Goldsmith’s appearance also comes while King Charles is being treated for cancer and the family are mourning Thomas Kingston, the husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor, who recently passed away aged 45.
The Middletons, not to mention the Royal family, would be forgiven for not leaping for joy at another distraction. But Goldsmith has long been a law unto himself and his public appearances have not always produced helpful PR. Depending on who you ask, he is either the black sheep of the family or, his preferred term, the “King of Fun”. Either way, his taste for dodging respectability long predates the family’s royal connections.
The Goldsmith mythology is well worn by now. He is 10 years younger than his sister. They grew up in a council house in Hounslow, west London. Their father Ron was a painter and decorator, their mother, Dorothy, worked in a jewellery shop. Ambitious and entrepreneurial, Goldsmith started out in IT, before moving into recruitment. He made his fortune thanks to an IT recruitment company, Computer Futures, which floated on the stock market in 2005, giving Goldsmith a windfall worth many millions. At one point he claimed to be worth £30 million.
His income has always supported brash and expensive tastes: clothes, holidays, houses. He has a large GG inked on a shoulder and a red zip design on one foot. There was a £700,000 yacht, christened Episode One. At Bob Bob Ricard, a restaurant in Soho famous for a button at every table which says “press for champagne”, Goldsmith was such a regular customer that they renamed a drink, vodka with pink lemonade, the “GG”. He has been married four times, most recently to Julie-Ann Brown, whom he met while they were walking their dogs – his chihuahua, her St Bernards – in Regent’s Park, an outing for which he wore pink Gucci loafers. In 2017, he was arrested and charged with assaulting Brown during an argument. He pleaded guilty and was fined £5,000 and ordered to go to rehab.
By early 2018, he revealed they’d patched things up. “We’ve had a great New Year. It’s been really good fun, so yes [we’re back together]… But we’d prefer to be left to get on with things.”
He later tweeted: “When two people really care about each other they will always look for a way to make it work, no matter how hard it is.”