After marrying Kathryn (also known as Kate), his teenage sweetheart and a former librarian, at the tender age of 21 (long, it must be said, before he had made his millions), the couple separated 25 years later in 1998. The couple have three children together — Rebekah, 35, a property developer who lives in New York, Libby and Rufus. The marriage ended on good terms, but years of romantic upheaval followed. In 2001, Caudwell met Claire, a former model and beauty queen, with whom he went on to have Jacobi. Before Jacobi was born, however, Caudwell embarked on a brief affair with Jane Burgess, a celebrated violinist who had found fame as the former mistress of Tory MP Rupert Allason. A pregnancy swiftly followed, leading to the birth, in March 2002, of daughter Scarlett, now 12.
At the time, Caudwell was said to be furious and wanted no contact with mother or daughter, telling his local paper in Staffordshire, The Sentinel: ‘I can’t find any feeling about the child. All I can do is despise the mother and that makes it impossible to see the child.’ Years later, the unpleasantness seems to have been smoothed over, however, and Caudwell is now reconciled with his love child.
It was a bad start, but I just thought I needed to put an end to that and make it all good. It wouldn’t have felt right otherwise,’ he says. ‘Now Scarlett is fully integrated into the family, she comes on holiday with us the whole time and we all get together when we can.’ It’s hard not to speculate that these emotional dramas during his childhood may have been a factor in creating Rufus’s unhappy state of mind — but it’s a suggestion his father robustly refutes.
‘It is a convenient supposition, but it’s pretty well established by those who know him best that his problems are nothing to do with Kate and I splitting up,’ he insists. Certainly, while largely resident with his mother, Rufus saw — and continues to see — his father regularly, and though his parents are divorced, they remain great friends, So much so that Kathryn is godmother to Jacobi.‘For Kate’s 50th birthday I threw her a surprise party and bought her a villa in the South of France — this was long after the financial settlement had been signed and sealed. So I’d say that’s quite a good relationship,’ says John.
It is a model he intends to follow with ex-partner Claire, who will move from the Staffordshire mansion into a new home in coming months.‘We have told Jacobi we will still be a team, even if we are living apart. We have to be, because it would be a disaster if we weren’t,’ says Caudwell. When it comes to all his children, meanwhile, he insists he has taken the same approach — one of making them realise how privileged they are. Click here to get the The Billionaire And Partial Insight Into Wealth
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