Anthea's lost millions
EARLIER this year, Grant Bovey threatened to sue anyone who said he was in financial difficulty. Now Anthea Turner's husband admits that much of the £100 million they were once worth has gone...
They are the golden couple who fell to earth. And while their losses might not rank with those of the big banks in the crash of 2008, there are few higher profile casualties in this country so far than Grant Bovey and Anthea Turner.
This weekend it was reported they had lost close to a mind-boggling £10million in the credit crunch as the husband of The Perfect Housewife presenter and former GMTV star saw his buy-to-let property empire collapse.
Bovey was quoted as saying: “Our net worth was more than £10million — now it’s an awful lot less, just a fraction of what it was.”
Anthea, 48, wept in an interview: “Our backs are against the wall — we may even lose our mansion.”
The couple own a £5million estate in Surrey and a chateau in France.
But Anthea said: “We are in it like lots of other people who have been bitten by economic circumstances. I can’t remember the last time I slept properly because of the worry.”
Bovey, 47, added: “Next year is going to be very tough.”
Such a grim admission is far removed from the Bovey who has previously threatened to sue anyone who suggests that his businesses are in financial difficulty.
I can't sleep we may lose our mansion
At the end of last month the couple’s home furnishings firm Imagine Furnishings filed for administration. This supplied Imagine Homes, another Bovey company taken over by its backers HBOS in October.
Imagine Furnishings, which employed 15 people, was hit by the collapse of the property market in the summer. It made a loss of £685,259 on a turnover of £2.6million in 2006.
Anthea produced a range of interior designs and acted as consultant, for which she was paid £389,410 in 2007 and a further £240,792 in advances. An interest-free loan of £573,738 to her was waived.
Other Bovey companies under the Imagine umbrella — Imagine Prestige and Imagine Veritas — also went into administration this month.
His empire sold furnished properties with guaranteed rental income, taking a management fee of 10 per cent of the rent for two years. It was formerly one of the biggest operators in the buy-to-let market.
Just 10 years ago Anthea Turner was the second highest paid woman on British television, after Cilla Black. Now her highest profile appearance on screen is advertising Flash, the household detergent.
The cancellation of the couple’s annual charity ball this summer was another sign that all was not well in the Bovey-Turner empire. But Bovey threatened back in April: “I am sitting in our
£5million chateau in Megeve in the Alps. I will sue anyone who says that Imagine Homes is in financial difficulty. We are 20 per cent owned by HBOS and have huge profits that have yet to materialise.”
A year ago, Bovey boasted that turnover could reach £1billion and it was said that Imagine Homes was being prepared for stock market flotation.
Imagine Homes bought properties at a discount from developers, furnished them and sold them on to investors — a property a day at its peak.
Turnover reportedly went as high as £17million. Sales offices were opened in Dubai, Singapore and Ireland and the couple bought a £1million luxury yacht moored in Cannes.
Bovey said design consultant Anthea’s role was “choosing the sofas”.
But it all relied on house prices continuing to rise. Once that stopped, the buy-to-let customers started to disappear.
Other events have not been kind to the couple. The local council ordered them to rip up a £500,000 tennis court at their four-bedroom house near Godalming in Surrey (set in 57 acres, it also boasts a library, wine cellar, polo field, stables, cinema and swimming pool) because it was built without planning permission.
Then Anthea’s kneecap was shattered when her husband’s horse lashed out.
Now Anthea has told a newspaper that they are “very seriously considering downsizing” from the Surrey home.
“We have had to re-evaulate our lives, I don’t think a £5million mansion makes you happy,” she said. And she added that she was concerned about the knock-on effect for others of their financial woes.
“Those people who moan about you driving around in your nice big car are forgetting that the guy who washes the car now hasn’t got a job or who did the maintenance on it,” she declared.
Now firms are sueing Bovey’s company for unpaid bills — cleaner Dawn Shields claims she is owed £7,800 for work on luxurious show flats in Chelsea.
Anthea Turner was once the woman who could do no wrong. She had conquered both morning and prime-time TV, moving from the GMTV sofa to the National Lottery show.
There were rumours of her demanding behaviour in the studio and outright accusation from her then breakfast co-host Eamonn Holmes, who called her “Princess Tippy-toes”.
But the tide began to turn in 1998 when she fell for a married man. Grant Bovey was a father of three daughters, the youngest still little more than a baby.
Anthea was also married, to Radio 1 DJ turned manager Peter Powell, who had skilfully guided her from unknown presenter at Sky to prime-time high profile. Powell and Bovey being good friends only added to the overall picture of betrayal and deceit.
Bovey left wife Della for Anthea, then went back to her and finally left again, this time for good, to set up home with Anthea. Their lavish wedding in August 2000 featured in OK! magazine.
Anthea admitted afterwards:
“It was a mess. I had an affair with a married man who had three children.”
But she added: “We are still together and I would like to think that his children now have two happy homes, instead of one that wasn’t too happy.
“We didn’t do it for nothing. It wasn’t for a bit of a laugh and then I was on to my next person. I would like to think that time has been kinder and people won’t think of me too badly.’’
But the affair effectively ended her career. Contracts were not renewed and new offers were unforthcoming.
If there were any hopes of a revival, Anthea crushed those herself with her autobiography Fools Rush In. She claimed DJ ex-
boyfriend Bruno Brookes had been violent, described her marriage to Powell as a loveless sham and disclosed, with toe-curling gushiness, details of her sex life with Bovey. The book was a disaster, in terms of sales and in every other way.
Anthea was desperate to have her own family but after four failed IVF attempts she gave up and instead has put great effort into forging a strong relationship with step-daughters Lily, 15, Amelia, 14, and Claudia, 11.
In 2005 she had cosmetic surgery to increase her bust from 32B to 32C. “They were beginning to look like eggs in socks,” she said by way of explanation.
She has only recently made a sort of comeback with The Perfect Housewife, her BBC3 series about housework.
Her love for it emerged when she appeared on the first series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2001 and cleaned almost obsessively.
Last night Anthea’s agent Michael Joyce told the Express: “Anthea continues to have a successful television career with The Perfect Housewife and an advertisement for Flash Clean and Care.
“She is also involved in promoting a new homeware line for Matalan and a new book is scheduled for the spring. Her latest book, Perfect Christmas, is also very successful.
“However, like many other people, she and her husband have fallen victim to the current financial situation, which is very upsetting.”
Suddenly, it seems that Anthea will have to take all the jobs, advertisements and book deals that she can get her hands on.
