Victoria Smurfit: Castle Life vs. VW School Runs

As the glamorous Maud O'Hara in Disney+ smash hit Rivals, she leads an enviable life – Cotswolds mansion, handsome husband and the kind of eccentricity that allows her to enter a New Year's party on a camel.

But, barring the camel, Victoria Smurfit's real life is not so far removed from the setting of Jilly Cooper's 1980s romp-fest. 

The Irish actress's family is said to be among the wealthiest on the Emerald Isle – the family fortune was made by her father Dermot and uncle Michael, who ran the packaging company Smurfit WestRock, now said to be worth about £16billion.

Home was a £14million six-bedroom castle overlooking Dublin Bay that once hosted the kings Edward VII and .

But, as the 52-year-old tells YOU magazine, her childhood was normal and grounded. 'There was no limo or chauffeur,' she says. 'We went to school in the beaten-up yellow VW. If you wanted money for something, you washed the car.'

Ms Smurfit made a name for herself in the TV dramas Ballykissangel and Cold Feet.

Rivals, now starting its second series, is a full-circle moment. She once found her mother Caroline howling with laughter reading the Jilly Cooper novel. 

Sadly, her mother never lived to see her in the role, in which she plays the wife of Aidan Turner's character Declan.

Ms Smurfit says: 'She would have barged her way on set. She would have been asking, 'When's Aidan's next scene with his top off?'

Ms Smurfit met Queen Camilla, a friend of Ms Cooper's, when she visited the set after the novelist died last year. 'You could tell why she and Jilly were best mates. You got the sense there's a fun gal in there.'

The mother of three is divorced from her first husband, advertising executive Douglas Baxter.

She married banker Steve Jacobs in 2023 and the family live by the Thames in south-west London.

As for the new series of Rivals, Ms Smurfit says: 'It's going to make you wonder, 'Why don't I get to ride horses and have insane dinner parties or ride in helicopters?'

l Rivals