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Family Values
Today there are as many meanings of the word “family” as there are families. Welcome to the new normal.
December 2010
“We moved around a lot when I was a child,” says fashion designer Bella
Freud—great-granddaughter of Sigmund and daughter of artist Lucian—whose
free-spirited mother transplanted Bella and her sister Esther to Morocco
for a time when they were young. There she learned Arabic, so “I could
understand what people were saying about us,” she explains. Her parents
split up when she was two, “so I virtually have no memory of them being
together,” Freud says. “I often think [my son] Jimmy’s so lucky to have
a mother and a father because it’s so relaxing not to have to provide
everything yourself.” Though she didn’t see much of her dad as a kid,
the two forged a lasting bond the day he bought Bella her first vodka
and lime at London’s Colony Room—when she was 14. “I thought, God, this
is incredible—suddenly I could join in his world.” She quickly became a
frequent model of his, soaking up her father’s stories while he painted.
“It was as if everything stopped when I went through that door, because
it was cozy and special and nothing else mattered.” Though Sigmund
rarely comes up in conversation, says Freud, 10-year-old Jimmy takes his
famous relatives in stride. So much so that during the past four years,
as his father, James Fox (author of White Mischief), helped family
friend Keith Richards pen his memoirs, “Jimmy kept asking us, ‘Is Keith
my uncle?’”
December 2010
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