A TV legend has left a £4m Cotswolds mansion after having lived there for four decades.
Anne Robinson has confirmed she has sold her long-time converted barn just outside the village of Hatherop, near Cirencester, where she has lived for decades.
The 81-year-old broadcaster’s property lies a short drive from Burford, in a part of the Cotswolds popular with wealthy second-home owners and celebrities.
After more than 40 years living at the home, she has asked specialist local estate agency Butler Sherborn to handle the sale of her home, which is on the market for £4.5 million.
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The TV star is swapping rural life for an apartment overlooking Hyde Park, just a few streets away from her daughter Emma Wilson – a children’s broadcaster and former radio producer – Emma’s husband, Liam Kan, and their children.
Ms Robinson keeps all of her grandchildren’s school photographs proudly displayed in the downstairs loo, and says she will miss the house.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: “I just know that it will be sadder if they take me out of here in an ambulance… I run, do weights and Pilates but I just can’t legislate for the next five years.”
In practice, the move is less dramatic than it sounds: she has always maintained properties in London, many of her Cotswolds friends also divide their time between town and country, and she will now be able to walk to lunch with them rather than depend on lifts.
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She stopped driving when her eyesight deteriorated, and Emma has promised to show her how to get around on the Tube.
Above all, she is determined not to become a worry for her daughter, as she explained: “I don’t want Emma sitting at lunch saying to someone, as people say to me, ‘Oh my mother, you know she’s in Somerset, and now the carer’s gone off sick.
“I’m having to drive for an hour and a half when there’s a crisis.’”
Much of the art, books and keepsakes she has accumulated over the years are likely to be sent to auction, allowing her to edit down her belongings and fit the story of her remarkable life into a smaller London home.
