Real Housewives star who owns £5.5m castle in Kent is blasted for 'rude and arrogant' comment to waiter in Cannes restaurant

Daily Mail​

21-05-2025

A multi-millionaire reality TV star has been labelled 'rude and arrogant' after she dismissed a waiter in a restaurant in Cannes who tried to serve her pizza.
Dr Ann Kaplan Mulholland - who has a reported net worth of £500million - moved to the UK with her husband three years ago to invest in a castle in Kent and has been attending some of the biggest European red carpet events.
Last week, the Real Housewives of Toronto star attended the Cannes Film Festival in France with her friends and decided to go out for a meal.
The group were sitting down outside in a restaurant when one of the waiters helped the socialite to a slice of pizza.
Ann, 64, then looked at the waiter with a blank expression as he placed it down on her plate and said: 'Do I look like I eat carbs?'
The member of staff appeared shocked as he removed the pizza from her plate before awkwardly walking away from her.
The entrepreneur then turned her back to him and continued speaking to her pals, before later uploading the footage onto her own Instagram account, with the caption: '#SoClose'.
Influencer Joey Swoll reposted her clip and said: 'You can tell a lot about someone from how they treat the waitstaff at a restaurant.'
He went on to say that Ann was 'arrogant' and said that 'she did not know how to act like an adult at a restaurant'.
Joey proceeded to accuse Ann of thinking that she was 'better than people' because of her wealth and status as a TV personality.
The bodybuilder said: 'For you to take a video of that man, to post it online, to try to shame and embarrass him, and all for what? Some likes and attention on social media? Seriously?'
The video of Ann - which has now been deleted from her Instagram page - racked up more than eight million views on Joey's TikTok and more than 10,000 people commented on the situation.
One wrote: 'Someone's father just trying to do his job and feed his family.''
Another penned: 'And SHE posted it on her own social media. She really saw nothing wrong with it,' while a third said: 'How rude is she.'
A fourth commented: 'I feel bad for that guy. Please be kind [to] everyone.'
However, this is not the first time that Ann has posted videos of her speaking to restaurant staff while dining out.
When she was at the The Royal Mansour - a five-star hotel in Casablanca - the multi-millionaire was sat at a table in an eatery when staff came to wash her hands - a Moroccan tradition.
As soon as one of the men began pouring the water over Ann's hands, she seemingly pretended to scream in pain, which appeared to confuse the waiters.
They giggled, apparently not knowing how to react to Ann, as her friends laughed at her joke before she took one of the towels to wipe her fingers.
She captioned the clip, which was posted at the start of May: 'Hand cleaning hack. They even wash your hands for you at the table! Now that's hot! #greatservice #Finedining at #itsfinest at The Royal Mansour - Casablanca new 5-star hotel (and 'yes' the staff had fun taping this)'
FEMAIL has contacted Ann Kaplan Mulholland's agent for comment.
Ann and her husband Stephen, a former plastic surgeon, have claimed non-dom status in the UK for the past three years, during which they bought a medieval castle and invested a purported £25m to transform it into a luxury wedding venue.
Speaking to MailOnline at the start of the month, the CEO of iFinance Canada, attacked 'reckless' Rachel Reeves over the 'astronomical error' of trying to extract more tax from the ultra-wealthy who are domiciled abroad for tax purposes.
The couple intend to keep Lympne Castle in Kent, where around 100 people are employed, but plans for future British ventures including a new credit finance business have gone up in smoke along with their tax exemptions.
Instead of remaining in Britain and being forced to pay UK tax on their foreign income under a new tax regime, millionaires and billionaires are thought to be fleeing abroad, after Labour pushed ahead with a proposal first tabled by Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Speaking to MailOnline from her Las Vegas penthouse, Ann said the decision to leave the UK had been motivated 'purely' by the end of the regime alongside changes to inheritance tax (IHT) that would have sapped millions from her children's fortune.
She said of the change: 'It doesn't make any sense. It's not that we're not willing to pay taxes: we do pay taxes in the UK, we employ over 100 people.
'We bring clean capital to the UK, we've invested in businesses in the UK, we pay tax in the UK. But it's like they don't really want the wealthy in the UK, which I think is a big error.
'There's an opportunity for 'Reckless' Reeves, as I call her, to try to save this.'
Late last year, she mulled over writing to King Charles III seeking permission to create her own nation state in the grounds of the castle, so she could escape the non-dom clampdown. She ditched it when she realised it was an impossible ask.
Instead, she and Stephen plan to move to Italy's swanky fashion capital Milan by next year - following in the footsteps of Aston Villa owner Nassef Sawiris, who left London earlier this year.
The European country has an attractive non-dom regime where the super-wealthy are charged a flat annual rate of 200,000 EUR (£171,500) plus 25,000 EUR (£21,400) per family member in order to shield their foreign assets.
Ann and her husband attracted widespread media attention when they snapped up crumbling Lympne Castle in Kent for a steal at £5.5million in 2023 after the last of their children flew the nest.
The price tag was snipped amid concerns over the huge amount of investment needed to bring it up to scratch - a brief on which she was more than able to deliver.
She has since invested around £25million in revitalising the castle and opening a restaurant, the Naughty Dog, on site.
She says she now employs around 100 people on the site, and has filmed a new reality series currently airing in the US that follows the renovation journey, entitled Queen of the Castle.
'I felt so at home in the UK: I joined the church, joined the community, I play Scrabble with people - we love living here,' Ann continued.
Ann started loan firm iFinance in 1996 and sold it in 2022 after growing it into one of the country's biggest lenders.
She boasts a doctorate in finance as well as an MBA and other industry qualifications.
The businesswoman says she is bothered by the fact that she has to leave the UK to avoid 'demolishing' her businesses - as she has grown fond of her new home.
'I would do anything to stay but not demolish my businesses globally at the same time. I love it here, and I'm part of a community,' Ann said.
'I love my life in England. It's a beautiful country - who wouldn't love it there?
'It was a big decision to move to the UK. We could have gone anywhere but we chose the UK, and we chose to invest in it and make it our home, and part of that choice was because of the non-dom regime.
'But the government is not listening, or are not recognising the impact this is going to have on the economy.'