Biography
Nadine de Rothschild (born Nadine Nelly Jeannette Lhopitalier on 18 April 1932) is a French author and former actress. She was married to banker Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family.
Born in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France, Nadine Lhopitalier never met her father. At age 14, she left her mother's home and worked in a Peugeot factory.
By age 16, she became the model for painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue, a socialite who introduced her to the theater and film industries. She started her acting career in 1952 under the stage name Nadine Tallier and appeared in various roles until 1964.
In 1958, she began a romantic relationship with the son of Clement Callingham and Norah Docker.
In 1962, two years before retiring from acting, she married Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild from the French branch of the Rothschild family. At that time, Edmond was chairman and principal owner of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, a private banking group based in Geneva, Switzerland. Though raised Roman Catholic, she converted to Judaism, explaining, "It would not have been possible to have the name Rothschild and be a Catholic... Nor would it be right for the son of a Rothschild to be half-Jewish and half-Catholic." Their only son, Benjamin de Rothschild (1963–2021), was born shortly after their marriage. After Edmond's death in 1997, David Rockefeller proposed to her, but she declined.
Lhopitalier adopted her husband's noble title of Baroness, granted to the Rothschild family during the Second French Empire. She authored a book on etiquette, Le Bonheur de Séduire l'Art de Réussir, and her autobiography, La baronne rentre à cinq heures. She also contributed reviews on similar topics to the press. In 2004, she founded the Nadine de Rothschild International Way of Life Academy in Geneva, Switzerland.
By 2014, she owned 17% of the capital and 7% of the voting rights of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. Due to disagreements with her daughter-in-law, Ariane de Rothschild, she transferred her shares of the family fortune to the Swiss private bank Pictet in 2014 and again in 2019.
