The founder of Pret and Itsu has recalled the moment he found out he had a secret daughter following a brief fling back in the 80s.
Appearing on Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO, Julian Metcalfe, who co-founded sandwich chain Pret in 1984 with his college friend Sinclair Beecham, said he was given the bombshell news after an out-of-the-blue phone call from former lover Camilla Ravenshear.
Julian, who sold Pret for £364 million and now owns Japanese fast food chain Itsu, enjoyed a brief tryst with Camilla, who passed away in 2017, aged 57. For almost 20 years, Camilla had kept the details of her daughter's real father a secret, while the girl, Celeste Tobias, grew up believing she was the youngest child of film star Oliver Tobias. Camilla had two other children, daughters Angelica and Dahlia, and divorced Tobias in 1991.
Speaking to Steven Bartlett, Julian revealed that Camilla had broken the news to her daughter, then a Bristol University student, just two weeks before meeting him on London's King's Road to reveal the news. The tycoon was already a father to two children, Billy and Meisha, by his ex-wife Melanie.
He said: “Her mother called me who I hadn't seen for ages. I had no idea her daughter was my daughter, I'd never met her. Her mother asked to see me and we met on the King's Road." Bartlett asked: "Weren't you suspicious when she asked to see you?"
He said he was completely blindsided by the news, adding: "I certainly wasn't suspicious of that. I thought maybe she needed help." He described his former lover as a "cool, intelligent, rather wonderful, eccentric brilliant woman" who he remembered "very fondly". Julian, who is now married to society author and interior designer Brooke de Ocampo, said Camilla told him: "I have a daughter and she's your daughter".
He asked Camilla how long Celeste had known and she said just a fortnight: "I asked her 'when did you tell her and how did it go down?' She replied: "I told her two weeks ago and not well.'"
The trio are said to have met for the first time at upmarket Babington House, near where Celeste was studying. Metcalfe said: "I have a brilliant, beautiful and thoughtful 19-year-old daughter. I reckon I'm the luckiest man ever."
In 2012, Celeste told the Evening Standard: "I was told just before I went to university in Bristol. I think my mother believed that I'd always known I wasn't Oliver's, but of course I didn't. How can you know something like that? I had no idea."
Julian said he is now close to his daughter, who now sits on the board of his company, after building a relationship with her in adulthood. He said: "She's now on the board, and sits next to him two days a week and it's incredible."