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LADY GOGA! Not just Flavio Briatore’s yacht candy. Not just mistress of a [pounds sterling]28m London mansion. Not just mother of an oligarch’s son. Not just an Oxford graduate and oil tycoon – Goga Ashkenazi is now best friends with Prince Andrewnot bad for a ‘peasant girl’ from Kazakhstan

0 Comments | Mail on Sunday (London, England), The, March 7, 2010

Byline: by Mark Palmer IN LONDON and Will Stewart IN MOSCOW

The marquees were like mini-mansions, the laser light show better than anything Disney could have dreamed up. Even though the speech in honour of the birthday girl was, according to one of the 270 guests, ‘ill-judged and lavatorial’, the party had its desired effect: it announced that the hostess Goga Ashkenazi had ‘arrived’.

As if anyone was in any doubt, guests driving into Tyringham Hall – the 18th Century Buckinghamshire pile designed by Sir John Soane and now owned by property developer Anton Bilton and his actress wife Lisa B – only had to gaze at the classical facade to see a huge projected image of Goga’s smiling face replete with her characteristic red lipstick. Inside there were fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos. A woman suspended in a bird cage directed guests from the Grand Hall into the four marquees. Goga made her appearance in a Swarovski crystalencrusted, backless lace dress by Australian designers Ralph and Russo.

Goga took her place at the top table – with Prince Andrew on her left and financier Robert Hanson – who made the speech – on her right. It was, said one onlooker, as if 30-year-old Goga had opened her address book and invited everyone she knew – and then a few more for good measure.

They included banker Nat Rothschild, Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes, Caroline Stanbury (who organised the party), banker Andy Wong and his wife Patti, the Russian model Natalia Vodianova, the property millionaire Nick Candy and his actress girlfriend Holly Valance, Nancy Dell’Olio, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill and Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Conde Nast.

But it was, perhaps, telling that the evening’s lavish entertainment began with a short, affectionate film about Goga’s life. In the closed world of London society, Goga appears to have risen from nowhere. Until last month, few knew much about her save that she was one of the Duke of York’s coterie of female friends and that she is beautiful, young, very wealthy and comes from oil-rich Kazakhstan.

Andrew and Goga are said to be close, but exactly how close has long been a matter of speculation. Certainly, eyebrows were raised two years ago when they were seen enjoying a three-hour dinner together in Ascot only days after she had given birth to a son.

Perhaps disappointingly for the Royal gossips, the child’s father turned out to be Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev, who controls the country’s oil industry and also happens to be married to the daughter of its autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Three weeks ago, Mr Kulibayev was revealed to be the mystery buyer who paid Prince Andrew [pounds sterling]15million for his dilapidated marital home Sunninghill Park – [pounds sterling]3 million above the asking price.

Whatever Mr Kulibayev’s motives – the house remains empty and forlorn – no one doubts that Goga played a key role in securing the sale. Perhaps as a way of thanking her, Andrew introduced her to the Queen in the Royal Box at Ascot. Goga wore an enormous red hat.

Today, Goga is regarded by those who know her as a social and business phenomenon, travelling the world attending to her various projects, which inevitably lead back to Kazakhstan. But few people know how she became so well-connected.

It is certainly beyond doubt that she lives in considerable style. Goga owns a [pounds sterling]28 million house in Holland Park, West London, replete with butler, chauffeur, head chef, sous chef, maid, nanny and a [pounds sterling]137,000 Bentley Continental Flying Spur. Her dining room – with gold leaf ceiling – was designed by David Collins, creator of fashionable restaurants such as The Wolseley and J. Sheekey.

Goga sits on the council of London’s Serpentine Gallery. She sponsors debates at the Oxford Union (she graduated with a BA in modern history and economics from Somerville College in 2001) and she entertains with great panache – last year she invited Lord and Lady Lloyd-Webber to dinner, along with 18 other guests.

‘She is the real deal,’ said Rob Hersov, 48, vice-chairman of luxury flight service NetJets Europe and one of Goga’s closest friends. ‘She’s incredibly generous, kind and definitely not a lady who lunches. She is on the ball and hard-working. If I was to describe her business, I would say she is in oil services
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