A VERY MODERN ARISTOCRAT - THE MARCHIONESS OF BATH

TALKS FAMILY AND THE FUTURE AS SHE OPENS UP HER HISTORIC HOME AND SAFARI PARK TO HELLO!

- SALLY MORGAN

Gliding gracefully toward us in a showstopping green tailored suit, her Louboutin heels clicking purposefully on the polished wooden floor, Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, greets us not with a formal handshake and glacial aristocratic gaze but a hug and a beaming smile that lights up the room at her magnificent Elizabethan residence, Longleat House, in the English county of Wiltshire.

“I’m so excited,” she says as she invites Hello! into the newly decorated private apartment she shares with her husband, Ceawlin, the 8th Marquess of Bath, and their young sons, John and Henry – formally known as Viscount Weymouth and Lord Henry Thynn. Our hostess is warm, approachable and quite unique.

BLAZING A TRAIL

A modern face of 21st-century British aristocracy, Emma has pushed boundaries with a series of firsts. She’s blazed her own trail since marrying Ceawlin in 2013 and becoming marchioness after the death of Alexander Thynn, the 7th marquess, four years ago.

At a time when it shouldn’t matter, much was made of the fact that Emma was the first mixed-heritage woman to take that title – her mother is British former socialite Suzanna McQuiston, and her father is Nigerian oil magnate Oladipo Jadesimi.

She’s also the first marchioness to walk the runway (for the likes of Dolce & Gabbana), compete on Strictly Come Dancing (Britain’s equivalent of