Lady Isabella Hervey says she's happier than ever with her 'simple life' in Portugal as she insists she doesn't need money or titles after end of her 'miserable' marriage to Belgian millionaire ex-husband
Lady Isabella Hervey has revealed she's doing better than ever, after building a new life as a fitness instructor in Portugal, following her bitter split from ex-husband, Christophe de Pauw.
The Marquess of Bristol's sister, 43, and the Belgian millionaire's marriage ended two years ago, with Isabella now raising their three children, Victor, nine, Patrick, seven, and India, six, as a single mother.
And despite coming from aristocracy, the ex-reality television star has now declared that she is happier living a 'simple life', with little money and barely any furniture.
In a new interview with Hello! magazine, Isabella opened up on her new life in Algarve, saying she had much less anxiety after being 'miserable' throughout her marriage.
While the mother-of-three insisted that she didn't have any need for the riches she enjoyed with her old lifestyle and that her title 'doesn't define her'.
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She said: 'I'm actually better than I've ever been, because I have peace and I have freedom. I used to have very high anxiety levels, and now I don't have that. I'm happier with the simple life I have now.
'When I was married, I was miserable. Sometimes you can be in a nice hotel, or the best restaurant, or have a new designer handbag, but I don't need any of that. I forget I even have a title; it doesn't define who I am. I don't need much to be happy and I think people underestimate that.'
Isabella's new career in fitness has also helped her mental health, after battling bulimia in her younger years.
She had previously become famous through appearances on TV shows and was voted one of the world's sexiest women by lad mag FHM after starring in Celebrity Love Island.
But this masked the eating disorder bulimia, for which she had just completed three months treatment.
While in 2014, she learned that she had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which caused her 'great stress, further aggravating her bulimia'.
Having won Channel 4 show The Games, she found solace in cycling and recently represented Britain at the UCI world championships in Glasgow.
And she has credited cycling with giving her the confidence she needed to end her unhappy marriage to Christophe.
She told the publication: 'Cycling made me have the guts to leave my ex. I had low self-esteem, and then I started cycling and started to have clarity.'
While Isabella admitted that the sport was also instrumental in her love life, leading her to briefly find love with a 40-year-old Portuguese cyclist.
However, she revealed their relationship had since ended, explaining: 'We were together for a year and I really did like him a lot. He has many qualities but he doesn't have children, so he didn't have a big understanding of the kids.
'My life has been very stressful for anyone to be in, and he came into my life at the most stressful time, actually. But we're not together now – it's complicated.'
Isabella and Christophe split in August 2023, with her going on to accuse the businessman of being physically abuse throughout their 10-year marriage.
She alleges that he hit her, attacked her verbally, undermined her self-worth, controlled her financially and isolated her from her friends.
Among the painful injuries he is alleged to have inflicted on her was a punch in hospital after the birth of their daughter that left Lady Isabella with a fractured skull.
Her older sister, Lady Victoria Hervey, drew attention to her plight by posting a series of photographs online, each of them showing Isabella with severe facial bruising.
While The Mail's Richard Eden revealed in October that a judge had issued a restraining order against Christophe, forbidding him from coming within 300 metres of his estranged wife or seeing their children without third party supervision.
Isabella's Portuguese lawyer Patricia Cipriano disclosed: 'Christophe is indicted for domestic violence and child abuse'.
While Isabella told Richard: 'It is a big relief the restraining order is put into place, for me and for my kids because it means we can be in our garden.
'Before we literally barricaded ourselves in our house when we're alone. So now I don't feel like we are prisoners in our own home.'
She adds: 'However, I'm still scared. Restraining order or not, I don't think that's enough to stop the guy.
'So in one way I'm relieved, but in another way I'm always still watching my back. I'm often still in fear and I don't go outside with the kids after dark.'
The court judgement disclosed that Christophe had also been undergoing treatment – a full year for 'addictive behaviour with alcohol and drugs'.
The judgement also recorded that when Isabella, unfamiliar with Belgian law, hesitated to sign a pre-nuptial agreement after he proposed in 2013, her fiancé called her 'a slut', 'a w***e' and 'a b***h'..
While pregnant in 2018, the court judgement records that Christophe 'grabbed [Isabella's] head [and] hit it against a metal object'.
While Isabella was still recovering from the birth of daughter India, in 2019, Christophe 'gave her a violent slap, with an open hand, on the left cheek'.
Days later, Christophe, while in the presence of their two sons, 'began screaming at her: 'W***e', 'B***h', while spitting in her face and grabbing her with both hands [around] the neck,' says the court judgement.
Isabella reported her husband to the Belgian police, but was unaware that her allegations had to be 'confirmed by a formal complaint'.
Isabella, says the court judgment, suffered in other ways, as Christophe 'took away her car keys', and 'emptied [their joint] bank account'.
The stoical Isabella remained unbowed – and might have thought that she had won through when, in February 2021, they moved to Portugal, with Christophe promising that 'things would be different, that he would change…because he would be under less stress'.
There was indeed some change: Christophe, records the court judgement, began an affair in August 2021.
However, he then bit Isabella's nose, hit her twice and spat in her face, says the court judgement – and, at Christmas 2021, shut his son Victor 'inside an aluminium suitcase' – as 'a joke'.
Patrick, says the court judgement, was subjected to 'an unspecified number of spanks on the head' after accidentally turning off the television.
In the spring of 2023, Christophe left Isabella and his children, and moved in with his mistress. But, from time to time, he returned. On June 6, he removed almost all the furniture from the house.
He was back the next day to pick up the couple's two dogs – one of which belonged to Isabella, who tried to rescue the animal from the back of her husband's car. In the ensuing struggle, Christophe 'almost strangled her', records the court judgment, causing Isabella to fall 'helplessly to the ground and lose consciousness'.
When she came round, the children crying and screaming, with India 'trying to wake her up' and Patrick 'trying to resuscitate her'.
Christophe declined to comment when approached by the Mail.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womanstrust.org.uk, womensaid.org.uk or refuge.org.uk.
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