The Hidden Story of Cotswolds ‘Poshfluencer’ Lydia Millen: Unearthed Interview Reveals Her Different Background

With a different pair of Hunter wellies for every day of the week, an array of Barbour jackets, her own thoroughbred pony and a vast collection of designer bags, Lydia Millen embodies what many would consider the epitome of very British luxury.

Her Instagram page is full of carefully curated photos featuring wildflower meadows and beach holidays and videos talking through her designer outfits in perfectly clipped vowels. Recent snaps show her driving down country roads in Land Rovers and on days out to Ascot and Wimbledon.

Her £2million Cotswolds country pile, complete with an outdoor kitchen and walk-in dressing rooms of course has its own dedicated Instagram account.

No wonder then, that in recent years Lydia has taken the crown as Queen of a new genre of TikTok and Instagram ‘poshfluencers’ (posh influencers) with a following of over four million.

So great is her appeal that she graced the cover of Country Homes magazine last year, has her own fashion line with Karen Millen (no relation), featured in Harper’s Bazaar and even met King Charles at Highgrove House for The King’s Foundation’s annual ‘Crafts at Christmas’ event in December.

Indeed, she seems so impossibly posh that many imagine she comes from the same stock as her hero and doppelganger the Princess of Wales.

But Millen’s meticulously cultivated upper-class social media identity hides her much more humble beginnings.

For in reality Lydia, 37, is a real-life Eliza Doolittle: a working-class girl who has become so adept at embracing the etiquette of Debrett’s that she has not only infiltrated high society but become its poster girl.

For Lydia’s younger years were spent in a council house, smoking 20 cigarettes a day and partying on the Ibiza strip.

Born in Watford, her parents Sophia and Harvey separated after a five-year relationship which forced her mother to move into a council house.

Having ‘flunked’ her GCSEs and failing to even turn up to collect her results, Lydia then trained as a beauty therapist in her teens and would spend her summers on Ibiza working as a ‘shot girl’.

‘My first year in Ibiza, it was 2008 and I worked as a barmaid in a club with a little bit of promotional modelling here and there,’ she told her followers.

‘I want to say it was this wild time, but I was working three or four jobs when I was there, and I was there to work like a Duracell bunny.

‘I had a job at Ibiza Rocks, Eden, I’d go from one job to the other and then go out and party and get up and get back to work.’

Aged 21, Lydia gave up partying and enrolled at Northampton University, where she gained a degree in Retail Marketing and also started a job that would change her life forever. Alongside studying, Lydia worked in a small Watford clothing emporium called The End, which was, in fact, just the start of her lucrative career.

‘I learnt there how much I liked making money,’ she told the Working Hard podcast.

‘I realised early on I couldn’t depend on people so as long as I had enough money to get all my ducks in a row, I didn’t have to depend on anyone.

‘I wanted to be a fashion buyer, but I couldn’t get on the course, so I started blogging.’

And the hard work paid off.

After four years of documenting her charity shop finds on her blog, Lydia got her first paid advertisement deal – and her first taste of the good life.

Despite being voted ‘most likely to marry a footballer’ at school, it was shortly after university that she met her now husband, fellow blogger, Alistair – ‘Ali’ – Gordon, 36. Together, ten years ago, they took their first tentative steps into the influencing world.

Their personal brand, however, was a far cry from the one they have manufactured today. Lydia posted pictures of them wearing matching tracksuit sets with her hair scraped back into an eye-watering ponytail, eking out a niche as a fitness influencer.

‘It’s something she would much rather forget,’ said one insider. ‘Her lifestyle then doesn’t correspond with the standards she now lives by.’

Lydia and Ali gave an interview to the Mail, aged 27 at the time, headlined: ‘Is this Britain’s FITTEST couple? Meet the partners who eat, sleep and train together every day’.

In the piece, Lydia revealed: ‘I was so unhealthy [before I met Ali]. I smoked up to 20 cigarettes a day, binge drank at weekends and my diet was just awful. I didn’t have a clue and was majorly under-eating.’

Explaining how they first met, Lydia revealed that ‘Ali’s friend showed him a picture of a girl that I’m friends with. He found a picture of me with her on her Instagram and went on to my page,’ Lydia told the Mail.

Ali liked one of Lydia’s Instagram photos and the pair quickly got chatting. After finally meeting at a party they ended up moving in together in Milton Keynes.

Lydia soon realised that, on social media, she could be anyone she wanted to be. And so, she began her ‘rebrand’.

‘When Ali and I got together, he spoke really well and has a normal British accent, and I have evolved so that my accent and voice has changed,’ she said in an old video. ‘I always want to speak eloquently and clearly.’

Lydia stepped away from the high street gym brands and instead started incorporating more high-end designers into her wardrobe.

‘The decision to choose luxury was this belief that luxury is really subjective. And that has progressed as my career has progressed. Luxury was something I didn’t realise I was doing quite naturally.

‘It’s been about highlighting those elements of life and that did focus around the handbags, the shoes and the cars.

‘Those are the things I enjoy talking about, so it wasn’t a content strategy back then. It was just, this is what I like and this is what I am interested in.’

Nevertheless, the change in direction paid off. Classic British clothing, make up and even homeware brands keen to tap into Lydia’s youthful following offered her advertising deals – and in turn, her content became ever ‘posher’. This particularly appealed to Americans, who enjoyed her ‘Disneyfied’ take on English country life.

A source said: ‘She’s made a career from fetishizing Britishness. There have been a few eras to her influencer brand, and she has been very savvy about when knowing to pivot her content. She’s been very clever in moving towards more British content.

‘And rather than only engage with Brits now, she is trying to appeal to people internationally who think that is how Brits live.’

They added: ‘There is a real demand in influencers creating content showing a lifestyle that many people desire. It’s a form of escapism, or something to aim for. And she jumped on the trend just in time.’

The biggest pivot for Lydia’s brand came seven years ago when she and Ali – who makes his own social media content – moved into their £2million Cotswold’s home.

Her profile now looks something out of Architectural Digest, with the majority of her content centering around her mansion and its acres: riding horses, drinking tea in the greenhouse while tending to her flowers.

In recent years she has collaborated with underwear brand Intimissi, Sky TV, Creed Fragrances and Land Rover, to name just a few.

And in 2023 she released a book, Evergreen, billed as the essential guide for anyone who is looking to ‘unearth their inner strength and bring more joy and contentment into their everyday’. In it, she admits that what ‘people see on the outside is different to what is in the inside’.

Thanks to these lucrative deals – as well as the money she makes through posting videos on her YouTube channel, Lydia’s business account currently has £1.7million sitting in it.

And with Ali’s 900,000 subscribers, the couple are thought to have a net worth of around £10million.

But life in the limelight has brought with it controversy.

In November 2022, Lydia was slammed for being ‘tone deaf’ after complaining that the heating in her home had broken – and announcing that she was going to the Savoy Hotel to take refuge.

It was the height of the cost-of-living crisis and, wearing a £2,000 outfit, she filmed a video saying: ‘The heating is currently broken in my house so I’m heading down to London. I’m checking into the Savoy and I’m going to make full use of their wonderful hot water.’

Perhaps this backlash from followers is why, insiders say, Lydia is planning yet another rebrand.

Four months ago, Lydia took to social media to announce that she was selling her Hermes Birkin bag collection – which included a Kelly bag worth £25,000.

She explained that she felt unsafe carrying them in London and that she become addicted to having the best and ‘most shiny’ bag.

‘My channel took off from handbag unboxings and luxury hauls. There was one point in my career where I was doing multiple handbag unboxings a month. I would buy myself a handbag to let me know I had done well. I had reached 75 designer handbags and I started to constantly needed the best bag on offer. I have edited my handbags now from 75 to a strong 15.’

She went on to partner with vintage retailer Sellier Knightsbridge to sell her goods, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

Fans were suspicious. Was Lydia was selling the bags because of financial issues? Or was it because she had recently embarked on a partnership with up-market brand Mulberry?

One source had a better explanation: ‘I think she is now trying to be more understated. She has always had this obsession with class and being posh.

‘And in reality people with that level of wealth don’t carry around a Birkin bag or a Chanel bag. It’s more of a low-key kind of wealth. ‘Money talks but wealth whispers’ as they say.’