Poldark posho Gabriella Wilde has revealed that even though she’s just as upper class as her TV alter ego, she doesn’t revel in it like her character does.
The actress, real name Gabriella Zanna Vanessa Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, plays wealthy heiress Caroline Penvenen in the BBC One period drama.
But despite being able to trace her real-life ancestry back to Charles II, Margaret Tudor and Joanna the Mad, Gabriella reckons she has little time for the rich society side of life.
She was named Tatler magazine’s second-most-eligible girl in Britain in 2007, but has told The Sun: “I don’t understand why I got anywhere near such a list because I have done nothing to help it.
“It’s the same with my sister Isabella. We both avoid the society thing, we never go to parties, we never hang out in the clubs associated with all that. We are incredibly private.
“I have never had the ambition to be famous for nothing. You have to do something with your life.”
Gabriella is close friends with Prince Harry’s ex Cressida Bonas, who she considers to be like a sister.
She explained: “There are just two months between Cressida and me and although we’re not officially stepsisters, she was my best friend when we were little and we grew up together, so she kind of is anyway.”
The TV star, who has also appeared in films Endless Love and Carrie, spoke about her privileged school days at Heathfield, where Sienna Miller and Tamara Mellon were also students.
She said: “In boarding school everyone’s thing is to get out, so I would just sneak out a lot and go to London. We would go to someone’s house and sit there, but it was just the fact that you were kind of taking your life into your own hands a little bit and it was fun.
“At that age — 13 until I was 16 — anything you are told you can’t have, you want, and you sort of rebel against that. Having boys entirely removed is bizarre, so all you think about is boys!
“The point of being at an all-girls school is to remove that distraction so you are more focused on school. But it makes you more focused on the boys.”
