As Rover is in the middle of its painful divorce from BMW, Lord Stokes, the 86-year-old former head of the British car company, is about to remarry.
Lord Stokes was at the helm of Rover in the 1970s when it was known as the British Leyland Motor Corporation.
He is to marry Patricia Pascall, a 70-year-old widow, in June.
Lord Stokes rose from an apprentice with truck maker Leyland Motors in 1930 to chairman of BLMC from 1968 to 1975 and, when the company was nationalised in 1975 and renamed BL, president.
He said yesterday: "I've got fond memories of my time at Leyland. I watch with interest what is going on in the British motor industry but I think it is sad it is going into a terminal state of decline."
