Sir James Goldsmith, a headline-making "anti-communist" activist and billionaire corporate raider who figured in the . It was only when he was admitted to a clinic near Paris last month that his illness became widely known. In 1994 he published The Trap,[22] a book detailing his broader political philosophical thoughts, giving a critique of the dominance of Neo-Liberalism in the governments of the First World. John Ford. But Goldsmith underestimated the dominance of Britains national newspapers, both daily and Sunday. . He came to believe that global free trade would lead to severe societal dislocations. The date of birth of Jonathan Goldsmith is 26-sep-38. That year Goldsmith was captivated by Isabel Gypsy Patio, the 18-year-old heiress to an estimated $150 million Bolivian tin fortune. [2], Goldsmith, a reader of financial statements, realised that in the case of Crown Zellerbach the underlying value of the timberland assets alone, carried at only $12.5m on the balance sheet, was worth more than the target company's total market capitalisation of around $900m. If you look at the downside, you can sometimes avoid it.. In 2003, Ben married heiress Kate Emma Rothschild (born 1982), daughter of the late Amschel Rothschild and his wife Anita Guinness of the Guinness Brewery family. Commentators focused mainly on Goldsmiths imperial entourage, the socialites and toffs who dined on champagne and turbot in the Grand Hotel in Brighton. We were not part of an established church. It was only following the birth of their second, a son named Zacharias, that Jimmy asked Ginette for a divorce and married Annabel, in 1977. Goldsmith was married three times. He was no friend of the left and most tributes came yesterday from the political right. (The brown paper container division became Gaylord Container). My brother wanted to go beyond that. The case is well worth looking back on thirty years later. His daughter Alix took over his properties in Mexico managing them with her husband Goffredo Marcaccini whom she married in July 1991; together they have four children. Goldsmith says his phobia has been blown out of proportion, although he adds, I still dont like rubber bands. [17], In 1977 Goldsmith bought the French weekly L'Express and between 1979 and 1981 published the UK news magazine NOW! Sir James Goldsmith was famous for several things: his gambling and womanising, his ruthless business methods and his dabbling in Eurosceptic politics with his bankrolling of the Referendum. She treats Goldsmith as an equal, keeps him slightly off balance, and according to friends does not wish to make way for another official mistress. Jimmy Kimmels First Oscars Promo Signals Slap Jokes to Come, ABC has tasked us with finding a host who is unflappable and unslappable, Charles Parnell says in the, Jimmy Kimmel Thinks Donald Trump Is Going Directly to Jail. He is being used by people who want Britain to leave, says former Tory foreign secretary Douglas Hurd. The cost to Sir James was only $550m and by the end of 1985 he was showing a paper profit on his investment of between $330 - $440 million. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. Even decades afterward, Goldsmith has difficulty speaking of his first wifes early death. Associated persons: Renee Garofalo, Fred Goldsmith, Nicole C Martin, Stephen Martin, Renee G . Aspinall and the others surround him, and he is the lion of the pack, says Carla Powell, the wife of Sir Charles Powell, a foreign-policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher. Ormeley Lodge, his estate in Richmond, just outside London, is a large Georgian house on six acres with gardens, a tennis court, and a swimming pool. The Tories succeeded by squashing the unions, trimming social-welfare programs, privatizing key state-owned industries, and promoting a free market for business. She is the daughter of financier and politician James Goldsmith and socialite Lady Annabel Goldsmith. "[1] He then took over a business in Paris from his brother Teddy, which sold a cure for rheumatism and electrical plugs and sockets. She was brought up by Goldsmith's family and was married for a few years to French sportsman Arnaud de Rosnay[fr]. We see what others dont see., Jimmy Goldsmith clearly enjoys the flexibility that his both but neither status brings. It is said that Goldsmith has a soft spot for Jemima, his eldest child with Annabel. In each case Goldsmith backed out, partly because he faced considerable hostility from the owners as well as the employees of the newspapers he wanted to buy. He had the capacity for doing so. Reaction to Goldsmith and his party, which now numbers 200,000, has been fierce across the political spectrum. [2], Goldsmith retired to Mexico in 1987, having anticipated the market crash that year and liquidated his assets. Nearly three years ago in France he was elected to the European Parliament, and this month he is running for the British Parliament as a candidate of his own Referendum Party. It was not a disciplined childhood, Goldsmith says, but it was harmonious. Jimmy was a willful child, uninterested in learning and defiant even when faced with punishment. and the hair color is Medium Blonde. [citation needed]. The year before Alix was born, when Manes was four, Jimmy married Ginette quietly in Paris. James's grandfather was Adolphe Benedict Goldschmidt (18381918), a multi-millionaire who moved to London in 1895. If ever there was proof that Goldsmith was a master of musical tension, this is it. Every house on Goldsmiths property has a tiled scorpion trap outside each exterior door, and a private security force of 50 protects Cuixmala, where bandits are a fact of life. Carroll & Graf, 1994). Because of the Private Eye case, in 1976 Goldsmiths unusual conjugal lifestyle became public knowledgean arrangement that has been immortalized by his oft quoted quip When a man marries his mistress, he creates a job vacancy. Goldsmith admits the quote was coined by the French actor and playwright Sacha Guitry, who was married five times. [citation needed]. ", Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a . In 1976 Private Eye accused Goldsmith of being part of what amounted to a conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice in relation to the fugitive Lord Lucan, who was wanted for murder of his children's nanny. Full body measurements, dress & shoe size will be updated soon. Loping toward his table at Laurent, he seems anything but intimidating. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. He is from France. A year ago British prime minister John Major dismissed Goldsmith as living in cloud-cuckoo-land. Goldsmith has always voted Conservative, but he thinks the current Conservative government is appalling on all the most important issues that matter for me. Major, in Goldsmiths view, doesnt dare lead. If no one is elected and it lives on as a European issue, says Goldsmith, we have made a dent. in pounds- 155 lbs. Frank was traumatized by the experience. We dont want power. Still, the notion of a self-immolating party is hard to grasp. He reads constantly and says proudly, I am totally autodidact.. He bankrolled a short-lived British political party, and was involved in various scandals and conspiracy . Villas for family and friends dot the hillside. Alix, who is 33, is described by friends as the sparkier of Goldsmiths children with Ginette. The magazine had published an article in December 1975 about the mysterious disappearance of the Seventh Earl of Lucan, a member of Goldsmiths gambling set who had been accused of murdering his childrens nanny. She was angry that the Referendum Party campaign was heavily criticised and that much of the attack was directed at her husband. He wanted to live not just a comfortable existence but to build up a business empire.. They are all one party., I feel strongly about issues, says Goldsmith. I got Floyd Hall. Hall, who became head of Grand Union in 1983, is now chairman of Kmart. Records show Jimmy Goldsmith paid $915,000 for the half-acre property in 1994. Sir Jimmy really does loves trees, though. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. For the next couple of years he drifted from one city to another, trying his hand at various jobs, chasing women, and piling up gambling debts, which his father invariably paid off. A fully equipped medical center, a school, and a church serve the town and estate. We will continue our guerrilla tactics, says Goldsmiths political ally Lord Alistair McAlpine, the longtime Conservative Party strategist and confidant of Margaret Thatchers. On her father's death, she inherited a large share of his estate. Goldsmith published detailed rejoinders in another publication entitled The Response, published in 1995. Status: In Good Standing. Periodically he would emerge to give a speech, and in 1993 he pulled his lectures together in a book published in France called The Trap. James Goldsmith was created on Feb 26, 1933 in Paris, France. He founded the short-lived Eurosceptic Referendum Party in the United Kingdom, which became an early campaigner for opposition to Britain's membership of the European Union. In early 1980, he formed a partnership with longtime friend and merchant banker, Sir Roland Franklin. The division within its ranks is pulling the Conservative Party apart. Also, read Tim Russ He is the angriest. Henry James Goldsmith 14 Sep 1873 Bristol, England, United Kingdom - 17 Oct 1946 John Charles Goldsmith 27 Apr 1879 Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA - 28 Aug 1939 managed by Thomas Herman Anna Maria (Goldsmith) Bunten bef 19 Aug 1821 Aylesford, Kent, England - 23 Apr 1881 managed by Lorraine Isaac * . He is the object of intense curiosity, who manages to infuriate journalists of every political stripe. Goldsmiths Boeing 757 has a greater fuel capacity than many commercial jets, which enables him to fly nonstop from his home in Mexico to France. The following year Marcelle gave birth to their son Edward and married Frank seven months later. Sir James Goldsmith, a flamboyant British-French financier who maintained three families, homes in four countries and used his billions to fight the European Union, died Friday in Spain, a. From his family, friends, and foes, and an exclusive interview with Goldsmith himself, the author learns about the renegade passions of the Anglo-French billionaire who is fighting to change the future of Europe. The five-bedroom, four-bathroom home was built in 1932. Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith (26 February 1933 - 18 July 1997) was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. At dinner parties at Goldsmiths estate in Mexico, Ginette and Laure are often seated flanking a guest of honor such as Henry Kissinger. The Goldsmiths shipped Teddy and Jimmy to St. Andrews College, a boarding school outside Toronto. He set Jim Wood who had revitalised his British retail operations to work on rationalising the operations of the chain, but ran into continuous obstruction from both unions and management. Posthumously, Goldsmith's estate provided funding for an organisation entitled the 'J.M.G. Sir James Goldsmith 2. Sir James Goldsmith is a protean figure: high-flying financial buccaneer, crusading politician, famously unconventional family man, who shares homes in London, Paris, Burgundy, Spain, and Mexico with his aristocratic wife, Annabel, his ex-wife and former secretary, Ginette, and his mistress, Laure Boulay de la Meurthe. It was the biggest party conference in Britain, recalls Christopher Booker, a conservative columnist for The Sunday Telegraph, who made a speech at the conference. The 64-year-old Anglo-French corporate raider lost his battle with pancreatic cancer three months after the anti-European Referendum Party which he founded made virtually no impact in Britain's general election, despite the pounds 20m of his own money he poured into it. Is he spending his money in vain? Goldsmith is said to be now worth 300 . He was constantly short of capital, but he nevertheless built and sold a series of businesses in England and France. In the second programme a combative Goldsmith appeared in person and countered the implication of asset stripping by pointing to an investment of over a hundred million pounds his company was making to upgrade their going concerns. With the heiress pregnant and the Patios insisting the pair separate, the couple eloped in January 1954. His approach has proved difficult for his 42-year-old daughter, Isabel. This columnist really dislikes me. Six hours later, he has changed into a crisp dark-blue suit befitting an English banker, and he sits in a folding chair at the front of a jammed church hall in London for a Referendum Party rally. Teddy has thinning gray hair and a trim white beard. It is very often self-effacing. Still, observes Carla Powell, he suffers fools better than mediocrity. He gets bored easily, but he can be enormously persistent if he wants something. Jimmy Goldsmith takes pride in calling himself an Auvergne peasant. His mothers Catholicism was never a factor in his upbringing, although she had been strictly educated by nuns. Jemima Jones Net Worth. But press coverage dismissed the party as the dotty right, a collection of isolationist Little Englanders who mistrust Germans and other foreigners. The bid was strongly contested and Goldsmith was fiercely attacked by the financial press. 1982. Sir James, whose complicated love life, complex business ventures and ownership of magazines kept him in world headlines for four decades, died of a heart attack at his farmhouse near Marbella, southern Spain, having recently moved there for quiet from his chateau in Burgundy as his illness worsened. An acrimonious confrontation between Mellor (who had lost his seat to the Labour Party candidate) and Goldsmith developed on stage after Mellor, in what was to be his valedictory address from politics, personally insulted Goldsmith's candidacy. This area had been a lifelong passion of his brother, Edward, but Goldsmith himself had shown little interest publicly in the topic during his business career. Jemima Goldsmith net worth is $100 Million. Over tea in a Washington, D.C., hotel, she describes the emotional void she has always felt. In addition to pursuing a large number of civil lawsuits against the editor of the magazine and a journalist who was also a TV researcher and regarding them as dangerous subversives, Goldsmith sought to bring a criminal libel prosecution, though there had not been one for half a century. Sir James Goldsmith's body was cremated in a secret ceremony in Spain at 1 a.m. yesterday with his wife Lady Annabel, aged 62, the only member of his family present. Family (1) Spouse Annabel Birley ( 2 December 1978 - ?) I have always been shy, he says. You are a professional foreigner. The son of billionaire businessman and financier Sir James Goldsmith, Zac ran an unsuccessful campaign to become . He also swapped his American timber assets for a 49.9 percent stake in Newmont Mining and remained on the board of Newmont until he liquidated his stake through open-market trades in 1993. Small and slender, with long russet hair, sloe eyes, and her fathers smile, she projects his intensity as well as his reserve. He can take a balance sheet and read it and tell you what is wrong with a company. [3], Raised initially in Paris, James Goldsmith had to flee France with his family when Nazi Germany overran the country in 1940, only just managing to escape on the last over-loaded ship from the French port of exit, leaving behind their hotels and much of their property. Wiki Bio of James Goldsmith net worth is updated in 2022. His demeanor is slightly distracted, earnest yet mildly mischievous. I had made enough money to do what I wanted to do, he says, to travel at leisure, to write books and build a house. Although he had made his fortune as a big-business man, my identity was never derived from the business. Sally Bedell Smith is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. It doesnt make money. (divorced) (3 children) Ginette Lery (1963 - September 1978) (divorced) (2 children) I dont keep photographs, although my family does. On nearly every economic issue, Blairs party has co-opted Tory positionspledging, for example, not to increase public spending or raise taxes. Pro-Conservative newspapers such as The Times view him as an interloper who is muddying the Tory waters and adding to Labours lead. Following Oxford, Frank became a barrister and moved into politics. English and French, says Teddy. This is all about Jonathan Goldsmith's net worth, bio, height, weight, and other information. ", Television coverage of the Putney election result 1997, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Westminster parliamentary political order, unsuccessfully standing for election as Mayor of London in 2016, "The Lucky Gambler Sir James Goldsmith Is a Billionaire Buccaneer (Yes, Even After the Crash)", "Flamboyant Goldsmith Dies of Heart Attack", "Ketupa.net (media industry resource) article on Goldsmith", "Financier obtains control of Crown Zellerbach", "Hayford, Pomerantz to buy 2d paper products company", "BBC's Money Programme series to become one-off specials", "The Mayfair Set BBC Two England 1 August 1999", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6I5R5_bnFY, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7720479/Sir-James-Goldsmith.html, "Sir James Goldsmith's UK Referendum Radio of 1997", https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-29934257/bbc-rewind-david-mellor-loses-putney, "Maverick billionaire Goldsmith dies with wife and mistress at his side", "How newspapers covered Brexit in pictures", The Lucky Gambler: Sir James Goldsmith Is a Billionaire Buccaneer, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Goldsmith&oldid=1141749231, Private equity and venture capital investors, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with incomplete citations from February 2023, Articles needing additional references from June 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Articles needing additional references from January 2023, Articles lacking reliable references from August 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 16:14. Sir James, worth - conservatively - pounds 1.5bn, had houses around the world, some lived in by his wife, former wife and mistress and their children. It was purely out of deference to my wifes wishes, says Ingrams. 3. This past winter Imran ran for prime minister of Pakistan as head of a new, anti-corruption political party and was roundly beaten. He was previously married to Annabel Birley, Ginette Lery and Maria Isabel Patio. Concerned about the strengthening European bureaucracy and its effect on Britains democratic sovereignty, more and more Tories began joining the Euro-skeptic wing. Laure had her first child with Goldsmith in 1983, a daughter named Charlotte, and a second child, Jethro, in 1988. As of 2022, she is a British writer who has a net worth of $100 million from her profession. As a result, the Labour Party has held a consistent lead of some 20 points over the Tories in the months before the election. He was a different man from the takeover specialist I had heard about, a different personality. At age 21, Jimmy Goldsmith was shattered. His epitaph should be, 'He was extremely rich.' However, many of the Referendum Party's activists and voters would go on to join and support the nascent United Kingdom Independence Party, which would ultimately lead a sea-change in the nation's politics, which almost twenty years later would see the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union in a referendum on the issue. Nearby, Goldsmith has built a town for the staff, which includes chefs as well as a biologist and a doctor. I prefer England because it is freer, and people are less frightened to speak up, less frightened of the Establishment. This pledge seems designed to dispel the criticism of self-aggrandizement on the part of Goldsmith. He says if you love someone you dont write that person off. He couldnt bear the idea that national sovereignty belongs to politicians to be surreptitiously given away. In The Trap, Goldsmith proposed the idea of a referendum in Britain. Later, he took over Allied Distributors, who owned a miscellaneous portfolio of grocery stores and small chains, including the Lipton shops. Goldsmith was a regular at his close friend Aspinall's gambling club, the Clermont, where Lucan was one of the house players having their losses written off, rather than a true member. He is a tall man (six feet four) who walks with a slight stoop, who has a commanding presence along with a disarming diffidence, who projects great confidence but rubs a piece of amber for reassurance, who is both open and secretive, who holds ideas strongly but sometimes not for long, whose friends run the gamut from the quintessential plutocrat Lord Jacob Rothschild to the ultimate gadfly Ralph Nader. The Trap was the No. Goldsmith is reported to have replied, "Well, I am not in the habit of marrying [Red] Indians". The smart city has a 5 billion dollar . She is married and has two children. Catholic and Jewish. I dont know why., He has periodically warned that the world could run out of water and food, and that the aids epidemic could overwhelm the population. James Goldsmith is a member of Politician Age, Biography and Wiki Net worth: $1.2 billion Some James Goldsmith images About French Politician, financier, and publisher who said, 'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.' He is cited as the inspiration for the character of the corporate raider Sir Larry Wildman in the Oliver Stone film Wall Street. The 10-year-old checked into the Waldorf-Astoria and had a fine time until his parents discovered him several days later. Benjamin James has an estimated net worth of around $360 million as per the sources. Before Fame [27], Goldsmith's electoral performance at Putney had been reasonably insubstantial, in a British electoral culture in which it is notoriously difficult for new political parties or maverick politicians to establish themselves. Starting in the 1970s, when Goldsmith began a bitter libel action against the satirical magazine Private Eye, its staff nailed him with the one nickname that has stuck: Goldenballs. It was the most astounding and unexpected bit of luck I have ever had in my whole career, he has said. As he sits down, he instinctively pushes the table away, crosses his left leg over his right knee, leans back, and sprawls against the red velvet banquette at a leisurely angle. The birth of Kate's son comes two years after her and Ben's teenage daughter Iris' tragic death. When William Rees-Mogg and James Goldsmith asked the courts to declare that the United Kingdom could not ratify the Maastricht Treaty - this week's SUbstack essay 2nd March 2023; Brexit Fatigue - and the possible end of "Brexitism" 1st March 2023 Is the "Stormont Brake" an instrument or an ornament? He is the ultimate rubber man. Nor does Goldsmith have much use for Tony Blair and his New Labour image. The 400 richest Americans, including U.S. citizens now living abroad, ascompiled by Forbes magazine, as of Aug. 27. When Goldsmith proposed the marriage to Don Antenor Patio, it is alleged his future father-in-law replied, "We are not in the habit of marrying Jews". He added bakeries and then confectioners to the group, and then took over a number of wholesalers and retailers, including small chains of tobacco, confectioner and newsagent shops. Recent Posts. I like to think of myself as having political activities with no intention of being a politician, Goldsmith says. Fred was the youngest of three children born and raised in Ft. Worth, where his family has lived for several generations. Film of the scene broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1 May 1997, 'BBC Rewind: David Mellor loses Putney', published on BBC's website 17 November 2014. It was systematically organized in an entrepreneurial rather than bureaucratic way.. Whether that happens or whether the genie is finally out of the bottle, I dont know.. I dont keep things from my personal past, but I am lucky that others do., Most of Goldsmiths longtime friends are English or American. James "Jimmy" Goldsmith (1933-1997) was a successful businessman and political dilettante who, though born in Paris, had a significant influence on British financial and political circles. Even The Daily Telegraph can be tough on Goldsmith, who is a former member of the newspapers board and a good friend of proprietor Conrad Blacks. You have to listen carefully to what he says and not parochialize him into a single system., Two very distinct cultureshis fathers English Jewish bourgeois and his mothers French Catholic peasanthave shaped Goldsmith. Lookup the home address, phone numbers, email address for this persons . The Memphis-based consultant had worked with nearly everyone in the financial business, including the Gettys and the Hunts. She earns a salary of $13 million every year. His father, Frank Goldsmith, was born in Frankfurt, Germany, into the prosperous Goldschmidt family, which was distantly related to the Rothschilds. It centralizes and draws away vigor. It is easier to get along and avoid certain situations. He is a leader, says Teddy Goldsmith. The long-term result, he believes, will be not only massive losses of jobs in developed countries but also the uprooting of societies in developing countries as workers leave the land to take low-skill jobs in factories. She has all the guts in the world, he says. He took the view that the UK economy was due for a downturn and began aggressively liquidating many of his assets. [28][29] Mellor had correctly predicted at the count that the Referendum Party was "dead in the water", and indeed the party did disappear with Goldsmith's death two months after the election. James Goldsmith was born on February 26, 1933 in Paris, France. He moved to New York City and began a series of high-profile takeover campaigns which dominated the financial pages for nearly a decade: Diamond International, the St. Regis Corporation, Crown Zellerbach, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. And if one figure sums up the rage the population feels, it is Mellor., Press commentators have urged Goldsmith to call off his candidates, now that he has succeeded in opening up the debate on Europe. That is pure moral turpitude. Compared with the playboys he knows, Goldsmith considers himself tame, and he is proud that his life is based on stable relationships. By the end of the 1980s, Jimmy Goldsmith had grown weary of business. The legal claim so concerned the John Major government that, . The resulting Mothercare shops were a major retailing success story. Catching my glance, Goldsmith muses, Laurent is not a rational business. When people see certain results occur, they will begin to understand.. Laure moved with Jimmy to New York in 1980, while Annabel stayed in London and gave birth to another child, Benjamin. There are more important things to do.. You feel there is a man of tremendous energy who can unleash that energy, and you wouldnt want to be in the way., Goldsmiths activities had caught the eye of John Tigrett in the 60s. Jemima Goldsmithheight is in centimeters- 170 cm in meters- 1.7 m in feet inches- 5' 7". James Michael Goldsmith net worth is $2 Million James Michael Goldsmith Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith (26 February 1933 - 18 July 1997) was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Who is Ben Goldsmith? [9][10] The majority of the pulp and paper assets were sold to James River Corporation in 1986,[11][12][13] which in turn became a part of Georgia-Pacific in 2000. Sir James's wife, Lady Annabel, and mistress Laure Boulay de la Meurthe were with him when he died. We will keep batting on. Benjamin James Goldsmith (born 28 October 1980) is an English financier and environmentalist. James Goldsmith. That doesnt mean I have no spiritualism or that I am an atheist. Jimmy Goldsmith was born in Paris in 1933 with crystal blue eyes and a charming yet willful nature. The question is: Are you more uncomfortable doing something or standing by? Email Address: m VZXT @gte.net +5 emails. He stopped using one because he was wasting too much time in his office and had no time to think. Instead of holding formal meetings, he made visits with his key executives to their operations once a month. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. He lives in Richmond, just outside London. There is a shyness about him that is rather subtle, because he has tremendous natural authority, which hides it. [5], Goldsmith served as a Gunner in the British Army's Royal Artillery under the National Service requirements, during which time he received a commission as an officer. The Spanish farm he shares with Annabel is tucked into the mountains beyond Marbella. He had soured on Britain, mostly because of a series of legal actions he waged against Private Eye. I am bi-national, and I do travel the world, but I am totally a creature of habit.. The sun-dappled dining room has walls covered with red silk and large 19th-century paintings. The sadness is the superficiality. At the tender age of 6, Jimmy caught the gambling bug after hitting the jackpot at a Monte Carlo slot machine. After his third marriage, Goldsmith embarked on an affair with Laure Boulay de La Meurthe (granddaughter of Bruno, Count of Harcourt and Princess Isabelle of Orlans), with whom he had two more children, Jethro and Charlotte Colbert. Yet Goldsmith has an underlying consistency which his closest friends understand.