‘He was my brother, my boyfriend, my soulmate. Most of the time people called me Mrs McQueen; we often shared a bed’: Annabelle Neilson on the iconic designer
The socialite, model and reality TV star can now add children’s author to her resumé – along with best friend of Kate Moss, ex-wife of banker Nat Rothschild and muse of the late Alexander McQueen. She tells Katie Nicholl about her life more extraordinary
‘I was scared that if I didn’t get up... I might never walk again,' said Annabelle Neilson of her riding accident in 2013 (DRESS, vintage Givenchy by Alexander McQueen. BRACELET, Carolina Bucci)
Annabelle Neilson vividly remembers her very last horse ride.
It was June 2013 and the model was galloping her racehorse around a training track in Sussex at an exhilarating 45 miles per hour when she was suddenly thrown from the saddle.
‘I remember seeing the glint of a silver car and the horse getting spooked and jumping.
'The next second I was flat on my back in the mud,’ she recalls. ‘The pain was horrendous and I started having convulsions. Worst of all, I couldn’t move my legs and I thought, “This is it, I’m paralysed.”’
After being taken to hospital by ambulance, Annabelle astonished doctors when she discharged herself the very same day.
‘I was lying on the hospital bed with a broken back and pelvis. I just said to myself, “You have to get up,” so I did.
'The nerves down my right leg and hip were very badly damaged, but I got up, with help, and discharged myself.
'The pain was so bad, but I was scared that if I didn’t get up there and then I might never walk again.’
'I’m not a bully because I know what it’s like to be bullied,' said Annabelle (DRESS, Julien Macdonald. SHOES, Christian Louboutin)
Remarkably, Annabelle was back on her feet within 12 weeks.
Her elder sister Millie nursed her through those challenging months while Annabelle underwent intensive physiotherapy in Sussex before returning to London to be cared for by her parents.
Annabelle, who was starring in the TV reality show Ladies of London at the time, allowed the cameras to continue rolling while she went through her recovery.
‘I was committed to the show and didn’t want to let anyone down,’ she says.
‘I couldn’t just pull the plug on filming so I made a choice to go ahead. It was the best decision because while I was recovering I wrote The Me Me Me’s.’
While she is best known as the late British designer Alexander McQueen’s most famous muse, Annabelle, the party-loving ex-wife of millionaire banker Nat Rothschild and best friend of cover girl Kate Moss, is embarking on a new chapter.
At the age of 46 she has realised her dream of becoming a published children’s writer.
‘There are lots of women who aren’t married and don’t have children,' said Annabelle (TOP AND TROUSERS, Alexander McQueen. PEARL NECKLACE, Carolina Bucci. CHAIN, Annina Vogel)
The first book in The Me Me Me’s series, Angry Me, was published earlier this year and two more titles, Dreamy Me and Messy Me, are due to be released in the New Year.
‘Angry Me came pretty quickly because I wrote it while I was still very angry about the accident and being out of action. But it also stems from my childhood when as a severe dyslexic I was badly bullied at school.
‘My parents took me to 40 psychologists between the ages of four and eight to find out what was wrong with me.
'I didn’t speak to anyone except my sister in a made-up language only she understood.
‘I have wanted to write these books for five years. I want children to know that it’s OK to have something like dyslexia or attention deficit disorder [ADD] and that they don’t have to feel totally isolated like I did.
'I have a character in my books called ADD, who is red, green and amber like a traffic light, and I think many children will be able to relate to that.’
The cruel taunts from her classmates at the exclusive Lady Eden’s School in Knightsbridge have, says Annabelle, stayed with her all these years.
She left school at 16 without a qualification to her name.
‘I’m very proud of my parents and the fact that they are still together after 50 years, despite being very different people,' said Annabelle (pictured wearing a Me Me Me’s T-shirt)
Today, however, she has received an email from Yale University inviting her to its Center for Dyslexia and Creativity to talk about the books.
‘I’m a published author and on top of that I’ve had an amazing life,’ she says proudly.
Now Annabelle can add ‘reality TV star’ to her list of accomplishments. She is currently starring in the second series of Ladies of London, which chronicles the lives of an elite group of well-heeled women who all have one thing in common: ambition.
Out of the entire cast, she is the only blue-blooded aristocrat with links to British royalty.
According to Annabelle, her paternal grandmother was a second cousin of the late Queen Mother.
Her mother Elizabeth is the Marquesa Campus di Santinelli, while her first cousin is the Earl of Warwick. As a young girl Annabelle enjoyed play dates at Warwick Castle.
She admits that she comes from wealth and had a privileged upbringing divided between the family’s country estate – Chiltern House in The Chilterns – and West London. Her mother is an interior designer, her father a wealthy investment and property advisor.
‘I’m very proud of my parents and the fact that they are still together after 50 years, despite being very different people.’
They were, she says, surprised but supportive when she accepted a part on the show.
'We were so alike. He was also dyslexic; he mirrored me in so many ways,' said Annabelle of her friendship with the late iconic designer Alexander McQueen (pictured together in 2000))
‘I’ve never courted the media so it was a big decision, but I don’t have any regrets,’ says Annabelle, although she admits she hates all the backbiting and has fallen out with socialite Caroline Stanbury.
‘I don’t have enemies, but I don’t like everyone on the show,’ she adds with typical honesty.
‘I don’t get on with Caroline. She’s very dominant and talks down to some of the others.
'We have quite a few fallouts and at one point she called me a bully, which I resented.
'I’m not a bully because I know what it’s like to be bullied. In fact, I take it upon myself to speak up for the others.’
Annabelle says she won’t sign up for another series.
‘The show has served its purpose. It has enabled me to get The Me Me Me’s off the ground and make a name for myself in America. I didn’t go into it to make friends.’
When it comes to friends, Annabelle’s are far more famous than any of her contemporaries on Ladies of London. Her ‘bestie’ is Kate Moss.
‘Kate is my best mate and I love her like a sister. Yes, she’s an icon but to me she’s just Kate.
'We fight over stupid things, then we kiss and make up. We share clothes, we share everything and her fame has never been an issue.
'She always looks out for me and I look out for her. We’ve got each other’s backs. I’m very proud of her and she’s very proud of me and The Me Me Me’s.’
‘Lee wanted me to himself... there was really only space for one man in my life, and that man was Lee,' said Annabelle (pictured at her birthday party in 2009)
It was while working as a model for the late designer Alexander McQueen in the early 1990s that Annabelle met Kate and fellow catwalk star Naomi Campbell.
The trio became part of the now infamous Primrose Hill set, where all-night parties at Noel Gallagher and Meg Mathews’ Supernova Heights mansion were the norm.
Annabelle was at Kate’s famously debauched 30th birthday at Claridge’s and was never far from the epicentre of the party.
‘I don’t know why I’m always called a wild child because I wasn’t a child at the time.
'The truth is I’ve lived an amazing life. I was working with Lee [Alexander McQueen], Kate, Naomi and [John] Galliano.
'It was a big time in my life and it was great fun. I was working with beautiful creative people.’
It was her work as a muse for Alexander McQueen that really put Annabelle on the map. The pair met when Annabelle was just 22. They were introduced by the late Tatler fashion editor Isabella Blow, who was – at the time – the muse of celebrated milliner Philip Treacy.
‘Issie brought me to Lee as a model. She presented me to him as his new girl. Lee loved me immediately and it felt like we knew each other straight away.
'We were so alike. He was also dyslexic; he mirrored me in so many ways.
‘I remember our first shoot together when Lee had made me this exquisite torn lace navy dress that fitted perfectly.
'When it turned up on the day of the shoot he’d sprayed it silver and it had shrunk. I had to be gaffer-taped into it.’
‘Kate (Moss) is my best mate and I love her like a sister. Yes, she’s an icon but to me she’s just Kate. We fight over stupid things, then we kiss and make up. We share clothes, we share everything,' said Annabelle
It was also at this time in her life when Annabelle got together with Nat Rothschild, scion of the banking dynasty and the future fifth Baron Rothschild.
‘Nat and I had been together for four years and I was 26 when I married him. He first asked me to marry him half an hour after we met and then every day afterwards. Finally, we decided to do it.’
When their marriage broke down three years later in the Dominican Republic, a turn of events Annabelle is legally not allowed to talk about, it was to Lee she turned.
She went on to date other men, including Lord Edward Spencer Churchill, son of the Duke of Marlborough, but the true love of her life was, she says, Lee.
‘Lee wanted me to himself. I was very happy with Eddie [Spencer Churchill] but there was really only space for one man in my life, and that man was Lee.’
While Lee was briefly married to George Forsyth, a documentary filmmaker (they wed on a yacht in Ibiza in 2000, with Annabelle and Kate as bridesmaids), Annabelle has never remarried and concedes it’s unlikely that she will ever have children.
‘There are lots of women who aren’t married and don’t have children. At one point it was my dream to get married and have kids, but my life has changed so much.’
Annabelle with Kate and Naomi Campbell in Alexander McQueen on the Fashion For Relief catwalk in 2010. 'I’ve lived an amazing life,' said Annabelle
She says a truly horrific experience when she was 16 changed her life for ever, and led to her becoming a heroin addict.
Annabelle was on a gap year and staying with family in Perth, Australia, when she was attacked by a man who later went on to kill three women.
‘The attack lasted for two hours. I was tied to a tree and continually beaten. I looked like the elephant girl by the end of it,’ says Annabelle, tears streaming down her face as she recalls the traumatic event.
‘I managed to escape with my life but I needed reconstructive surgery because my face was so disfigured.
'After that, I fell into a serious depression and became a heroin addict because it provided an escape bubble and was the only way I could cope.
'In a way, heroin saved me because otherwise I would have killed myself.’
Lee, she says, could relate to her.
‘Lee had been through similar pain. He understood me; we understood each other.
'The truth is I was happier with Lee than with anyone else. He asked me to marry him towards the end and I said no. I wish now that I had said yes.’
In February 2010 Lee took his own life at the age of 40, the day before his mother’s funeral.
Annabelle dated Edward Spencer Churchill, son of the Duke of Marlborough
Annabelle was the last person to see him and the pain of his death is still etched on her face when she talks about her late friend and mentor.
Annabelle’s living room is peppered with pictures of McQueen and she says that she still thinks about him every day.
‘He was my brother, my boyfriend, my soulmate. Most of the time people called me Mrs McQueen. Quite often we were sharing a bed.’
It is five years since McQueen’s death but one gets the sense Annabelle has turned a corner.
She has written 40,000 words about him and ‘the true story’ of their relationship, which she is considering publishing.
She has managed to stay sober and drugs-free and still attends regular Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
She has also just written a book for older children, Sniggers, Noodles and Poof, about a children’s detective agency, and is turning one of her earlier unpublished books, On the Pond – about a family of ducks that lives in Regent’s Park – into a film script.
‘I’m doing a lot of writing, but it’s still very hard. I don’t use punctuation and my spelling is terrible.
'But what I can do is come up with original ideas and I have a whole load of characters in my head.’
As for her other passion, riding, Annabelle says she has been told by doctors that she must never race again – something she says that fills her with sadness.
‘The truth is I was happiest when I was training. I love the connection with these great animals and, although I grew up riding, racing is completely different.
'I trained for three months to get up to standard. What I loved was learning the art of control and knowing how to stop.’
One wonders if perhaps Annabelle has, after all these years, finally learned to do the very same.
The Me Me Me’s series is published by Fat Fox, fatfoxbooks.com, 01580 857249
