An Interview With Lady De Rothschild

Lynn Forester de Rothschild

Image: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

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When 67-year-old British banking scion Sir Evelyn Rothschild first set eyes on 44-year-old Lynn Forester at the 1998 Bilderberg conference—the matchmaker was none other than Henry Kissinger—she was already a woman of major means.

A corporate lawyer and telecommunications entrepreneur, the sparkly blond ex-wife of former New York politician Andrew Stein had made more than $100 million from the sale of cleverly acquired wireless broadband licenses. She was also sexy, charming, and dazzlingly well connected. Two years later, after the smitten Sir Evelyn divorced his second wife, Victoria Schott, the mother of his three children, Forester became the third Lady Rothschild. After marrying in November 2000 at a London synagogue, they honeymooned at the White House, guests of Lynn's good friends Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Today the New Jersey-born Lady de Rothschild—the flashiest hostess in London—is mates with Tony and Cherie Blair, among other topflight Britons. She's also mistress of the former John Singer Sargent home in Chelsea and of Ascott House, the 3,200-acre Rothschild family estate in Buckinghamshire, and the chief executive of E.L. Rothschild, the holding company that she owns with her third husband to manage investments in the Economist and various enterprises in India. Those include FieldFresh, a startup that will grow and export Indian fruits and vegetables for markets in Europe and Asia, and a soon-to-be-announced retail venture aimed at the exploding Indian middle class.

In July, Sir Evelyn completed the sale of his stake in the centuries-old English branch of the Rothschild banking empire (for a reported $600 million)—which frees up a lot of capital for them to be major players in the Indian business world.

This week, Lady de Rothschild talked exclusively with Portfolio.com about business, pleasure, politics, and society—especially her devotion to the idea of President Hillary. "I'm very comfortable in brand-new spaces," she says. "I'm very comfortable with a blank sheet of paper. In fact, I've made my money by doing what people have never done before."

Lloyd Grove: Lady de Rothschild, how are you?

Lady de Rothschild: [Laughs.] My name is Lynn Forester de Rothschild; you know that. But I'm fine, thank you.

L.G.: Where are you calling from?

L.R.: I'm back in London. Right now, I am actually at my home in Chelsea. I have a dinner tonight, so I've come home.

L.G.: Excellent, excellent. So let's talk. I just saw that your husband recently sold his stake in the family banking business, and I'm just wondering, was that a tough decision for him? Were you part of that? Was it emotional? It's kind of a big deal that something that he's been part of for his entire life and so many generations, to just get out of it.

L.R.: Yeah . . . Evelyn had been chairman of the bank, and when he turned over the chairmanship to his French cousin David, and his own children clearly indicated they did not have an interest in working at the bank, Evelyn decided that his children could remain and wanted to remain—and will remain—as shareholders with their French cousins, and Evelyn would liquidate most of what he had over time. There are actually several transactions. The one you read about is the last transaction.

L.G.: I see, I see.

L.R.: And that was not a particularly difficult decision, because the bank has stayed within family control. To have taken any steps outside of the family would have been traumatic. But it was time for Evelyn to step down from the day-to-day of the business. And so putting some capital to work more directly through what we're doing with E.L. Rothschild just seemed like a better, more interesting place for our money to be.

L.G.: I see.

L.R.: But it wasn't traumatic at all.

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