Undoubtedly one of the most unusual weddings of the decade, even given the eccentricities of the aristocracy, the union of baronet Sir William Jaffray and Gowri Siva now also threatens to become known as one of the most sensational and contentious.
The marriage ceremony – conducted, as I disclosed earlier this month, in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, with the Old Etonian, 74, and his bride, 60, both seated on his bed – is the subject of a string of incendiary allegations made by one of his family members.
The furious relative of Sir William describes the union as a ‘predatory marriage’. They accuse the new Lady Jaffray, a lawyer-turned-art specialist, of a ‘calculated heist of a defenceless man’.
Sir William, who has four children with the first of his two previous wives, fought Lloyd’s in the 1990s on behalf of investors who, like him, suffered huge losses in the London insurance market.
The family member tells me: ‘To secure the estate and title, Gowri isolated him from his family by banning us from his ward, contrary to his wishes. When the hospital refused to provide a registrar, she smuggled an external one on to the Acute Assessment Unit and withheld news of the marriage for a week to prevent legal intervention.’
