TAMARA Ecclestone lives over the road from Kensington Palace and her 57-room mansion is definitely fit for a princess.
The 34-year-old Formula One heiress’s plush West London home boasts a solid rock crystal bath tub, private salon and giant soft play area for daughter Sophia, four – and has soared in value from an estimated £45million to £70million since Tamara bought it in 2011, thanks to two years of renovations.
I’m given a taste of her glamorous life when Tamara invites Fabulous to get our nails done in her home salon, on the second storey of the six-floor mansion, which we reach via a secret jewel-encrusted lift hidden in the hallway cupboard.
And with a home this luxurious, surely she must have a favourite room.
Her massive walk-in wardrobe? Her private basement gym, which incidentally is bigger than my entire flat?
“My bedroom,” she says. “I really love our bed.
“We have a huge bed and the three of us sleep in there and also the dogs come up on the bed and we watch movies, it’s super comfy.
“We keep offering to get Sophia her own bed and she’s like ‘no, maybe when I’m six’.
“She finished breastfeeding on her own timetable, when she was four, so I’m sure one day’s she’s going to want her own bed and that will be that done. But for now it works for us.
“She falls asleep with me when I read to her and she sleeps through the night.”
Tamara and her business consultant husband Jay Rutland, 37, a former stock broker, haven’t spent a night apart from daughter Fifi in four-and-a-half years.
But she insists it doesn’t affect their marriage – or their sex life.
She said: “There’s more than one bed in this house, and you don’t always need a bed (to have sex).
“As soon as Sophia’s asleep Jay and I go and watch a movie, have dinner, sometimes we’ll go out for dinner.
“So we definitely have our time in the evenings, we’ll watch a box set, we’re so old now we just want to chill out at home and be cosy and watch TV.
“I’m really lucky that he wants the same things and he enjoys having her there, it would be really tricky if he was against it.
“But me and him are on the same page and he knows it won’t last forever, so for now we’re just going to enjoy it.
“I really can’t imagine being away from her overnight, but I guess at some point it will just happen.
“Of course if she wanted to go on sleepovers I would never hold her back.”
We enter the house, on Britain’s most expensive street, through the basement – which is very dark but far from dingy.
Tamara is clearly extremely proud of both her home and what she’s achieved with her extensive renovations.
She tells me: “I saw this house as an investment, I dug down two floors when I bought it and we added so many rooms and completely redecorated it.
“Now that I’ve lived here for six years I don’t want to sell it but the money I spent on it was obviously money well spent because I would get that back ten-fold for selling this house tomorrow.
“It’s just nice to know that it’s something I bought and spent money on and put time and love into has paid off so well.”
Hollywood portraits line the black walls in the corridor, while the bathroom is also black – from the sink to the toilet and even the loo roll.
A giant wet room shower, two plush robes and Simple face wipes – one of her beauty essentials – make me feel like I’m in a luxury spa, not the downstairs loo attached to her gym.
The salon itself features a huge Hollywood dressing table, two manicure stations, two pedicures chairs, a hair station and a sunbed room – as well as a huge sparkling pink portrait of Elizabeth Taylor.
She says: “I have a sunbed in the salon which is so gross. I used to go on sunbeds, I’m so ashamed to even admit that.
“Sometimes Jay and I will sit and have a manicure and pedicure – he’s going to kill me for saying that! – but when Fifi goes to bed we’ll sit and get our nails done together.
“Mum shamers truly are the worst. I think it’s really sad because we should all be supporting each other
Tamara Ecclestone
“It is a really amazing room to have and I know it’s not exactly normal but I have the space.
“I hardly ever come down here now, maybe once every couple of weeks to get my hair done. I would say my husband uses it more than I do.
“Sophia loves getting her nails done too. She’s at the age where she loves hair and make-up and glitter in her hair.
“She watches make-up videos on YouTube so she’s a real beauty junkie. But it’s sweet, she’s a real girls’ girl. Now she’ll actually sit and have a manicure with me, so it’s really nice.”
Inside the billionaire's businesses
- TAMARA’S dad Bernie is worth an estimated £2.5bn, but that doesn’t mean she’s workshy.
- She told Fabulous: “I think my businesses are a great example to set for my daughter, and something that make me proud of myself.
- “Show Beauty (her haircare brand) smells so amazing and has no sulphates or parabens in it.
- “My favourite product in the line is the dry shampoo, it doesn’t leave any grey residue in your hair, you don’t look like a granny and let’s face it we all have way better things to do then get our hair done every day.
- “I really swear by my haircare brand.
- “I set up Fifi & Friends (her baby and toddler care brand) because when Fifi was born I tried so many products on her, and there was no brand I felt had everything in it.
- “I wanted to create something which was vegetarian, had no nasties in it, obviously Fifi is my most precious person in my life so I wanted to be able to create something for other people’s children as well as her.
- “I wanted one brand with everything together. As adults we have so much choice but I felt that wasn’t the case for kids, so that was a point of difference as well.”
Tamara famously breastfed Fifi until she was four-and-a-half, letting her wean herself off over the summer, something which sparked controversy.
The mum-of-one said: “I wasn’t disappointed when she stopped, I felt like I had done my job and she was happy so it was fine.
“The reaction has just been crazy and I really don’t understand it. I really don’t get why people a) care so much and b) get so upset about it.
“I respect everyone’s choice and as mums we’re all different. I’ve never asked anyone ‘why does your kid have a dummy?’ or ‘when are you going to stop giving them a bottle?’
“Mum shamers truly are the worst. I think it’s really sad because we should all be supporting each other’s decisions.
“Most of the criticism actually comes from other mums and that’s just the saddest part of it. We’re all on this journey together and we should be building each other up.”
The family are spending Christmas in LA, where Tamara’s sister Petra, 29, recently moved following a high profile £5.5 billion divorce from James Stunt.
She said: “It’s my sister’s 30th right before Christmas on December 19, so we’re having an 80s party for that, I’m so excited.
“We’re flying out there in the middle of December and we’ll be there until the New Year which will be nice.”
Tamara, who raised eyebrows with the massive pile of presents she gave Fifi last Christmas, has already started shipping her gifts to LA in “giant boxes”.
But when asked if she worries about Sophia growing up spoilt, she replied: “No I really feel that through watching me doing charity work and giving Christmas gifts to Great Ormond Street and asking her which toys we can give away, I think she knows she can’t take things for granted.
“I always tell her she’s lucky and we have to give back.
“My dad (Formula One mogul Bernie, 88) really is frugal and Jay is too. If there’s any chance of me being over-the-top he always reigns me in, which I’m grateful for.
“We’ve talked about Christmas and he’s like ‘we’re not going to do what we did last year’.
“My parties were a lot less extravagant as a kid as what I throw for her now but I would say the same things are important.
“Family was always so important to me and will be to her. I think it’s nice to grow up feeling that.”
Tamara’s family focus is clear to see throughout her stunning home, with enormous pictures of everyone from Petra to Fifi lining her grand black staircase.
There are dozens of pictures of baby Sophia, seemingly taken on every day of her life, interspersed with sparkly Barbie portraits and Tamara’s modelling shots – but even they can’t overshadow the huge glittering chandelier.
She added: “I think sometimes my dad thinks I get carried away with things like parties.
“He doesn’t like being the centre of attention and when he came to one of Fifi’s birthday parties he was like ‘your parties weren’t like this when you were a kid’.
“But I don’t think it’s so much that he disapproves, it’s just different. I’m really, really close to my dad so I would hate for him to not approve of how I live my life.”
I’m really, really close to my dad so I would hate for him to not approve of how I live my life
Tamara Ecclestone
Tamara and Petra were once seen as Britain’s answer to the Hilton sisters, regularly being papped on glamorous nights out and shopping trips in London’s Chelsea and Mayfair.
She said: “I think the assumption is that I’m some airhead party girl who’s grown up shopping and going to clubs.
“And yes that was a part of my life once upon a time but I definitely have grown up.
MOST READ IN FABULOUS
“I’m 34 now, I run two businesses and being a mum is the priority in my life.
“Obviously I’ve grown up in the public eye and every phase of my life is scrutinised but I’m not ashamed of my past, it’s made me the person I am today.”
Tamara’s baby and kid care line Fifi and Friends is available via www.fifiandfriends.co.uk and her haircare line Show Beauty can be found at www.showbeauty.com.