Meet the first lady of Longleat, Emma McQuiston

PUBLISHED: 00:01, 18 August 2013 | UPDATED: 00:13, 18 August 2013

Emma McQuiston has faced prejudice and a bitter family feud since becoming Britain’s first black future marchioness. But, as she tells Jane Gordon, far from shaking up the aristocracy, she likes ‘the traditional way of doing things'

Viscountess Emma McQuiston exclusive photoshoot for You

It isn’t really surprising that Viscountess Weymouth (née Emma McQuiston) is confused about how she should be addressed. To the vast staff working in and around Longleat House, the beautiful 27-year-old new wife of Viscount Weymouth is happy to be known as just ‘Emma’.

But according to Debrett’s, she should really be referred to as ‘Lady Weymouth’ in conversation, reserving the title ‘Viscountess Weymouth’ for written addresses.

Not that Emma’s confusion is in any way linked to the petty snobberies of the aristocracy (she laughs at the very idea of being addressed as ‘M’lady’).

Emma’s problem is essentially much the same as that of any other newly married woman keen to maintain her career.

The majestic Longleat House

Should she hold on to her maiden name and her identity as an emergent ‘celebrity chef’ with a flourishing blog established in the name Emma McQuiston?

Or should she take the name of her new husband Viscount Weymouth, 39-year-old Ceawlin Thynn?

‘The trouble is that there are so many options name-wise for me now. I could keep McQuiston, but growing up it was a hard-work surname. Everyone would always ask me to spell it or just get it wrong. I could call myself Emma Weymouth, or maybe I should take the family name and become Emma Thynn. Thynn could be useful in building up my brand – it’s a funny and lucky coincidence that it fits so well with the philosophy on food that I have developed through my blog. Thin but fit – food that is filling but not fattening, made from delicious, healthy ingredients. The sky is the limit – product-wise – with the name Thynn. Thynn Truffles, Thynn Cocktails, Thynn Ketchup and there is definitely room for a Thynn Cookbook,’ she says with a laugh as she cuts me a slice of the delicious, low-calorie chocolate cake she has made for the YOU team.

Emma and Ceawlin on their wedding day

In the nine months since Emma’s engagement to Ceawlin (pronounced ‘see-aw-lin’) was announced, much has been made about the ‘historic’ importance of her entry into the British aristocracy. The fact that Emma’s wealthy, Oxford-educated father Ladi Jadesimi is Nigerian has been the main focus of interest because (as endless headlines have proclaimed) this makes her ‘Britain’s first black future marchioness’.

But far from putting ‘a rocket up the arse of England’s aristocracy’ – as one rather sneering high-society commentator suggests – Emma is much more likely to put her husband’s aristocratic family firmly back on track when he succeeds his eccentric father Alexander, 81, and takes on the mantle of Marquess of Bath.

With Emma's father Ladi and mother Suzanna

Warm, clever and delightfully open, the new Lady Weymouth is undoubtedly ‘a breath of fresh air’.

But she shares her husband’s rather more traditional views on the future of Longleat (which have prompted an estrangement between Ceawlin and his father since he took over the running of the safari park and the house in 2010).

She admits to being just a little ‘old-fashioned’ in her approach to everything from family life to fashion (she says she is ‘so not a casual girl’, preferring dressing up to dressing down – and is only ever seen in jeans ‘once in a blue moon’).

'Because we have this shared background, Ceawlin and I are very comfortable with each other'

‘I like the traditional way of doing things. I am 27, so I guess that is quite young to be getting married and thinking about babies. Some people will get married and say, “Oh no, I am not having babies for five years” but I just feel hopefully I will be able to get on with it as soon as it happens. I think I want two children – I say that now, but I might get addicted and have, like, ten!’ she says pausing and then, adding in slightly shocked tones, ‘God, this time next year I could be wearing maternity clothes!’

Ceawlin and Emma are, in fact, a perfect fit. So perfect that their family trees connect in a very complicated way.

Emma’s half-brother Iain McQuiston is married to Ceawlin’s half-aunt Silvy, the much younger half-sister of Alexander, the present Marquess of Bath.

Alexander, the 7th Marquess, Anna, Lenka and Ceawlin in 1974

Alexander at the opening of Longleat Adventure Castle with Lenka and Ceawlin in 1988

The marquess and wife
Anna in London, 1998

Alexander and Ceawlin in 1994

Ceawlin with his father in 2011

The lions at Longleat Safari Park

Alexander in 2002 in the nursery at Longleat, which he painted between 1970 and 1980

Emma has actually known Ceawlin – 12 years her senior – since she was four and a bridesmaid at Iain and Silvy’s wedding.

Over the years they would see each other at family celebrations – Emma, then 18, went to Ceawlin’s 30th birthday party. Their relationship only began when, by chance, they both attended the same dinner a little over two years ago.

‘I think our relationship was all about timing. We knew each other but we just didn’t see each other that often so it was waiting to happen when we bumped into each other in 2011. It was luck, fate that we were both there. And it was instant then. Because we had this shared background we were very comfortable with each other. I do believe in fate – I think you have to. It helps make sense of things. It might not happen straight away, it may take time, but when it happens that is it,’ she says a little breathlessly, breaking off as the door bursts open (we are sitting in one of Longleat’s private dining rooms surrounded by Alexander’s mural of the Evolution of Man) and Ceawlin enters.

DRESS, Jenny Packham. SHOES, Christian Louboutin

Emma’s husband is the polar opposite of his father Alexander – famous for his hippy appearance, his 75 (or is it 78?) ‘wifelets’ (mistresses, many of whom are still living in some of the 200 cottages
on the estate) and his garish, often sexually explicit, murals.

Alexander exudes a sense of total ‘entitlement’, something that is happily missing in his son (the wall of one of the bathrooms in the private rooms is crammed with photos of the young Alexander posing proudly for his house photographs at both his prep school Ludgrove and at Eton).

Back in the 1960s, Alexander’s insistence on pursuing an ‘alternative lifestyle’ prompted him to send Ceawlin and his elder sister Lenka, 43 – his two children from his marriage to Hungarian-born model-turned-soft-porn-actress Anna Gael, 69 – to the local primary school and then to Kingdown Comprehensive in Warminster.

Emma in the Longleat gardens

Although Ceawlin may have resented being denied the education his father was given – eventually finding a way of using his trust fund to send himself to Bedales in the sixth form – going to state school has ultimately stood him in good stead. He has emerged from his strange childhood a slightly shy, charming, empathetic and altogether more attractive man than his father.

Having entered the room and politely introduced himself, Ceawlin asks if he could possibly take Emma away for a few minutes to say hello to an old friend who has just arrived at Longleat.

Emma is wearing a tight red sequined Jenny Packham evening dress and insists that she should change first.

Totally unabashed, she proceeds to strip off to her knickers (she isn’t wearing a bra) in front of us, which is obviously slightly disconcerting for her husband (earlier in the day she had similarly disrobed in front of the YOU crew, apparently totally unaware of the effect this had on the men present).

Emma wears - Dress, Jacques Azagury

Emma’s long List

Essential app? Instagram. I can share my foodie creations and discoveries on the go.

Beauty tip? The simpler the face wash
the better. I have used Neutrogena Wash and Mask for years.

Top chef? Delia Smith was my original food hero. Her book How to Cook is like a kitchen bible.

Favourite designer? Vivienne Westwood. Her dresses are works of art.

Guilty pleasure? Dark chocolate mousse… home-made, of course.

Special restaurant? Club 55 in St Tropez.
The food is organic and comes from the owner Patrice’s farm. I’ve been going since I was little.

Signature scent? Beautiful by Estée Lauder.

Vital ingredient? Garlic, garlic, garlic.

Little Indulgence? Having my hair done at Neville Salon in Belgravia.

Saving up for? A special birthday present for Ceawlin’s 40th.

While she changes, Ceawlin engages in nervous conversation (he is not keen to be ‘on record’), relaxing just a little when I tell him that my daughters were at the same school as Emma (where she would eventually become head girl) and that I can remember her as a little girl in the junior school uniform.

‘She was quite different looking at that time. At least her hair was. Back then it was always very, very curly,’ he says, clearly besotted with his stunning bride.

‘We are happy, very happy. She is very charming with everyone – she is just a lovely girl. And yes, she is very clever, with bits of paper to prove it,’ he says proudly, referring to her history of art degree from University College London.

They are, there is no doubt, a united team and their marriage has brought a career boost for both of them.

Emma brings welcome publicity along with a new glamour and youth to Longleat, while in turn her elevation to the aristocracy has opened career doors for her that might previously have been shut.

Their time is split 50/50 between London (they are currently based in one of Emma’s mother’s properties in Knightsbridge) and their apartment on ‘the private side’ of Longleat.

‘We have lunch out in the theme park every day when we are here and at least once a day we go and see the animals – the bearcats are our favourites right now. They have the sweetest koala faces. It’s fun to see things as the visitors do, to test the product. We are very involved in the everyday life of Longleat. When I was making the chocolate cake late yesterday afternoon, I discovered that I didn’t have any butter so I got some from the Tropical Storm Café in the park. It’s a bit like going next door for a cup of sugar or popping to the local shop.’

Emma wears - Dress and bracelets, Roberto Cavalli. Shoes, Manolo Blahnik

Privately, Emma says, they are not ‘madly social’ and are happiest cooking dinner together (‘Ceawlin likes to help – he cuts up the garlic and onions and lays the table’) and watching comedy shows on television.

‘Quite childish things make us laugh. PhoneShop is our favourite at the moment. Ashley and Jerwayne are our favourite characters. So we quote lines of theirs back to each other a million times a day. There is a lot of banter,’ she says.

But it isn’t just laughter, their slightly weird family connection and their compatible careers that bind them together. At heart, I suspect, they are bound too by the fact that they have both – for quite different reasons – grown up aware of what it is like to be an ‘outsider’.

Both of them faced unusual challenges in their childhoods. Ceawlin and Lenka saw more of their nannies than their parents and were only too aware of their father’s fleet of ‘wifelets’ (the stairs in the private quarters are lined with Alexander’s crudely painted portraits, each one numbered, of the 70-something rather plain women, and when Ceawlin was very small their presence prompted his mother to begin exiling herself from Longleat to an apartment in Paris for two weeks every month).

Meanwhile, Emma grew up in London, a much loved late third child of society beauty Suzanna McQuiston who, with Emma’s half-sister Samantha McQuiston, 48, has built up a substantial fortune in the London property market (Samantha was left around £6 million in the will of her lover, the Australian tycoon John Roberts, in 2006).

Suzanna’s relationship with Emma’s father – one of Nigeria’s most successful businessmen – was never clearly defined (he has four other children with his Nigerian wife Alero) but he has always been on the fringes of her life. Far from being a gold digger, Emma comes from a family with considerable wealth on both sides.

Emma wears - Dress, Preen. Shoes, Charlotte Olympia. Necklace, Butler & Wilson

‘My mum was very hands-on – she was a brilliant mother – and I think when I have children
I will probably be the same. My father is a very dignified man, very clever, calm and thoughtful;
he has always been around although I grew up living with my mother and Samantha who was more like a second mum than a sister to me. I was very lucky, I was given a lot of love,’ she
says with a gentle smile.

But while Emma remains very close to her mother and talks affectionately about her father (who, dressed in his ceremonial gowns, proudly gave her away at her wedding), it is a very different story for Ceawlin. His parents, who have somehow stayed married for more than 40 years, publicly snubbed Ceawlin by refusing to attend his wedding in June.

Emma didn’t take this personally – Alexander has known her all her life and previously admitted to being extremely fond of her – but she is reluctant to make any comment about her in-laws’ estrangement from their son.

The marquess has accused Ceawlin of ‘quietly binning’ some of the many murals (which he describes rather pompously as his ‘life’s work’) that he has painted in the private rooms and as a result claims his son has ‘killed my relationship with him’.

Emma’s Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake...

200g butter, softened, plus extra to
grease the tin
6 eggs, separated
250g Lindt dark chocolate, 70 per cent cocoa, broken into squares
200g caster sugar
a double shot of espresso (50g) topped up with 110g hot water or 2 tsp coffee powder dissolved in 175g hot water
2 tsp vanilla extract
seasonal berries and icing sugar to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Prepare your baking tin — I used a paper cake-tin liner, but you can simply grease the inside of the tin generously with butter.
In a clean, bone-dry bowl or food processor, whisk the egg whites till they form stiff peaks as you would for meringue, then set to one side.
In a food processor mix the chocolate and sugar until they break down to a sand-like consistency. Add the butter, egg yolks, coffee and vanilla extract.
Once they have blended into a smooth mixture, mix the chocolate batter into the egg whites using a gentle folding action. I used a big mixing bowl and poured the chocolate cake mix into the egg whites bit by bit down the side of the bowl so as to be very careful not to knock the air out of the egg whites.
Pour your cake mix into the tin and cook for 50-55 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the tin and then place in the fridge for a few hours or ideally overnight, which I think is best as then it will become more rich and delicious, and will cut more cleanly.
To decorate, garnish with a mixture of seasonal berries and dust with icing sugar.

‘It’s very sad for everyone that they didn’t come to the wedding and that this misunderstanding has escalated to this point, but what can I do? I hope in time it will all be resolved. But I can assure you that none of the murals that were previously in place in our apartment have been “binned”. All Alexander’s murals were painted on moveable screens and the only ones that Ceawlin has moved have been very carefully preserved,’ she says.

It’s rumoured that Emma’s mother-in-law disapproves of her son’s match because she thinks Emma has ambitions to use Longleat to publicise her career. But Emma – rather as her mother-in-law did when she was young – firmly believes that in life you have to grab every opportunity that comes your way, admitting that ‘ultimately’ she would like her ‘brand’ to expand in a way that would see her taking on all sorts of new challenges.

When I comment that her enthusiastic endorsement of the newly opened Waitrose in Warminster might make her the person to take over from food columnist Pippa Middleton, she replies with a laugh, ‘Maybe, one day; Waitrose is amazing.’ And when I go on to tell her that in profile she reminds me of Angelina Jolie (‘It’s the red lipstick,’ she responds with a grin) and then ask if she would consider going back to acting (she did a post-graduate degree in drama at Lamda and spent a year in Los Angeles trying to break through as an actress), her response is as fast as it is unequivocal.
‘If they rang me to be a Bond Girl I would love that,’ she says, adding, after I tell her they are casting for the next film now, ‘Call me! You have got to live the most exciting life you can – you can’t reject anything.’

By the time we part at the end of a long, hot day, during which Emma has been endlessly patient
and good-natured, I am absolutely certain that Viscountess Weymouth will choose the name Emma Thynn and take her brand on to world domination.

But she insists that her ambitions are not entirely focused on her career – they also lie firmly in home and hearth. She is equally anxious to become a loving mother, a good wife and to help preserve the heritage of Longleat.

‘To maintain a place like this you need to move with the times. It’s a special, historical, beautiful thing to be treasured but it also needs to have lots of youth and energy to be alive. During the Second World War – when Longleat wasn’t lived in at all – Ceawlin’s grandmother Daphne wrote an amazing passage about her hopes for the future of the house, saying, “One day I look forward to having children and laughter and families here and happiness in the house” and I feel like that’s what we are doing now.

Upstairs in our apartment, which was the nursery, we still have the heights on the wall of all the children who lived there from around 1750. It’s amazing, living in history. They are still there written in that beautiful old English script on a doorway. Maybe soon we will be able to add more names and heights to the history of Longleat.’

emmamcquiston.com

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Sunday, August 18, 2013