Hugh Grosvenor with Jake Warren, Charlie van Straubenzee and Arthur Landon at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018
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It has the family’s Eaton Estate in Cheshire and the Abbeystead Estate in Lancashire. There are also estates in Scotland, Spain, and Liverpool. There is a shopping centre in Stockholm, a residential tower in Tokyo, a large chunk of Silicon Valley and all of Annacis Island, near Vancouver.
The Duke of Grosvenor inherited a rumoured £9.5 billion fortune in 2016, after his father, Gerald Grosvenor, died following a heart attack. He also became the head of the family’s titular firm, but that is not to say that he maintains much control over the company. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
In the Fifties, the Grosvenor family placed their main assets in a series of trusts to protect the estate from spendthrift heirs, disastrous divorce and other threats. According to Hugi Clarke, a director of the Foresight Group, an estate-planning firm, this means that the duke and his family receive the benefits but have no ‘absolute right’ to the assets.
Indeed, Hugh Grosvenor prefers to focus his attention on his philanthropic pursuits, which he promotes through the Westminster Foundation. While and his wife, Olivia Henson, tend to stay out of the public eye, when the pair do step out for a public engagement, it is usually to support one of their charitable causes.
