Jump to content

Jemima Goldsmith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 119.73.47.143 (talk) at 09:52, 1 November 2012. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jemima Khan
Born
Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith

(1974-01-30) 30 January 1974 (age 50)
Westminster, London, England
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom and Pakistan[1]
Alma materUniversity of Bristol
SOAS, University of London
Occupation(s)Writer, Editor, campaigner
SpouseImran Khan (1995-2004)
PartnerHugh Grant (2004-2007)
Children2 (Sulaiman Isa and Qasim Khan)
Parent(s)Sir James Goldsmith (father)
Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart (mother)
RelativesZac Goldsmith (brother)
Ben Goldsmith (brother)

Jemima Marcelle Khan (/[invalid input: 'icon']dʒ[invalid input: 'ɨ']ˈmaɪmə/; née Goldsmith; born 30 January 1974) is a writer and campaigner.[3][4][5] She is the Associate Editor of the New Statesman and European editor-at-large for Vanity Fair. She continues to work as a charity fundraiser, human rights campaigner, and contributing writer for British newspapers and magazines. Khan first gained notice in the United Kingdom as a young heiress, the daughter of Lady Annabel and Sir James Goldsmith. She married Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan in 1995, and later divorced in 2004. Khan also gained worldwide media attention for her relationship with British film star Hugh Grant.

Early life and education

Born in The London's Westminster Hospital as Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith, Khan is the eldest child of Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart and Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith. Her parents had a polyamorous relationship where they were married to different partners, but in 1978, they married to legitimize their children.[6] She has two younger brothers, Zac Goldsmith and Ben Goldsmith, and five paternal and three maternal half-siblings, including Robin Birley and India Jane Birley.[7]

Khan grew up at Ormeley Lodge and attended Old Vicarage preparatory school and Francis Holland School. From age 10 to 17, she was an accomplished equestrian in London.[6] Khan enrolled at the University of Bristol in 1993 and majored in English, but dropped out when she got married in 1995. She eventually completed her Bachelor's Degree in March 2002 with 2:1 honours.[8][9]

Marriage to Imran Khan

Jemima married Imran Khan, a retired Pakistani cricketer turned politician, on 16 May 1995 in a traditional Islamic ceremony in Paris.[10] They also had a civil ceremony on 21 June 1995 at the Richmond Register Office,[11] followed by a midsummer ball at Ormeley Lodge.[12] A few months before her wedding, she converted to Islam,[8][7] citing the writings of Muhammad Asad, Charles le Gai Eaton and Alija Izetbegović as her influences.[2] In Lahore, Pakistan, she learned to speak Urdu and also wore traditional Pakistani clothes. she wrote in her 2008 article for The Times that she "over-conformed in [her] eagerness to be accepted" into the "new and radically different culture" of Pakistan.[13] Diana, Princess of Wales was a close friend of Jemima, visiting her twice in Lahore, Pakistan, the year that Diana died[citation needed]. In 2003, she received her MA in Middle Eastern Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London,[14] focusing on Modern Trends in Islam.[15][16]

In 1998, Khan launched an eponymous fashion label that employed poor Pakistani women to embroider western clothes with eastern handiwork[17] to be sold in London and New York.[18][19] Profits were donated to her husband's Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital. She ran the organization until December 2001, when she shut down the business due to the economic situation following the September 11 attacks, and so she could focus on fundraising and on supporting her husband in Pakistani politics.[19][1] She established the Jemima Khan Afghan Refugee Appeal to provide tents, clothing, food, and healthcare for Afghan refugees at Jalozai camp in Peshawar.[20][21][1]

In 1999, Khan was charged in Pakistan with illegally exporting Islamic era antique tiles. She claimed that the charge was a fabrication to harass and damage her husband,[22] but nevertheless, left Pakistan to stay with her mother for fear of incarceration.[23] After General Pervez Musharraf overthrew elected Prime Minister Navaz Sharif in a coup d'état, in 2000, the Ministry of Culture and Archaeology verified the tiles were not antiques, and the Pakistani court dropped the charges, allowing her to return to Lahore.[22]

Khan became an Ambassador for UNICEF UK in 2001, and went on field trips to Kenya, Romania, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last of which she later helped victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake by raising emergency funds. She has promoted UNICEF's Breastfeeding Manifesto,[24] Growing Up Alone[25] and End Child Exploitation campaigns in the UK.[26][27]

Khan supported her husband as he became more involved in his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (a.k.a. "Justice Movement") party.[28] Imran became a member of Pakistan's parliament in 2002 and has been a "vociferous critic of President Pervez Musharraf".[28] However, on 22 June 2004, Imran announced they have divorced; he stated that "my political life made it difficult for her to adapt to life in Pakistan" and "This was a mutual decision and is clearly very sad for both of us. My home and my future is in Pakistan."[28]

Convert in Islam

A few months before her wedding, she converted to Islam, citing the writings of Muhammad Asad, Charles le Gai Eaton and Alija Izetbegović as her influences. Khan married with Imran Khan in a traditional Islamic ceremony in Paris.

Relationship with Hugh Grant

Following her divorce in 2004, Khan returned to London, and later became involved in a romantic relationship with Hugh Grant. An 2005 article in Evening Standard magazine noted that "Jemima's profile" changed from "high during her first marriage" to "soaring since she became involved with Hugh Grant".[29] Khan's relationship was scrutinized extensively by the tabloids,[30] but a 2005 survey of London visitors favoured them as "the celebrity couple people would most like to show them round London".[31] The relationship continued until February 2007, when Grant announced that they "decided to split amicably".[32] Grant's spokesman added that he "has nothing but positive things to say about Jemima."[32]

Writing career

Although she had written articles when she lived in Pakistan,[1] Khan started contributing to op-eds to England's newspapers and magazines including The Independent, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard and the Observer.[33][34][35][36] In 2008, she was granted an exclusive interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the eve of the elections, for The Independent.[37] She was a Sunday Telegraph columnist from 21 October 2007 to 27 January 2008.[38]

Khan was a feature writer and a contributing editor for British Vogue from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, Khan was appointed Vanity Fair’s new European editor-at-large.[39] She was also Associate Editor at The Independent.[citation needed]

In April 2011, Khan guest-edited the New Statesman and themed the issue around freedom of speech. She interviewed the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and included contributions from Russell Brand, Tim Robbins, Simon Pegg, Oliver Stone, Tony Benn, and Julian Assange, with cover art by Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst.[40] According to Nick Cohen in the Observer "Jemima Khan was by a country mile the best editor of the New Statesman that that journal has had since the mid-1970s".[citation needed] The magazine issue included "an unexpected scoop" from Hugh Grant who went undercover to hack Paul McMullan, a former News of the World journalist, who had been involved in hacking as a reporter.[41] In November 2011, Khan joined as an Associate Editor of the New Statesman.[citation needed]

Further involvement

Khan continues to support various charity efforts in Pakistan mostly from her organization, the Jemima Khan Foundation. She also supports the Soil Association,[42] and the HOPING foundation for Palestinian refugee children.[43] In 2008, she modeled the relaunched Azzaro Couture fragrance and was a guest co-designer of a Spring 2009 collection for Azzaro, with her fee reportedly donated to UNICEF.[44][45]

In addition to charities, Khan also campaigns for various social and political causes. In 2007, she set up the Free Pakistan Movement, where she, her family and friends, and hundreds of protestors participated in three demonstrations outside Downing Street to protest the state of emergency in Pakistan, during which her ex-husband was incarcerated.[46] In 2008, she received death threats from Islamic fundamentalists for supporting and speaking at the launch of Quilliam Foundation, a London-based think tank that focuses on "counter-extremism", including preaching religious tolerance.[47] With John Pilger and Ken Loach, she was among the six people in Westminster Magistrates Court willing to post bail for Julian Assange when he was arrested in London on 7 December 2010. However, she later changed her mind about Assange.[48] The bail money was lost in June 2012 when a judge ordered it to be forfeited, as Assange had sought to escape the jurisdiction of the English courts by entering the London embassy of Ecuador.[49]

She has campaigned against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as for freedom of information, attending Assange’s extradition hearings and speaking at the Stop the War Coalition's rally in defence of Wikileaks alongside Tony Benn and Tariq Ali. In 2011, She also campaigned against the use of drones by the CIA in Pakistan’s tribal areas.[50]

In 2002, Khan was listed at number 18 with £20m on the Evening Standard's Millionaires list.[51] In 2010, she purchased the country house of Kiddington Hall near Woodstock in Oxfordshire for a reported £15 million.[52]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Khan, Sairah Irshad (November 2002). "I think the world of politics is pretty sleazy". Newsline (magazine). Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b Khan, Jemima (28 May 1995). "Why I chose Islam". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Burrell, Ian (18 December 2010). "Jemima Khan: Just don't call her a socialite". London: The Independent. Retrieved 18 December 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Curtis, Nick (17 December 2010). "How Jemima Khan became Jem of the arrestocracy". London: London Evening Standard. Retrieved 17 December 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Shamsie, Kamila (20 November 2007). "In praise of Jemima Khan, the unlikely freedom fighter". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b Goldsmith, Annabel (2004). Annabel: An Unconventional Life: The Memoirs of Lady Annabel Goldsmith. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-82966-1.
  7. ^ a b Lundy, Darryl. "Person Page 5917:Sir James Goldsmith". thePeerage.com. Retrieved 28 September 2007. Cite error: The named reference "peerage" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b "The real Jemima Khan". Despardes. Retrieved 5 June 2006. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)[dead link‍]
  9. ^ Nick Curtis and Olivia Cole (17 December 2010). "How Jemima Khan became Jem of the arrestocracy". London Evening Standard.
  10. ^ "Imran and Jemima married in Paris". The Times. 17 May 1995. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ Rosser, Nigel (20 June 1995). "Jemima arrives 12 minutes late for wedding No2". The Evening Standard. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Bruce, Rory (21 June 1995). "Blinis, Bolly and Brass bands for Jemima". The Evening Standard. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ Khan, Jemima (10 August 2008). "My grandfather's secret". The Times. London. Retrieved 5 October 2008.[dead link‍]
  14. ^ "SOAS Alumni Newsletter" (PDF). School of Oriental and African Studies. Autumn 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
  15. ^ "Quilliam Foundation Launch". quilliamfoundation.org. 22 April 2002. Retrieved 5 June 2008.[dead link‍]
  16. ^ Roy, Amit (2 October 2011). "Imran is Pakistan and Pakistan is Imran". The Telegraph (Calcutta).
  17. ^ Menkes, Suzy (1 September 1998). "Jemima Khan: Shining Through". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Robson, Julia (23 February 2001). "The best dressed". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 July 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)[dead link‍]
  19. ^ a b Laville, Sandra (6 December 2001). "Jemima Khan closes fashion label". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ Khan, Jemima (8 April 2001). "The camp is a vast dump". Sunday Telegraph. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ Hafeez, Assad (3 April 2004). "Integrating health care for mothers and children in refugee camps and at district level". nih.gov. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
  22. ^ a b "Pakistani court exonerates Jemima Khan". BBC. 5 April 2000. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
  23. ^ Hasnain, Ghulam (17 October 1999). "Coup paves way for Jemima's return". The Sunday Times. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ "Protect breastfeeding in the UK". UNICEF UK. Retrieved 5 October 2007.[dead link‍]
  25. ^ Alleyne, Richard (21 June 2001). "Jemima Khan joins Unicef campaign for war orphans". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 June 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ "The horror of child trafficking". BBC. 30 July 2003. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  27. ^ "Jemima's child labour campaign". BBC. 21 February 2005. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  28. ^ a b c "Imran Khan and Jemima divorce". BBC. 22 June 2004. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  29. ^ Radcliffe, Rebecca (25 November 2005). "Jemima's Jumble sale". London: Evening Standard. Retrieved 5 October 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)[dead link‍]
  30. ^ Naughton, Philippe; Costello, Miles (12 November 2005). "Life lessons". London: Times Online. p. 24. Retrieved 5 October 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ "Celebrities reveal their London". BBC. 19 April 2005. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  32. ^ a b "Hugh Grant splits with girlfriend Jemima Khan". Reuters. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  33. ^ Khan, Jemima (7 September 2008). "Mad and bad – but the West will turn a blind eye". London: The Independent. Retrieved 5 November 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  34. ^ Khan, Jemima (2 April 2003). "I am angry and ashamed to be British". London: The Independent. Retrieved 5 July 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ Khan, Jemima (18 February 2008). "The Politics of paranoia". London: The Independent. Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  36. ^ Khan, Jemima (12 December 2010). "Why did I back Julian Assange?". London: Observer. Retrieved 12 December 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  37. ^ Khan, Jemima (17 February 2008). "An extraordinary encounter with Musharraf". London: The Independent. Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  38. ^ "Telegraph: Jemima Khan". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 June 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) [dead link‍]
  39. ^ "Jemima proves it's not simply about Vanity". London: Evening Standard. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  40. ^ McVeigh, Tracy (10 April 2011). "Jemima Khan: Just don't take her at face value". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  41. ^ Godwin, Richard (7 April 2011). "Jemima Khan - the freedom fighter". London: Evening Standard. Retrieved 7 April 2011. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  42. ^ "The Feast of Albion - committee". Quintessentially Events. Retrieved 20 June 2008.[dead link‍]
  43. ^ "Karaoke with the stars in aid of HOPING" (PDF). HOPING Foundation. 21 June 2007. Retrieved 20 June 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) [dead link‍]
  44. ^ Mann, Rebecca (13 June 2008). "Parfums Azzaro creates a new way to wear Couture". Moodie International Ltd. Retrieved 5 July 2008.
  45. ^ Mann, Rebecca (13 June 2008). "Fashion scoop: Temporary star". WWD.com. Archived from the original on 27 June 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
  46. ^ Lewis, Jason (11 November 2007). "Jemima Khan joins Pakistan protest - and mum Lady Annabel lends a hand". London: The Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 23 June 2008. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  47. ^ Newling, Dan (23 April 2010). "Muslim extremists target Jemima Khan with death threats". London: The Daily Mail. Retrieved 23 April 2010. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  48. ^ Burns, John (18 August 2011). "In Embassy Drama, Eyes of Police (and Public) Focus on Assange". The New York Times.
  49. ^ Allen, Emily (4 September 2012). "Julian Assange's celebrity backers set to lose $540,000 bail money as he remains holed up in Ecuador Embassy". Mail Online. Daily Mail. Meanwhile, another handful of celebrities including socialite Jemima Khan, journalist John Pilger, film director Ken Loach, publisher Felix Dennis have already lost the £200,000 they stumped up between them to help free him before he was bailed.
  50. ^ Slack, Chris (28 October 2011). "Imran Khan reunited with Jemima as politician launches stinging rebuke of US drone attacks on Pakistan". London: The Daily Mail.
  51. ^ "Britain's Young Millionaires". Evening Standard. 25 February 2002.
  52. ^ Faulkner, Katherine (28 October 2010). "millionaire husband squanders golden egg". London: Mailonline. Retrieved 5 May 2011.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Jemima_Goldsmith&oldid=520873992"