Tamara Ecclestone lifts the lid on her extravagant lifestyle

 

For a woman who has just spent £1 million on a bath tub, Tamara Ecclestone is remarkably likeable. The daughter of Britain’s fourth richest person, billionaire Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, slinks across the lobby of Beverly Hills’ grandest hotel, the Peninsula. But she is seemingly oblivious to the open-mouthed stares that follow her perfectly tanned-and-toned body clad in a tiny black romper suit. As she curls up on a luxury sofa in the lobby, it is clear that even in a town used to excess, Tamara and her equally flamboyant sister Petra, who recently dominated the headlines with her extravagant £5 million wedding complete with a private performance by the Black Eyed Peas, have set tongues wagging. For years, Tamara, 27, and Petra, 22, remained pretty much under the media radar. By all accounts, they were kept on a tight rein by their 6ft 2in mother Slavica, who worked hard to escape her tough, penniless upbringing in the Croatian port of Rijeka and was determined to keep her girls grounded.  But after becoming fixtures on the London social scene, the two Ecclestone girls have become embroiled in an extraordinary – and outrageously expensive – display of trans¬atlantic sibling rivalry that even the most creative Hollywood scriptwriter would be hard-pressed to dream up. First, younger sister Petra splashed out £91 million – in cash – to buy the 57,000 sq ft Los Angeles hilltop mansion of the late Dynasty creator Aaron Spelling three months ago. Then, two weeks ago, Tamara was maid-of-honour at Petra’s breathtakingly ostentatious wedding at the medieval Castello Orsini-Odescalchi outside Rome. The scale of the nuptials was mind-blowing.  Petra’s Vera Wang dress cost a reputed £80,000, the evening entertainment alone – including the Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, DJ David Guetta and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – cost more than £3 million.  Eric Clapton played for the couple’s first dance and Formula 1 driver Jean Alesi drove the bride’s vintage Rolls-Royce.  Even the fireworks display saw £100,000 go up in smoke. Perhaps tellingly, among the guests were another pair of unimaginably wealthy and high-profile siblings, Paris and Nicky Hilton. As elder sister, Tamara was a suitably gracious bridesmaid. But it is clear she feels the need to catch up in the publicity stakes.  She arrived in LA last week with an entourage including Katie Price’s hair and make-up man and blithely announced that she would be perusing homes ‘starting at the £100 million mark’. She also embarked on a series of meetings at major Hollywood studios in a bid to promote her upcoming show Tamara Ecclestone: Billion Dollar Girl (which starts in the UK on Channel 5 on November 4). And she is telling all who will listen that she recently ‘dispatched’ five minions on an expedition ‘up the Amazon’ to gather crystal that will be used to create a state-of- the-art bathtub in her £47 million London home. Splashing out: Tamara is spending £1m on rock crystal from the Amazon to make a bath similar to this It was a story, I venture, that is surely a tabloid fabrication?  She looks askance. ‘No, it’s completely true. They’ve gone to find this crystal which will be turned into my bathtub. It’s costing £1 million because I’ve got to reinforce the floor and I’ve had to pay for everyone’s travel and the hauling back and polishing of the crystal.  ‘But I spend a lot of time in the bath so it’s worth it.’ Little wonder that one Hollywood producer told me: ‘The whole town is talking about these girls. ‘There is nothing that Hollywood loves more than money, vulgarity and ambition. And these two have it in spades.’ It is a charge Tamara, who still looks impeccable despite starting her day at 5am to appear on America’s top-rated Entertainment Tonight show, rolls her eyes at.  ‘Listen, people will always try and make something of the rivalry between me and my sister,’ she tells me. ‘We are siblings and we fight and compete like any sisters would.  ‘But we are very close. Of course there is competition between us but it is healthy competition. There is room in this town for both of us.’ I ask her about reports that she stomped out of a Japanese restaurant earlier in the week after a row with her sister over who ‘got’ to LA first? Sibling rivalry: Tamara says that the relationship with Petra is like that of any sisters - and while the do disagree and there is competition, they are both still close Tamara shrugs: ‘We’d had a drink. Yes, there were a few words. I went outside to have a cigarette, which is something I only do when I’m drinking. I was in a bit of a bad mood. The Press saw that and blew it up into something it’s not.’ Are they at war? She says: ‘You’ll have to ask Petra about that. She’s in New York at Fashion Week. There’s certainly no problem between us as far as I am concerned.’ As she speaks it is obvious that, despite her daddy’s billions, Tamara has a steely determination to succeed on her own merits.  She credits her 80-year-old father, the son of a humble fisherman who started out working in a gasworks before building a £2.4 billion fortune as the Formula 1 supremo, for keeping her ‘grounded’. 'My father started with nothing and is a self-made man. No matter what I do with my life I can never match his accomplishments.' Tamara explains: ‘My father started with nothing and is a self-made man. No matter what I do with my life I can never match his accomplishments. He is someone that even now, at 80, loves what he does and is still making deals and making money, and he enjoys it. He raised me to appreciate money and not to take it for granted.  ‘I was raised to want to work for a living. The idea of just sitting around or going shopping every day appals me. I want to accomplish something in my own right. ‘Dad taught me to always go for the deal. When you are rich, people try to take advantage of you. I got a deal on the flights over here. My mother flew easyJet recently.  Relationship: Tamara has been with stockbroker Omar Kyhami for 18 months - and says they have discussed marriage and children ‘We are a family that likes a bargain. I love the fact that I can spend ten quid and get my nails done in LA at a little corner shop rather than at an expensive salon.’ She says her mother Slavica, who acrimoniously divorced her 5ft 4in father in 2009 after 24 years of marriage, pounded home the message: ‘Mum cooked for me and my sister every night. My father would come home and we would have dinner together, as a family, at 6.30 every night. ‘Both my parents came from humble beginnings. Yes, we had money but it was never something we took for granted.  ‘Dad would drop us at school and Mum would collect us. They came from nothing and were determined not to spoil us.  I had to work for my pocket money, walking the dog and picking up his poop. We were never surrounded by servants. When we wanted things we were never just given them. Money wasn’t easy.’ In person Tamara is charming. She speaks in a modulated but not super-posh voice. But it’s hard to credit the down-to-earth credentials of a woman who would blow £1 million on a crystal bath.  She insists, repeatedly, that she and Petra were raised to appreciate the value of money. ‘We were never spoiled. We were never given too much,’ she says. So what, then, has precipitated this sudden rush to compete in a multi-million-pound house property contest? Perhaps their parents’ divorce, with all the bitter recriminations, has affected the girls’ judgment? ‘The divorce was the hardest thing ever,’ she concedes. ‘Dad has a new girlfriend [Fabiana Flosi, a Brazilian 49 years his junior] but Mum is enjoying being single. I don’t think she will date anyone for a while.  ‘She’s enjoying being free. I’d never thought of the money [rivalry] starting after that. But maybe it did.’ Tamara says she finds Los Angeles, with its endless sunshine and endless positivity ‘liberating’. ‘I’ve been here before but only to Disneyland,’ she says with a grin. ‘I’ve totally fallen in love with the place. People here don’t judge you or have any jealousy about money.  'In England, there is a certain negativity. Here everyone is positive. There isn’t so much jealousy here. I’d rather have a fake smile than a nasty stare.' ‘In England, there is a certain negativity. Here everyone is positive. There isn’t so much jealousy here. I’d rather have a fake smile than a nasty stare.’ Her boyfriend of 18 months, stockbroker Omar Kyhami, arrives at the table. He is in charge of the house-hunting which will begin in earnest in the morning. ‘We’re not going through a broker,’ he says. ‘When people hear the Ecclestone name they automatically add a zero to the price. We are looking at a place in Beverly Hills in the morning which has 27 acres and isn’t even on the market.  ‘We are looking at houses which aren’t officially for sale. When you get to a certain level, you don’t want to deal with brokers. The people we are talking to don’t want any publicity. The house we are looking at will make Petra’s house look like a guest house.’ Tamara squeals: ‘No! You shouldn’t say that!’ Role model: Tamara, pictured in 1998 on a skiing holiday, says her parents kept her 'grounded' and were determined not to spoil her, despite their wealth Omar adds: ‘We’re going to do it in a way that isn’t a disaster. The house we are looking at hasn’t been on the market for years without selling.’ (The Spelling house was on the market for three years before Petra bought it.) ‘That other house [Spelling’s] was a disaster. We’re doing it properly.’ Tamara is clearly smitten with her slightly indiscreet boyfriend: ‘We’ve been together for 18 months and we’ve rowed and it’s all on camera. We have talked about marriage and children but that’s something my sister, even though she is much younger, has always had clearer views on.  ‘This was her year for getting married. I wouldn’t do anything to try and muscle in on that. I want to have a career and make something of myself. I have earned my own money and I like the feeling it gives me. When you buy something with your own money it means more.’ 'I desperately want to have a career. I feel I have something to prove. I want to accomplish something on my own and build my own business.' Does it worry her that she will be able to afford a £100 million-plus home in Hollywood only thanks to Daddy’s billions? ‘No, not at all.’ How does it work? Does her father simply sign a cheque? ‘No, no, it’s far more complicated than that. You get into trust funds and such. When I bought my place in Kensington (for £45 million) it’s in an area that is super-rich.  ‘I talked to Mum and Dad and they agreed to finance it because even if I never live there it’s a good investment. Neither Petra nor I would be allowed to buy anything that was a dud.’  I ask what is the worst thing that has ever happened to her.  ‘My parents’ divorce, without question,’ she says. ‘I didn’t see it coming. I thought they would work things out. I think my mum decided. She wanted to be free. It was a real shock. I cried a lot. ‘When you have money, people think life must be perfect. But I still have the same issues as anyone else. I wake up and feel fat and ugly. I feel insecure. I row with my boyfriend. We have family problems.’  Producer Melanie Leach, the managing director of TwoFour, the company behind Tamara’s TV show, had cameras following Tamara for six months. ‘She is someone who is so different from what you expect,’ said Leach, who also made Harry’s Arctic Heroes, the recently broadcast programme about Prince ¬Harry’s Arctic expedition.‘People have a certain expectation of what Tamara is like and, of course, she lives in a different world. The first show has her taking her five dogs to the Harrods day spa. It costs hundreds of pounds and the dogs are getting their nails painted pink. Luxury: Tamara has access to a wide range of spectacular cars, including this convertible Rolls Royce, a Mercedes 500 and a Ferrari - plus also flies using a private jet ‘But there is another side of Tamara that is deadly serious and very ambitious. We have been taking meetings with some of the biggest people in Hollywood and I have never seen such a reaction. Tamara has something that people just relate to.’ Tamara insists she wants to be seen as ‘normal’ yet she has five cars at her disposal in LA,  including a black convertible Rolls-Royce, a Mercedes 500 and a Ferrari. She also casually mentions she is flying to Las Vegas this weekend in a private jet. Tamara says: ‘I have a strong built-in b-s detector. I know who my real friends are and I like to think I’ve not become cynical. Of course, some people want to be my friend because of the money. But the people I have around me are a tight-knit group. ‘I desperately want to have a career. I feel I have something to prove. I want to accomplish something on my own and build my own business.’ That’s why in LA she has maximised what she calls her ‘publicity potential’. Lunch at the Ivy – where paparazzi stalk the pavements – was followed by dinners at Madeo, Katsuya, STK and Boa . . . all high-profile hang-outs.  As the Rolls arrives to take her from her £2,000-a-night hotel suite, I ask her: ‘Do you have any idea how much your lifestyle really costs?’ She smiles and says: ‘Yes, I think I do. Well, not really, not exactly. But I am not stupid. I have a good idea of my income and outgoings and, yes, I definitely know what things cost.  ‘I will make it. Just watch me. Money isn’t everything.’