There are millions of pounds at stake in the Earl of Snowdon’s divorce

The Earl of Snowdon’s divorce is interesting for so many reasons. It’s the second royal (or royal-adjacent) divorce to be announced this month, and it’s the second divorce which has seemingly come out of nowhere – there was no advance gossip about Peter Phillips’ marriage, nor was there recent gossip about the Snowdons. It’s also interesting because… well, I did NOT know that the Earl of Snowdon was so friggin’ rich. Did you know that? The Daily Mail had some details about what kind of money and property is at stake in the Snowdon divorce:

The Queen’s nephew David Linley could be set for a battle over millions of pounds in assets with his wife after the pair announced they were set to divorce. The Earl of Snowdon and his wife Serena, Countess of Snowdon are splitting ‘amicably’ after some 25 years of marriage. The Earl, who is 21st in line to the throne, has amassed a fortune of millions and is famously motivated by wealth, once admitting that money ‘drives him, and always has.’

The couple and their two children, Charles, Viscount Linley, 20, and Lady Margarita, 17, are understood to divide their time between a flat in Chelsea, a ‘tiny’ cottage in Gloucestershire and the Chateau d’Autet in Provence. Serena is the daughter of debutante Virginia Freeman-Jackson and the 12th Earl of Harrington Viscount Petersham, the London landowner reportedly worth up to £250million.

Her husband, meanwhile, owns Chateau d’Autet, a 19th-century French hunting lodge in the foothills of Mount Luberon, France, which he bought for £800,000 in 1998. He was also bequeathed his late father’s Kensington townhouse. The property in west London’s exclusive enclave was bought for Snowdon by the Queen for £70,000 on his divorce and held in trust for his children, and is now thought to be worth £10 million. The pair are now preparing to divide their combined wealth as they go their separate ways.

In 1982, Linley founded his bespoke furniture making business, David Linley & Company, later known simply as Linley. The company also provides interior design and upholstery products. The Daily Mail reported on accounts filed in April 2017 which showed a return to profit for the company, with sales jumping from £6.9million to £13.5million while a loss of £1.9million turned into a profit of £337,000. The most recent accounts filed with Companies House for the year ended June 2018 show a turnover of £11.1million and profits of about £528,000.

[From The Daily Mail]

It should be noted – given recent, petty events – that the second Earl of Snowdon has never been “royal” and never been styled as an HRH. He’s merely the son of a “blood princess” and the titled nephew of the Queen. And he was allowed to set up his own profitable business and buy and sell real estate and more. Interesting. I also didn’t know he married such a blue-blood aristocrat. Hm.

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