Marco Pierre White - Personal Life

Personal Life

White has been married three times. His first wife was Alex McArthur, who was the daughter of a surgeon from Buckinghamshire, and who worked at his local fishmonger. After a year-long romance, they were married at Chelsea Register Office on 8 June 1988; neither family attended the ceremony.

White then met 21-year-old model Lisa Butcher at a London nightclub. They were engaged within three weeks. White says today that he was so intoxicated by her looks that he forgot to think about her personality. Engaged for two months, Butcher sold the wedding in a £20,000 deal to Hello! magazine. The wedding took place at the Brompton Oratory on 15 August 1992, where Albert Roux was best man, and Lisa had forgotten to invite his father and brothers. White says he knew the marriage was a mistake when he saw her £3,000 floor-length, backless Bruce Oldfield dress with cutaway sides. White told a reporter that she looked dressed to go down the catwalk rather than the aisle. Butcher says of their 15-week marriage: "We went to the Scilly Isles for our honeymoon. On the first day, Marco turned to me and said, 'I don't love you.' We spent two miserable days when we didn't speak and he went shark fishing. Then I left." In her one interview about the marriage, Butcher has hinted that something unspeakable happened on the honeymoon: "Something very bad did happen but I'm not going to say what it was. It really wasn't a very pleasant experience for me and my family."

In 1992, White started a relationship with Matilde "Mati" Conejero, the bartender at The Canteen. and went on to have two sons: Luciano (born December 1992), Marco Jr., and a daughter, Mirabelle, born after White retired and the couple had married at the Belvedere on 7 April 2000. At the wedding, Gordon Ramsay turned up with a TV crew having told neither White nor his bride. White and Ramsay have not spoken since. After White became friends with city financier Robin Saunders, Mati wrongly suspected an affair between the two. White and his wife had a fight, after which White spent 14 hours in the cells of Notting Hill police station in January 2005. White and Mati began divorce proceedings in 2007 after she confronted two of his waitresses over affairs and his close relationship with singer/actress Martine McCutcheon. In 2011 the divorce proceedings were withdrawn. In October 2012 White and Conejero separated again.

White has a Japanese assistant and chauffeur called Mr Ishii, whom he met while he managed the Mirabelle restaurant in Curzon Street, Mayfair. The restaurant became available for sale and was quite sought-after, but his relationship with Mr Ishii persuaded the Japanese owners to sell to Marco. In his leisure time, White can be found freshwater fishing and game hunting.

White is a supporter of the Conservative Party.