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How a funeral address by Bill Clinton laid bare a £600m feud between Evelyn de Rothschild’s children and his

By Charlotte Griffiths and Sarah Oliver

THE Rothschild family mottoi sun ambiguous :‘ Concordia ,Integritas, In du stria .’ Harmonycomes first in the making and keeping of one of the world’ s greatest for tunes . But that ‘ harmony ’ was stretched to breaking point at the funeral of financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild , who is understood to have left control of his share of the million s not to his three children , but to his widow Lady de Rothschild.

Relations were said to bes trainedbetween Sir Evelyn’ st hi rd wife ,

Americanentrepreneur , philanthropistand political power player LynnForest er ,68, and her husband’ s off spring– Jessica , David and Anthony . Her expectedinheritance means a multi million-pound wedge of Rothschild wealth is likely top ass out of the 200- year- old Britishbranch of the familyempire , which helpedfinance Wellington’ s armies at Waterloo , the Suez Canal and the LondonUnderground .‘ We’ re talking about one of the biggest upheavalsof this kind in history ,’ a source close to the family told The Mail on Sunday last night .‘ Wethink he’s handed over the Rothschild fortune ,his part of it . It’s all expected to be going to Lynn , and it’ s not as if he couldn’ t have been very generous to everyone .’

The source believed Lynn would probablyget‘something in the region of £600 million’.

At the funeral two week sago , held at The LiberalJewish Synagogue in London’ s St John’ sWood , Lynn sat front and centrebehind the

coffin with her twos on sf roma while Sir Evelyn’ s childrens at a tape wto one side . The financier’ s 48- year-old daughterJessica – a theatreproducermarried for more than a decade to Sac ha Gerva si , an ex of Spice Girl GeriHalliw ell – refused to joint he family procession asher father’ s coffin was carried out , in protest at having been left out of funeralarrangements along with her siblings . The de facto head of the family , Jacobth Baron Rothschild , was not invited to give the address.Instead , Lady de Rothschild invitedformer US President Bill Clinton to speak . A source said :‘ Jacob not being invited to speak tells you everything you need to know.It’saterriblemisstep.HeknewEvelynthe

best and his reminiscences would have beenrelevant and in keeping with family , and not married-into family.

‘I don’ t think anyone was unhappythat Bill Clinton was there – he’sBill Clinton – but Evelyn had onlymet him 25 year sago . He was a

91- year-old man , what about theother 60- odd years ? The kids hadabsolutely no say at all . The childrenhave had to standby and it’ snot been helpful .’ It seemed the tension was not lost on the former US President , whom a de an extra ordinarypublicappeal for unity during his address to mourners who included his wife Hillary Clinton , the Du chess of York , Princess Beatrice, her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Tonya ndCh erie Blair . Mr Clinton said :‘ I have been thinking a lot about Evelyn and the ambiguous privilege of bearing a famous name , inheriting physicalresources and having to make decisions about what you will do with both the identity you have inherited , the resources , the advantage sand the complications that go along with them .’

He pleaded: ‘For all of you whohave come here with unresolveddoubts,andlingeringresentments,Iaskthattheybeforgiven.’

Butdespitehispleas,there maybe more turmoil to come.Accordingto family members, there is

one part of Sir Evelyn’s empirethatwillnotbecontrolledbyLynn:his UK-registered Rothschildfamily charity Eranda.LadydeRothschildisontheboardof trustees withtwo of her stepchildren,Jessica and Anthony . The family are keen to ensure that the charity does not shift its philanthropic focus to Americancauses . ‘ The family are gearing up fora fight ,’ said a source close to the family .

CONS P ICU O US L Y absentfrom the congregationwas King Charles , who Lady de Rothschild hadhoped would attend . Onesource told The Mail onSunday that there werehopes Charles’ s nephew Ben Elliot– who is also on the board of trustees for Erand a – might encourage the monarch along . In the end theabsent Kings en tan ‘ elegant’ letterinstead , praising Sir Evelyn , which Mr Clinton paraphrased in hisaddress as ‘ wow I liked this guy , hedid a lot of good things ’.

At least two famil ymembers alsoprivatelyexpressed be wildermentduring the funeral at the absenceof some de Rothschild relative sand

friends whop re-dated Sir Evelyn’ smarriage to Lynn . Another sourceadded :‘ A lot of family memberswere not included in the funeral .

‘ Many people were not invitedto participate , who should haveparticipated . Not just Jessica ,

but other familymembers whowould have representedthembetter.’

A source close to Jacobs aid :‘ Jacobsen ta messageof respect and friendship for hiscousin to President Clinton who

gave the address and he generouslyreferred to it . Jacob was no t asked to speak at the service . Only the President .’ Mr Clinton’ s only mention of Jacob in his address was made with reference to Lynn , when he creditedher for reconciling Jacob and Evelyn after they endured a decades- long fall-out . Mr Clinton said in his address :‘ I particularly appreciated the fact that he [ Evelyn ] and Jacob were reconciled thanks in no small measure to Lynn .’

Whether Lady de Rothschild willbe able to reconcile with her step childrenremains t obese en , but hopes are not high – particularly with the will duetob ere ad ou tint hecoming days . The source added :‘ Jessica was very much loved by her father and felt very much locked out by the principal lady in his life , by marriage.

‘With the two boys[ Anthony and-David], there was a bit of a coming back together, the boys spent time with him [Sir Evelyn]in the last fewmonths. But it’s quite well known-insocial circles that the three children don’tspeak to her [Lynn].

‘Lynn seems to have got everything.Thethreechildren are likelyto have been dis inherited , but I

don’t think it’s a new thing, like they’ve woken up and found out they’re not in the will. He has drifted apart from them and his grandchildren for a decade or so because they believed the will has been changed and all the money was going to, or has already gone to, Lynn.’

According to the family friend, Sir Evelyn is feared to have broken the cardinal rule of dynastic wealth: that it passes down the family line to future generations. The source said: ‘There’s a big distinction: if you make the money in your lifetime, give it to the zoo, give it to anyone. Sir Evelyn inherited a bunch of money. Some may think it wasn’t his to give away.’

Significantly, however, the family friend does not underestimate how happy Sir Evelyn was in his latter years. ‘There’s no doubt that he was in love with her [Lynn],’ the friend said. ‘The word I would use is “enthralled”, in the sense that she’s glamorous and suddenly he’s with the Clintons.’ Lynn entered into politics in 1976, when she worked on New York Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s first senatorial campaign. She later met the Clintons when she became involved in Bill’s presidential run in 1992, and has remained close with them ever since.

The friend added: ‘Evelyn was an old man and suddenly he was given a new lease of life. I remember him saying that private planes are incredibly vulgar, and within about three years of being with

Lynn, he was flying all over the world – in an enormous private jet.’

The couple spent a night of their honeymoon in the Lincoln Bedroom of the Clinton White House and had a dinner held in their in their honour in the State Dining Room attended by the President and the First Lady, launching a shared transatlantic life of business and philanthropy. They divided their time between the US and the UK,

where they owned painter John Singer Sargent’s house and studio in London’s Chelsea, and a sprawling estate in Buckinghamshire. Their country seat was the timbered Victorian mansion Ascott House, a former Rothschild hunting lodge.

In the US, as well as a home in New York, they had a holiday retreat on the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, where Sir Evelyn found peace in his later years.

These strong ties to America are now worrying some members of the Rothschild family in the UK, according to the source.

Sir Evelyn chaired the Eranda Foundation, a charity named after himself and his sisters Renee and Anne. (The acronym E, R and A was created by their father Anthony de Rothschild when he wrote to his children after they were evacuated to the US during the Second World War.) Founded by Sir Evelyn in 1967, Eranda has donated more than £74 million to medical research, education and arts charities.

Now there are suggestions that Lynn may seek to take the helm of

We think he’s handed over his part of the fortune… all of it to Lynn

the charity and could potentially want US causes to benefit more. ‘It is feared there may be a resulting lawsuit,’ said one source. ‘It would not be out of character for her to try to do that.’

Other Eranda trustees include former Burberry chairman Sir John Peace and Elliot, the founder of luxury concierge service Quintessentially and nephew of Queen Camilla. Sir Evelyn was a close friend of Camilla’s buccaneering late brother Mark Shand, with whom he founded an elephant preservation charity. (Elephants, along with flat racing and gourmet chocolate were three of his passions outside of merchant banking.) Meanwhile, the family waits to hear if Lady de Rothschild will indeed inherit control of the bulk of the fortune. As for Sir Evelyn’s belief that ‘the first important strength of the family is unity’, that’s beginning to look rather rocky. When approached for comment, Lady de Rothschild refused to be drawn on the details of our story, saying that she was grieving and adding: ‘You are not accurate in what you say and I will not make any further comment on the matter.’

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