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Jemima Marcelle Khan (born 30 January 1974) is an English socialite known due to her relationships as Hugh Grant's ex-girlfriend, the former wife of Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan, and a daughter of late billionaire James Goldsmith.

Family and education

Born out of wedlock in London's Westminster Hospital as Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith, Khan is the eldest child of Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart and the late Anglo-French financier James Goldsmith. Khan's parents started a polyamorous relationship in 1964 whilst her father maintained a French family with his second wife Ginette Lery and her mother was married to nightclub owner Mark Birley. In 1978, Goldsmith and Lady Annabel married for the sole purpose of legitimizing their children.^[1] Khan has two younger brothers, Zac and Ben Goldsmith, and five paternal half-siblings.^[2] Through her mother's first marriage, she is also half-sister to the deceased Rupert, businessman Robin Birley, and the artist India Jane.

Khan grew up at Ormeley Lodge while attending the Old Vicarage preparatory school and Francis Holland School in Chelsea. She enrolled at the University of Bristol in 1993 and studied English for two years before dropping out to get married.^[1] Khan eventually submitted her dissertation in March 2002 and earned a 2:1 bachelor's degree from Bristol.^[3] She later completed an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.^[4]

Khan is repeatedly reported by friends and the British media to be shy.^[5][6] She is defined as modest, stylish,^[7] and generous.^[8] Khan has described herself as a lifelong "coward"^[9] who is diffident due to "a chronic inability to make up my mind" and has built a pattern of "pathological indecision" in her life.^[10] She has been called "very shy" by her ex-husband,^[11] while her uncle, the 9th Marquess of Londonderry, once described her as "very levelheaded."^[12]

On 29 December 2000, Khan, her brother Benjamin, mother Annabel, and her two sons were traveling to Kenya to celebrate New Year's, when their British Airways jet was temporarily knocked off course, abruptly diving and plunging 17,000 feet below, after a passenger stormed into the cockpit and tried to seize the controls.^[13] Her mother later stated, "Jemima was frightened of flying even before the incident; she's petrified [now]."^[14]

Khan lives in Fulham, London, with two sons from her first marriage. Her first child, Sulaiman Isa, was born on 18 November 1996 at Portland Hospital^[15] and his brother, Kasim, arrived on 10 April 1999 in the same hospital.^[16][1] Khan has reasoned that because she wants to have the same name as her children, who inherited their father Imran Khan's last name, she currently goes by Jemima Khan.^[17]

Islamic Marriage

Jemima Goldsmith and Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan, who was twice as old as the 21-year old bride, were married on 16 May 1995 in a two-minute Islamic ceremony in Paris.^[18] The religious ceremony was followed a month later, on 21 June, by a civil ceremony at the Richmond Register Office and a midsummer ball at Ormeley Lodge.^[19] Guests at the ball included Henry Kissinger, Princess Alexandra, Princess Michael of Kent, Georgie Fame, Elle MacPherson, David Frost, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Michael Parkinson, Jerry Hall, Claus von Bulow, Mark Shand and Bruce Oldfield.^[20]

Raised a Protestant,^[3] Khan converted to Islam by taking the name Haiqa a few months before tying the knot with Imran.^[2] She has never used or been identified by her Islamic name. Khan claimed that her conversion was propelled by studying scholars such as Muhammad Asad, Gai Eaton, and the Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović.^[3]

The couple settled in Lahore, Pakistan, where Khan learned to speak Urdu and wore traditional Pakistani clothes. She later recalled that, "I now think, my God, I mean, how did I live five years with Imran’s whole family, who I was very close to? I mean, I really liked and respected them, but obviously, they lived very, very differently... I think the fact that I was very young made it easier to adjust and fit in. Certainly, I couldn’t make a change like that now."^[21]

In 1999, in an accusation widely believed to be politically motivated, Khan was charged in Pakistan with the non-bailable crime of illegally exporting hundreds of tiles claimed to be centuries-old antiques of the Islamic era. She stayed away from Pakistan, with her mother in England, for months due to the fear of incarceration.^[22] The case was dropped a year later, after General Pervez Musharraf's military coup, and the Ministry of Culture and Archaeology verified that the tiles were not antiques.^[23]

While married to Imran, Khan lived in England for a few months each year, referred to her mother's residence as the place she considered home, and spent her pregnancies as well as gave birth to her sons in London.^[5] She returned to UK as a full-time London resident during Christmas 2002. After 18 months of living separately, it was revealed that she had decided to leave her husband because of, according to Imran and friends, her inability to settle in Pakistan. On 22 June 2004, Imran Khan released the following statement of their divorce through his political party, PTI:

I sadly announce that Jemima and I are divorced. Whilst Jemima tried her best to settle here, my political life made it difficult for her to adapt to life in Pakistan. This was a mutual decision and is clearly very sad for both of us. My home and my future is in Pakistan.^[24]

Relationship with Hugh Grant

Starting in 2004, Khan was involved in a high-profile relationship with movie star Hugh Grant, gaining a new level of fame as his girlfriend. A 2005 article in the Evening Standard magazine noted that while "Jemima's profile" was high since she married a Muslim man and moved to Pakistan, it was "soaring since she became involved with Hugh Grant."^[25]

Between 2004 and 2007, Khan accompanied Grant on the red carpet at the London and New York premieres of his movie Music and Lyrics and to other social events. Grant is followed relentlessly by the paparazzi and featured in print and television media worldwide, and Khan remains best known for her romance with him.^[21] A survey of visitors to London in 2005 showed that Grant and Khan were the couple with whom a majority of visitors wanted to travel the city.^[26]

Grant refused to talk about the relationship in interviews and did not respond to tabloid and other media speculation. Khan was also asked about their rumoured marriage during a UNICEF campaign in 2005. She cautiously replied, "If I say yes, I’m going to get married, or no, I’m not, then that gets picked up and becomes the story and it overshadows the Unicef campaign that is so important."^[21] She later explained, "I don't think I am any good at interviews and I am particularly hopeless when I am asked personal questions."^[27]

During the London premiere of his film Music and Lyrics, Grant dispelled all rumors about his plans to marry Khan, by declaring to an interviewer:

People shouldn't believe what they hear. I am not marrying her. I've read and heard we are going to, but there is no truth to it.^[28]

After three years together, in February 2007, Grant announced that the couple had "decided to split amicably."^[29] Grant's spokesman added: "Hugh has nothing but positive things to say about Jemima." Since then, there have been many unsubstantiated reports about Grant's relationship with Khan because they have been spotted together.^[30] Neither Grant nor Khan have directly talked about their relationship and its breakdown to the press.

Charity and other works

As an heiress, Khan's charity efforts have included attending London society parties in aid of various causes and serving as a UK Ambassador for UNICEF. She became one of UNICEF's UK Ambassador in September 2001 and concentrated her advocacy efforts on global poverty. She has helped raise awareness about UNICEF's Breastfeeding Manifesto^[31] and End Child Exploitation campaign, including appearances on the BBC Breakfast TV show to discuss child trafficking^[32] and child labour.^[33] Khan has been on field trips to Kenya, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In 2001, she also raised funds to help refugees of the Afghan civil war in Pakistan.^[34]

Khan launched Jemima Khan Ltd., a clothing company that employed poor Pakistani women to embroider western clothes with delicate eastern handiwork, in 1998.^[35] These clothes were sold under the label of Jemima Khan Designs in London and New York at outlets such as Mimi, The Cross, Matches, Koh Samui, Henri Bendel, and Browns.^[36][37] Khan stated that all profits were donated to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in Lahore. At the end of 2001, after producing three collections, her fashion label was closed.^[37]

Khan and her family often support London-based charities by attending society parties and galas in their aid. She, along with her brother Ben and his wife Kate, was one of the 36 committee members who helped organize a dinner called the Feast of Albion on 13 March 2008 in aid of the Soil Association, an environmental charity.^[38] Like her sister-in-law Sheherazade Goldsmith, she has been an event committee member of the HOPING foundation, a charitable organization that works with Palestinian refugee children in Britain.^[39] Joining socialites such as Sienna Miller and Konnie Huq, she is also on the honorary committee of a charity called Chain of Hope, whose vice president is Ulrika Jonsson.^[40]

Khan has written columns about her experience in Pakistan for newspapers such as The Independent,^[41] The Guardian and The Times. From 21 October 2007 to 27 January 2008, she contributed 11 opinion comments to The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.^[42] She also participated, along with her mother and sons, in two demonstrations outside Downing Street in November 2007 to protest President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of a state of emergency in Pakistan.^[43]

In 2008, she followed in the footsteps of socialite Eugenie Niarchos to be a guest co-designer of a small accessories collection with Vanessa Seward,^[44] who is the artist director of Azzaro, the Parisian fashion house whose relaunched fragrance Azzaro Couture was also modeled by Khan that year.^[45] As voted for by the readers of the Daily Telegraph, she was presented the Rover People's Award for the best dressed female celebrity at the 2001 British Fashion Awards.^[36] Khan was featured on Vanity Fair's Annual International Best-Dressed List in 2004, 2005 and 2007.^[46]

References

External links

• Jemima Khan, UNICEF UK Ambassador, official account of UNICEF activities
• The politics of paranoia, commentary on the 2008 Pakistani elections by Khan
• Why I chose Islam, Khan's 1995 editorial explaining her conversion to Islam