Tamara Ecclestone says motherhood makes girls ‘so merciless to one another’, admits her thoughts ‘boggles’ on the considered how her father Bernie grew to become a dad once more at 89 and divulges how £25m housebreaking at her residence has affected her kids

Tamara Ecclestone has said her mind ‘boggled’ at the thought of her father Bernie having another child at 89 and revealed a darker side of motherhood.

The British model and F1 heiress, 40, spoke to The Times in her first interview since a burglarly at her home five years ago left her with £25 million worth of diamonds and 400 items stolen by thieves.

But opening up on her father, Bernie Ecclestone, who had his fourth child in 2020 aged 89, she said: ‘The mind does boggle’, with his eldest child being 69 years old.

The Formula One boss welcomed his son Ace into the world with Fabiana Flosi, his third wife, and a Brazilian model 46 years his junior.

Fabiana revealed at the time that she enjoyed an easy labour, saying: ‘It was all so easy. The birth was over after 25 minutes. I thank god’.

Tamara – who is married to art mogul Jay Rutland, with whom she has a daughter called Sophia – said she was ‘absolutely thrilled’ for her father when Ace was born.

After being told that her father was set to welcome another child, Tamara told the Mail On Sunday that she was ‘surprised but not totally blindsided.

Tamara, who revealed they were told over a family lunch, said: ‘We had no idea what was going on. We just thought we were meeting Dad and Fabi for a meal. We were in the middle of eating when Fabiana told us.

‘My husband missed it. he was like, ‘hold on a minute, what’s going on? Have I missed something?’

Always keen to treat his offspring equally, Bernie immediately called his youngest daughter, Petra, who was pregnant with her fourth child and living in Los Angeles.

Tamara said: ‘He wanted us all to know at the same time, It was all done very diplomatically.’

But diverting away from her father, she opened up to The Times on her own experiences with motherhood and how she still breastfeeds her four-year-old.

‘People often ask, ”How long will you breastfeed Serena for?’ And I’m like, ”ust till she’s done’,’ she said. 

‘There’s stigmas about everything: breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, going to work, not going to work, having a c-section, not having a c-section. 

Women can be so cruel to each other, which I find bizarre.’ 

Tamara is a mum to two daughters – Sophia and Serena.

On December 13, 2019, Tamara, her husband, and daughter Sophia were in Lapland when three thieves broke in and plundered £25million worth of jewellery and cash from her home on ‘Billionaire’s Row’ in Kensington.

In just over an hour the burglars cleared the mansion of 400 items of jewellery and large sums of cash.

In November 2022, Italians Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati were jailed for a total of 28 at years at Isleworth Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burgle. 

Following the convictions an international manhunt was launched for the fourth man, named in court as Daniel Vukovic.

‘It’s actually quite hard to talk about because my daughter now has access to Google, and we lied to her when it happened because she was young, but she found out anyway,’ Tamara told the newspaper.

The gang also ransacked the London homes of Frank Lampard, the former Chelsea midfielder, and Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the late billionaire Leicester City owner.

Tamara revealed she now goes everywhere with two bodyguards out of fear of being kidnapped, as her 5ft 4in father has fallen victim to several burglaries.

‘[The burglary] definitely made me feel that things aren’t always as they appear, people you think you can trust, you can’t always trust, which is a lesson I’ve learnt time and time again. This time it really hit home,’ she said.