Curse of the beautiful people: Close friends Tara P-T, Alexander McQueen and his muse Isabella Blow all died before their time after years of excess, and now another member of their gilded society set is dead at 49

  • Annabelle Neilson's body was found at her £3m home in Chelsea last Thursday
  • Alexander McQueen was her best friend and last person to see before his death  
  • She was the first wife of Nat Rothschild and they were married from 1994 to 1997 

Her smile could light up a room, and her infectious laughter was for two decades heard over the hubbub of London’s most extravagant parties.

With legs up to her armpits, and a habit of wearing entirely see-through dresses as she strolled up red carpets — with Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and an endless revolving cast of supermodel mates — Annabelle Neilson was an ever-present name on the guest-lists of Nineties and Noughties London.

The one-time model’s party trick, so to speak, involved climbing on to a dinner table or cocktail bar and treating it as a sort of catwalk, shimmying between cut glass and pudding plates, usually in a pair of ‘trademark’ Manolo Blahnik high heels.

It was performed at some of Europe’s trendiest hotels and restaurants, and breathlessly reported by the gossip columns, prompting the Telegraph to somewhat cattily sum up her brand of celebrity by remarking: ‘Miss Neilson has achieved minor notoriety for her revealing outfits.’

Annabelle, pictured with Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, had desperately wanted to be successful away from the world of fashion

Annabelle, pictured with Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, had desperately wanted to be successful away from the world of fashion

Having originally achieved fame in her 20s, as banking heir Nat Rothschild’s glamorous first wife, she certainly ticked all the usual socialite boxes, enjoying careers as an actress, model, and reality TV star, while stepping out with a revolving cast of celebrities, aristocrats, and silver-haired billionaires.

In more recent times, she followed in the footsteps of another chum, the Duchess of York, by attempting (without much success) to launch a career as a children’s author.

As the fashion set reflected on her sudden death, at the age of 49 — said by her shocked family to be caused by a heart attack at their Chelsea home — Kate Moss yesterday described herself as heartbroken at the loss of a ‘best friend’ and ‘sister’. But Annabelle Neilson played a far more important role in our cultural history than appearances might suggest.

For when she wasn’t quaffing champagne with Sadie Frost, Meg Matthews and the rest of the notorious Primrose Hill ‘set’, the stunning brunette carved out an indelible legacy as the muse, and adviser, to the most important British designer of his generation, Alexander McQueen.

Neilson spent a hefty portion of her adult life steering the London cabbie’s son through the meteoric rise that saw him become head of the Paris Fashion house Givenchy.

She was part soulmate, part trusted confidante, starring in his advertising campaigns, offering inspiration and commentary on his designs, and appearing in (often semi-pornographic) films that were projected on to walls at his catwalk shows.

For years, she kept a bedroom in each of McQueen’s houses, shared custody of his dog, Juice, and holidayed with him in the Alps each winter and the Maldives in summer.

In an interview, she once memorably described their relationship as being ‘as if we were married — without the sex.’

‘He was my brother, my boyfriend, my soulmate,’ she once told the Daily Mail. ‘Most of the time, people called me Mrs McQueen. Quite often, we were sharing a bed.’

The last picture: Annabelle (far right) is seen with Alice Temperley, Kimi Hammerstroem and Kate Moss  at the wedding of her ex-boyfriend, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire just last week 

The last picture: Annabelle (far right) is seen with Alice Temperley, Kimi Hammerstroem and Kate Moss  at the wedding of her ex-boyfriend, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire just last week 

Perhaps inevitably, Neilson also shared many of the designer’s personal struggles, with alcohol and drug addiction, along with the depression that would lead to his suicide in 2010.

Indeed, the night before McQueen hanged himself, after taking a lethal cocktail of cocaine and prescription drugs and slitting his wrists, she had been sitting on the sofa his Mayfair flat, reviewing ‘mood boards’ for an upcoming Givenchy show. ‘I’m here with my girl annie tinkerbell,’ McQueen told followers on Twitter, using his preferred nickname for Neilson.

She never really recovered from his loss. And this week’s news of Neilson’s own death, at a £3.5 million Chelsea home owned by her aristocratic parents, serves as a pertinent reminder of the sadness that all-too-often lurks beneath the outward glamour of the fashion circuit.

Recent years have certainly exacted a heavy toll on Neilson’s circle of confidantes.

One chum, Isabella Blow, the Tatler fashion editor who first introduced her to McQueen, killed herself in 2007. Another, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, the It-girl who spent a lifetime battling cocaine addiction and depression, died last year aged 45.

A third close friend, designer John Galliano, lost his job as creative head of Dior after being filmed indulging in a drug-fuelled anti-Semitic outburst in a Paris cafe.

Meanwhile, a fall from a racehorse five years ago had left her in constant pain and at times unable to sleep. It also curtailed her passion for adventure which, in the past, had seen her fly helicopters, swim with sharks, ride a motorbike across Australia, and enjoy kite-surfing holidays with Sir Richard Branson.

But there were always dark clouds hovering over Annabelle Neilson’s outwardly privileged existence.

The daughter of Max Neilson, a wealthy London investment and property guru, and Elizabeth, the Marquesa Campus di Santinelli, Iona Annabelle Neilson, to use her full name, was first cousin to the Earl of Warwick and as a child enjoyed play dates at Warwick Castle.

Educated at Cobham Hall, a £35,000-a-year girls’ boarding school in Kent, she was a severe dyslexic who was badly bullied.

‘My parents took me to 40 psychologists between the ages of four and eight to find out what was wrong with me,’ she once said. ‘I didn’t speak to anyone except my sister in a made-up language only she understood.’

Annabelle was found dead inside her Chelsea mansion last Thursday - but police say it was not suspicious

After deciding to stay in bed rather than sit her exams, she left school aged 16 without a qualification to her name and embarked on a gap-year in Australia. There, while staying with a family in Perth, she was attacked by a violent rapist who went on to kill three women.

‘The attack lasted for two hours,’ she later recalled. ‘I was tied to a tree and continually beaten. I looked like the ‘‘Elephant Girl’’ by the end of it. I managed to escape with my life, but I needed reconstructive surgery because my face was so disfigured.

‘After that, I fell into serious depression and became a heroin addict because it provided an escape bubble and was the only way I could cope. In a way, heroin saved me, because otherwise I would have killed myself.’

Neilson moved to London and began modelling. Then she decided to travel to India, where, at the age of 22, she met her future husband, Nat Rothschild, the son and heir of banker Jacob, on a beach.

They moved to New York together and, to the delight of the gossip columns, married in 1995, after eloping to Las Vegas. The groom’s family, who were not in attendance at the wedding, were according to friends ‘appalled’.

For a time, the young couple enjoyed a gilded existence, gracing glossy magazines and partying in Cannes with friends such as McQueen, Elle Macpherson and another so-called It-girl and heiress, Tamara Beckwith.

But behind the scenes, things were less than harmonious, and after three years of endless partying — and, apparently, volatile rows — they divorced.

Neilson reportedly received a generous financial settlement, which prevented her from ever needing gainful employment, in return for agreeing to rescind the Rothschild name and sign a confidentiality agreement which prevented her ever discussing the perhaps gory details of their split.

Annabelle was Alexander McQueen's best friend and muse, and never fully recovered from his suicide in 2010, especially as she was the last person to see him alive (together in 2006)

Annabelle was Alexander McQueen's best friend and muse, and never fully recovered from his suicide in 2010, especially as she was the last person to see him alive (together in 2006)

Over the ensuing years, she dated a revolving cast of eligible men, from millionaire man-about town Damian Aspinall to one-time pop star Finley Quaye, and the Duke of Marlborough’s second son Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill.

For a time, she even stepped out with Jefferson Hack, the ex-boyfriend of Kate Moss (Neilson was godmother to their daughter, Lila).

In 2001, when they were both fixtures on the party circuit, she and Moss organised McQueen’s wedding to documentary maker George Forsyth, an event soon notorious as a symbol of the excesses of the Cool Britannia era.

Planned on a whim, one drunken night at London’s Groucho Club, the event saw a plane full of celebrity guests including Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Patsy Kensit and Meg Matthews flown to Ibiza at the height of the holiday season.

The happy couple pledged an oath of eternal love under a full moon, in a service performed by a Colombian priest on a 162ft motor yacht which had been hired from the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, while the ship’s crew showered them with scented petals.

Guests drank Cristal champagne and ate lobster and steak, but the days following the wedding were reportedly so drink sodden and debauched that McQueen said he never wanted to visit the Balearic party-island again.

Neilson’s own hangover took longer to arrive. Traumatised by McQueen’s 2010 death, she fell into depression and briefly moved to Texas to rehabilitate.

She then wrote a series of children’s books, deciding to promote them via an ill-advised appearance on a somewhat tawdry 2014 reality TV show called Ladies Of London.

Former model and Alexander McQueen's muse Annabelle Neilson feared she was 'cursed' and sank into depression after her children's books failed to sell despite the backing of stars including friend Kate Moss

Former model and Alexander McQueen's muse Annabelle Neilson feared she was 'cursed' and sank into depression after her children's books failed to sell despite the backing of stars including friend Kate Moss

The programme followed five rich American women being introduced to London society by Neilson, and Prince Andrew’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Stanbury. Critics were less than kind. One dubbed it: ‘A reality series dedicated to filming the depths of Annabelle Neilson’s completely hollow eyes’.

Interviewers called in to promote the children’s books, which were published just after the aforementioned riding accident, were meanwhile alarmed by her appearance.

‘She looks at me through a thick black fringe, with huge sleepless eyes. She can’t sleep with the pain,’ noted a journalist from The Times. ‘Her skin is gothic white. Her bird-like frame is dressed in white skinny jeans and a thin expensive-looking T-shirt that hangs off her shoulders.’

When the books flopped, she moved back in with her parents in Chelsea, where her body was reportedly discovered last Thursday.

Neilson’s final public appearance was at the wedding of her ex-boyfriend Edward Spencer Churchill, at Bleneim Palace earlier this month, where she was photographed by the model Poppy Delevingne, pouting in glamorous evening wear while hugging her friend Kate Moss.

The image was uploaded to Instagram, along with a caption suggesting its subjects were ‘showing us the LOVE!’

But as Annabelle Neilson’s too-short life shows, something sad was always lurking behind the outward glamour.

Neilson was also a life-long friend of recently deceased socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (pictured)

Neilson was also a life-long friend of recently deceased socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (pictured)

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