The Van Cutsems

If you have read about Prince Charles, Prince William, or Prince Harry, then you are bound to have come across someone with the last name "van Cutsem". "In the sprawling, double-barrelled world of royal insiders and confidantes, they lay the strongest claim to the apparently hereditary title of Best Friends by Appointment to Heirs to the Throne," newspaper journalist Stuart Miller wrote on the subject. So, here is an overview of the family and their connection to the Windsors.

Hugh Edward van Cutsem (b. 1941) - a millionaire horse-breeder. Recently, built a ten-bedroom house on the family's farm in Hillsborough, Norfolk. Before that, he and his family rented Amner Hall, a house on the Queen's Norfolk estate. Graduated from Ampleforth College as did all his sons. A member of the exclusive gentlemen's club White's.

Emilie (nee van Ufford) - married Hugh in 1971. Looked to as a mother-figure for Prince William and Prince Harry after Diana's death. A royal insider has said she raised all her sons to be a "bit square"...as kids she refused to let them wear jeans and sneakers. Also, believed that it was her and not Diana who was the main reason for Tiggy (the princes' last nanny) being fired.

Edward Bernard Charles van Cutsem (b. 1973) - godson of Prince Charles and was a page boy at Charles and Diana's wedding. Works for the UK division of Merill Lynch. Had a several year long relationship with former debutante Camilla Astor. Spotted frequently with Zoe Appleyard and Maya Flick.

Hugh Ralph van Cutsem (b. 1974) - works for the UK division of Cazenove, a finicial advising/bank/investing firm.

Nicholas Peter Geoffrey van Cutsem (b. 1977) - Graduated from the famous Sandhurst Military Academy, and is a second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry.

William Henry van Cutsem (b. 1979) - studied History at Bristol University. Made Tatler's Top Ten for Most Dateable Boy in 1999.

--> Picture Gallery <-- Credit goes to Don Features

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From the Telegraph.co.uk on July 19, 2002: The English shires are echoing to the delicate tinkle of breaking hearts. "Hunky" Hugh Van Cutsem - close friend of Prince William and one of the most eligible young men in the land - has been taken off the market. His new girlfriend is 23-year-old Rose Astor, daughter of the Oxfordshire landowner David. "Hugh and Rose met at a wedding in Scotland a couple of months ago," says a friend. "They've been inseparable ever since. Hugh obviously has no shortage of admirers - neither do his brothers - but it looks like this could be the one." The couple attended Tatler magazine's "100 Most Invited" party, organised by Table Talk, on Wednesday. "Yes, we are going out," confirmed Rose. "It's all quite new, but beyond that, I'm afraid I won't say anything." Rose, a graduate of Edinburgh University, studied film-making in Paris last summer and is looking to break into the film industry.

Suitable Boys (by Sue Reid for The Sunday Times in April 2002)

As the spotlight glares unbecomingly on Prince Harry's partying lifestyle, there is one upper-crust family that remains untarnished by shenanigans at the Rattlebone Inn and the young royal's drinking den, Club H. Flick through the pages of any society mag and they're there: a van Cutsem strutting his stuff with Prince William at a Smith's Lawn polo match; a van Cutsem jigging at Tatler's Little Black Book party; a van Cutsem on the catwalk at a glittering Mayfair charity bash. "The van Cutsem boys seem to be everywhere," says one society- watcher. "They are just of the age to be out on the town and catching the paparazzi's eye. Two have pads in the same smart SW1 street. And there are an awful lot of them." But how has the Roman Catholic van Cutsem family, headed by the 60- year-old Norfolk landowner and bloodstock breeder Hugh, cantered up the social rankings to become one of the best connected in Britain? It's a question that has become the subject of intensely serious, and somewhat jealous, debate among upmarket movers and shakers. The Tatler set is awash with rumours about whether the VCs were guests at Sandringham for the Prince of Wales's Christmas shoot (yes) and whether they received a personal yuletide card from the Highgrove royals (yes). For their part, the van Cutsems - Hugh, his Dutch-born wife, Emilie, and their four handsome sons, 28-year-old Edward (Prince Charles's godson and a childhood chum of the royal princes), Hugh junior, 27, Nicholas, 24, and William, 22 - remain tight-lipped about their enduring camaraderie with the royals. The younger van Cutsems recently turned down - "politely but firmly" - the offer of a family photoshoot with Tatler. "They are fearfully shy of getting their names in the papers," explains one van Cutsem-watcher. "They don't want to be seen as publicity tarts. They are absolutely not of the same ilk as some who hang around Prince Charles's sons and hope the world gets to know of it. They are gregarious, confident, polite guys who happen to be close friends with the future king of England. One or other of the van Cutsem boys is often seen discreetly out with Prince William when he's in London - Foxtrot Oscar is a favourite eatery of theirs - and they shoot together in the country at weekends." Perhaps, speculate some, it is because the van Cutsem boys have to work for their living that they are viewed as suitable pals for the young Princes - particularly following the recent revelations about Harry's wild lifestyle. Edward is a financial broker in the City; Hugh is a fund manager for Cazenove; Nicholas is in the Household Cavalry; and William, said to be the wild card of the family, spent part of his recent university holidays as an intern at St James's Palace, courtesy of Prince Charles. The only blot on the boys' escutcheon seems to be their friendship with Izzy Winkler, the 24-year-old society girl who was said to have snorted cocaine at a party two years ago after being introduced into Prince William's circle by Edward van Cutsem. "They're not complete angels," admits a friend, who studied alongside the van Cutsems at Ampleforth College, the Roman Catholic public school. "They like beer and fun." There has been some cooling of the friendship between the Prince of Wales and the van Cutsem parents. "Hugh made his name as Charles's best friend when his marriage to Princess Diana was disintegrating, but those days are over," says one insider. "He and Emilie provided a bolt hole for Charles to escape to, either at a private house on their estate in Norfolk or a shooting lodge they have in the north. But the Prince of Wales's life has changed. He doesn't need a bolt hole. He requires different things from his circle of friends, which today includes the Palmer-Tomkinsons and the Duke of Westminster." The sons, however, remain close. Take Edward van Cutsem, who was a page at the Prince of Wales's wedding, and featured, with his brothers, tumbling in the snow with the royal princes in Jonathan Dimbleby's controversial documentary about Prince Charles's life. Described by gossip columnists as a "babe magnet", and the former beau of the wealthy debutante-turned-model Camilla Astor, Edward was touted as a potential chaperone for Prince William on his gap-year travels to South America. In the event, it never happened. "It's just impossible for me to take so much time off work so early in my career. It would also not make sense commercially," opined the eldest van Cutsem boy in a rare brush with the press. "However, it would have been a very great honour." Unlike the royal family, the van Cutsems, it seems, can be trusted to keep their feet on the ground, and not in their mouths.

From the telegraph.co.uk on April 25, 2002. If, as has been reported, Prince William is finding life at St Andrews a little on the dull side, he knows who to blame. "William was considering going to Durham, where I went to university, but I told him to go somewhere a bit more isolated," says his friend and mentor Edward van Cutsem at the launch of Cadogan Property Developments. "People think that Durham is far away from it all, but in fact Newcastle is only about 20 miles away, where there are lots of temptations: Newcastle girls on a Saturday night are something else!" Ed, eldest son of Prince's Charles's old chum Hugh van Cutsem, added: "St Andrews was a more sensible choice."

Remember last year when that reported asked Hugh about being in the GC fashion show (see story below) well he tracked him down again after he once again took part: This time last year, I wrote about Hugh van Cutsem and his evening at the Game Conservancy Trust Ball. I'd heard that he'd made his modelling debut at the event, being led - on a leather leash - around the catwalk by a glamorous female friend. The only problem was that van Cutsem denied the story, claiming it was one of his brothers and inviting me to "do some more research". So I did, getting my hands on a programme with his name in it, and a photo of him on the lead. Van Cutsem was none too happy to see his face in the paper, and neither were his bosses at Cazenove. I heard mutterings of disciplinary proceedings over the affair, which makes it all the more surprising that he was spotted at this year's ball on Tuesday night in this fetching little number. I call van Cutsem to have a friendly chat, but I think he remembers my name. "I'm very busy," is all I get out of him before the line goes dead. I only wanted to ask why he'd forgotten his trousers. From May 2002.

In May 2001, Edward and Hugh modeled for a fundraiser for the Game Conservancy. The two sported the latest fashions which included leashes... When a reporter asked Hugh about his experience, he replied: "It wasn't me mate. It must have been one of my many brothers and there's not a chance I'm telling you which one. You'll have to do some more research." And his reason for knocking off work early that Tuesday afternoon? "I spent the afternoon in the passport office - that's as exciting as it gets." Of course, a person working for the GC was a bit more honest: "Oh yes, both van Cutsem brothers were definitely there."

By Elizabeth Grice from August 2001. (Thanks to Allison for the article.) Like the rare stone curlew, which has so obligingly settled on his Norfolk estate, Hugh van Cutsem is a publicity-shy and sensitive creature who favours a well-camouflaged habitat on open ground. The only reason he is breaking cover, on this thunderous afternoon in the Brecklands, is to explain his position on the stone curlew controversy that has sprung up in the past few days, putting him at odds with some of his big landowning neighbours. As a long-time friend of the Prince of Wales, and until comparatively recently a Sandringham neighbour of the Royal Family, van Cutsem gives the impression that he is used to maintaining a watchful eye on predators such as journalists, especially of the kind who may wish to monitor his nesting habits and social interaction with other species who share his love of the Brecklands' dusty tranquillity. At the first warning crunch of car tyres on the pebbled drive, he strides out of his office, with one of his five labradors, Teal, at his side, but dog and owner appear friendly. His big new house at Hilborough is a breathtaking, neo-Palladian country seat in the Norfolk flint-and-brick vernacular that will soon be obscured, he hopes, by a screen of mature trees. It took four years to build and was designed by Francis Johnson - from a rudimentary drawing by van Cutsem - to be the family home when their lease on Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham estate, ran out. Van Cutsem, son of the champion trainer and millionaire bloodstock breeder Bernard van Cutsem, is a passionate conservationist and horse-breeder. According to The Field magazine, he is also one of the finest shots in the country. His 4,400-acre estate on what he calls "the Brecks" is known for the excellence of its private wild game shoots. Although he is much too discreet to confirm it, members of the Royal Family are among his shooting companions. "Shooting's days are not numbered," he declares. "Properly managed shooting is the most vital conservation tool. I love shooting. It is part of the fabric of the countryside. You draw together a marvellous collection of people in a day's shooting. "Most people who come here shoot reasonably straight and that's important because I don't like things being wounded. I like them to be killed cleanly." If there is a shortage of birds or game in any given year - and there have been four successive poor breeding seasons for the grey partridge - then you don't shoot them. "Tough. You simply wait another year." Van Cutsem lets it be known that if legislation were introduced to ban shooting, he would be one of the first to sell up and leave the country in protest. "I so object to that kind of legislative nonsense," he says. "It is intellectual dishonesty of the first order. From time immemorial, hunters have never been responsible for exterminating species." (As the owner of thousands of acres of North Yorkshire moorland, stocked with a flock of Swaledale sheep, he is equally outspoken about the Government's foot and mouth slaughter policy, arguing that ring-vaccination would have been the most effective means of containment.) Van Cutsem's methods of managing his land - so that game birds proliferate in a five-star habitat teeming with their favourite diet of grubs, insects and seeds, while enjoying protection from traditional enemies (foxes, stoats and crows) - have had remarkable spin-offs. The stone curlew, one of Europe's rarest birds, is the most outstanding. Some 32,000 acres of Breckland on the Norfolk-Suffolk border now support 172 pairs, and 35 of those pairs are in van Cutsem's maize and carrot fields. We leave the leathery, headmasterly atmosphere of his office for a field trip to meet the stone curlew. He loads us into his Land Rover and heads off in search of our shy celebrities through strips of sunflowers, set-aside, wide uncropped headlands and beetle banks. We see several hares, quite a lot of pheasants, a covey of grey partridge - and a smudge about 500 yards away. There are several reasons to be excited about this smudge. The stone curlew - for it is he - is a creature of controversy and could even be something of a money-spinner. The local landowners have managed to double the birds' population in the past 10 years without statutory protection, but now English Nature is declaring the arable land a site of special scientific interest. Three of van Cutsem's East Anglian neighbours object, fearing that the proferred grants of £1 an acre will carry hidden bureaucratic meddling and restrictions on their farming practices. Van Cutsem has no such worries. He says it is a proper working agreement, appropriate in a market-driven economy - and that if English Nature were to introduce any unexpected clause, he would sue. Objectors, he argues, have missed the point: that farmers' revenue will in future have to come as much from environmental payments as from growing crops. "If you deliver a common good, whether it be the stone curlew or anything else, you are entitled to get some reward for it." Van Cutsem, 60, has just taken on a fourth full-time gamekeeper to control the birds' predators and encourage other declining farmland birds. Unusually, he is his own land agent, though he says he looks forward eventually to a quieter life. He and his Dutch-born wife, Emilie, have four grown-up sons - friends, at various times, of Princes William and Harry. All the boys help with and shoot on the estate when their jobs and studies allow. The eldest, Edward, is a godson of Prince Charles and was a page at his wedding. For a time, he was rumoured to be a prospective travelling companion for Prince William on his gap year. He works in the City but is expected to take over at Hilborough eventually. A former Life Guards officer and investment manager, van Cutsem is a spare, fit-looking man. His architectural ambitions are not confined to his house. In 1994, he won a Country Landowners' Association award for the restoration of a dilapidated brick and flint barn whose architectural style has become the "signature" of his stud farm. Prince Charles presented the award. He has built a handsome Dutch-gabled flint house for his mother-in-law in the village and restored the local blacksmith's shop. Next to his house, he has built what must be the only contemporary private chapel in the country, which is used for family services and by visiting priests. The van Cutsems are regular worshippers at the Roman Catholic church in the nearby market town of Swaffham but hope one day to have the Blessed Sacrament "reserved" at Hilborough. They may be arrivistes by Norfolk standards - the family have been in this country for only four generations - but they have a sense of their own continuity. "The chapel binds everything together," he says. "It means a great deal to us. I believe strongly that children should be brought up in a Christian atmosphere because so much in life is missed if that spirituality isn't there in the background."

The tabloid Mail on Sunday (October 2000) devoted two pages to a bizarre story that concerns one of Prince Charles's closest friends, as well as the Prince of Wales's deputy private secretary. Headlined 'Revenge of the Royal outcast', the story suggests an astonishing legal fight within the Prince's household that may have further repercussions for Charles's inner circle. Because it involves legal threats, the paper cannot give too much detail - which makes it somewhat complicated to tell the story. Briefly, the paper's report centres around a lawyer's letter issued by Hugh van Cutsem, a close friend of the Prince of Wales, whose children William, Edward, Hugh, and Nicholas are part of Prince William's and Prince Harry's social set. The letter, the paper said, was sent to Mark Bolland, deputy private secretary to Prince Charles, a man who has played a key role in 'modernizing' Prince Charles's image. The letter, from David D. Lewis and Co, a firm of London solicitors, concerns alleged conversations Mr. Bolland is said to have had with a journalist in which 'highly damaging' remarks were made about the behaviour of Mr van Cutsem's sons. The paper claimed that Mr. van Cutsem believes that his children's reputations have been 'besmirched' by Mr. Bolland. The letter, the Mail on Sunday added, 'will cause the Prince deep embarrassment and has revealed the extent of the antipathy between the old guard and those now responsible for guiding the heir to the Throne'. Lawyers threatens further action unless a satisfactory reply wass received by this from Mr. Bolland. The remarks, which the paper said Mr. Bolland 'emphatically denies' making, are said to be about the influence the van Cutsem boys are said to have over Prince William. Although the newspaper declines to go into any detail about the allegations, it does link them to a time when Tom Parker Bowles, son of Camilla, admitted taking cocaine. 'Mr. Bolland intends to handle the complaint himself and will send a complete denial to van Cutsem', the paper added. He believes himself to be 'the target of those who resent the changing face of the Royals'

Every Step of the Way
(The Guardian - September 28, 1999)

The story was undoubtedly eyecatching: "Prince William to work on Argentine ranch." After months of seemingly inexhaustible and often contradictory exclusives claiming to map out the future monarch's career path, the Sunday Telegraph had managed to come up with something a little bit different.

The essential details were as follows. When he leaves Eton next summer, William will spend a gap year in Argentina and Australia, working on sheep and cattle stations, before returning to Britain to attend university, but not Oxford or Cambridge. The Prince of Wales, it continued, had asked Edward van Cutsem, the 26-year-old son of his close friends Hugh and Emilie, to accompany the young prince, and the request had, it goes without saying, been accepted with delight.

In the last six months we have had William planning to join the parachute regiment; William going to take a gap year to work for Spink and Co, the London war medal dealers where he has spent time on work experience; William shunning Oxbridge for either Bristol or Edinburgh universities. While one paper was detailing the prince's globe-trotting adventure at the weekend, one of its rivals was revealing how the 17-year-old plans to sign up for the SAS after a spell in the Welsh Guards.

Whichever of these stories proves true, if indeed any do, the facts of William's future endeavours may be less important than the identity of those who will accompany him throughout. The very fact that the Van Cutsem name featured so prominently is further proof that there are few families closer to, or more trusted by, Charles. In the sprawling, double-barrelled world of royal insiders and confidantes, they lay the strongest claim to the apparently hereditary title of Best Friends by Appointment to Heirs to the Throne.

The family's credentials are ideally suited to the task. Hugh van Cutsem is an ex-Life Guards officer, a Norfolk bloodstock breeder, member of both the Jockey Club and White's. Emilie is famously strong-willed, and willing to speak her mind to Charles, even if he is not too pleased to hear what she has to say. But most importantly, they are masters of discretion.

Despite being the son of champion trainer Bernard van Cutsem and a renowned breeder in his own right, little is known about Van Cutsem in the racing world beyond the most basic of facts. Similarly, he was a founding member of the Countryside Movement, chairman of the Countryside Business Trust and was the only pro-bloodsports candidate elected to the council of the National Trust last year after it introduced its ban on stag-hunting, yet anti-bloodsports groups know virtually nothing about him. Trust executives refer to him cheerfully as a "pretty good trustee".

As a result, their influence on first one, and now another, generation of future monarchs has often been overlooked. Media attention has inevitably focused on the more high-profile members of Charles's set: the likes of Charles and Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, his regular skiing companions, or former Tory minister Nicholas Soames. But trawl through every important event in the lives of Charles and his sons over the past 10 years and there will almost certainly be a Van Cutsem in there somewhere.

When Charles and Diana married, Edward, then eight, was one of their two pageboys and the couple spent their wedding night at the Van Cutsems' Norfolk estate, Northmore. And when the prince's affair with Mrs Parker Bowles later became public knowledge, it emerged that they had had trysts in a house rented on the Sandringham estate by the Van Cutsems.

Charles's relationship with Hugh van Cutsem goes back a long way - so far that the millionaire stud owner tells people he cannot remember how they first met. What is certain is that it was while Charles was at Cambridge that they became close friends, even though Van Custem is seven years his senior. The common denominator is a passion for rural life in general, and field sports in particular; Van Cutsem is widely recognised as one of the finest shots in the country.

The Van Cutsems' deliberate lack of public profile contrasts with the family image of Charles's other close friends, the Palmer-Tomkinsons. The point is not missed by some more cynical observers who suggest that there is even an unspoken but deep-seated rivalry between the two households for Charles's attentions.

With William and Edward van Cutsem, history appears to be repeating itself. Although Van Cutsem is almost a decade older, they are close companions, Edward even being described as an honorary elder brother. That impression is reinforced by a photograph taken during a winter trip to Balmoral five years ago, in which Van Cutsem is dangling Prince Harry upside down over an icy stream in revenge for being caught in a snowball ambush by the young princes.

But it is now, as William metamorphises from awkward schoolboy into dashing society pin-up, that Charles is keenest to make the most of his son's relationship with van Cutsem. In 1997, Mrs Van Cutsem, described as a "self-appointed substitute mother" to the princes, attempted to warn Charles about the company his fast-maturing eldest son was starting to keep. It was the sort of advice which any concerned close friends would give to a parent, but the result was a cooling of the relationship between Highgrove and Northmore. The prince, it appeared, took Emilie's advice as interference.

Two years on, the picture has changed dramatically. When Camilla Parker Bowles' son Tom found his drug use and fast living exposed in the tabloids, there was a huge fuss because he was known to be close to William. Charles, who told friends he was "fraught with worry" about the influence of William's "London set of friends", has entrusted the introduction of the prince into society into the hands of the Van Cutsems.

The strategy has its dangers. It was Edward's idea for William to make his most high profile, and most controversial appearance to date, as surprise guest at the Cartier International Polo Tournament in July. The surprise almost backfired when newspapers focused on William chatting with Victoria Aitken, daughter of disgraced former cabinet minister Jonathan. Nevertheless, Charles maintains absolute trust in Edward.

"Hugh and Emilie raised their sons in a very traditional fashion," one society insider said yesterday. "As a result, they are all very straight, a bit square."

"Since his mother died," said another, "there has been a long line of people claiming to be William's best friend and confidante. But Edward is the honorary big brother that Charles would choose for William. Whether that means William sees him in the same light is another question entirely."

The story has raised eyebrows for other reasons, she added. "You have to wonder why a 26-year-old would want to give up his job to trail around the world looking after somebody almost 10 years younger than him. What's in it for Edward?"

The answer is simple: he is assuming the hereditary role his father laid out before him. So one thing is certain. Whatever path William chooses to follow when he leaves Eton next June, the Van Cutsems will be behind him every step of the way.

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The Van Cutsems