Hotel heiress, beauty boss, mother of two - the world of IRENE FORTE

Business is something Irene Forte, daughter of mega-hotelier Sir Rocco Forte, takes seriously. So seriously that she planned the birth 18 months ago of her daughter Alisea to take place the morning after she’d secured a huge investment for her high-end eponymous skincare brand. ‘I signed at 6pm and was in hospital for a C-section next morning,’ she says.

When her son Alexis was born six months ago (‘I didn’t plan on two babies so close together,’ she grimaces), she arranged another caesarean for Saturday, so she could be back tackling emails on Monday. ‘I negotiated with my obstetrician to leave the hospital after one night, even though you’re supposed to stay for at least two,’ she says. ‘She said, “OK, but don’t tell anyone.”’

We’re in Forte’s house in one of the prettiest streets of upmarket Kensington, West London, where properties sell for around £8 million. As is often the chaotic way with new parents, she and her husband Felix Winckler, 39, moved in a week before Alexis was born. ‘Our last place was tiny, so this all feels very grown-up, it’s surreal,’ she says.

The 35-year-old is sitting on a pistachio-coloured couch in the living room that’s furnished with tasteful mid-century pieces. There’s an old-school turntable with accompanying records on shelves. The calm is only shattered by her viszla puppy Sherlock in the garden, jumping up against the window. ‘Sherlock’s my third child; if a baby’s on my lap he wants to be on it too,’ she says.

Forte concedes that after Alexis was born, she did work from home that week. ‘But I was back in the office the week after. I had a great nanny and maternity nurse for nights – I couldn’t have done it otherwise. But when you’ve got two kids, work is a great excuse to get yourself out of the house. I used to work from home on Mondays, now I’m like, “See you!” It’s much harder being at home where you’re helpless to stop a baby screaming.’

Didn’t Forte fancy a spot of maternity leave, watching daytime telly? ‘That would be no fun!’ she exclaims, looking horrified. ‘I can’t imagine it. I never have a day off. I’ve always been a workaholic.’

This isn’t the conversation I was expecting with the heiress to an estimated £350-million fortune. As granddaughter of Charles Forte, founder of the Trusthouse Forte hospitality empire, Forte could easily have become a Paris Hilton-type socialite. Instead, in 2018 she launched Irene Forte Skincare, a high-end range that has seen sales double year on year and sells mostly to the ultra-high-net-worth 0.1 per cent of the population.

She certainly has the connections: her former boyfriend was Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, brother of Prince Harry’s ex Cressida Bonas. Cressida is still a great pal. Other friends include Princess Eugenie, a guest at Forte’s wedding celebrations three years ago to French-born entrepreneur Winckler (his exes include Charlotte Casiraghi, Princess Caroline of Monaco’s daughter) at a Norman cathedral on a Sicilian mountaintop. Further chums include Princess Beatrice and another of Harry’s exes, Chelsy Davy.

Yet instead of It-girl, Forte is firmly in the girl-boss camp. Her range is stocked in more than 100 upmarket retailers worldwide, including Liberty in London and prestigious US department stores including Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman – some feat in a country with no Forte hotels, where her family’s name doesn’t register. ‘To Americans, “forte” has the original Italian meaning – “strong”. We play on that a lot,’ she says with a grin. If there’s an entrepreneurial gene, the Fortes have it in spades. Aged six, on holiday in her mother Aliai’s native Italy, Forte used to sell pine nuts she’d prised from their shells at the side of the road, ‘in exchange for a few lire’.

She inherited her drive from her late grandfather Charles, who emigrated with his family to Scotland from a small village outside Rome when he was four. By 26 he was running his own milk bar in London, expanding it into an empire of more than 1,000 restaurants and 800 hotels covering everything from the Waldorf to Little Chefs.

Her father Sir Rocco, now 79, took over the company in 1993 only to lose it humiliatingly three years later, before he could make his mark, in a bitter takeover by Gerry Robinson’s Granada. Yet he rapidly turned the tables, setting up Rocco Forte Hotels (RFH), now a thriving chain of 14 ultra-luxe hotels, including Brown’s in London and the Hotel de Russie in Rome. His sister Olga Polizzi is the hotels’ designer, while her daughter – and Irene’s cousin – hotelier Alex presents Channel 5’s The Hotel Inspector.

‘I remember the takeover battle really clearly,’ Forte says. ‘Dad was in his 50s. He could easily have said, “I’m done” and retired, but instead the next day he set up RFH. He was determined and ended up being as successful as his father, if not more.’

While Sir Rocco was busy with his business, her mum, Rome-born Aliai, 59, ‘was the pushier parent’, who encouraged Irene and her siblings Lydia, 37, who now runs RFH’s food and beverage arm, and Charles, 32, who works in developing hotels, to excel at school and university. ‘Mum’s so sweet and supportive,’ Forte says, smiling. ‘She always tells people… [she affects a strong Italian accent] ‘‘Irene’s brilliant, she just works all the time. She needs to take a break.’’’

Slight, blonde and tanned in Citizens of Humanity jeans and a ‘random’ jumper, Forte is softly spoken and initially reserved, although as she warms up she becomes markedly more giggly and fun.

She may never stop working but she still lets her hair down occasionally. ‘I’m a terrible cook, so I love ordering Deliveroo and doing my emails with something terrible on TV, like The Kardashians or Emily in Paris, that I can keep half an eye on. Or I love Premier League football in the background. I’ve been a Chelsea supporter all my life.’

By blood, she’s 100 per cent Italian. ‘But I’m very British,’ she says. ‘Italians are fiery, passionate, up and down. I’m not.’ Nonetheless, Forte is passionate about her roots. After her Catholic boarding school, she studied Italian literature and French at Oxford. For her year abroad, she worked as communications manager at Sir Rocco’s five-star Verdura Resort in Sicily. ‘Now Sicily’s having a moment because of The White Lotus but back then it was seen as…’ ‘Mafia badlands?’ I suggest. She nods.

Forte ‘got stuck in’ with hotel life and fell in love with the island. After graduating, at Sir Rocco’s insistence she took the management training course at his hotel Brown’s in Central London, with spells in every department, including housekeeping. So she was making beds? ‘Of course!’ she exclaims. ‘I’m not sure I was good at it, but I tried. I found reception the hardest: you’re on your feet all day and complaints come to you. The customer’s always right, so you have to be smiling.’

From then, she worked for RFH, where duties included running the hotels’ spas. Unable to source products for them with suitable appeal, Forte decided to make her own. She wanted to use organic produce from Verdura’s farm, but was wary of pursuing a woo-woo ‘natural beauty’ route, preferring to harness plants’ powerful ingredients. ‘But the scientific brands I looked at all felt cold. I’m a literature graduate and I wanted my products to tell a story.’

Her breakthrough was being introduced to Dr Francesca Ferri, a pharmacologist with numerous achievements including creating a pure vitamin E tablet aimed at preventing the spread of breast cancer tumours. So far, over the past decade, the two women have collaborated on 26 products, all with scientifically proven benefits. Take their bestseller, Hibiscus Night Cream, which uses the biopeptide myoxinol extracted from hibiscus seeds, known as nature’s Botox for its ability to temporarily freeze muscles, but which clinical trials show also makes marked improvements in skin hydration, antioxidant capacity and elasticity. Despite its eye-watering price tag of £165 a bottle, 56 per cent of customers buy again (compared to a 25 per cent industry average).

Sold first in RFH spas, demand for Forte’s products grew so much that two years ago, having raised nearly £3 million from an investment firm owned by luxury giant LVMH – ‘these people don’t give you money for fun’ – Forte quit the family firm to fully devote herself to growing her brand.

Initially, Sir Rocco was less than delighted by her going solo. ‘Maybe Dad was trying to protect me – he knows how tough it is to run your own business. And he liked all three of us working for the family. But Dad being like that was just a moment and now everything’s working out. I wanted to be successful in my own right.’

Forte is still involved in RFH, with her company now running its spas (more will open at hotels in Berlin and Edinburgh next year). ‘I have the best of both worlds,’ she says. It all sounds very Succession – three children working with their charismatic mogul father. Is Sir Rocco like Succession’s monstrous patriarch Logan Roy? ‘Absolutely not! And I have a good relationship with my siblings. My father has been smart: there’s never been any favouritism and the company is significant enough for everyone to have big roles.’

Sir Rocco has described himself as ‘an old-fashioned male chauvinist’, adding, ‘It’s more important for the boy to be in charge of the business than the girls.’ What does Forte make of her father’s, ahem, dated values? ‘Dad doesn’t really believe that, he says that kind of thing for effect,’ she says. ‘My sister and I take the p*** out of him for it. We’re independent women.’

While her father has admitted to knowing little about environmental issues, she, in contrast, has put effort into making her products as eco-friendly as possible, providing free postage for empties to be sent for recycling. ‘Dad’s lack of interest was to my benefit: he put in me in charge of all that stuff in the spas and it opened my eyes.’

Sir Rocco is also a passionate Brexiteer; her husband Winckler, in contrast, grew up in Brussels and, she says, ‘really believes in the European project’. What happens when Brexit comes up at dinners? Forte laughs. ‘They don’t even engage! It’s better that way.’

She knows that some will dismiss her as a rich girl with a hobby job. ‘They did that at the beginning. But now they can see what I’ve achieved and they’re beginning to take me seriously. I can’t deny I’ve had huge advantages, but I’ve taken my opportunities and run with them.’

Is the plan to make Sir Rocco proud? ‘Of course! As a family we’re not good at saying we’re proud of each other. But that’s starting to change.’

IRENE'S LIFE IN BEAUTY 

Favourite budget buy?

Clinisept, an antibacterial spray you can buy anywhere. It helps with breakouts, and you can spray it on your hands.

Favourite treatment?

I love facials. I find them much more relaxing than massages. I see an amazing woman called Barbara Jeffery who comes to the house.

Desert island make-up product? 

Eyebrow pencil, because my brows are really blonde. I’m not picky about brands – I think I’m using Mac at the moment.

Stance on tweakments?

I haven’t done fillers – I think 20-year-olds with filler in their faces are really sad. I haven’t had Botox either but I’m not totally against the idea, although all it will do is iron out your skin. It’s not going to give it a glow.

Any beauty disasters?

When I was younger I had too many laser treatments on my skin and had some bad reactions. They were much too harsh for me.

Favourite fragrance?

I don’t wear fragrance. Whenever I spray some on, my husband says, ‘Eurgh, what are you wearing?’

Most life-changing product?

I can’t live without my Hibiscus Night Cream – I wear it day and night. I also love face stickers you can buy from Amazon; you put them on when you go to sleep and they stop facial movement that causes lines.

Picture director: Ester Malloy. 

Stylist: Nicola Rose. 

Assistant: Hope Palmer. 

Hair: Wilson Fok at Eighteen using Arkive Headcare. 

Make-up: Adam de Criz at One represents using Irene Forte and Laura Mercier.