Quickie divorce for Country Life Venus who shocked the shires

Sophia Burrell with financier Peter Thompson in 2003

A society beauty who posed naked as Botticelli’s Venus in Country Life magazine has been granted a quickie divorce from her City financier husband of 13 years.

Guests at Sophia Burrell’s wedding to Peter Thompson in 2003 included actress Elizabeth Hurley, while the couple’s children count millionaire socialite Henry Dent-Brocklehurst and brewery heiress Selina Tollemache among their glamorous godparents.

A decree nisi ending the Thompson marriage was granted in less than a minute yesterday after Ms Burrell, 41, blamed her husband’s unreasonable behaviour for the breakdown of their relationship.

The polo-playing former model set pulses racing in 1999 when she appeared naked in a recreation of Botticelli’s masterpiece The Birth Of Venus as a “girl in pearls” for the society bible, with only a sweep of long blonde hair preserving her modesty.

The feature was to promote her restaurant, a champagne and seafood bistro in Kensington that hosted Prince William’s 18th birthday party, and where regulars included pop star Kylie Minogue and Prince Andrew.

The venue has since closed down and Ms Burrell, who has a degree in business and equine veterinary science, now works for a private ambulance company in Yorkshire.

She and Mr Thompson, 50, whose sister was married to Lord Ivar Mountbatten, lived together in a country pile near Shipley, West Sussex, while Mr Thompson’s company has its offices in Redcliffe Mews, Kensington.

District Judge Robinson approved a decree nisi for the couple at London’s Central Family Court, in a hearing that lasted less than a minute.

In the court papers, Ms Burrell claimed that her husband “has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent”.

The judge accepted that the marriage had broken down and it will be dissolved officially in six weeks’ time unless either party applies to stop the process.

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