Sir James Goldsmith's body was cremated in a secret ceremony in Spain at 1 a.m. yesterday with his wife Lady Annabel, aged 62, the only member of his family present. Sir James' personal assistant Charles Filmer was by her side. The billionaire, who was 64, died on Friday evening.
An urn containing the ashes was given to the grieving widow, who then carried them to London aboard their private jet yesterday.
But while the late leader of the Referendum Party's extended families were united in grief they may yet prove to be divided over the inheritance of his billion pound fortune. With details of his will still not available, a major question mark hangs over how his two wives, mistress and eight children will share out the huge sums of money that Goldsmith accrued through his life as a corporate raider and a political maverick.
The former leader of the Referendum Party, last seen by most publicly baracking a defeated David Mellor with a slow handclap and cries of "out, out, out" on election night, had mansions in Paris and Burgundy in France, Richmond, in London and Cuix mala in Mexico as well as the farm house near Marbella.
At his side in the house in Spain he had flown to so that he could die in the bed that he was born in, were his third wife, Lady Annabel, and his mistress for nearly 20 years, Laure Boulay.
His second wife, Ginette Lery, was with other members of his family - including his daughter Jemima, wife of former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan - at his home in France. "They are all united in grief," the family spokesman in London, Patrick Robertson, said.
As controversial in politics as he was in his private life, most assessments of Goldsmith's Referendum Party widely dismissed the project as a £20 million irrelevance to Mr Tony Blair's election landslide. But the maverick financier's intervention may have cost the Tories as many as 23 seats.
A small financial management company with offices in Hong Kong, Geneva, New York and London will administer the estate, which generates an income of around £80 million a year.
While his wife Lady Annabel and her children shared his estate in Richmond, south-west London, Sir James also spent time with ex-wife Ginette Lery and mistress Laure de Boulay and their respective children in a divided house on the Left Bank in Paris.
His first wife Isabel Patino died tragically in 1957, seven months after their wedding. Their daughter - also called Isabel - is among his eight children expected to benefit from the will.
Likely to receive a sizeable inheritance is daughter Jemima, who married former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan in 1995 in one of the most glamorous weddings of recent years.
