Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has revealed he has signed away two-thirds of his estate to his sons-in-law.
The 60-year-old TV personality and interior designer lives on his sprawling Cotswolds estate alongside his wife, Jackie, two daughters, Hermione and Cecile, and their husbands and children.
Hermione, 27, is married to Dan, 28, and the couple share two children, aged two and 18 months. They live inside the main manor house with Laurence and Jackie. Meanwhile, Cecile and her husband Dan are both 30 years old and have two children aged eight and three. They live across the property’s gravel drive in a converted garage block.
“I'm no longer lord of the manor,” Laurence told The Sunday Times. His daughter, Hermione added: “Hilariously, Cecile and I aren’t on the deeds, because we inherit it anyway — it’s actually the husbands.”
Laurence explained: “One of the most amusing things was having to sit down with a solicitor for them to assess whether Jackie and I were being coerced into this by our bullying sons-in-law. Our friends just can’t believe it. They go, what happens if you all fall out?”
“We do fall out all the time,” Hermione admitted, but added that her mother’s cooking has served as a deterrent so far. “But we’ve got two choices. We get over it. Or we don’t go round for dinner — and then that means cooking.”
“We’re not going to be those old people sitting on a great big pile of cash,” Laurence added. “Terribly unhappy, terribly lonely. Owning a lot of stuff but not actually having the benefit of it. We are very, very privileged, but we have made this decision. We have manifested this life.”
Speaking about his appearance on Netflix show Bear Hunt, the Changing Rooms star said his wife Jackie had felt that his desire to take part was a passing phase: “She feels it’s got midlife crisis written all over it, although, as I keep telling her, I’m too old to have a midlife crisis, this is more like an end of life crisis.”
He added: “She’s actually, frankly, incredibly jealous. She would love to do it and has always been mildly irritated that no one’s ever asked her to do something like this. Because she literally has always had in her handbag, a SAS Survival Guide, to get herself out of all sorts. I meant to bring it actually and again, how foolishly, I completely forgot.”
