He's a private equity mogul and she's a wannabe Madonna.... meet the couple taking London by storm

Henry is a private equity king nicknamed Jackpot, Stacey is a mum of four looking to be the new Madonna — and they’re taking London by storm, says Maxine Frith
29 November 2013

It may not have been the most exclusive of parties but the Christmas bash for Now magazine at the boutique Sanctum Soho Hotel in Warwick Street earlier this week certainly attracted a young and blingtastic, if not strictly A-list, gathering.

Among the guests were the usual clutch of reality stars from TOWIE and Made in Chelsea, a smattering of X Factor contestants and a gaggle of Hollyoaks actors, all keeping the average age in the lower end of the 18-24 box.

But one of the attendees bucked that trend by a good two decades — and, no doubt, by several million pounds in her bank account.

Mother-of-four Stacey Jackson, 44, swept into the event greeting everyone she knew with squeals of delight, and left several hours later with a few more newly-minted BFFs and Twitter selfies, including X Factor hopeful Luke Friend.

With her mane of blonde hair, body con dresses and closet of Louboutin heels, Jackson has been a glamorous fixture on the London social scene since moving to the capital from New York with her multi-millionaire husband Henry more than a decade ago — but even by her own ambitious standards she has upped the ante in recent months.

She released her dance album Live It Up earlier this year via her self-financed record label 3BIG and has been on an exhausting worldwide promotional tour as well as juggling bringing up her four children, aged six to 18, at their £5 million home in Chelsea.

A single from the album, Pointing Fingers, reached number eight in the charts and the related (predictably lavish) music video features her “good friends” Spencer Matthews and Binky Felstead, from Made in Chelsea.

Her summer has been spent partying in Cannes, on a yacht in St Tropez and in LA, while she counts rocker Bryan Adams, Nancy Dell’Olio , Topshop boss Sir Philip Green and former Rolling Stones wife Jo Wood among her closest friends.

If not ferrying her three sons (Reid, 18, Tyler, 15, Liam, 11) and six-year-old daughter Caylie to their four different private day schools in London, her favourite haunts are Nobu, Annabel’s and Harvey Nichols (she is a self-confessed shopaholic).

Not one for under-the-radar networking, she is known as a ferocious if lovable name-dropper — one recent blog on her website breathlessly recounts how Prince Andrew introduced her husband to Heston Blumenthal while they were both dining at the same table at an event at The River Café.

She’s also endearingly self-deprecating; in the same anecdote, she admits that, thanks to an auto-correct mishap on her phone, she told everyone she was going to dinner at “The Fat F**k” on the advice of the Duke of York, and has described herself as a “grown-up Hannah Montana”.

One mother who knows her from the school run says: “She’s completely over the top but she doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body.

“She’s not everybody’s cup of tea but she doesn’t care about what all the other snooty yummy mummies think of her. She’s great fun — very indiscreet, very generous, very loving.”

She put her pop ambitions on hold while having children but released an album of Motown covers in 2009, with the proceeds going to a children’s music charity, and has since worked with top producers including Snoop Dogg.

She has also made no secret of her hopes of scoring a reality TV show to rival the Kardashians, featuring her jet-set life and family.

So how did the indomitable Mrs Jackson become such a fixture on the London party scene?

She was born in Canada and began performing in rock bands as a teenager before moving to the US and carving out a successful career as a TV publicist. In 1990 she met US investment banker Henry“Jackpot” Jackson at a party in Florida and the couple were married three years later.

She’s the first to admit that she and her husband are opposites in many ways — he’s quiet, private and discreet — but they both share a formidable work ethic and ambition.

Henry, 48, comes from a respected New York City family — his grandfather founded Esquire magazine and he worked for Deutsche Bank in Europe before founding a private equity firm in 2003.

In fact it is Henry, rather than his wife, who has really hit the headlines in the national rather than the social pages of various celebrity magazines.

His private equity firm, OpCapita, has become notorious within City circles for its ruthless takeovers of ailing high street businesses, some of which have later gone into liquidation with the loss of thousands of jobs.

Among the most controversial was Jackson’s acquisition of Comet for just £2 in February 2012. Nine months later the chain went into administration, with 6,000 job losses.

But by restructuring the company and selling it on, OpCapita and its backers are thought to have made £100 million from the venture.

Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched an inquiry into the collapse of Comet but criticism over his tactics has not deterred Henry. After the high street chain Game went into administration in March 2012, OpCapita bought it for a knockdown price (again reported to be about £2) and this week it is reported to be on the brink of a £200 million stock market flotation, further inflating the Jackson family coffers.

Business insiders say he is currently eyeing up other chains (his first acquisition was furniture company MFI in 2006) and is currently doing the rounds of City investors to raise funds for a massive spending spree on failing chains.

Henry Jackson has denied that he is destroying the high street and threatening jobs, arguing forcefully that he is saving unprofitable companies and helping to kickstart the economy.

His personal net worth remains a matter of debate — but with his wife’s pop career taking off, and a multi-million investment fund in the offing, it seems that Christmas is coming early for the Jacksons.

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