How Duke of Westminster came into £10bn fortune that makes him richer than King Charles
The Duke of Westminster is one of the UK's wealthiest landowners and was known as the most eligible bachelor in Britain - until he married Olivia Henson
Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, married his sweetheart Olivia Henson today in a much-anticipated wedding that's being heralded as high society's most significant event this year.
Celebrating their nuptials in classy style that only aristocracy can pull off, the UK's richest man under 40 will undoubtedly showcase an extravaganza that their friends and family will not forget. Hugh, when just 25 years young in 2016, experienced a monumental shift in his life following the unexpected death of his father, the sixth Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor.
The traumatic event saw him inherit a property empire worth an estimated £10bn overnight, transforming him into one of Britain's wealthiest land tycoons - and making him richer than King Charles. However, prior to his untimely death, Gerald Cavendish revealed an unusual sentiment towards his son's inheritance - expressing sympathy rather than excitement for the future heir's impending fortune.
According to the late duke, his son Hugh "will be under enormous pressure," due to the immense wealth he would come into. Gerald told Tatler: "He's a lucky boy to be given all the material things in life, but he'll need to be robust mentally to survive.
"There are many pitfalls when one inherits such an enormous amount of money, especially in adolescence."
Counselling against complacency, Gerald said: "He's been born with the longest silver spoon anyone can have, but he can't go through life sucking on it. He has to put back what he has been given."
Following his father's demise, Hugh took control of an imposing property portfolio boasting vast swathes of London's most sought-after areas, reports the Mirror. Counted among his territory is half of Mayfair and 300 acres of Belgravia. The Grosvenor Group, the source of the vast wealth, owns a variety of properties including the American Embassy, estates in Scotland and Spain, Liverpool city centre, Tokyo apartment blocks, a significant portion of Silicon Valley - and the entirety of Annacis Island, just off Vancouver.
Hugh was the third child born to Gerald and his wife Natalia, but he benefited from an age-old rule that sees peerages only passed down the male line, known as male primogeniture. He has two older sisters, Lady Tamara and Lady Edwina Grosvenor.
However, the family title and fortune went to Hugh, Gerald's third child and only son. He also has a younger sister, Lady Viola.
Hugh spent his childhood at Eaton Hall, his family's ancestral home in Cheshire, where his parents endeavoured to provide him with as grounded an upbringing as possible on an estate spanning 11,000 acres. He did not attend Eton or Harrow (his father had despised his own Harrovian education), instead, the young Earl Grosvenor attended local private school Mostyn House, then Ellesmere College, the £8,500-per-term boarding school in Shropshire.
He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Countryside Management from Newcastle University before working as an account manager for sustainability company Bio-bean, a firm that transforms coffee waste into sustainable products such as biofuel.
Despite his immense wealth - and the fact he owns more land than his godfather King Charles - Hugh reportedly prefers a low-key life. One relative told The Telegraph: "Hugh is a stable pair of hands. He's not some Hooray Henry who likes getting hooned and going to 5 Hertford Street. He even has a slight Midlands lilt.
"His mum, Tally [Natalia, a descendant of George II and the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin], was keen on the children having a more normal upbringing, so almost consciously didn't want them to go to all those Eton, Harrow sort of places and risk turning into that arrogant, entitled type of person."
