SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: From Rothschild bride to a rapper-dating hoddie



As an heiress to a banking fortune, Kate Rothschild is used to doors being opened for her, but her lover, the rapper Jay Electronica, is not so fortunate.

When the former wife of billionaire Sir James Goldsmith’s son Ben turned up for a Prince gig at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in Soho with the 37-year-old American record producer, she was allowed in — but he was refused entry.

‘She was forced to rush into the club to get him on the guest list while he waited in the street for 20 minutes,’ I’m told. ‘During this time he had a heated exchange with the club’s bouncers.’



Kate Rothschild, pictured left on her wedding day to Sir James Goldsmith's son Ben at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk in 2003. And right, with rapper boyfriend Jay Electronica heading to Prince's gig at Ronnie Scotts



Eventually she returned to rescue her boyfriend and he was allowed in. When Electronica emerged from the club at the end of the evening, he was in more jovial spirits and playfully tried to open the door of a car parked nearby that was clearly not his own.

In contrast to her previous life as a glamorous socialite, chain-smoking Kate was in grunge mode, wearing a black hooded top with matching jogging pants and deck shoes.

Educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, she wed Ben in 2003 — a union of two of Britain’s wealthiest dynasties: the Rothschild banking empire was founded in the 19th century and Kate inherited a share of £18 million aged 12, while Goldsmith inherited £300million.

The singer’s background could not be more different from her own. Electronica, whose real name is Timothy Elpadaro Thedford, was born and raised in the Magnolia Projects in New Orleans, Louisiana, an area known for poverty and violent crime.

The pair began their affair before the end of Rothschild’s nine-year marriage to Goldsmith, 33, with whom she has three children.

When the Old Etonian financier discovered his wife’s year-long relationship with Electronica after seeing some of their text messages, he was so angry that he is said to have slapped her and kicked a child’s toy at her.

She rang the police and Goldsmith later accepted a formal caution. It was, however, her decision to call the police that upset many of their mutual friends. ‘In their circle, just as in many working-class areas, it is not the done thing to involve the police in family disputes,’ one of Goldsmith’s well-heeled friends tells me.

Their acrimonious break-up was then played out in public through postings on Twitter. The family home in Kensington was put on the market for £20million and the couple were divorced last April.

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Bea says it all with flowers

Castigated for her fashion disasters — who could forget that royal wedding pretzel hat — Princess Beatrice, rolled up to a Spencer House fashion party in a striking floral skirt, teaming it with a £160 clutch bag by Wilbur & Gussie, an unknown label until it received the seal of approval from Kate and Pippa Middleton.



Princess Beatrice at the Creative London Party at Spencer House

Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon’s wife, Yasmin, 49, and daughter Amber, 24 (left), were among the guests — who’d never have guessed there was a quarter of a century between the pair.

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McGuigan lad's classy match

His father, the working-class, Irish-born former boxing champion Barry McGuigan, united Catholics and Protestants in a way that politicians never could. Now Blain McGuigan is to form a union with the daughter of the Queen’s stockbroker.

He has become engaged to Isabella Steel, whose father, Tim, is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant representing the monarch in Kent. Their family seat is the Grade II-listed Norton Court, near Teynham.

Blain McGuigan, left, son of Irish-born former boxing champion Barry McGuigan, right, has become engaged to Isabelle Steel, left, whose father Tim is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant representing the Queen in Kent



‘We are thrilled,’ says Tim, a former vice-chairman of the Queen’s stockbroker, Cazenove. ‘They have known each other since they were at the King’s School, Canterbury. We have got to know Blain’s father well and he is a great man.’

Isabella, 29, is head of business development for publisher HarperCollins, while Blain, 30, a talented musician, works for his father’s business as a boxing promoter.

In 2010, Tim was involved in a dispute with villagers surrounding his estate, fed up with the closure of public footpaths crossing his land, which is believed to form part of the Pilgrim’s Way traversed by Geoffrey Chaucer’s characters in The Canterbury Tales.

Perhaps Barry could step into this particular ring and sort matters out.

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The head of one of Britain’s most prominent equestrian dynasties, William Hastings-Bass, 17th Earl of Huntingdon, is turning his home in Berkshire into a bed & breakfast.