Isabella Calthorpe

Early life

Calthorpe was born on 3 March 1980 in Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. She is the daughter of John Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe (son of Sir Richard) and Lady Mary-Gaye Georgiana Lorna Curzon (daughter of the sixth Earl Howe). She was named Isabella Amaryllis Charlotte and came to be known by intimates as Bellie.

She has two full siblings (elder sister Georgiana, an artist, and younger brother Jacobi), and four half-siblings: two from her father's second marriage, including actress Gabriella Calthorpe; one from her mother's first marriage; and one from her mother's third marriage, the actress Cressida Bonas.

Calthorpe was educated at Heathfield School, Ascot, and Bradfield College, before going on to study Classics and Art History at the University of Edinburgh.

Career

After attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 2003 to 2005, she became a stage actress. She has also appeared in films Stage Beauty and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, and the television series Harley Street and Trinity.

Personal life

Calthorpe is a friend of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and was a guest at his wedding. Whilst single, she appeared regularly in the society pages of Tatler, Harper's Bazaar and Hello!

On 6 March 2013, she married Sam Branson, filmmaker, former model, and son of business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. The couple married at his father's private safari lodge near Kruger National Park, with guests including Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York.

On 9 September 2014, it was announced on the Virgin website that the couple were expecting their first child, and daughter Eva-Deia Branson was born on 19 February 2015. They had their second child, a son named Bluey Rafe Richard Branson, on 18 January 2017.

Ancestry

She is a 9th great-granddaughter of Charles II of England and Scotland on both her mother's and father's side. Her parents are third cousins, sharing Francis Horatio Fitzroy as a great-great-grandfather.