Lady Lucan describes the moment Sandra Rivett was killed
Lord Lucan's widow set to make first
TV documentary appearance
Telegraph Reporters
19 MARCH 2017 • 9:34PM
The reclusive widow of Lord Lucan is set to give her first
in depth documentary interview since her husband's disappearance 43 years ago.
The Countess of Lucan is set to speak about how her husband
tried to bludgeon her to death and murdered the family's nanny, in a
documentary exploring the mysterious peer.
It's the first time the 79-year-old has ever agreed to take
part in such a film and she is understood to be receiving a £56,000, according
to the Sunday Express.
Lady Lucan has been seen in front of cameras at various
London locations, including the church in Knightsbridge, where she first
married the 7th Earl.
The widow has also allowed the cameras into her rented flat,
near the house where she nearly died on 7 November 1974, after being repeatedly
hit over the head with lead piping.
Lady Lucan had appeared at her local pub, covered in blood,
crying for help and saying the family's nanny, Sandra Rivett, was dead. She
told police her estranged husband had attacked her and 29-year-old Ms Rivett.
The Lucans had been locked in a custody dispute over their
three children. Police concluded Lord "Lucky" Lucan, a professional
gambler, had murdered Ms Rivett in the basement of the family's townhouse,
after mistaking her for his wife.
The Lord had left a trail of debt and the mystery of his
whereabouts led to decades of speculation. Police believed Lucan, a German
speaker, had fled to Nambia, a former German colony.
But Lady Lucan, known as Veronica, believes he threw himself
off a boat in the English Channel the morning after the murder.
The couple's children, George, Camilla and Frances, who were
sleeping upstairs at the time of the murder, continued to live with their
mother after the attack.
But when Veronica suffered a breakdown, custody of the
children was passed to her sister Christina Shand Kydd. Lady Lucan has not
spoken to any of her children since.
A death certificate was not issued for Lord Lucan until last
year. It was only then that his son, George Bingham, 49, could inherit the
family title.
A friend of Lady Lucan told the Sunday Express her decision
to work with the filmmakers was partly motivated by money, but principally for
"revenge against her son".
The friend told the paper: "She knows George will be
angry when he sees the film."
In a 2013 ITV drama, Rory Kinnear portrayed the earl as a
reckless gambler who was prepared to stop at nothing to get custody of his
children.
Lady Lucan has said privately she has no wish for a
reconciliation with her children and has not met her grandchildren. George is
married to Anne-Sofie, the daughter of a Danish industrialist.
The couple had a daughter last year. The present Earl is
unlikely to be happy about his mother's participation in the documentary.
He is said to have burned all his father's papers and
photographs in a bid to get on with his life.
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Lord Lucan’s death certificate granted after more than 40
years
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Lady Lucan: I'm 'deeply sad' my marriage caused the nanny to
die
Hannah Furness, arts
correspondent
30 MAY 2017 • 12:01AM
The wife of the late Lord Lucan has issued an extraordinary
apology over the murder of the family’s nanny, saying she is “deeply sad” that
her own marital problems caused her to die.
The Dowager Countess of Lucan, who was attacked on the same
night as Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death, said she is “very sorry” about
what happened, and works to compensate by ensuring she is not forgotten.
Lady Lucan is to be interviewed as part of an ITV
documentary entitled “My Husband, the Truth”, which investigates what really
happened on the now-notorious 1974 evening when both women were viciously
beaten in the family home.
Mrs Rivett, nanny to the three Lucan children, was killed in
the basement with a lead pipe. Lady Lucan was also attacked, running into a
nearby pub covered in blood screaming for help.
Lord Lucan, the 7th Earl, disappeared and has never been
seen since, with a formal death certificate allowing his son to inherit the
title finally issued last year.
His wife, now 79, will be interviewed on screen about their
dysfunctional relationship, bitter custody battle and her own depression.
“I am deeply sad that my marriage caused Mrs Sandra Rivett
to die,” she said.
“I am very sorry about that. But I cannot alter it, except
not to forget about her – and I don’t forget about her.”
Michael Waldman, the programme’s director, told the Radio
Times: “She feels that she does have an extraordinarily clear recollection of
facts and feelings...she has given her truth unabashedly.”
Lady Lucan has been estranged from her children, aged
between 46 and 52, for 35 years, admitting she “could have been better” as a
mother.
Asked what happened to her husband following the attack, she
said: “I would say he got on the ferry and jumped off in the middle of the
Channel in the way of the propellers so that his remains wouldn’t be found – I
think quite brave.”
In a bleak insight into their marriage, she claimed her
husband would beat her with a cane when she became depressed, to get the “mad
ideas out of your head”.
“He could have hit harder,” she told the programme. “They
were measured blows. He must have got pleasure out of it because he had
intercourse [with me] afterwards.”
Lord Lucan: My Husband, The Truth
Episode:
1 of 1
Transmission (TX):
Mon 05 Jun 2017
Lord Lucan: My
Husband, The Truth
“I said to him, ‘Please don’t kill me John,’ And then I
asked, ‘Where’s Sandra?’ And he said, ‘She’s dead. Don’t look.’” – Lady
Veronica Lucan
Lord Lucan's wife speaks on camera for the first time in 30
years and reveals intimate details of her marriage to the infamous aristocrat,
in a brand new ITV documentary.
The wife of the Earl, whose disappearance in 1974 remains
one of the most enduring and iconic mysteries in the public consciousness,
offers a vivid account of what happened before his flight and her theory about
what became of him.
The film, Lord Lucan: My Husband, The Truth which is
produced by Brook Lapping, includes previously unseen family archive footage,
showing Lucan with his family and friends, living the high life across Europe.
It includes the earliest known moving footage of Lord Lucan.
Despite the couple's outwardly lavish lifestyle, Lady Lucan
says their relationship was strained.
She says: “He talked to me more before our marriage than he
ever did afterwards. He said, ‘That’s the point of being married, you don’t
have to talk to the person.’”
Lady Lucan is interviewed in her mews house, close to the
former family home where she describes how their nanny, Sandra Rivett, was
brutally murdered in the basement by the Earl, having mistaken her for Lady
Lucan.
She goes into detail about how Lucan’s gambling had led to
heavy debts in the lead-up to the attack, their custody battle for their three
children which the Earl lost, and his subsequent disappearance days later.
Lady Lucan also offers her own suggestion of what became of
her husband, with no trace of him ever confirmed despite myth and speculation
building up in the aftermath, and in the decades that followed, as claimed
sightings of him were made and multiple theories about what happened to him
were put forward.
Since Lucan’s disappearance, his wife has remained largely
silent, but now she talks openly about their troubled and tempestuous marriage.
Her vivid recollections and the archive footage offer a unique and previously
unseen insight into one of the most notorious figures of the twentieth century.
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