A double tragedy has hit the Tetra Pak heir Hans Rausing, with the death of his second wife, Julia at the age of 63, after a long battle with cancer. She died peacefully on Thursday morning surrounded by her family.
Friends of Julia Rausing, who married her husband in 2014, said she bore the illness with great courage while at the same time forging with her husband one of the world’s leading philanthropic forces.
Tens of millions of pounds have been donated in the couple’s names to the National Gallery and other arts organisations, as well as generous contributions to help tackle Covid.
The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust, which they co-founded, gives away £50m each year to UK charities and more than 1,000 grants, totalling more than £330m.
Mr Rausing’s first wife, Eva, died in tragic circumstances in 2012 after a drugs overdose. Her death sparked huge publicity when it emerged that she had lain dead in the couple’s bedroom for weeks.
As her widower, he remained resolutely private amid the wide publicity and friends credited Julia with bringing him great happiness after the tragedy and re-engaging with extraordinary generosity in charitable giving.
One friend told The Independent: “They were palpably in love and affectionate towards each other and were a very touching couple who focused most of their time on how to give away money to those in need.
“They were also discreetly social while she also for many years had to battle cancer. Without a doubt, she was responsible for bringing Hans back from appalling grief and helping him find joy in life again.”
The second Mrs Rausing, who kept her maiden name Delves-Broughton on LinkedIn and Instagram, was an art expert at Christie’s auctioneers, where she worked before she met Mr Rausing.
Her sister was Isabella Blow, the Tatler fashion editor who had discovered Alexander McQueen and model Sophie Dahl, as well as becoming one of the most distinctive fashion influencers of her generation.
After many years of battling depression, Ms Blow took her own life in 2007. She had a second sister, Lavinia, and they were brought up at Doddington Hall, the family’s 35,000-acre estate in Cheshire.
Her grandfather Sor Jock Delves Broughton was senationally acquitted of the murder of Lord Erroll in the White Mischief case, which rocked Kenyan society in the 40s.
Lord Erroll was found dead in his car in January 1941, after embarking on an affair with Sir Jock’s wife, Diana. Despite being the prime suspect, Sir Jock was cleared but soon after he returned to Britain he committed suicide.
After the death of his first wife, his second, 22 years later, was seen as a chance for him to start afresh. In one of his wife’s last Instagram posts, in January last year, Mrs Rausing featured a photograph of the picturesque Burano district in Venice, Italy.
Mr Rausing’s charitable website features photographs of the billionaire philanthropists and their two dogs, with links to the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust website.
His father, Hans Rausing senior, who died in 2019, is credited with making Tetra Pak a success in the 1970s and 80s, turning a six-person family business into a multinational company.
