A multi-millionaire aristocrat who caused outrage when he publicly announced his search for a young wife and ‘breeder’ is still single more than a year on – and has now revealed his efforts to sweeten the deal.
Sir Benjamin Slade, 72, first announced his unorthodox approach to finding a partner on This Morning in 2017, when he reeled off an extreme set of demands his ideal candidate should meet – including that she would be no taller than 5ft6in, and aged between 30 and 40.
Now the eccentric aristocrat, a baronet who presides over a 13th century estate in Somerset, has appeared on Good Morning Britain to confirm his search has so far proved fruitless over a year later, but that he was trying to be less aggressive.
‘I have changed my spiel, I now say I want romance, I want to give you my credit card so you can shop until you drop,’ he said.
‘I want to take you to exotic places and I love gorgeous meals and I rush off on secret holidays. So that’s the sales spiel, I can change it,’ he said.
Sir Benjamin, who is a descendant of King Charles II, lives at the 13th-century Maunsel House and also owns Woodlands Castle, also in Somerset.
He runs several businesses including a wedding venue and a B&B, and is hoping that his ideal partner would be able to take over the managment.
‘If you can get a wife who is also a chief executive then it’s a deal, two for the price of one,’ he said.
The aristocrat said on the ITV daytime programme that he would be looking to have children with any potential partner.
‘I have been looking very hard and I’ve had lots of excitement. I’m just trying to propose a deal but a lot of people don’t want to have any more children.
‘I have lots of fabulous girlfriends but they are over 50 and they don’t want to or can’t have any more children.
‘I think it’s quite important to have children and have a family but I think it’s about time we started.’
His eyebrow-raising list of requirements for the perfect ‘breeder’ stipulated that she should be no taller than 5ft6ins, aged between 30 and 40, possess a gun licence and be ‘castle trained’.
But despite the promise of £50,000 a year in ‘pocket money’, the baronet’s dream woman has so far failed to materialise.
When asked if he’d considered adoption, Sir Benjamin pointed out that his age was an issue.
‘You don’t know what you’re going to get though do you,’ he said.
‘They did tell me I am too old to adopt and that I am very right-wing, you have to be politically correct, if you hunt, shoot, fish and eat meat you do not get to adopt children you don’t get to adopt children…’
Sir Benjamin has previously been called out on his attitudes to women.
During his first appearance on This Morning back in April 2017, he gave presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes an eyebrow-raising list of requirements for the perfect ‘breeder’.
These included that they be aged between 30 and 40, possess a gun licence and be ‘castle trained’.
Sir Benjamin Julian Alfred Slade, known as Sir Ben Slade, inherited his baronetcy from his father in 1962, was previously married to Pauline Myburgh from the late 1970s until 1991 before they divorced.
The childless man has since enjoyed romances with Fiona Aitken, who went on to become the second wife of the Earl of Carnavon – her marital home is Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed.
And he courted Kirsten Hughes who he says ‘went off with my handyman in 2011’. (Daily Mail)
