The party-loving ex-wife of millionaire banker Nat Rothschild, Annabelle Neilson, has died at the age of 49.
The onetime model turned Ladies Of London reality star was died on Thursday, with police confirming an ambulance had been called to her £3.1million ($4.1million) home in Chelsea, London. The death is not being treated as suspicious, police told DailyMail.
Kate Moss and Annabelle Neilson. Photo / Getty
Annabelle was a great friend of cover girl Kate Moss and also close to the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, after becoming his muse aged just 22.
The last person to see McQueen alive, she was left devastated by his death.
'He was my brother, my boyfriend, my soulmate. Most of the time people called me Mrs McQueen. Quite often we were sharing a bed,' she told the Daily Mail in 2015.
'The truth is I was happier with Lee than with anyone else. He asked me to marry him towards the end and I said no. I wish now that I had said yes.'
A British aristocrat, Annabelle shocked high society when she eloped to Las Vegas with Nat Rothschild in 1994.
Kate Moss and Annabelle Neilson attend Naomi Campbell's Fashion For Relief Haiti London 2010 Fashion Show at Somerset House on February 18, 2010 in London, England. Photo / Getty
Rothschild is the only son and heir of banker Jacob Rothschild, and is in line to become the fifth Baron Rothschild and inherit around £500million on his father's death.
The former couple met on a beach in India, and a close family friend told the Daily Mail at the time of their divorce that Rothschild's parents had been 'appalled' by their then 23-year-old son's 'vulgar' choice of wife.
After just three years of marriage, marked by hard-partying and cataclysmic rows, the couple split and Annabelle reportedly received a generous financial settlement in return for rescinding the dynastic name and signing a confidentiality agreement.
Rothschild reportedly went on to date Natalie Portman and Ivanka Trump, before marrying a topless model, Loretta Basey, two years ago.
Annabelle went on to date Edward Spencer Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough's half-brother, with the exes remaining close after their break-up.
Indeed the last picture of Annabelle was taken at his marriage last week, held at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. She posed happily alongside her friend Kate Moss in the image.
Kate Moss, Annabelle Neilson and Naomi Campbell at Naomi Campbell's Fashion For Relief catwalk show at Somerset House. Photo / Getty
While her ex-husband's parents were not pleased by their son's choice of wife, Annabelle was in fact very well connected - her paternal grandmother was a second cousin of the late Queen Mother.
The brunette beauty was the daughter of Elizabeth, the Marquesa Campus di Santinelli, while her first cousin was the Earl of Warwick. As a young girl Annabelle enjoyed play dates at Warwick Castle.
Growing up, she divided her time between the family's country estate – Chiltern House in The Chilterns – and a home in West London.
However despite her gilded upbringing, Annabelle's childhood was far from easy. Severely dyslexic, she was badly bullied at her exclusive private school and left at 16 without any qualifications.
She headed to Australia to stay with family friends, but while there was the victim of a horrific assault. Her attacker, later convicted of killing three women, tied her to a tree and beat her for two hours, leaving her in need of reconstructive surgery.
Left depressed, she was a heroin addict by the time she turned 16. She managed to get herself off hard drugs, but said they helped her survive the brutal experience.
'In a way, heroin saved me because otherwise I would have killed myself,' she told the Daily Mail.
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