The heirs of the "iron lady": How the life of the children of Margaret Thatcher

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She was considered almost omnipotent, called the "iron lady" and admired Margaret Thatcher's ability to combine a political career with the role of wife and mother. At first glance, everything in this family was great: loving parents, beautiful children - the perfect picture for a magazine cover. But only years later it became clear: the role of the mother of Margaret Thatcher ignominiously failed. She failed to give her twins Mark and Carol the most important thing in life.

Perfect family

Margaret Roberts met her future husband after receiving her BA from Oxford Women's College and taking her first steps in politics. Industrialist Denis Thatcher was 10 years older than Margaret, he fell in love with the future "iron lady" almost at first sight, courted beautifully and was able to win her heart.

They became husband and wife in 1951, and twins Mark and Carol were born in August 1953. They were only four months old when Margaret Thatcher received her law degree and continued to build her career with enthusiasm. The children, of course, were not left unattended thanks to the efforts of their father and the numerous nannies and teachers hired for the heirs by Denis Thatcher.

Later, the "iron lady" herself admits: she paid attention to her children during only those nine months while she was pregnant. At the same time, Margaret believed that this was quite enough. True, Mark and Carol could hardly agree with her. Despite the numerous gifts they received, they lacked the most important thing in childhood: mother's love and care.

Naturally, this later affected the relationship between the mother and her children. Carol, becoming an adult and having acquired the profession of a journalist, will write memoirs and describe her family as a freezer cabinet, in which there was not even a hint of love.

Mark Thatcher

The son was the favorite of both Margaret Thatcher herself and her wife. Despite the fact that the mother could not pay enough attention to the child, it was with him that she pinned her hopes for the future. True, in his school years, Mark did not have enough stars from the sky, did not use authority among his peers, and even caused negative emotions in his comrades due to bragging about his mother's high position.

As a result, Mark Thatcher graduated from school with great difficulty, but there was no question of getting a higher education. Mark Thatcher was not liked for his arrogance, no one particularly sympathized with his failures, and he himself could not prove himself in anything.

He enrolled in accounting courses three times, tried himself as a race car driver, tried to do jewelry and advertising, provided consulting services, opened the production of supermarket trolleys. And in none of the fields did he achieve much success.

Mark Thatcher took part in auto racing, but neither he nor his team ever made it to the finish line. And in 1982, the entire crew went missing during the Paris-Dakar rally. Then Margaret Thatcher used all her influence and organized a rescue campaign involving an Algerian military search aircraft. The crew, which included Mark Thatcher, was found fifty kilometers from the track. At the same time, the son of the "iron lady" did not bother himself with gratitude to his saviors.

Having moved to a permanent residence in Africa with his family, Mark Thatcher managed to go to prison. Together with friend and neighbor Simon Mann in 2004, he tried to organize a coup d'état with the aim of seizing power in Equatorial Guinea, for which he was arrested. He got off with a suspended sentence, denying his involvement in the conspiracy, but admitted to chartering a plane to fly the ousted opposition leader.

Subsequently, Mark Thatcher changed several countries and settled in Spain, where he was allegedly engaged in development business. At the same time, he was denied an extension of his residence permit in the Kingdom of Monaco due to his criminal record, and later he was denied entry to the United States.

Carol Thatcher

Daughter Margaret Thatcher, undoubtedly, was more talented and persistent than her brother. She was able to achieve success as a journalist, in 2005 she won the reality show “I'm a Celebrity; take me out of here,”she was broadcasting on television. But in 2009, Carol Thatcher's career was cut short by an offensive comment about the African American tennis player.

In addition, Carol became the author of books about her family, however, while reading the memoirs of Miss Thatcher, readers did not leave the feeling that her daughter was thus settling scores with her mother for everything that she had not received in childhood. In Carol's memoirs, Margaret Thatcher appeared to be domineering, completely devoid of any feelings towards her children.

And in 2008, Carol Thatcher released her second book, where she calmly revealed all the secrets of the "iron lady", who by that time was suffering from senile dementia. She talked about how she first noticed the blackouts in her mother's memory, and then, savoring the details, told the world: the mother considers Denis Thatcher, who died in 2003, alive, does not remember his own address and cannot do without the help of a nurse.

Meanwhile, neither Mark nor Carol bothered much with frequent visits to their mother. They left the UK and even at Christmas they did not always delight her with their presence. They also did not communicate with each other for a long time, and after the death of Margaret Thatcher in 2013, they entered the stage of open enmity.

Margaret Thatcher herself, while still in her right mind, regretted that she did not give her children the necessary warmth and affection. And she even said: if she had a chance to live life anew, she would never go into politics, the consequences of her activities for the family turned out to be too sad.

Margaret Thatcher can rightfully be called the most powerful and controversial statesman of the 20th century. She was able to revive the British economy and maintain the country's image as a world power. A great woman who has remained faithful to her state and her only beloved man all her life.