TALK OF THE TOWN: Tory peer Zac sells £8m manor to arrange dwelling with mannequin fiancée Hum
Dashing Tory peer Zac Goldsmith is selling the £8 million country manor house he shared with his ex-wife as he starts a new life with his fiancee, I can reveal.
The son of late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith split from banking heiress Alice Rothschild last year after a decade of marriage, and next year plans to marry Hum Fleming – the 34-year-old model and great-niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming – and set up a new home together in Dorset, near his youngest children.
The couple currently live together at Zac’s £5 million home in Holland Park, West London, and have decided to sell his magnificent 11-bedroom, 10-bathroom New Forest mansion to raise funds for their new life.
Conservative peer Zac Goldsmith is selling the £8million manor he shared with his ex-wife as he starts a new life with his fiancée Hum Fleming
His New Forest mansion comes with a swimming pool, lake, tennis court, orchard, 63 acres of land and wine cellar with room for 1,500 bottles
It comes with a swimming pool, lake, tennis court, orchard, 63 acres of land and wine cellar with room for 1,500 bottles.
A source said: ‘Zac is not in a huge rush to sell, but wants to move closer to where the kids go to school.’
Estate agents Knight Frank have put the property on sale for £7.95 million and describe it as ‘an outstanding Grade II listed arts and crafts manor house’ that is ‘designed for entertaining’.
They add that the Goldsmsiths, who have owned it for ten years, ‘have taken great care to keep the house true to its heritage’. It was built in 1916 for coal mining tycoon Sir George Thursby and George V’s consort Queen Mary often visited.
Zac, who was rumoured to be close to singer Eillie Goulding last year, started seeing Hum in February. I’m told she has become a fixture in the lives of his six children.
She is especially close to his oldest two daughters from his ten-year marriage to first wife Sheherazade Goldsmith, with whom Zac also has a son.
That relationship ended when he fell in love with Alice, whose sister Kate was married to his brother Ben. He has three children from his marriage to Alice.