Emma Georgina Egerton Fitzalan-Howard (née Roberts), styled by courtesy as Lady Gerald Fitzalan-Howard, is an English aristocrat and the châtelaine of Carlton Towers.
Emma Fitzalan-Howard | |
|---|---|
| Lady Gerald Fitzalan-Howard | |
| Born | Emma Georgina Egerton Roberts Mayfield and Five Ashes East Sussex, England |
| Noble family | Howard (by marriage) |
| Spouse(s) | Lord Gerald Fitzalan-Howard |
| Issue | Arthur Fitzalan-Howard Florence Fitzalan-Howard Grace Fitzalan-Howard |
| Father | Desmond James Cecil Roberts |
Biography
editFitzalan-Howard was born in Mayfield and Five Ashes, East Sussex, to middle-class parents.[1] Her father, Desmond James Cecil Roberts, was a general practitioner. She moved to London when she was eighteen years old and began working for a recruitment company, eventually serving as an associate director.[2]
She met Lord Gerald Fitzalan-Howard, the youngest son of Miles Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk and Anne Constable-Maxwell, at a wedding in 1988. Roberts married Lord Gerald in 1 December 1990.[3] She and her husband have three children.
Through her marriage, she is a sister-in-law of the 18th Duke of Norfolk, Edward Fitzalan-Howard. As the wife of a younger son of a British duke, Roberts is styled in the feminine form of her husband's title, as Lady Gerald, and not with her own name, which is reserved for the daughters of high-ranking peers.[2] In 1991, Lady Gerald and her husband moved from London to Carlton Towers, a country house in Carlton owned by the Howard family.[4] She runs the estate alongside her husband. She had to sell off family property, including furniture, paintings, silverware, and family heirlooms, to raise over one million pounds to fund reconstruction on the house and open it up to tourists and for private events and filming.[5] She remodeled the family's private apartments inside of Carlton Towers, and works as the furniture buyer and interior designer for reconstructive projects.[2] In March 2014 she opened a cookery school at Carlton.[2][6] As lady of the manor, Lady Gerald hosts guests at Carlton Towers for teas, dinners, and other events.[7]
Lady Gerald was a regular cast member of the Sky Atlantic documentary reality television series Weekend Aristocrats, which featured working class and middle-class people staying at private country homes and engaging with members of the British nobility and gentry.[8] The series was later screened on Netflix.
References
edit- ^ Della-Ragione, Joanna (26 April 2012). "My life in the real Downton Abbey". Daily Express. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ a b c d "I'm Lady of the Manor, but our life is nothing like Downton." Thestar.co.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "An Invitation to Carlton Towers". British Heritage. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "My Yorkshire: Lord Gerald Fitzalan Howard". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ Adams, Stephen (30 October 2009). "Aristocratic family swaps silver for lead in Sotheby's sale". Retrieved 2 April 2019 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ "Yorkshire stately home which starred in costume drama opens doors to corporate world". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ Pritchard, Emma-Louise (25 October 2017). "You can now channel royalty in a 3-day tour of ITV's 'Victoria' filming locations in North Yorkshire". Country Living. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
- ^ "Weekend Aristocrats: Season 1 (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Warner Bros. Retrieved 13 April 2019.