By AMY JONES
22nd April 2016, 11:01 pm Updated: 19th May 2016, 2:20 am
HE IS the super-rich Bullingdon boy who mixes with the world’s most
powerful people – and she is the glamour girl from suburbia whose boobs are
better known than her face.
But in a romance that straddles the divides of both age and class, banking
heir Nat Rothschild, 44, and former Page 3 star Loretta Basey, 25, are
heading down the aisle.
The couple got engaged in December and later this year will throw a lavish
wedding in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Klosters — loved by Princes
William and Harry, no less, and home to financier Nat.
The upcoming ceremony has no doubt raised eyebrows among the Rothschild
dynasty’s swanky society set — but it has come as no shock to Loretta’s
friends that she will marry a billionaire almost 20 years her senior.
As one former Page 3 pal reveals: “I’m not surprised she’s settling down with
someone loaded — she always did like an older, richer man.
“I think she thought it was what she deserved. She never seemed to enjoy
modelling and gave everyone the impression she was too good for it.
“She didn’t fit in with the rest of us. A lot of us found her difficult.”
Another added: “She never really smiled when she was modelling. I even
questioned why she was doing it. But now it makes total sense — she had a
plan.”
That “plan” was born of comparatively humble beginnings. Loretta grew up in
the family home, a terraced house near Gerrards Cross, Bucks.
Her father, Phillip, 59, is a chartered accountant and her mother Susan, 63, a
former model who advertises her services as a TV extra online.
Loretta is close to her older sister Olivia and regularly babysits for her
children, Zac and Harley, something her friends say is driving the next
stage of her masterplan — starting a family.
During Loretta’s short-lived glamour career she used the name Elle, as her
agent reckoned it was more “girl next door”. She posed on Page 3 more than
20 times and featured regularly in lads’ mags.
But in 2011 she sacrificed it all, once she had secured her first minted man —
actor and comedian Steve Coogan.
The source added: “She met him on a Loaded magazine cover shoot. She was the
mag’s Girl of the Year and Coogan’s Alan Partridge character guest-edited
the issue.
“Loaded had the idea of shooting Partridge with his hands cupped around her
boobs, like the infamous Janet Jackson photo. Shortly after that they were
an item.”
Loretta soon moved into Steve’s mansion outside Brighton.
The comic — then in his mid-40s — never discussed his younger girlfriend in
interviews, but she would appear dutifully at his side at events and
premieres.
Self-confessed recovering drug addict Steve had a notoriously messy love life
and had previously made headlines for drug-fuelled sex sessions.
But in his three-year relationship with Loretta he found some stability, and
the comic’s pals credited her with taming him.
But in 2014 they split and she was back on the hunt for a new man.
By November last year she appeared to have found him, after she was spotted at
a ball hanging off Nat’s arm, dressed — much to onlookers’ amusement — as a
lion tamer.
Some say it was a fitting choice of costume, observing that Loretta has had a
similar calming effect on Nat as she had on Steve. She is even said to have
won the approval of Nat’s formidable 79-year-old father Jacob, the Fourth
Baron Rothschild.
Former playboy Nat now drinks only “occasionally” and neither gambles nor
smokes. It is a far cry from his wilder days as a member of Oxford
University’s notorious Bullingdon Club — the aristocratic social group
famous for its drinking, drugs and debauchery.
Nat once held a “thrash” — or party — for the even rowdier Piers Gaveston
Society, the similarly notorious dining club which staged the event at which
David Cameron is alleged to have put his manhood inside a pig’s mouth.
On a separate occasion in 1994, former prostitute Natalie Rowe claimed that
Nat asked her to provide drugs and strippers for a Bullingdon party held at
Waddesdon Manor, the Rothschild family home in Bucks and just 20 miles from
Loretta’s family home.
Natalie said at the time: “They were precise in what they wanted — three slim
black girls in stockings, suspenders and high heels.”
In a Sunday Times profile in 2012, one woman in Nat’s social circle said: “He
had terrible acne but he was so rich and quite charming.
“He’d make a beeline for any girl he wanted to seduce, then hang around them,
buy them presents, smother them basically until they gave in. And a lot of
girls did give in who should have known better.”
According to another university pal, everyone was aware of his wealth. Once,
Nat is said to have jumped on to a table and shouted: “Ninety seven
million!” — which many believed to be a reference to the size of his trust
fund.
An unruly nature had become apparent when he was at Eton. A fellow pupil
described young Nat as “a rather scruffy and unpredictable boy with a
rebellious streak who you would never have tipped to make a big success of
his life.”
After university he was briefly married to Annabelle Neilson, a “wild child”
socialite and friend of Kate Moss.
In 1997, when the marriage fell apart after just three years, Nat began
playing the field, reportedly enjoying flings with Jonathan Aitken’s
daughter Petrina Khashoggi, Donald Trumps’s daughter Ivanka and Star Wars
actress Natalie Portman. But as his marriage dissolved, his career
flourished. He joined corporate finance firm Gleacher Partners, where he met
Timothy Barakett, a Canadian trying to set up a hedge fund, Atticus Capital.
Nat became a partner and set his sights on making his own fortune.
He said: “Without blowing my trumpet, I was chairman of one of the biggest
public companies in France by the time I was 28.”
Nat’s personal wealth is estimated at £523million, much of it self-made, and
he is 192nd on The Sunday Times Rich List.
As well as his declared inheritance of £500million, his actual inheritance has
been reported as “hidden in a series of trusts in Switzerland and is
rumoured to be worth £40billion”.
Former prostitute ... Natalie Rowe claimed that Nat asked her to provide drugs and strippers for a Bullingdon party
He also has huge influence, with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and former BP
boss Tony Hayward among his pals, and he has several contacts inside
Whitehall, including Chancellor George Osborne.
Such powerful friends must be both beguiling and intimidating to Loretta,
whose contacts book is far less exciting. A pal said: “She is so down to
earth and her best friends are largely from back home.”
However, another friend said: “She has been saying she is ready for kids — and
what better way to start a family than with one of Britain’s richest men?
“She’s not just a pretty face.”
