxford United before building an international property empire. He reportedly attempted to buy Reading FC again this year in a \u00a325million deal that was rejected.<\/p>\n

Leonora has admitted her father supports her \u2018almost too much\u2019. Her brother works in finance and her mother is cultivating her own modest Instagram following focused on country luxury.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Leonora embodies a new strain of British influence\u00a0\u2013 inherited privilege reframed as lifestyle content.<\/p>\n

December\u2019s advent calendar was sold as magic. February\u2019s encore feels a tad more mechanical. If the gifts are pre-selected from affiliate baskets, if the shopping edits are curated in advance, if the \u2018surprise\u2019 follows a proven commercial script, then the daily ritual begins to look less like romance and more like retail theatre.<\/p>\n

The boxes may be wrapped in ribbon. But the real product, each morning, is the performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beneath a towering Christmas tree in the drawing room of their Oxfordshire mansion, Leonora Smee let out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[539,93,61,60,257,1489],"class_list":["post-299094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-south-africa","tag-tvshowbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}