20-05-2025
Marquess of Ailesbury cut son and granddaughter from his will before falling to his death from window as documents reveal who aristocrat left his estate to
The Marquess of Ailesbury cut his son and granddaughter out of his will before falling to his death from his bedroom window.
Michael Brudenell-Bruce, a distant relative of Prince Harry 's model ex Florence Brudenell-Bruce, was ruled to have taken his own life last year aged 98.
And probate documents have revealed that the aristocrat removed his heir and several members of his family from his estate just a year before his death.
He had been estranged from David, 72, for decades and received nothing in the will.
Even a reunion three months before the tragic fall at the request of his ten-year-old granddaughter Lady Sophie could not reconcile the pair, The Times reports.
David is reported to have believed his father removed assets from the trust which owns their family estate.
But the bitter rift was so divisive that an explicit clause was entered into the will that anyone who challenged the document's validity, launched a formal objection or brought any inheritance or heirship claim should be 'excluded from receiving any benefit'.
Anyone who should make a claim would be cut from the will and it should 'take effect as if no provision had been made to benefit that person'.
The net value of the Marquess' estate had a net value of just £195,421 - with the gross value rising to £320,251. Much of the family fortune was held in trusts.
He left all of his personal possessions to his partner of 37-years Teresa Marshall de Paoli, 89, along with 20 per cent of his assets.
The former model and author was the one who found the aristocrat on the patio at the home they shared together in Shepherds Bush, west London, on May 12 last year.
The Marquess' two daughters by his first wife, Lady Carina, 69 and Lady Sylvia, 70 received 20 per cent and 10 per cent, while his daughter from his second marriage, Lady Kathryn, received 15 per cent.
His niece Tamara received 15 per cent, while Lady Sylvia received further assets through a trust which was set up when her parents got married.
David, his half-sister Lady Louise, 60, David's daughter Lady Catherine, 40 and David's second daughter through his second wife Lady Sophie, 10, received nothing.
Speaking out about the will in January, David said: 'Given the state of our relations I never expected to get anything from his will — he had, after all, [already] left me his 49 per cent share of the Savernake estate.'
'Knowing I stood to benefit nothing from [the will], I never paid too much attention to when the final will was written, but certainly I feel people with dementia should not be making financial decisions.'
David's son Thomas, Viscount Savernake, received a quarter of the estate - the largest sum of anyone.
The grandson has himself been estranged from his father after he agreed to sell Tottenham House in Wiltshire, the family's 100-room ancestral seat, for £11.5million.
He told the inquest that he visited his grandfather weekly before he died because he was concerned about how other family members treated him, West London Coroner's Court heard.
He said: 'I had been visiting every week for the previous five or six years... I began to be concerned that various family members were taking advantage of him.'
The will was witnessed by the Marquess' solicitor and Dr Simon Adelman, a leading psychiatrist.
The Marquess asked for his body to be buried at St Katharine's Church, Savernake Forest, which sits less than a mile away from Tottenham House.
At the Marquess' inquest the coroner refused to allow questions about 'concern for his assets or alleged interference with those assets', the Times reported.
He was discovered with at least three belts around his body, the assistant coroner for west London, Dr Anton van Dellen, ruled.
Teresa Marshall de Paoli found him lying on the patio in the back garden of their home in Shepherd's Bush.
She told the court he did not have belts on his arms or chest when she first discovered him.
Ms Marshall de Paoli said when she found him she did not know if he was dead and first called her stepdaughter Kathryn Brudenell-Bruce 'in shock'.
The court was shown bodyworn footage from Inspector Dipak Godhania, one of the police officers called to the scene, in which forensic officers can be seen undoing two belts from Mr Brudenell-Bruce's arms.
The court has heard police also found another belt wrapped around his chest.
Ms Marshall de Paoli said the belts were 'the biggest mystery' to her.
'Can I just tell you when I found Lord Ailesbury there were no belts around his arms,' she told the hearing.
'There was only one belt on Lord Ailesbury and that was his brown Hermes belt, around his waist.
'This to me was the biggest mystery because he did not have any belts round him when I found him.'
Asked if Mr Brudenell-Bruce could have put the belts on himself, Dr Claudia Wald, a psychiatrist who assessed him in July 2022, said she thought it was unlikely given his physical frailty.
'In fact I think it would be very difficult for anyone to do,' Dr Wald said.
Before the ruling the inquest previously heard evidence from Mr Brudenell-Bruce's grandson Thomas said his grandfather 'must have' been able to buckle his own belt.
'He would go to the toilet unassisted and come back fully dressed,' Viscount Savernake said.
He added his grandfather was 'kind, kind of funny, and devoted to his partner Teresa'.
But, Dr Claudia Wald said he spoke about being nervous in Ms Marshall de Paoli's company.
She said he 'had to walk on eggshells for fear she might ask him to leave his home and never come back.
Dr Wald added: 'He was also able to comment that when he was in the company of other family members he was a lot more happy.'
Mr Brudenell-Bruce's daughter Lady Kathyrn Brudenell-Bruce and Viscount Savernake both told the coroner they did not believe his partner harmed him.
He had suffered with depression and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia in March 2021, the court was told.
He had suicidal ideas in December 2008 after the stock market crash and his move from Savernacke Forest, Wiltshire, to London.
Ms Marshall de Paoli initially told the court she thought it was around 7pm when she found her husband unconscious on the patio floor.
Asked why she did not call police until 7.52pm she said: 'Then it must've been later than 7pm when I found him.'
The inquest has heard there was a delay between ambulance crews arriving and Ms Marshall de Paoli answering the door.
Asked by Dr van Dellen whether she agreed there was a delay, Ms Marshall de Paoli said: 'Well, if they say so, I guess, yes.'
She told the hearing she thought she had been getting changed from what she had been wearing all day because she thought she might have to go to the hospital with her partner.
The inquest heard in evidence from the couple's housekeeper Joanne Chubb that Mr Brudenell-Bruce's bedroom window had been left wide open that afternoon and it had been a hot and humid day.
Ms Marshall de Paoli told the court she had not known the window was open, and only suspected he had fallen from the window when she went up to the bedroom after finding him unconscious.
The inquest previously heard in police evidence that Ms Marshall de Paoli had said doctors had been giving injections to patients to help them die for years, but were being stopped by 'lefty nurses'.
She told the hearing: 'I don't remember saying that to police. I do remember saying that to someone else though.'
She told the court she had some sympathy for people who assist others in dying.
'I could understand why, I suppose if someone was dying of cancer and was in terrible pain, I would have some sympathy with that,' Ms Marshall de Paoli said.
'But it's certainly not something I could have ever done.'
When paramedics arrived at the scene they called the police as they believed the incident was 'suspicious because of the circumstances'.
PC Katherine Taylor, one of the officers who attended the scene, said Marshall de Paoli 'seemed in shock' and 'was distressed' - but didn't recall her crying.
Taylor claimed Brudenell-Bruce was found with two belts wrapped around his arms, which another officer suggested could have been to stop him trying to break his fall.
Dr van Dellen said he rejected a conclusion of assisted suicide because Ms Marshall de Paoli 'would have had to lie repeatedly to police, maintain that lie in correspondence with this court and then lie repeatedly under oath here today'.
'I reject that. I found her a credible, if somewhat frail, witness.'
After ruling that Mr Brudenell-Bruce died by suicide, the coroner paid tribute to him, saying: 'It is very clear to me that he was a remarkable man.
'He lived to 98 years of age, he was clearly somebody who lived through some of the greatest events of the last century.
'The fact that so many people are present in court today indicates to me he was very much loved and I've no doubt very much missed.'
