Iona Napier
WITH a Spanish nanny for his children, a luxury finca in Benahavis and an ex-father-in-law living in Sotogrande, Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has as many Spanish connections as any budget airline.
The leading conservative candidate tipped to succeed Boris Johnson as London mayor has been holidaying at his family’s lavish country refuge for years.
The three-pool estate, which sleeps 27, is set in a secluded, leafy corner of Benahavis and has offered sanctuary to celebrities as famous as post-divorce Princess Diana, Goldsmith’s sister Jemima Khan and Hugh Grant.
With sage-green shutters and a whitewashed exterior, the serene 11-bedroom property set in several hundred acres of unspoilt woodland has a helipad and Moorish tower in the gardens.
The stunning Torre de Tramores estate on the edge of the Serrania de Ronda has been rented out since 2011 for up to €30,000 per week and has been in the family for over two decades.
It may seem an extortionate fee, but the estate provides employment for four local families and also helps fund Goldsmith, whose €300 million fortune is said to be locked up in trusts.
But the 40-year-old is no stranger to lavish surroundings. In fact, he is something of an aristocratic catch – he met good friend David Cameron at school at Eton, his mother was iconic socialite Lady Annabel Goldsmith – oh, and he previously edited The Ecologist.
Lady Annabel bought the finca with her husband Sir James in 1986 (who would later die there) and recalls the purchase in her autobiography An Unconventional Life.
“That day, as we stood on the terrace, looking out to the mountains at the astonishing view, with no other sign of human habitation, and at nature at its most simple and dramatic, Jimmy fell silent. And in the spring of 1986 it became ours.”
