On Monday night, Lady Veronica Lucan will speak on camera for the first time since her notorious husband went missing.
She will reveal intimate details of her marriage to the infamous aristocrat – including his unusual sexual habits - in an ITV documentary at 9pm.
The wife of the Earl, whose disappearance in 1974 remains one of the most enduring and iconic mysteries in the public consciousness, offers a vivid account of what happened before his flight and her own theory of what became of him.
The film, Lord Lucan: My Husband, The Truth which is produced by Brook Lapping, includes previously unseen family archive footage showing Lucan with his family and friends and living the high life across Europe.
Who Was Lord Lucan?
‘Lucky’ Lord Lucan was a peer with a renowned taste for gambling, who vanished on 7 November, 1974, after Sandra Rivett, the nanny to his three children was found murdered at the family home at 46 Lower Belgrave Street.
Despite the couple’s outwardly lavish lifestyle, Lady Lucan says their relationship was strained.
She said: “He talked to me more before our marriage than he ever did afterwards. He said, ‘That’s the point of being married, you don’t have to talk to the person.’”
She revealed how her husband’s gambling had led to heavy debts in the lead-up to the attack, their custody battle for their three children which he lost, and his subsequent disappearance.
What Happened?
It was a cold November night when a bloodied, hysterical woman rushed into a Belgravia pub, pleading for help.
That woman was Lady Lucan and she told shocked drinkers at The Plumber’s Arms that her estranged husband had murdered their nanny and tried to kill her too.
She recalled: “I said to him, ‘Please don’t kill me John,’ And then I asked, ‘Where’s Sandra?’ And he said, ‘She’s dead. Don’t look.’”
The alarm was raised and the police were called, but her husband, Lord Lucan, was never seen again.
Where Is Lord Lucan Now?
In 1975 an inquest jury named Lucan as the killer of Rivett, and in 1999 the High Court declared the missing peer dead.
However in the years since his disappearance, rumours of the nobleman’s whereabouts and alleged sightings continue to be reported.
Lucan has been ‘spotted’ in various locations across the world, including Botswana, Gabon, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. There have even been claims he fled to India and lived life as a hippy called ‘Jungly Barry.’
His son George Bingham believes his father drowned himself in the English Channel on the night of the murder.
Tonight, Lady Lucan, who believes her husband murdered the nanny having mistaken her for her, offers her own suggestion of what became of her husband.
Lord Lucan: My Husband, The Truth airs on Monday at 9pm on ITV.