Newspaper report about Ronnie Driver's death:
He was the Swansea boy from a terrace house whose charm and entrepreneurial skills led him to become a major figure in the financial markets, dispensing advice to the Queen and Queen Mother and giving a job on his board to Prince Michael of Kent.
But polo patron and friend of the stars Ronnie Driver's greatest success was his family, which included his Oscar-nominated actress daughter Minnie.
And last week Minnie broke off from filming in Scotland to rush to her father's side in London after he suffered a massive heart attack.
Minnie and her elder sister, Kate, 40, whose existence Ronnie, 87, managed to keep from his first wife for years, were all able to say a last goodbye to Driver before he died.
Also at the former insurance mogul's bedside at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were Minnie's and Kate's mother, Gaynor Millington, his widow Misty, their son Charles, 24, and his eldest daughter, Susan, by his first wife, Annie.
Misty, who has cared for him since he suffered a stroke nearly four years ago, tells me: 'We are all great friends. Everyone supports each other in the family. Ronnie wanted his ashes to be scattered on the polo field next to his house in Barbados.'
Says a pal: 'He was one of those rare people of whom you can truly say: "They don't make them like that any more." He was one of the most charismatic, generous and charitable people you could meet.'
The well-connected Driver's funeral at St Paul's, Knightsbridge, this week is likely to be packed with A-list names. Sir Michael Caine and the Duchess of York were both chums.
Unconventional Ronnie installed former model Gaynor in a Mayfair apartment and divided his time between her and his then wife, who was unaware of the situation.
The scales dropped from her eyes, however, when an acquaintance at a Windsor polo match remarked to her daughter, Susan: 'How delightful to see the family all together - you and your half-sisters.'
Not surprisingly, Annie divorced him soon afterwards, but Gaynor and Driver never married.
Ronnie's company, London United Investments, crashed in the Nineties with debts of £35 million because of a surge of insurance claims for asbestosis.
|