{"id":83126,"date":"2025-10-18T16:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/83126\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T16:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:29:10","slug":"lady-annabel-goldsmith-british-socialite-behind-annabels-dead-at-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/83126\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Annabel Goldsmith, British Socialite Behind Annabel\u2019s, Dead at 91"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLONDON<\/a> \u2014 Lady Annabel Goldsmith<\/a>, the British socialite, inspiration behind the namesake London club and matriarch of a high-flying family that includes Robin Birley<\/a>, Jemima and Zac Goldsmith<\/a>, has died aged 91.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoldsmith was a grande dame of 20th century Britain, and chronicled her charmed, and often complicated, life in two books published in the early aughts, \u201cAnnabel: An Unconventional Life,\u201d and \u201cNo Invitation Required: The Pelham Cottage Years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart into an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family, she became Lady Annabel in her teens when her father inherited the title of Marquess of Londonderry in 1949. Aged 19, she married her first husband, the stylish and savvy Mark Birley. He would become London<\/a>\u2019s king of clubs, and name his first \u2013 and most famous \u2013 nightspot after her. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnabel\u2019s, which was housed in the basement under Aspinall\u2019s gambling club in Berkeley Square, quickly became the ne plus ultra of London nightclubs, attracting British royalty, American billionaires, European designers and Middle Eastern princes.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrincess Diana<\/a> and the Duchess of York<\/a> once turned up at the club dressed as policewomen and many romantic relationships were sealed in the dark alcoves, although the tabloids rarely, if ever, found out. The club\u2019s hallmark was its discretion, and what went on in the labyrinth of rooms that made up the basement club was never repeated in the outside world.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Lady<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLady Annabel Goldsmith at her wedding to Mark Birley in 1954. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tGoldsmith, the posh, glamorous wife, was at the center of it all, although her marriage to Birley was a difficult one. The couple had three children, the eldest of whom \u2014 Rupert \u2014 drowned off the West African coast in 1986.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir other children were India Jane Birley and Robin Birley. As a child, Robin Birley was attacked by a tiger owned by Mark\u2019s good friend, John Aspinall.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen she was still married to Birley, Lady Annabel began an affair with one of her husband\u2019s best friends, the multi-millionaire financier and politician Sir James Goldsmith. She eventually divorced Birley, married Goldsmith and had three children with him, Jemima, Zac and Ben Goldsmith.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the breakup of their marriage, Lady Annabel and Birley remained close friends and spoke on the phone nearly every day until his death in 2007.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2003, Lady Annabel and her ex-husband marked the 40th anniversary of Annabel\u2019s with two private dinners for a total of 320 friends and the guest list read like a Who\u2019s Who of 20th century society.<\/p>\n

\n\tGuests included Nan Kempner<\/a>, John Profumo<\/a>, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy, Drue Heinz, Claus von Bulow<\/a>, Lord and Lady Black, Andrew Parker Bowles, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and the Earl of Suffolk.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarry Humphries<\/a>, a longtime friend of Birley\u2019s, did his Dame Edna schtick on both nights, regaling the audience with tales of a love affair with his pal. \u201cThis place was going to be called Edna\u2019s until that scheming minx, Annabel, came along,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLady Annabel wore her privilege lightly, and in later years retreated to her home in Richmond, just outside London, enjoying her children, grandchildren and dogs away from the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy happiness in my life has nothing to do with being elite,\u201d she told The Guardian in 2009.\u00a0\u201cGive me dogs, give me children, give me books and I\u2019ll be happy.\u201d In the same interview she said, \u201cLoyalty is top of my list. Family has always been so important to me, and really that\u2019s all about loyalty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLady Annabel Goldsmith and the London stylist Martha Ward in 2018.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDave Benett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Annabel\u2019s and the other Birley clubs \u2013 including Harry\u2019s Bar, Mark\u2019s Club, and George \u2013 were sold, Lady Annabel\u2019s son Robin took up the family mantle, and opened a string of private eating clubs and bakeries on both sides of the Atlantic. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey include 5 Hertford Street and its basement club Loulou\u2019s; Oswald\u2019s on Albemarle Street in Mayfair; and Birley Bakery and Birley Chocolate in Chelsea.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis first American venture, a club called Maxime\u2019s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is named for Robin\u2019s late aunt, the model Maxime de la Falaise.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRobin isn\u2019t the only interesting \u2013 or enterprising one \u2013 in Lady Annabel\u2019s family. India Jane Birley is an artist, while Jemima Goldsmith, known professionally as Jemima Khan, founded Instinct Productions, which specializes in television, documentaries and film production.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe was the executive producer behind the miniseries \u201cThe Case Against Adnan Syed,\u201d and the film, \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab.\u201d She wrote and produced the award-winning romcom \u201cWhat\u2019s Love Got to Do With It?\u201d starring Lily James. <\/p>\n

\n\tShe is the former wife of Imran Khan, the former cricketer and prime minister of Pakistan, who is now serving time in prison in relation to corruption charges.<\/p>\n

\n\tJemima\u2019s younger brother Zac Goldsmith is a former member of parliament and government minister, and a member of the House of Lords. He ran as a Conservative for mayor of London in 2016, but lost to Sadiq Khan, who remains in the post. <\/p>\n

\n\tBen Goldsmith, Lady Annabel\u2019s youngest child, is founder and CEO of London-listed investment firm Menhaden, which focuses on energy and resource efficiency. Lady Annabel is survived by her five children, and numerous grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Lady Annabel Goldsmith, the British socialite, inspiration behind the namesake London club and matriarch of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57581,146,85,46,442],"class_list":["post-83126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-annabels","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}