Tamara Ecclestone: How £25m burglary affected my daughter ‘broke my heart’

The daughter of ex-Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was on holiday in Lapland with her husband, art gallery owner Jay Rutland, their daughter and their dog when their mansion in Palace Green, Kensington, was raided in December 2019.

Hundreds of items of jewellery, cash, diamonds and precious stones worth £25 million were stolen from the 2,000 square-foot property in what is believed to have been the country's biggest ever domestic burglary.

Appearing on ITV's Loose Women, Ecclestone, 40, revealed she initially did not tell her now 10-year-old daughter Sophia the truth about the break-in as she was too young.

"I actually learned a really valuable lesson, that it's always best to be honest with your kids, and they can handle a lot more than you think they'll be able to," she said.

"I actually lied to Sophia when it initially happened, because she was so young, and now, obviously she's older, and she's able to go online and Google things and people tell her things. So, she found out not through me.

"We then have obviously worked a lot on this and had lots of conversations, and it was really, really hard."

She continued: "I think that was the bit that broke my heart the most, seeing how much it affected her.

"Because, as parents, you can always be strong for your kids and rationalise things, but to see her go through the fear that someone was in her house, and perhaps it wasn't a safe place she thinks it is, is really, really heartbreaking."

Ecclestone said they have since been educating their daughter about how people can "do bad things" but that "most people are good and most people are kind".

Reflecting on whether she wishes she did not have her immense family wealth, she said: "I feel like there's no point in looking at it that way. And I am really blessed just to have such an amazing dad who I love so much. So, I'm grateful to be his daughter regardless of anything else.

"I have a beautiful life, my children, my family, and that's all that I really think about, and all that matters to me.

"And, of course, with everything in life, there are things that aren't perfect. Nothing's perfect. But I feel really lucky every day. I really do."

She said she has felt people have tried to "dehumanise" her at times but that anyone who has experienced a break-in will know how it is a "huge thing to get over".

"I'm not sitting here and saying 'Poor me', because I just don't take that attitude. That's a bad thing that happened and it's now just about what changes we've made to make things safer, to make things better, and hopefully nothing like that will happen to us again," she added.

Her 94-year-old former Formula 1 chief father also has two other grown-up daughters as well as a four-year-old son, Ace, who he welcomed with his wife Fabiana Flosi.

The socialite said she enjoyed being pregnant with her second daughter while her stepmother was also pregnant with her stepbrother during lockdown.

She added: "Every family is different. No-one has the same dynamic. It's just a beautiful thing to see my little girls playing with Ace, although he's uncle Ace, trying to explain that one away, to (Sophia) who's almost 11...

"He's such a kind little boy. And to see my dad so happy, and to have this purpose, and it keeps him young, and he worked so hard when my sister and I were growing up, and now, obviously he gets this time undivided and to just see how much joy that brings to his life.

"There's no, like, no judgment for me and there shouldn't be from anyone."