A tale of two Rothschilds

The divorce between Ben and Kate undoubtedly will be acrimonious, but it will also reveal new insights into two of Britain’s most powerful and charismatic dynasties — the Goldsmiths and the Rothschilds. Both sides have hired well-connected PR consultants.

And the drama will be the first to be played out on Twitter, with comments and photographs already being posted by both camps. The spotlight on the case will be even more intense because Kate’s younger sister, Alice Rothschild, lives with Ben’s older brother, the Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, who is still caught up in complicated divorce negotiations with his wife, Sheherazade Ventura-Bentley.

The breakdown of Ben and Kate Goldsmith’s marriage has been greeted with sadness by their friends, but everyone agrees they married too young. Kate herself admits that her unexpected pregnancy spurred her to wed Ben, although there is no question they were very much in love.

Kate is the eldest daughter of the late Amschel Rothschild and his wife Anita Guinness, now Mrs James Wigan. Her upbringing — in Kensington and Suffolk — was idyllic but her comfortable life was thrown into turmoil when her father was found dead in Paris in 1996, weeks before her 14th birthday.

Kate, who loved to act as a child, yet was introverted and troubled, was traumatised. At Bryanston in Dorset she became known as a bit of a wild child who would race up to London to party hard, at every chance.

She did not attend university, though was offered a place at the London College of Fashion. She met Ben Goldsmith, then 21, at a dinner party shortly after leaving school in 2000 and a year later moved into his Pimlico flat aged 19.

In 2003 the couple became engaged when Kate discovered she was pregnant. They were married at St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds in September 2003. She was 21 and he was 23.

She was given away by her younger brother James and Zac Goldsmith was Ben’s best man. Her mother, now remarried, hosted the wedding reception at her home for 600 guests, who included Ben’s sister, Jemima Khan — with whom Kate was close until recently. A few months later Kate and Ben’s daughter Iris was born and subsequently two sons.

For most of their marriage they lived in a six-bedroom house in Kensington. The house was bought by the Goldsmith Family Trust, based in Switzerland, for

£5 million in 2002 and Ben and Kate Goldsmith were, in effect, tenants. Legally, it is owned by an offshore company called Garibaldi Villa Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands, but in reality the family trust is the beneficial owner. The house is now up for sale for £20 million.

Ben Goldsmith is the younger son of Sir James and Lady Annabel. He is regarded as possessing some of his father’s business acumen along with his brother Zac’s passion for the environment. He attended Eton but did not go to university. Instead in 2002, just 21, he co-founded the WHEB Venture Capital Group with the intention of building Europe’s leading specialist green investment business.

“Ben is charming and full of enthusiasm and energy, although it is misdirected occasionally,” said a friend. “He has some business skills but is not in his father’s league. But he is a genuine and passionate ecologist, as is Kate, and is absolutely committed to improving the environment.”

Other friends have described him as “slightly diffident, almost shy, and, like his father, given to histrionic behaviour when angry or upset and can display the same outspoken confidence”.

In the early years of their marriage, Ben and Kate Goldsmith seem to be settling into a conventional, affluent family life dominated by their children, families and friends. But their relationship began to change in the summer of 2010 when Kate decided to become a music producer. She set up her own record label called Roundtable Records alongside James Knight, a former managing editor of Vice magazine.

At first Ben was supportive and saw no reason why she could not combine the role of a mother with her business interests.

If she went out late at night to check out new bands and returned home late, he was happy to take the children to school early the next morning. Within a year of becoming a music producer, however, Kate became immersed by hip-hop and its lifestyle and her all-night partying with musicians increased. Some described her behaviour as “erratic”. Their marriage became increasingly troubled, punctuated by rows, and serious misunderstandings.

Kate was noticeably thin and often wore her chestnut mane in a beehive hair-style, not unlike Amy Winehouse. “The problem was not that she was hanging out with musicians,” said a family friend. “It was that she was out almost every night. She would come home at 5am and Ben would then get up at 6am, take the kids to school and be at his desk at 8am. He is a family man and quite conventional and he became irritated by the lifestyle elements of hip-hop which she was getting involved in.”

Finally in January of this year, they agreed to a trial separation. For some time Ben had been suspicious that his wife was having an affair, but she denied his allegations. They now spent even less time together in an effort to cool off.

After a brief reconcilation this spring Ben again feared Kate was intimately involved with Jay Electronica, who has a three-year-old daughter with Grammy award-winner, Erykah Badu. Kate was spending much of her time with him at late-night parties and at his flat on Cadogan Square.

Last week Ben discovered explicit sexual text messages and voicemails between Kate and Jay. An incensed Ben has instructed solicitors to issue proceedings for divorce for adultery.

So what went wrong? Why is Kate so intense? Is it some sort of “groupie-esque, rebellious infatuation?” Barry Singer asked the same questions, but about Kate’s great aunt Nica in the New York Times back in 2008. Jay Electronica does show some promise although he has yet to produce an album. Jay-Z has said, “As a lyricist, he is almost scary, he’s scary good.”

Jay may then prove to be a bit like Monk was 60 years ago. For Nica and now Kate, Barry Singer asks, “In light of her father’s suicide it seems possible that the underlying bond is childhood loss ... is she drawn to anguished brilliance that consummed her father, whom she could not save?”

Only Kate and Nica know.