The Dowager Marchioness of Bath dies just 10 days before her 79th birthday

A few wives are prepared to tolerate their husband keeping a mistress. Not many are willing to turn a blind eye to him having more than 70 of them.

The Dowager Marchioness of Bath, however, did just that, with the infidelities of her eccentric husband, Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess, being made more tolerable by the fact that she spent much of her time in Paris, where she has died ten days before her 79th birthday.

While the Marchioness, former actress and model Anna Gael, put up with her husband’s womanising that saw him acquire the nickname ‘The Loins of Longleat’, she was less understanding of her son Ceawlin’s choice of bride.

She allegedly asked Ceawlin — the then heir to Longleat, with its 10,000-acre estate, wildlife park and reputed £150 million fortune, if he was sure about ruining ‘400 years of bloodline’ by marrying Emma McQuiston, the half-Nigerian daughter of an oil tycoon.

Known as Emma Weymouth after marrying Ceawlin, then Viscount Weymouth, in 2013, she went on to find fame as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing.

Lord Bath, who died of pneumonia after testing positive for Covid in 2020, aged 87, failed to attend the couple’s wedding. His wife was also absent, claiming they had already accepted another invitation.

Ceawlin was said to have stopped his mother from seeing his son, John, to prevent the child being ‘contaminated’ by her racism.

Anna later denied she was a racist and said she had ‘absolutely nothing’ against her daughter-in-law.

Lord Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, poses with his wife, actress and war correspondent Anna Gael, outside Longleat House

Anna was born in Hungary to a mathematician father and poet mother. After they moved to France when she was a child, she began acting aged 15, under the stage name Anna Gael, appearing in films including Therese And Isabelle, and Take Me, Love Me. She met Alexander in Paris, becoming his mistress while she was married to French film director Gilbert Pineau.

Despite living mainly in Paris while Lord Bath was in Wiltshire for much of their marriage, she would complain to a newspaper if it reported that they were separated, insisting that was untrue.

It wasn’t just Emma’s arrival at Longleat that put strain on Ceawlin’s relationship with his parents. The biggest cause of dispute was over the decision by Ceawlin and Emma to remove some of Lord Bath’s garish murals, which his father had painted for him and his sister when they were children.

The quarrels were exposed by a memorable BBC1 documentary, All Change At Longleat.