Andrew Lloyd Webber - Personal Life

Personal Life

Lloyd Webber has married three times. First, he married Sarah Hugill on 24 July 1972, but they divorced on 14 November 1983. Together they had two children, a daughter and a son:

• Hon. Imogen Lloyd Webber (born 31 March 1978)
• Hon. Nicholas Lloyd Webber (born 2 July 1979)

He then married singer/dancer Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical The Phantom of the Opera. This marriage did not produce any children, and they divorced on 3 January 1990.

Thirdly, he married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on 9 February 1991. They have three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom were born in Westminster:

• Hon. Alastair Adam Lloyd Webber (born 3 May 1992)
• Hon. William Richard Lloyd Webber (born 24 August 1993)
• Hon. Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber (born 30 April 1996).

The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest man in Britain with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him 101st in 2008. He lives at Sydmonton Court, near Kingsclere in Hampshire, and also owns much of Watership Down. Lloyd Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian art. An exhibition of works from his collection was presented at the Royal Academy in 2003 under the title Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. He is also a devoted supporter of Leyton Orient Football Club.

Politically, Lloyd Webber has supported the UK's Conservative Party, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated 1 million people in 80 cinemas before the 2005 UK General Election to accompany pictures of Prime Minister Tony Blair allegedly "smirking", the party said. In 2009, he publicly criticised the Labour government's introduction of a new 50 per cent rate of income tax on Britain's top earners, claiming it would damage the country by encouraging talented people to leave.

In late 2009 Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer, but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free.

As of March 2010, Lloyd Webber decided to sell Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso art to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. In 2006, he withdrew the painting from auction after a claim that the previous owner was forced to sell it under duress in Nazi Germany. An out-of-court settlement was reached, where the foundation retained ownership rights. On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.