We know his girlfriend thinks it’s “great.” “If you’ve got it, show it off!” an unapologetic 44-year-old Lauré Ferrari told the Mail yesterday.
But as I settle into Barbara Farage’s cream leather sofa in her tidy Orpington home, I wonder if she was just as relaxed when she saw her son Nigel’s bum on her TV screen as he showered in the bathroom. m A celebrity jungle last week?
“When I first saw it I thought, ‘My God, that’s my oldest son’s butt!'” Barbara tells me. “That was a bit much.” . . He is, after all, a former politician.’
Her eyes widen in shock, and then all too quickly her face dissolves into a typical Faragian grin.
Once the initial surprise of seeing her son’s buttocks wears off, Barbara – an immaculately coiffed blonde in her late 80s – admits she was actually quite impressed by his physique.
Barbara Farage – an immaculately coiffed blonde in her late 80s – admits she was actually quite impressed with her son Nigel’s physique
Barbara has been settling in with some trepidation every night at 9pm to see what punishments will be meted out to her son on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity
Farage tries to open padlocks during a trial of I’m a Celebrity
ROLLERCOASTER SON: An 18-month-old Nigel Farage on the beach
“I thought how slim he was – but he eats well, doesn’t eat snacks and doesn’t eat cake.” And remember, Nigel will be 60 next April, and given the life he’s led and the Worries he always had, I thought he looked pretty good.”
Every night at 9pm, Barbara, the mother of one of the country’s most controversial figures, watches ITV’s I’m A Celebrity with trepidation to see what punishments will be meted out to her son.
It proves to be a roller coaster ride, even for this most feisty of matriarchs. In fact, this week saw Nigel crying out for mercy during a horrific trial in which he was dunked into a tank of ice-cold water containing huge snakes – much to Barbara’s concern.
“Obviously he was struggling with it [that trial]. “I think it shows he’s human,” she says. “He couldn’t stand the cold water, he was never a good swimmer. “It was too much for him.”
However, one attempt that Barbara admits she quite enjoyed was Nigel’s drinking challenge with former boxer Tony Bellew. The pair had to drink six pints of mixed drinks, including mixed animal penises, which notorious connoisseur Nigel managed with flying colors.
“Well, he got over it,” Barbara says with a laugh. ‘He [must have convinced himself] . . . that’s beer!’
Meeting the sociable Barbara is sometimes quite unsettling. She has the same laugh as her famous son, and a reflection of his grin lights up her face as we chat over tea and a plate of digestive biscuits.
Photos of Nigel and her family decorate her study – she has three other children, 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She’s obviously incredibly proud of her eldest boy and his achievements.
He, in turn, loves her. Nigel is a man who is never afraid to use violence against enemies in public and behind closed doors, and he is, says Barbara, a loving son.
“He always remembers my birthday,” she says. “He brings me roses and at Christmas he buys huge purple roses.” “He is a good, attentive son and has never raised his voice to me in his life.”
However, it’s fair to say that Nigel has quite a checkered past when it comes to relationships with other women.
He was married twice, first to Grainne Hayes, with whom he has two sons, Sam and Tom, and then to German Kirsten Mehr, the mother of his daughters Victoria and Isabelle, and was at times dogged by allegations of infidelity. He is currently in a relationship with the much younger Lauré Ferrari.
But there is one woman to whom he has remained loyal and who knows him best – his devoted mother.
In fact, the longer we talk, the clearer it becomes where his intelligence – and his deeply rebellious streak – comes from.
Because while we know that Farage is a shrewd politician with civic sensibilities, a man who combines a love of World War I history with the works of Charles Darwin, his mother is also a deeply intellectual, independent woman.
She keeps herself busy giving lectures to the Woman’s Institute on local and natural history topics, including Charles Darwin (the Victorian naturalist is a hero of the Farage family). She pushes herself to her lectures and reads diligently at home.
Barbara also has the same view of me as her son, a showman. Her platinum blonde hair has a bold pink streak, which she says her hairdresser added to her spirits after a stroke, and which is now a permanent part of her look.
Her manicured nails are artfully covered in a pretty striped shellac design, while her bright red dress is reminiscent of Coronation Street’s Bet Lynch.
Nigel himself has described his mother as “extraordinarily glamorous” – so much so that in her late 60s and early 70s she performed a full “Calendar Girls” tribute, stripping off her clothes and posing for fundraising calendars, preserving her dignity with flowers and other items . Large parts of her body were once painted with pink roses. However, it was all for a good cause – these calendars raised £42,000 for charity.
A rebellious non-conformist with passionate views, a love of attention and a keen intellect: a mother is therefore more like a son.
But despite the similarities, Barbara admits that life with Nigel is nothing short of turbulent.
“He wins the Best News Anchor award on a Tuesday and then gets fired from the bank on a Thursday.” He lifts our spirits on a Tuesday and then dampens them on a Thursday. “It’s a roller coaster ride being his mother,” she admits.
His public profile has rewarded him with endless threats and hatred, particularly from the post-Brexit left. Racism is often an accusation against her son, which Barbara admits she found difficult to deal with.
Farage’s public profile has rewarded him with endless threats and hatred, particularly from the post-Brexit left. Mother Barbara admits that it is difficult to deal with the accusations of racism against her son
Farage with my colleague Nick Pollard, a celebrity candidate
Farage endures spiders crawling on his body during Bushtucker’s In Too Deep trial
Pictured: Nigel Farage aged 7 on a rocking horse in a garden
Farage’s biographer Michael Crick tells how the boy at his first school defended his mother against those who teased him about his divorced parents
The issue has gained renewed attention in the jungle as his roommate Nella Rose – the 26-year-old YouTube star of Congolese descent – accused him of being “anti-immigrant” and claimed that “they want us all to disappear”. When asked about Nella Rose, Barbara answers directly: “Well, she wants advertising for herself.” . She wants to promote her chat show.’
When asked if she thinks Nella is luring him, Barbara nods: “I think they made her do it.”
“I liked the way Nigel said to her, ‘I think I’ve upset you. Can we talk about this?’ which I found beautiful. He apologized even though she was completely wrong.’
“She went to immigration with Nigel and I think she was doing it just to piss him off. She was pushing his buttons to see his reaction.”
Barbara is used to it being her son who matters. “They always say he’s racist,” says Barbara, looking sad.
“He’s not, but he has to fight against it. There are people from all walks of life in his party and he has a lot of different friends.”
Is she worried? “That’s what I do when he’s too open. “I think sometimes he comes close, but he just seems to brush it off.”
However, it has always been this way. Even as a child, Barbara describes Nigel as a “complex character” before adding: “But he made our lives interesting.”
In a way, she and Nigel have been against the world for a long time. When he was just four years old, Barbara’s husband and Nigel’s father Guy left the family. As a stockbroker, Guy was both a workaholic and, at times, overly addicted to alcohol. After he left, Barbara was left as a single mother.
Farage’s biographer Michael Crick tells how the boy at his first school, Greenhayes in West Wickham, Kent, defended his mother against those who teased him about his divorced parents. Nigel, says Crick, “defended himself and told his schoolmates that divorce was normal, if not compulsory, among “smart” and “top people.” The experience likely fostered strong resilience.’
Today, Barbara will only say: “It was a sad time in our lives, but we had to get over it and came out the other end.”
She didn’t talk to any of her children about the divorce – not even Nigel because he was just “too young”.
As a young boy, Nigel “never sat still,” says Barbara. When he was 11 and constantly in the garden, he took up birdwatching – “not watching female birds,” she quickly clarifies – while cycling, cricket and football were also his favorites.
“He came home and studied the books to find out what the birds were.” “He wasn’t one to sit in front of the TV,” she says.
Even as a child, she says, Nigel insisted on dressing smartly and had “high standards” for his behavior.
This, she points out, continued during his time at Dulwich College in south-east London, the £25,000-a-year private school where, according to his mother, he was a high achiever, although she remembers his difficulties in maths.
Still others said Nigel was extremely exuberant there. Michael Crick recounts an episode in his fourth year when Nigel “and other members of his class gathered to buy a bottle of whiskey, which they brought to school and drank behind the cricket pavilion before the morning assembly.”
Other schoolmates remember spitting competitions at the local train station where points were awarded for hitting commuters, a competition Nigel regularly won.
Even worse, others claim they remember Nigel’s anti-Semitic and racist comments. Some say he was expelled – a claim Barbara hears with fury: “He was definitely not expelled.” “He left school at 18, after graduating from high school.”
Crick agrees, reporting that Nigel’s headteacher was under great pressure to expel him after appointing him as a prefect – some other left-wing staff did not agree with the teenager’s character and views.
Master David Emms told Crick: “They wanted to expel him.” I think it was naughtiness rather than racism. I saw good in him and he responded to being appointed prefect. I saw significant potential in this guy and I was right.”
Barbara says: “He enjoyed school, but he was a joker and did all sorts of things.” He was called “The Mimic” because he imitated the voices of the masters.
“I’m sure that didn’t go down too well.” [But] At Dulwich College he knew every boy’s name, and in his final report his teacher wrote: “Without the personality of this young man the college will be a poorer place.”
“However, he was often insulted. He always told me about it when he came home.’
Even at Dulwich it was clear that Nigel was destined for the business world – Crick reports that he demonstrated financial savvy while still at school by “running a shoeshine business”. “He paid the juniors to shine their shoes,” says his classmate Nick Owen, “and then took a commission from the top.”
“Another business was buying and selling silver at a time when the price was skyrocketing.” In fact, after leaving Dulwich, Nigel made his way not to Oxbridge but to the City and followed in his father’s footsteps.
However, one attempt that Barbara admits she quite enjoyed was Nigel’s drinking challenge with former boxer Tony Bellew
Farage in the Touchdown of Terror bushtucker trial on November 24th
The politician gets covered in feathers and slime while collecting stars during another criminal trial
He had one goal – to become a trader on the trading floor by the age of 21. “He did it,” Barbara tells me with a broad smile.
Today, Nigel is almost as well known for his love of a drink as he is for his politics. He himself admits that these drinking habits were instilled in him during his time in the city.
Barbara remembers that as a young man he sometimes came home “a little worn out,” but he was “always back on time and followed the rules,” as some would say. .
What does she think of his drinking today? “He doesn’t drink as much as he used to,” she says. “His body can’t take it anymore.” However, he still speaks to the worker, and that’s a good thing.”
Apparently he also likes the younger woman – his new love Lauré is about 15 years younger than him. Barbara completely agrees.
“She’s lovely.” “She’s a chic Frenchwoman who suits him well,” she says. “She loves him more than anything.” She pays him attention and always wants to be by his side.
“When Nigel came in [to the jungle] She said, ‘I’m not going to be there to support him, am I?’ I think that was hard for her.
“But she will survive.” You have a nice relationship and that’s what you want for your children.
“He was open with me because we are a big family, we talk and gossip.”
Not that Nigel is the only Farage to have a younger lover. David, Barbara’s boyfriend of a decade, who is about ten years younger than her, is in the background and Barbara is drinking a latte as we chat.
A well-spoken chap originally from the Newcastle area, he admits he was immediately smitten with Barbara after they met at her local pub. When she tried to scare him off by asking him if he knew how old she was, David told me he replied, “I don’t care how old you are – you’re just beautiful.”
They have been a couple ever since and today David is an integral part of the Farage clan.
And the family will all be together again at Christmas, when Barbara looks forward to spending the day with Nigel and the rest of her family.
Characteristically, the festive meal is a lively occasion. “There are interesting discussions at the dinner table – we also talk about politics and even Brexit,” says Barbara.
“Some of the younger grandchildren have different views to us older ones, and that’s very interesting indeed. ‘But Grandma’s there, so everyone knows how to behave!’