Society’s most acrimonious marriage break-up: aristocratic reality TV star Lady Isabella Hervey accuses husband of being brutal wife-beater.
After the birth of her first child, Lady Isabella Hervey reflected: ‘I have always had a fairy-tale dream of a happy family life, and now that fairy-tale dream has come true.’
That fairy-tale has now turned into a horrific nightmare, the former reality television star reveals.
Lady Isabella, 41-year-old sister of the Marquess of Bristol, claims her husband, the Belgian businessman Christophe de Pauw, is a wife-beater.
Among the painful injuries he is alleged to have inflicted on her was a punch in hospital after the birth of their daughter that left Lady Isabella with a fractured skull.
Lady Isabella, 41-year-old sister of the Marquess of Bristol, claims her husband beats her
Lady Isabella and husband Christophe De Pauw at the Ivy Garden in Chelsea, May 2016
Injuries to Lady Isabella Hervey, posted by her sister Lady Victoria on social media, claiming they were inflicted by Christoph de Pauw
Her sister, Lady Victoria Hervey, 47, a friend of Prince Andrew, shocked pals this week by posting a series of graphic photographs online pf her injuries
In one picture, she has what appears to be swelling and bruising under an eye
Her sister, Lady Victoria Hervey, 47, a friend of Prince Andrew, shocked pals this week by posting a series of graphic photographs online of Lady Isabella’s injuries. In one picture, she has what appears to be swelling and bruising under an eye.
Lady Isabella tells me: ‘There are many more images and videos, but the mental abuse was, for me, the worst. All this happened around my children and mostly in front of them. The boys, who are six and seven, treat me like their father did. It’s very upsetting.’
I disclosed in August that Lady Isabella had separated from de Pauw after ten years of marriage.
She had previously become famous through appearances on TV shows and was voted one of the world’s sexiest women by lad mag FHM after starring in Celebrity Love Island. Having won Channel 4 show The Games, she found solace in cycling and recently represented Britain at the UCI world championships in Glasgow.
The couple initially lived in Belgium, but Lady Isabella is now in Portugal with their children. ‘I didn’t want to publicise all this, as I’m a private person, but things have got worse and worse this year,’ she tells me. She says she filed police reports against her husband in both Belgium and Portugal.
Her sister also claims that her brother-in-law was unfaithful to Lady Isabella.
‘Christoph de Pauw should be put away,’ Lady Victoria declares. ‘He is a serial abuser. He would cheat on my sister, then punish her for it. He punched my sister after she had given birth to her third child. She was punched in the hospital and her skull was fractured. It has got to the point that we can no longer stay silent.’
Lady Isabella’s family lost their ancestral seat, Ickworth in Suffolk, due to the self-destructive showmanship of her elder half-brother, John, the 7th marquess, who died aged 44.
He squandered £35million on helicopters, heroin and other recreational pleasures. Meanwhile, her half-brother, Lord Nicholas Hervey, took his own life aged 36.
De Pauw declines to comment.
