Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

The Marchioness was born Emma Clare McQuiston, on 26 March 1986, in London, the daughter of a Nigerian father and an English mother. Her father, Chief Oladipo Jadesimi, is a Nigerian oil billionaire who is the founder and executive chairman of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Company, while her mother, Suzanna McQuiston, is an English socialite.[3][4] Through her father, Emma is a half-sister of Amy Jadesimi, who is 10 years older than her. Emma is an heir to her father's estate, estimated in the billions from oil.[5]

Emma was raised in South Kensington.[6] She was head girl at Queen's Gate School and later attended University College London to study Art History.[7][8] After university, she studied classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[9][10]

McQuiston and Ceawlyn Thynn (then Viscount Weymouth) announced their engagement in November 2012. They were married at Longleat, the family seat in Wiltshire, on 8 June 2013.[6] Upon her marriage McQuiston became Viscountess Weymouth.[11]

The wedding ceremony was not attended by the groom's parents, Anna and Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath.[6] Her fiancé's father boycotted the ceremony after a feud with Viscount Weymouth over changes made to his artworks at Longleat.[6] The bridegroom's mother was banned from the ceremony by the Viscount after she repeatedly made racist remarks about McQuiston.[12][13][6]

In 2013, she stated that she has experienced racism and prejudice from other members of the British aristocracy.[14] Anna, the Dowager Marchioness of Bath, is banned from visiting her grandchildren after making racist remarks regarding their mother.[15] When her husband succeeded his father as the Marquess of Bath, she became the first black marchioness in British history.[16][17][18][19]

Upon her marriage to Ceawlyn Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath in 2013, she became chatelaine at Longleat.[11] There, she founded the food and lifestyle brand Emma's Kitchen.[11][25]

In 2017, she became a brand ambassador for Fiorucci.[26] She also modelled for Dolce & Gabbana, walking in runway shows at Harrods.[27] The same year, she hosted the first annual Longleat Food and Drink Festival.[28]

In February 2018, she walked in Dolce & Gabbana's Secrets & Diamonds fashion show in Milan.[29]

She is a financial supporter of the Women's Institute.

She has a lifestyle website, although updates ended in February 2018, when she began working as a fashion editor at British Vogue.[30] [31] She is also contributing editor at Huffington Post.[9][32]

Lady Bath was featured alongside her husband in All Change at Longleat, a three-part documentary filmed in 2014 and broadcast on BBC One in September 2015.[33]

From September 2019, she was a contestant in the seventeenth series of the prime-time BBC television programme Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer Aljaž Skorjanec.[34] The couple were eliminated in week 7.

• Score was awarded by guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro

Lady Bath has been identified by a number of titles during her life:

• 26 March 1986 – 8 June 2013: Miss Emma McQuiston
• 8 June 2013 – 4 April 2020: Viscountess Weymouth
• 4 April 2020 – present: The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Bath

She is also Baroness Thynne, which is the female equivalent of her husband's subsidiary title.

• Black British nobility