Kirsty Bertarelli

Kirsty Bertarelli
Kirsty Bertarelli on 14 December 2010
Born	Kirsty Roper (1971-06-30) 30 June 1971 (age 52) Staffordshire, England
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, singer
Known for	Miss United Kingdom, 1988 "Black Coffee" (All Saints song)
Website	Bertarelli's music website

Kirsty Bertarelli (born Kirsty Roper) is a British songwriter and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss United Kingdom 1988 and represented her country at Miss World 1988 and placed 2nd Runner-up, she is former wife of Ernesto Bertarelli an Italian-Swiss businessman who was the owner of biotech giant Serono until 2007 and winner of the America's Cup in 2003 and 2007 with his yachting syndicate Alinghi.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2017 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, her former husband's family were placed 6th with an estimated fortune of £11.5bn, making her Britain's richest woman.^[1][2][3] In Swiss BILANZ magazine's ranking of the wealthiest people in Switzerland, her former husband's family were placed 4th with an estimated fortune of over CHF11 billion.

Early life and career

Born in the United Kingdom, Kirsty spent her childhood in Stone in Staffordshire.^[4] Her family formerly owned one of the world's major manufacturers of ceramic products, Churchill China.

She was crowned Miss UK in 1988, giving her the right to compete in the 1988 Miss World pageant where she placed 2nd runner-up. After moving to London, she began to write music professionally and was signed on to Warner Records.^[5]

Kirsty was married to "biotechnology tycoon" Ernesto Bertarelli in 2000.^[4] The couple and their children lived on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.^[4] Kirsty and Ernesto divorced in the summer of 2021, making her one of richest "divorced" women of the UK, with a total estimated worth of more than £400 million. She is a trustee of The Bertarelli Foundation, which works primarily in neuroscience research and marine conservation and science.^[6][7] Recent projects have included the sponsorship of the neuroscience research at the Centre for Neuroprosthetics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and also a joint programme between that university and Harvard Medical School.^[8][9][10] In marine conservation and marine science, the Foundation has supported the creation of a number of marine reserves, including in the British Indian Ocean Territory, Easter Island and the Turneffe Atoll in Belize.^[11][12][13] Kirsty Bertarelli lead the family's Foundation's community work in Stoke-on-Trent, the city close to where she grew up. This includes a bursary scheme worth £4,500 for disadvantaged student at Staffordshire University,^[14] a partnership with the city's YMCA,^[15] and support for the annual Stoke-on-Trent Literary Festival.^[16]

Music career

In 2000, she co-wrote "Black Coffee". The song was recorded by All Saints and became a worldwide hit. It was number one in the UK chart, reached the Top 10 in seven other countries and featured in various international charts for 20 weeks.

Always interested and involved in music, Bertarelli has continued to write songs. She recorded some of her songs for the UK-Swiss charity Smiling Children Foundation^[17] and Le Matin described her as having a "golden voice".^[18]

Universal Music liked the songs and decided to sign her. The first single, "Don't Say", was released digitally through online stores on 9 December 2009.^[19] Her debut album Elusive was published on 15 January 2010, entering the Swiss charts in the 20th position.

Throughout 2010, Bertarelli published two more singles in Switzerland ("Elusive" and "More Than Anything"). She also had several live performances, including the Montreux Jazz Festival and opening acts for Simply Red in Edinburgh^[20] and Zürich.^[21]

In 2011, a remix of her conservation song "Green"^[22] was chosen by the WWF to be their anthem to mark the Fund's 50th year of conservation at their annual Panda Ball.^[23] Bertarelli donated all proceeds from the single to WWF to support their ongoing conservation projects around the world.^[24]

The song is included in the acoustic album Green, first released as an iTunes digital download in February 2012. Proceeds from the album are also being donated to the WWF, as part of her continuing support for the organization.

2011 saw the release of her single "Set Your Body Free", which included remixes from Loverush UK!, Jason van Wyk, Full Intention and Nova.

In January 2012, Bertarelli signed a long-term exclusive music deal with Sony/ATV Music publishing and collaborated with world-renowned trance DJ Armin van Buuren. Van Buuren's remix of Kirsty's song "Twilight" was in dance charts for 9 weeks, peaking at No. 2 on Music Week's club chart. This collaboration has continued, with van Buuren producing Kirsty's new single "Free of War".

Bertarelli then released her next album titled Love Is, which was partly recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.^[25] Her latest album, called Indigo Shores, was released on 12 May 2014 following her signing by Decca Records in the autumn of 2013.^[26]

References

1. "The Sunday Times Rich List 2017". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
2. Key, Alys (2 May 2017). "Mr & Mrs Moneybags: the UK's richest couples revealed". Retrieved 29 August 2017.
3. "Britain's richest women".
4. Rich List 2012: No.1 – Kirsty Bertarelli (£6.5bn) – Birmingham Post Retrieved 28 March 2018.
5. "The almost unbelievably fabulous life of the richest woman in Britain, Kirsty Bertarelli". The Independent. 9 May 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
6. "Tackling Sensory Disorders". hms.harvard.edu. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
7. "About the Bertarelli Foundation – Fondation Bertarelli". Retrieved 1 July 2020.
8. "Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering". bertarelli.hms.harvard.edu. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
9. "March Symposium Focuses on Great Plains Studies". Anthropology News. 23 (1): 14. January 1982. doi:10.1111/an.1982.23.1.14.4. ISSN 1541-6151.
10. "Take a deep breath: Scientists identify possible origin of free will". Sky News. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
11. "Bertarelli: "The Chagos will teach us how to save our Oceans"". lastampa.it (in Italian). 18 October 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
12. "One superyacht owner's mission to save the seas". Boat International. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
13. "One of world's largest marine parks created off coast of Easter Island". The Guardian. 9 September 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
14. "Bertarelli Bursary - Staffordshire University". www.staffs.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
15. McInnes, Kathie (26 May 2019). "Why universities are turning to billionaires to help students". stokesentinel. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
16. Astle, Mary-ann (17 May 2020). "Kirsty Bertarelli - the fourth richest women in UK with a £9.2 billion fortune". stokesentinel. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
17. "Smiling Children website".
18. "Le Matin". 3 June 2008. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012.
19. "Tribune de Genève". 9 December 2009.
20. "Kirsty Bertarelli belts it out with legends Simply Red". Hello. 21 July 2010. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
21. "Herzlich willkommen in der grössten Eventlocation der Schweiz". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
22. Bertarelli, Kirsty. "Kirsty GREEN acoustic version for the WWF Official video". Kirsty-Music.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2018 – via YouTube.
23. "Panda Ball". Time.
24. "WWF News". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012.
25. Sherwin, Adam (3 March 2013). "It's not about the money...super-rich Kirsty Bertarelli turns to pop". The Independent. London. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
26. "Kirsty Bertarelli Indigo Shores". Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.

External links

• Bertarelli Foundation
• Kirsty's Music website
• Evening Standard (13 Aug 2010): "The ballad of the billionaire"
• The Telegraph (12 March 2015): "Britain's richest woman wins council approval for mega basement at £10m Westminster home"