End of an era as sonless Sir Benjamin Slade turns his mansion over to hotel group

But I can disclose that, aged 79, Sir Benjamin Slade has accepted that he will never sire a lad to inherit his baronetcy, created for his great-great-great grandfather in 1831, and Maunsel House, the family seat in Somerset, and its 1,300-acre estate.

Accordingly, he's now thrashing out a deal which will see Maunsel leased for the next 40 years.

The incomer won't be a private individual but a corporate entity. 'I've got a deal with a hotel group.

They're very upmarket,' Sir Benjy assures me, adding that he's intent on securing a final agreement which allows him to use Maunsel 'three or four times a year', even though he'll be paying for the privilege whenever he does so.

He refrains from naming the hotel group, though it's probably a British one, given that he's previously summarised Russians as 'dishonest', Chinese as 'impossible' and Arabs 'a bloody nightmare', as well as making it clear that he won't do business 'with any country which has green in [its] flag'.

That does, of course, leave open the possibility of a newcomer from the USA, a country with which Sir Benjy, who lives in a farmhouse on the estate, has numerous connections.

These emerged in 2005 when he embarked on a proposed reality TV show which would have seen the remains of his 12th century ancestor William Atte Slade exhumed and compared with DNA from thousands of would-be Slade heirs from around the world.

By then, Sir Benjy's 14-year childless marriage to Pauline Myburgh was long over. So, too, was a six-year romance with Fiona Aitken – now Countess of Carnarvon.

Sir Ben's most recent love affair was with an American, Sahara Sunday Spain. In 2020, she bore him a child – who, alas for her prospects as Sir Benjamin's heir, was a girl, Violet.

Perhaps one day she'll check into the hotel alongside him?

By RICHARD EDEN, DIARY EDITOR