The Lady co-owner Julia Budworth dies aged 92: Magazine matriarch famously feuded with her son when he sold the publication's HQ and said Boris Johnson's sister Rachel was 'obsessed with sex'
- Julia Budworth fought to keep The Lady magazine from modernisation
- READ MORE: A most UN-ladylike bust-up: How the matriarch of a famously genteel women's magazine ended up in a ding dong with her successor
Julia Budworth, the matriarch behind The Lady magazine, has passed away aged 92.
The title, whose illustrious past contributors included Nancy Mitford and Lewis Carroll, is often seen as a staple of British high society and for many years was used by the aristocracy to hire domestic staff.
But despite being the powerhouse behind such a genteel title, Budworth's life was consumed by a series of very public bust-ups.
The matriarch famously condemned her son Ben as a 'little monster' and accused journalist Rachel Johnson of being obsessed with sex when she took over the position as editor.
Her death on May 19 from old age at 92 marks the end of an era - and she spent much of her life fighting against threats to modernise the magazine.
Julia Budworth, the matriarch behind The Lady magazine, has passed away aged 92
Ms Budworth, the co-owner of The Lady, spent much of her life fighting against attempts to modernise it
Budworth, who was the cousin of the novelists the Mitford sisters, was born in a flat in Covent Garden above the magazine's offices - meaning she was immersed in it from a young age. Later in life, she lived in Suffolk.
The Lady was founded in 1885 as a 'journal for gentlewomen' by Budworth's grandfather, Thomas Gibson Bowles.
Originally the magazine was a place for aristocrats to advertise for servants, but it became famous in popular culture - even being cited in Downton Abbey and Coronation Street.
In the 1950s Budworth and her brother Tom Bowles inherited the famous title, but by 2008, circulation was declining and, with the average age of readership being 78, its prospects looked bleak.
Ms Budworth invested £500,000 of her own money into the magazine and gave 20 per cent shares in it to each of her four sons, an arrangement that initially appeared to work well.
Julia handed control of the magazine, whose illustrious past contributors included Nancy Mitford and Lewis Carroll, to Ben in 2008.
But the mother and son would see the future of the magazine very differently, and a series of bust-ups regarding the selling of the headquarters and disagreements over editors would irreparably damage their relationship for good.
In 2009 Ben appointed Boris Johnson's sister Rachel as editor of The Lady, who wanted to make it 'more hip, less hip replacement'.
Ms Budworth (centre) is pictured with her son Ben and Rachel Johnson, then editor of the magazine
A series of bust-ups damaged the relationship between Julia and her son beyond repair
This made a drastic change: for the past 125 years the magazine only had eight editors, even through two world wars and the hardship of the depression.
Budworth herself was vehemently opposed to any structural changes, which starkly contrasted with its previous content.
In the first edition under her command, Rachel's father Stanley Johnson penned a piece about an operation on his gall bladder, which Budworth called 'totally unsuitable for a lady's magazine'.
It also featured a story called 'How to bed the nanny' and an opinion piece on masturbation.
Budworth reportedly phoned the newspapers, saying: 'Rachel cannot speak about any subject without bringing the conversation back to penises.
'All she thinks of is sex. You can't get her away from a penis. She never stops, does she? Penis this, penis that. What is the matter with the girl?'
The Lady was also the subject of a memorable TV documentary when Boris Johnson's sister Rachel was editor.
Channel 4's The Lady And The Revamp aired in March 2010 laid bare the tension between Rachel and Mrs Budworth, and Rachel was critical of the title.
She complained The Lady was ‘a piddling magazine that nobody cares about or buys’ in front of the camera crew, a remark that soon made its way back to an outraged Julia.
Julia put much of her own time and effort into saving the magazine, offering £500,000 of her own money
According to Ms Johnson, Budworth headed to London and told her: 'You wretched girl, I'm going to murder you.'
Ben backed Ms Johnson and refused to fire her, saying his mother was someone who 'generally shouts first and thinks later'.
In 2012, Matt Warren took over as editor and a truce seemed to have been formed between Ben and his mother.
In 2018, he convinced her and his brothers to sell their shares - but a feud broke out once more after he sold The Lady's headquarters, which it had occupied since 1890.
She was appalled when Ben sold the splendid Covent Garden HQ of The Lady magazine, which had been owned by her family since 1885, for £12.4 million.
'It's scandalous,' she told the Daily Mail's Richard Eden in 2019. 'It's a story good enough for Dickens — the very worst type of family disaster.'
Some estate agents claim the building could have fetched twice the price.
'Ben's three brothers are shattered — disgusted and traumatised,' said Julia, whose grandfather founded the magazine. 'The family has owned the building since 1891. It's a terrible thing he's done. We're desperately angry.'
The offices of The Lady magazine in Covent Garden, London, which were sold for £12.4 million by Ben Budworth
Ben Budworth and Rachel Johnson pictured at the book launch party for Diary of the Lady
The building itself had been immortalised in P.G. Wodehouse’s Carry On, Jeeves as Milady’s Boudoir.
Ben was unrepentant, telling the Mail at the time that his family 'only have themselves to blame, and that's it'.
He said: 'The magazine has been there for a few years, but the building has never been owned by The Lady; it's been owned by family members.'
But Ms Budworth said: '‘It’s a tragedy, a crashing tragedy.
‘Richard doesn’t want to be in the same room as him. I doubt I shall ever see him again.’
Ben Budworth took control of the family business after Mrs Budworth installed him as managing director of The Lady in 2008
She continued: ‘Ben said himself at one board meeting: “The Lady is a family business, the buildings have been family buildings for years.” We trusted him. Why wouldn’t we? There’s never been any great schism in the family.
‘Ben was always a rather jolly, generous boy. But I wouldn’t have put him there, in the manager’s chair, if I’d had the faintest idea any of this would happen. I think we’re all in a state of semi-astonishment and shock, including the staff.’
In 2019 Ben revealed that he hadn't spoken to his mother in the past three years.
Ms Budworth was born Julia Mary Bowles in 1932 in London, the daughter of Madeleine and George Frederic Stewart Bowles.
In 1952 she married David Budworth, the owner of an engineering company and the couple had five sons together.
Mr Budworth passed away in 1974 in a plane crash, and Julia remained as a widow for the rest of her life.
Julia is survived by her sons Ben, Richard, Adam and William, while her fifth son Alexander - who suffered from epilepsy - predeceased her.
Speaking about The Lady's old premises to The Daily Mail she said: ‘I have very jolly memories,’ she said.
‘My father took it over in 1922 when his father died. The Lady wasn’t doing brilliantly in the Twenties because there was a terrible crash but he kept it going because he worried about the staff as much as anything else.
The Lady is often associated with traditional British values - and was used by members of the aristocracy to advertise for household staff. Pictured: The cover of The Lady magazine in the 1900s
‘That’s why they lived over the shop because they had very, very little money. You’ve no idea how crummy Covent Garden was in those days or how sooty London was.
‘My poor mother used to say you would wipe the soot off the windowsills in the morning and by the afternoon they were just as black again.’
She added: ‘My father was very proud of The Lady. He loved it in a way, but he wasn’t a woman for God’s sake so he got the best editor he could, Nora Heald who’d been editor of The Queen, a grand magazine in those days, and he let her do her own thing.
‘Then, of course, the war came and everybody was very pleased to have The Lady because of the rationing. The magazine was a very good marketplace, but we weren’t allowed to keep any profits as there was excess profits tax. We made big profits but they all went to the taxman.
‘We had a lovely party at The Savoy for the staff as soon as we had some money. Tommy Cooper, my father’s favourite conjuror and comedian, provided the cabaret.’
