How £25m theft affected my daughter ‘it broke my heart’ – The Irish News

Socialite Tamara Ecclestone said it “broke” her heart the most to see how much a £25million burglary of her parents’ home affected her daughter.

The daughter of former Formula One chairman Bernie Ecclestone, her husband, art gallery owner Jay Rutland, were on holiday in Lapland with their daughter and dog when their mansion in Palace Green, Kensington, was raided in December 2019.

Hundreds of jewellery, cash, diamonds and gemstones worth £25 million were stolen from the 2,000 square meter property. This incident is believed to be the country’s largest ever domestic theft.

Appearing on ITV’s Loose Women, Ecclestone, 40, revealed he did not initially tell his daughter Sophia, now 10, the truth about the break-in because she was too young.

“I actually learned a really valuable lesson, which is that it’s always best to be honest with your kids, and that they can handle a lot more than you think,” she said.

“I actually lied to Sophia at first because she was so young and now she’s obviously older and can go online and Google things and people can tell her things. So he didn’t learn through me.

“Then we worked on it a lot and had a lot of conversations, and it was really hard.”

He continued: “I think that was the part that broke my heart the most when I saw how much it affected him.

“Because as parents you can always be strong for your kids and rationalize things, but to see him go through that fear that there’s someone in his house and maybe he doesn’t think it’s a safe place for him, it’s just really, really heartbreaking.”

Ecclestone said they have since educated their daughters about how people “can do bad things” but that “most people are good and most people are kind.”

Reflecting on whether he wanted to inherit the enormous family fortune, he said: “I feel like there’s no point in looking at things that way. And I’m really lucky to have a wonderful father who I love so much. So no matter what, I’m grateful to be his daughter.

“I have a beautiful life, my children, my family; These are the only things I really think about and that matter to me.

“And of course, with everything in life, there are things that are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. But I feel really lucky every day. It really is.

She said she felt like people were trying to “dehumanize” her at times, but anyone who has been forcibly raped would know how “a tough thing to get over” it was.

“I don’t sit here and say, ‘Poor me,’ because I don’t have that attitude. “This is a bad thing that happened and now it’s about the changes we’re making to make things safer, to make things better, and hopefully something like this won’t happen to us again,” he added.

The 94-year-old former Formula 1 chief has two adult daughters, as well as a four-year-old son named Ace, whom he welcomed with wife Fabiana Flosi.

The socialite said that her stepmother was also pregnant with her step-sister during the quarantine and that she enjoyed being pregnant with her second daughter.

He added: “Every family is different. No one has the same dynamic. It’s so nice to see my little girls playing with Ace, even though he’s Ace’s uncle, he’s trying to explain it to (Sophia) who’s almost 11…

“He is such a gentle little boy. And seeing my dad so happy and having that purpose keeps him young, he worked so hard when my sister and I were growing up and now, obviously this time he’s undivided and he sees how much joy that brings into his life.

“There is no judgment for me and there should be no one else.”