By Natalie Clarke

PUBLISHED: 18:27 EST, 3 June 2012 | UPDATED: 05:02 EST, 4 June 2012

The London home of Ben and Kate Goldsmith is  notable in two aspects.    

First, its price tag: it was recently put on the market for 20 million. Second, the tangled state of the front garden — a riot of long grass, weeds and wild flowers in shades of pink and violet.

The garden might be an appropriate metaphor for the Goldsmith marriage: withering, neglected for some time, and now very messy indeed.

Ben and Kate Goldsmith pictured in December 2010. The couple are set to divorce after she embarked on a passionate love affair with an American rap star

Ben and Kate Goldsmith pictured in December 2010. The couple are set to divorce after she embarked on a passionate love affair with an American rap star

Last week, the union between the son of the late financier Sir James Goldsmith and his wife, a scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty, collapsed in the most spectacular fashion. Kate,  a music producer, it was reported, has been having an affair for the past year with — of all people — an American rapper, Jay Electronica.

Mr Goldsmith apparently confronted his  29-year-old wife last Wednesday after discovering explicit texts and emails between the pair. After initially denying the affair, Kate admitted it when her husband told her he had read the text messages.

There was a fierce row, during which Mr Goldsmith is said to have slapped Kate and kicked a child’s toy at her. Ben then took their children to school, and by the time he had returned his wife had called the police and officers were at the house to arrest him.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that a 31-year-old man from Kensington, West London, was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm and taken to a police station, where he accepted  a caution.

Mr Goldsmith is away on a pre-planned holiday with the couple’s three young children. But he has said he plans to sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery.

Confirming the split at the weekend, he told the Mail on Sunday: ‘I’m pretty shell-shocked. All I am thinking about now is my children.’

While friends of Ben’s say his wife is still ‘obsessed’ with Electronica, last night a friend of Kate’s claimed the affair happened during a five-month break from Ben, and ended after three months.

Whatever the precise truth, it is still a startling end to the marriage that marked the union of two hugely powerful dynasties.

That Kate Goldsmith has been carrying on with a rapper known for his sexually explicit lyrics is undoubtedly a scandal, even for a family that is no stranger to colourful goings-on.

The couple's marriage is on the rocks after Mr Goldsmith confronted his wife over explicit messages she had sent to rapper Jay Electronica (pictured)

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Last night, one friend told the Mail that the Goldsmith family are incredibly angry and that the divorce will be nasty.

‘Ben is going to start proceedings at the earliest opportunity,’ says the friend. ‘It will be a fight. They will fight over the kettle and the teapot!

‘There is a lot of anger. Lady Annabel (Ben’s formidable mother) is especially incensed and upset.’

Both Ben and his 29-year-old wife are wealthy in their own right,  and unravelling their fortunes to reach a divorce settlement will  be complicated.

Sir James left his family a 1.2 billion fortune when he died in 1997, much of which is tied up in trust. Kate and her family were left 18 million — considerably less, but hardly a pittance — when her father died. Amschel Rothschild, a banker, was found hanged in the Hotel Bristol in Paris in 1996, aged just 41.

Feelings are running high at the moment, and another complication is the fact that Kate’s sister, Alice Rothschild, is going out with Ben’s elder brother, Zac.

Zac’s own ten-year marriage to Sheherazade Ventura-Bentley collapsed in 2009 after he began an affair with Alice, and they now live together in a house on the Goldsmiths’ family estate in Richmond, South-West London.

Zac’s divorce is still not finalised, as lawyers continue to work out a financial settlement between him and Sheherazade.

According to one friend, Alice now finds herself in a tricky situation. ‘Alice is well-liked in the family, but the Goldsmiths are asking, how much did she know about Kate and this rapper? Alice and Kate are close. It’s very awkward.’

Indeed. So how did Kate Goldsmith come to fall for a rapper? How did the affair begin, and what will happen between them now that her husband intends to divorce her?

Kate Rothschild and Ben Goldsmith were just 21 and 23 respectively when they married in 2003. They were young — perhaps too young.

When they married, Ben was the more confident of the two, and the ‘dominant’ one in the marriage. Kate, say those who know her well, has a more vulnerable air.

‘People often say she’s rather like Princess Diana,’ says a friend. ‘Her father’s suicide had a profound effect on her, and she has this way of making people protective of her.’

But as the marriage wore on, Kate grew in confidence  and, say friends, became tired of ‘being told what to do all the time’ by her husband. They began to grow apart.

And then Kate met Electronica, whose real name is the rather less edgy Timothy Elpadaro Thedford.

The singer’s background could not have been more different from the Rothschild girl, who was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset. Electronica was born and raised in the Magnolia Projects in New Orleans, Louisiana, an area known for poverty and violent crime.

Bitter divorce: Last night a friend of Kate and Ben Goldsmith confirmed that the divorce would be 'nasty'

Bitter divorce: Last night a friend of Kate and Ben Goldsmith confirmed that the divorce would be 'nasty'

He rose to prominence in 2007 when a track entitled Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge) became popular on MySpace, the social networking site.

Three years later, Jay-Z, one of the world’s biggest selling rap artists, signed him to his Roc Nation stable of musicians.

Kate has her own record label, Round Table. Thirty-five-year-old Electronica has been based in London for the past couple of years. Presumably the pair met through their links with the music industry.

According to reports, but denied by Kate’s friends, the affair is believed to have begun about a year ago, with Kate besotted by the singer, whom she calls Jay Jay.

Both her family — her mother, Anita, is the daughter of merchant banker James Guinness — and the Goldsmiths are said to be aghast at the affair.

‘Ben is heartbroken, devastated and thoroughly miserable,’ a friend of the couple reportedly said.

While Kate’s friends claim the affair is over, his friends have a different view.

Starting out: Ben and Kate at their 2003 wedding in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Starting out: Ben and Kate at their 2003 wedding in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

‘He suspected Kate was cheating on him because she has been behaving increasingly erratically for some time,’ says one.

‘She is obsessed with this chap, who is one of her clients. She is always on the phone to him, and out with him until four or five in the morning most nights. Sometimes she even stays with him.

‘Ben was paranoid about their friendship months ago, but when he confronted her about an affair earlier this year she denied it.

‘Then, last week, he found a series of texts and email messages. They were very intense messages planning sexual liaisons.’

On the face of it, it is a classic tale of a posh girl falling for a bad boy. But according to another source, it is not quite like that.

A Family Affair: Ben's brother Zac with his lover, Kate's sister Alice

A Family Affair: Ben's brother Zac with his lover, Kate's sister Alice

‘He has this “street” persona, but Jay Electronica is not really like that — he’s much gentler, a vegetarian and Buddhist,’ says another friend. ‘He and Kate feel they have a spiritual connection, and Kate tells friends he is the first person to really understand her.

‘And although he comes from a poor area, he has been successful, he has money, and he pays for Kate when he takes her out.’

The affair has uncanny echoes of a previous scandal involving Kate’s great aunt, born Pannonica Rothschild, who went on to become Baroness de Koenigswater.

It is a strange story. In 1948, Nica, as she was known, became bewitched by an unknown black jazz pianist, Thelonious Monk, after hearing a recording he had made of Round Midnight.

At a time when mixed-race relationships were frowned upon, she abandoned her husband and five children, moved into a hotel suite and set about finding him. She finally tracked him down in 1954 and devoted the next 28 years to him until his death.

Nica’s family disowned her. Kate can expect to be similarly shunned by the Goldsmith clan.

Friends say that the situation is difficult, too, for Jemima Khan — Ben’s older sister, who was on good terms with Kate, but will now be expected to cast her adrift.

‘It’s hard, but Lady Annabel will expect all of them to rally behind Ben,’ says the friend.

So what of the future? Electronica returned to the U.S. last week to attend his grandmother’s funeral, but is expected back in Britain soon. No one knows what will happen next between him and Kate.

As early as this week, the lawyers will get involved.

This week, Kate was still at the Kensington house, which was put up for sale two months ago. When the Mail knocked on the door yesterday, a young blonde woman came to a side door and said: ‘We don’t want to talk to you.’

But a friend told the Mail: ‘Kate is devastated. She has had a very frightening time since she and her husband initially split five months ago, and this is just another sad development. Her main concern now is for her children, who will remain with her at the family home.’

Lady Annabel, the Goldsmith family matriarch, is on holiday in Sicily and could not be contacted. But she was well aware that it was her husband Sir Jimmy’s wish that one of his children would one day marry a Rothschild.

He would never have imagined that such a union would end like this. But then no one did, least of all Kate’s husband Ben.

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

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Women don't tend to think of the children these days do they.....

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Money or class CAN'T buy happiness #FACT

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You only live once so i won't sit here and judge someone i don't know,to be fair her husband does look a wee bit boring all you holier than thou red arrow away thanks.

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Bet Ben will be happily remarried in a few years whilst she will be an amusing anecdote of ' haha remember that time I had an affair with a Rothschild heiress?' for Jay Electronica. How unsettling for the poor kids.

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What about poor Erykah Badu? She's Jay's boyfriend and they have a daughter together.

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Messed up family and stupid wife. cannot believe she risked her family for that. I am african british so please not about race.

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