Sir James Goldsmith (1933-1997)
Getting around
Zac Goldsmith, environmentalist and politician, is the son of Sir James Goldsmith and Annabel Goldsmith, who had previously been married to Mark Birley. In November 2009 Zac, preparing to contest Richmond Park in the 2010 general election, was attacked for his "non-dom" status.
British billionaire businessman Sir James Goldsmith was born in France in 1933, lived mostly in England, returned to France in old age and died in Spain in 1997. He was 64.
A wealthy man, Goldsmith could afford to support different families in different countries simultaneously - and did. The distribution of his estate promised to be interesting, not least to the tax authorities in several countries.
Sir James had homes in at least seven countries. Although resident in France, he chose to die in Spain: with death imminent, he left his sickbed in France for his home in Spain. He died the very next day, on Spanish soil.
Why did he travel when he was at death's door?
In her 2004 autobiography, Lady Annabel Goldsmith says that, although gravely ill, her husband had a longing for the sun.
Many believed that his relocation had more to do with taxation than tanning.
Globalisation on a family level
Goldsmith fathered children with, by my count, four women. His first wife, the Bolivian heiress Maria Isabel Patiño, died when she was seven months pregnant. Their daughter was born by Caesarian section.
Goldsmith had a son and daughter with his French second wife Ginette, and three with his British wife Annabel: Jemima, Zac (Zacharias) and Ben. The nightclub Annabel's was named in her honour by its founder, Mark Birley, to whom she was married when the club opened.
Jemima, a friend of Princess Diana, is divorced from Pakistani cricket star turned politician Imran Khan.
Zac is an environmentalist and budding politician.
Ben unites several notable families through his wife, Kate Emma Rothschild. Her father was a Rothschild, and her mother a member of the Guinness brewing family.
Goldsmith also had two children with his French lover Laure Boulay de la Meurthe.
A good end
In a biography of Goldsmith published a year after his death, authors Chris Hutchins and Dominic Midgley note that Sir James' estate was distributed with little if any challenge or contention.
His wife Annabel retained Ormeley Lodge, the family home near Richmond Park in southwest London, and the property in Spain.
His French castle went to Laure Boulay de la Meurthe, who also inherited a share in his Paris mansion with Ginette, his second wife.
Cuixmala, his home in Mexico, was shared by his entire family.
With this smooth Goldsmith succession, his wife Annabel did well. She was not so lucky after the death of her first husband, Mark Birley (full story)
