Scandal Over the Teacups

The life and untimely death of the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury.

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, was one of Britain's wealthiest men, a scion of a historic family whose assets included grand properties in the UK and France, a 9,000-acre estate, and works of art worth tens of millions of pounds. Anthony split his time between his ancestral family home in Dorset and the French Riviera, where he enjoyed a hedonistic lifestyle of drink, drugs, and sex, all funded by his multi-million-pound inheritance. When in France, the earl met Jamila M-Barek through an escort agency, and when she claimed to be pregnant by him in 2002, they married, making her the third Countess of Shaftesbury. Their relationship, however, grew strained, and they separated. In 2004, the earl asked for a divorce after meeting Nadie Orche, a club hostess and young mother of two. Shortly after, the earl disappeared, and the press speculated that the Mafia had abducted him and forced him to hand over his wealth.