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Margaret Thatcher’s most trusted political aide Lord Maurice Saatchi has described the joy of falling in love again – at the tender age of 78.
When his wife, novelist Josephine Hart, passed away from cancer in 2011, Lord Saatchi thought his life was over. “I was miserable and unhappy for over a decade,” the Tory peer admitted.
In his grief, he reportedly mowed her name into the grass of his garden and transformed his West Sussex home into a shrine to his wife of 27 years.
Saatchi – who co-founded the global advertising powerhouse Saatchi & Saatchi with his brother was behind Margaret Thatcher’s famous “Labour Isn’t Working” campaign – is now devoted to his new partner and fellow widower, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, 70.
“It’s a touching story, a widow and a widower, but it’s not exactly a romcom,” calling Lady de Rothschild, a former director of The Economist Group, “a formidable, fascinating woman”.
The pair first met 25 years ago, when both were married. Lynn, who wed Sir Evelyn de Rothschild in 2000, had been close friends with Saatchi and Hart.
“Lynn and Evelyn became friends of ours,” Saatchi told The Times. “We were often a four. We’d go on holiday together, have dinners. Then Josephine died, followed by Evelyn. We went from four to three to two.”
When Sir Evelyn died in 2022, aged 91, Lord Saatchi and Lady de Rothschild remained in touch. For some time, their friendship remained entirely platonic, but that changed one evening over dinner.
He said: “We were just friends. It never occurred to me or her, never. I never thought, ‘Wow, Lynn is very attractive,’ although obviously she is. She never thought, ‘I wonder what he’d be like?’ Until we did.”
“I know the exact moment we flipped,” Saatchi recalled. “We were at Harry’s Bar for dinner. How you get from a platonic relationship to a romantic one is a mystery, but it happened in a split second, in the eyes. Everything changed.”
He confessed he hadn’t thought about another woman since Josephine’s death. “But Lynn suddenly said something, and then I felt it. I was shocked. But she is a formidable, fascinating woman, and I realised that we could make it happen.”
Reflecting on how his late wife might have felt about his new relationship, Saatchi shared a conversation he had with Lynn and Bob Geldof. “I said I believed that if Evelyn and Josephine were looking down now, they would say, ‘This is good.’ There was a short silence, then Geldof said, ‘Self-serving bullshit.’ We all laughed, because, of course, we’ll never know what Evelyn and Josephine would feel.”
Saatchi noted that his bond with Lynn is strengthened by their shared experiences of loss. “There is a practical benefit,” he explained. “If the two living people, the new lovers, knew and liked the two deceased, it helps greatly. We can chat about them.
“It’s not like Rebecca in Daphne du Maurier’s novel. I can say, ‘Josephine was brilliant,’ and she can say, ‘Evelyn was wonderful,’ and neither of us feels threatened.”
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