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On board 73m Lürssen Titania with British tycoon John Caudwell

A billion-pound fortune has brought this British tycoon a superyacht... but also the chance to help thousands of ill children and wipe out Lyme disease too, as he explains to Stewart Campbell...

John Caudwell underpaid for his superyacht Titania – and he feels bad about that; the billionaire tycoon regrets not paying many millions more. It’s not something you hear often in superyacht circles – or really in any circle. He lays out the whole story over lunch on the main aft deck of his 73 metre yacht as we ride at anchor off Antibes .

It was 2010 and Caudwell was not enjoying his first foray into serious superyachting. Just months before buying Titania he had purchased the 58.55 metre Lürssen Capri on the brokerage market, which he candidly admits was “a dreadful experience”. He thought about walking away from the deal – and yachting. “If I could have cancelled Capri I would never, ever have bought another big yacht. I’d become so fed up of it.”

In the bitter aftermath of that deal, he came across an auction listing for a yacht called Apoise . Another Lürssen, 67 metres long (since extended) and fresh from a four-year circumnavigation, it was owned by Dave Ritchie, founder of Ritchie Bros Auctioneers, the world’s largest industrial auction house. Ritchie wanted to sell Apoise and decided to auction the yacht with the company he founded – without a reserve.

And it was this that caught the eye of the instinctive deal-maker Caudwell. “I wasn’t looking for another boat, and I couldn’t really believe it could be a genuine auction, but the more I looked into it the more impressed I was with the Ritchies and the way they operated, and I thought this could be a very good deal.”

On the day of the auction, which took place at the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman, Caudwell was the only bidder actually in the room. “It was just me and five telephone bidders,” he remembers. Bidding started at €20 million and blew into the 30s before whoever was at the end of those telephones started to waiver. “I could see people dropping out one after the other because the guys on the phones were going quiet, and it ended up being just me and one telephone bidder. It got down to half a million bids, which is a lot of money but not in boat terms, and I ended up getting it for a very low price.” The hammer dropped at around €34 million – roughly half the boat’s estimated value. “I instantly felt really sad,” says Caudwell. “I had come to really like the Ritchies and I had bought the boat way too cheaply.”

Caudwell isn’t your average billionaire. He proudly pays his tax, has pledged to give away most of his wealth to charitable causes and claims to be much more at home in a one-star guest house (“as long as it’s clean”) than a palatial five-star hotel. “Going into a restaurant and ordering a bottle of wine that’s even £200 would break my heart. It’s not me. I don’t do it. I don’t crave materialistic things, although I’ve got a lot. I love this boat but if I didn’t have it, as long as I could go cycling and camping up in the mountains there, I’d be fine.” He pauses at that. “Actually, it would be hard giving up this boat.”

That’s no surprise – Caudwell is evidently comfortable on board and has infused the entire yacht with his own brand of easy informality. The crew smile genuinely and warmly at the boss as he asks about the menu and requests a drink. There’s no stuffiness, none of the upstairs/downstairs that can make the onboard atmosphere rigid and uncomfortable. It’s one of the reasons Titania is such a spectacularly successful charter yacht, commanding €630,000 a week in the high season. “The whole objective was to turn it into a fun boat with great food, a happy, smiling crew and all the facilities anyone could want. If someone wants white, starchy service they won’t get that here; it’s just all to do with friendliness and efficiency. Of course the service is first class though. My crew are wonderful – they are very well paid and get phenomenal tips.”

Charter comes first, Caudwell says, to the point where he will cancel his own plans to visit the yacht if a client wants to book it. “I set it up to be a successful charter yacht right from the beginning.” He amped this up with a significant refit in 2012 that added a second owner’s cabin on the upper deck, a gym on the sundeck and an extension to the stern to accommodate a beach club . All the toys are on show the day I visit, with a full water park floating off the stern and crew circling the boat in Seabobs to help the guests flying down the enormous 12.7 metre long waterslide.

Another of Titania’s USPs is the intense focus on wellness, a Caudwell obsession. In 2014 he was diagnosed with Lyme disease and ever since has been on a very public crusade to get the government to take the tick-borne illness more seriously. He says 11 of his family have tested positive for the disease, most devastatingly his 23-year-old son Rufus, who requires full-time care. “It started with [Rufus], who had it for 10 years but we didn’t know he had it so we never got it diagnosed.”

In the course of interviewing doctors for the Caudwell International Children’s Centre, a new state-of-the-art facility at Keele University in Staffordshire in the UK, which is dedicated to researching, diagnosing and treating autism, Caudwell discovered that Lyme disease could be responsible for his son’s condition. Other members of the family then decided to get tested after recognising the symptoms. Caudwell was the fifth to learn he carried the disease. “I thought I had very mild ME, but sure enough I tested positive for Lyme as well. We ended up with the whole family having it.”

Caudwell is now on a mission to raise money for research and push it up agendas. “I’d be very disappointed if I died not having fixed this Lyme disease problem. It’s horrific what some sufferers go through. I can’t fix all of them, but if I can fix the system, if I can get the system responsive, then that’s the start to helping people.”

One of the ways Caudwell manages his own illness is through a strict, non-toxic diet. “Diet is my number one weapon. I keep cleaning up my diet more and more. Everything on this boat is organic, there are no toxins in it at all and there is almost no sugar. We do serve bread but I never eat it. No bread, no dairy.” He lets a few glasses of wine slip through the net but will cut alcohol out entirely if he feels “even the slightest bit off”. He certainly looks healthy, and eats lunch dressed head to toe in Lycra after coming back from a ride to Eze in the morning. He casually mentions conquering the Col de la Madone a few days previously, which a later Google reveals to be one of the most punishing ascents in world cycling. Always at his side on these rides is his partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite, a former Olympic road cyclist from Lithuania.

He estimates he spends a third of his life on his charity work. Through Caudwell Children, set up 20 years ago, he has helped more than 30,000 children from all walks of life. “The only thing that mattered was that they’d got an illness that wasn’t being attended to by the medical profession.” That could mean buying a £20,000 wheelchair for a child with muscular atrophy or paying for an operation called selective dorsal rhizotomy, which helps children with unresponsive legs walk and even run again.

“I’ve always had a charitable ambition in life. When I had made enough money in business, I started to think what I could do to help. And I just thought what better than helping children who have had no life, who’ve been born with terrible challenges in life. If you can make their lives substantially better it’s not just them it helps, it’s the family, it’s everyone.” He gestures around him, saying: “How can you have all this and not provide for these children? If you landed from outer space and looked down and saw me sitting on a superyacht and a child lying on the floor with the family devastated and £20,000 would transform that child’s life, how can that be something that’s acceptable in a civilised society?”

Caudwell didn’t come from money, which may explain his deep empathy with those who can’t afford five-star treatment. He grew up in Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands, one of two children. He doesn’t recall being poor as a child, but says he knows what it’s like “to only have beans on toast for dinner and not being able to get warm because there’s no heating”. Boats were an early fascination. His childhood home was on a hill and he remembers tying lollipop sticks together to make rudimentary toy boats and running them down the gutter. A canal at the end of the road meant he could experiment with more complex craft – rafts lashed together with planks of wood and oil drums. “I nearly drowned playing in that canal when I was about four,” he says. “Someone fished me out.”

His entrepreneurial streak also developed early. One scheme saw him growing worms under his mother’s bed to sell to local fishermen; another was selling motorcycle clothing. He didn’t finish school, instead opting to undertake an engineering apprenticeship, and by the mid-1980s, as a thirty-something, he was running a successful car dealership in Stoke. In the course of his business he heard about the nascent mobile phone market and decided to contact US firm Motorola to see what opportunities there were distributing the phones in the UK. He eventually bought 26 handsets from the company, each costing £1,350. It took eight months to sell the phones for £2,000 each. His new company, Midland Mobile Phones, lost money for two years but by 1991 turnover had grown to £13 million. It was more than £1 billion just nine years later. In 1996, Caudwell established mobile phone retailer Phones 4u, which quickly expanded on the high street to 600 stores. In 2006, he sold the holding company, Caudwell Group, to a pair of private equity firms for £1.47 billion, instantly propelling him into the three comma club.

As his businesses expanded, so did his boats. In his 20s he had graduated from makeshift rafts to canal boats, in which he cross-crossed the UK’s expansive canal network with his young family. “I find the canals so romantic. We did them when they still had their old industrial character. We travelled with a stove pot, a chainsaw for cutting my logs up, and a little petrol generator for driving the chainsaw. They were lovely times.”

He started thinking about going to sea proper in the late 1980s. He would visit the Southampton Boat Show each year and spent a decade tyre-kicking until eventually getting a deal he couldn’t refuse on a 20 metre Sunseeker . Over the next decade that was upgraded to a 25 metre Sunseeker and eventually a 29 metre model, which he still owned when he bought Capri and Titania in 2010.

Naturally there’s a “next boat” on his mind. In a rare quiet moment he’ll refine it further in his imagination. It will be a new build, formed around three main requirements: the need to keep a helicopter permanently on board; a substantial garage for a submarine; and somewhere to house a folding-wing aircraft, “so you could launch it on the sea and have an aeroplane taking off from the water”. He thinks this will push the size up to around 110 metres. “I don’t really want a 110 metre boat, but those kind of facilities will dictate the size.” But Caudwell is in no hurry. “When I’ve got a boat as good as Titania , the thought of trying to build a 110 metre boat, with everything else I’ve got going on in my life, is too much. I am not a hands-off person; everything I do is very hands-on.”

That’s as true of the Caudwell Collection , his property company that is transforming a Mayfair street, to his charity commitments. “When I sold the businesses, the intent was retirement. I didn’t know what retirement looked like, but it was retirement. And I often joke that the biggest failure ever in my life was the retirement because it’s nothing like retirement!” I suggest he’s akin to a shark – he has to keep swimming or he’ll drown. “I’d like to be lazier, for sure. But who is going to look after all those children with the Caudwell Children charity? Who is going to sort out Lyme disease? I’m enjoying my businesses and wouldn’t want to get rid of them. But it’s a good life and I can’t complain. But do I have to keep swimming? Not really. I’d just like to be able to take my fins off and tread water once in a while.”

This feature was first published in the October 2020 edition of BOAT International.

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Phones4U billionaire's luxury super yacht boasts its very own 12.7m waterslide

John Caudwell's yacht Titania has its own waterpark and nightclub

• by Hayley Parker, Kirstie McCrum
• 11:08, 28 Aug 2020

With its own water park and nightclub, the luxury super-yacht belonging a UK billionaire businessman has to be seen to be believed.

Phones4U co-founder John Caudwell's snapped up this 73-metre long yacht at auction in 2010 for €34 million, roughly half of its estimated value.

And he's showed his boat off in a documentary for Channel 5 called Secrets of the Luxury Super Yachts.

Titania, named after the fairy queen in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, had a stem-to-stern retrofit two years after Mr Caudwell snapped it up, adding an inflatable water park with a 12.7 metre long waterslide and nightclub, reports Stoke on Trent Live .

The Caudwell family use the yacht for around four weeks a year, leaving the yacht free for holidaymakers to hire for about €630,000 a week in the high season.

Those who have chartered the yacht include celebrities and members of the Royal Family.

Titania is one of the world’s 5,000 or so privately-owned yachts.

The billionaire's come a long way from modest beginnings growing up in Wellesley Street, Shelton, near Stoke on Trent.

He has spoken in the past about his childhood games sailing lollipop sticks on the Trent and Mersey - before graduating to building rafts.

The 67-year-old - who appeared on TV to show off his Mayfair mansion -  said: “The whole objective was to turn it into a fun boat with great food, a happy, smiling crew and all the facilities anyone could want.

"If someone wants white, starchy service they won’t get that here; it’s just all to do with friendliness and efficiency.

"Of course the service is first class though. My crew are wonderful – they are very well paid and get phenomenal tips.

"I chose the name Titania. I wanted a figurehead which was elegant and feminine.

"I considered several names, but Titania, a character from Shakespeare's   Midsummer Night's Dream, was best able to portray the image I wanted for what is a fantastically elegant and sexy yacht.

"Many celebrities including A-list music and film personalities, plus members of the British Royal family have been aboard.

Don’t miss

"At least 100 people could enjoy the main deck, with maybe another 20 to 30 on the nightclub deck at sea level."

Although a successful businessman now, Mr Caudwell attended Shelton Church of England School and then Berry Hill High School before abandoning his A-levels to become an apprentice at Michelin, later becoming a second-hand car dealer.

It was in 1987 when he and brother Brian registered Midland Mobile Phones as a mobile phone wholesaler, taking 26 Motorola mobiles at £1,350 each.

The duo sold all 26 phones in eight months to customers including plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen at a price of £2,000 each.

For the first two years of operations, the company made a loss every month, but it then grew exponentially.

He sold Phones4u 
in 2006 for just under £1.5 billion and has since concentrated on his charity work including setting up Stoke-based Caudwell Children. 

• Secrets of the Luxury Super Yachts is available to catch up with on My5

John Caudwell and partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite expecting first child together - find out gender

Congratulations to the couple.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist John Caudwell and his Lithuanian partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite have announced, exclusively in HELLO! , that they are expecting their first child together – a baby boy – in the spring.

"I'm very excited," says John , 68, who is father to Rebekah, 40, Libby, 32, Rufus, 24, Scarlett, 18, and Jacobi, 16, and is looking forward to welcoming his sixth child. "Most men think the majority of their parenting is done by time they're 50, but with a new baby on the way, I've still got a long way to go so I'd better stay fit and healthy.

MORE: Take a look inside John Caudwell's £250million mansion

" I'll help with the nappies and the feeds, just as I did with my other children ," adds the Caudwell Children charity founder. "I'm looking forward to the screaming and the terrible twos and all those magical moments."

WATCH: Our top 10 celebrity baby reveals - and they're adorable!

Former Olympic cyclist Modesta, 37, who has an eight-year-old son Leonardo from her first marriage, tells HELLO! : "I think I've been searching all my life for a man like him. I don't need the luxury, just someone kind I can trust and who respects me. John gives me all of that. I love that life is an adventure with him and we're so happy. He's my everything, and I can't wait for our baby boy to be born."

The generous businessman, who set up the charity 20 years ago to improve the lives of sick and disabled children, brought up his children to share his passion for helping others. He plans to instil the same humanitarian values in his new son.

"I can't wait for our baby boy to be born," said Modesta

" I want him to have a social conscience and a responsibility to make the world a better place ," says John whose £1.56bn fortune sees him named annually in the Sunday Times Rich List.

He started out working in a tyre factory before setting up Phones4U in 1987, which he sold 19 years later for £1.46bn. "I have never spoilt my children with material things. I shower them with love and affection instead."

To read more, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! out on Monday

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My night drinking whiskey sours on John Caudwell’s superyacht

A s I board billionaire John Caudwell’s 240ft yacht Titania, the charming Ciara greets me with a cold flannel, Willow with a chilled mocktail and Sina with a warm smile.

The young stewards are wearing matching black mini dresses and sporting Secret Service-style earpieces as if from a Bond movie.

Above me is the diving board on which Elizabeth Debicki was filmed in The Crown reproducing Diana’s famously papped swimsuit-clad pout on Mohamed Al-Fayed’s ship, for which Titania was the stand-in.

I have flown to the south of France to hear the serial entrepreneur’s thoughts on politics and view two of his latest uber-prime property developments in one of the Cote d’Azur’s ritziest enclaves.

Caudwell got his start in the motor trade and then founded his mobile phone business in the mid-1980s with just £20,000. Phones4U eventually had a turnover of £2.4 billion, and when he sold up in 2006, he walked away with £1.5 billion. Since then, Caudwell has devoted time and considerable sums to various charities, including his own, which focus on helping children and those suffering from Lyme disease.

He also signed up to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge in 2013 – committing half his wealth to charity. But that still leaves a sizeable amount for enjoying the finer things in life, as I discover on the splendid Titania.

But, suffering from SYA (Superyacht Anxiety), I’m already agonising over the invite’s detailed dress guidance. How does “smart casual/cruise wear” when “no shoes are allowed to be worn on-board” actually work?

I sought guidance from The Telegraph ’s men’s style editor.

“Barefoot with linen trousers sounds on point,” suggests Stephen Doig helpfully, and “a nice blue linen shirt should fit the bill”. So far, so good, but his “I’m personally fond of a lightweight scarf for that brisk sea air” sounds a bit Noël Coward.

The major quandary is: jacket or no jacket? John Caudwell famously designs his own multi-hued jackets, so will my 10-year-old M&S affair coupe the moutarde ?

Roxy puts me at my ease. “Fancy a quick tour?” says the small blonde chief stewardess in an unexpectedly broad Scouse accent. “I know, everyone wants to know where I’m from – the Wirral, actually.”

The self-made Caudwell is from Stoke-on-Trent, so northern accents are OK, she reckons.

The recently refitted and very glossy Titania is Caudwell’s personality writ large. 

The yacht features seven double cabins, gym, Jacuzzi, beauty salon, cinema, a Steinway baby grand in the wood-panelled salon, an interesting collection of Kandinsky-lite paintings, a crew of more than 20, and – my favourite feature – a five-floor circular glass elevator that Willy Wonka and Charlie would have loved. It all charters for $650,000 (£500,000) or so a week.

Roxy shows me to my master cabin, which has enough old-school burr walnut for a fleet of E-type Jags, a super king-sized bed and a cunningly hidden pop-up 50-inch TV. In the palatial bathroom, there’s a whirlpool bath, toiletries by Bamford , and the loo is called a “head” – they speak a different language on yachts.

Downton Abbey -style, Roxy asks “Would you like us to unpack your bag?”. Not wanting my shabby jacket and elderly underwear to be judged, I decline the offer.

Then another etiquette conundrum. After checking my emails, I leave my cabin to join the party and naturally turn to lock my door. There’s no key, of course, because a yacht is more country house than hotel.

Pre-dinner cocktails are taken on the aft deck. John Caudwell is wearing a dashing blue, black and embroidered ensemble while I’ve gone with a navy shirt and no jacket. “You look great – pleased you could make it.” Like other such heavy-hitters, the 72-year-old exudes a quiet confidence. Getting in touch with my inner Ripley, I hit the whiskey sours while my host drinks Old Speckled Hen beer.

With the canapes, Modesta, Caudwell’s 40-year-old Lithuanian wife, a one-time Olympic cyclist, arrives. Theirs is a Lycra love story. “We first met at the cock race,” he confides. Sorry? “That’s the Champagne and Oyster Cycling Club [COCC] annual ride hosted by Prince Albert of Monaco.”

One of the Riviera’s more prestigious charity events, it’s obviously more upscale than Tinder. The athletic couple now have a home in the Principality, to go with a mansion in Mayfair and the Jacobean, Grade I-listed Broughton Hall in Staffordshire.

There is a choice of several dining venues, inside and out. Dinner is served at an artfully dressed table not far from the giant hot tub, with a view of the setting sun. After my cocktails, I mistake bottles of Petrus on the table as ready for drinking when they’re actually part of the centrepiece.

Dinner is quite the performance, each course delivered by six stewardesses demonstrating immaculate synchronised serving – it’s surely only a matter of time before this becomes an Olympic sport.

The week before, when the Formula 1 circus was in town, the Caudwells were hosting parties in Monaco, just up the coast. They use Titania for a few weeks a year in the Med and an occasional jaunt in the Caribbean. The rest of the time, it’s chartered.

Inevitably, conversation turns to politics. “We need change,” Caudwell announces emphatically. He made a £500,000 donation to the Tories when Boris Johnson was leader in the run-up to the 2019 election, so what’s the cut of his jib this time?

“People mistakenly think I’m a long-term Tory donor. I’m not. I’ve been a long-term Tory voter but I’ve only donated that once and that was only to keep Corbyn and McDonald out.”

His take on Sunak is damning. “Rishi made monster mistakes during Covid that told me he’s got no commercial intellect whatsoever. We led the world in terms of stopping the sale of new combustion engine vehicles by 2030 .

“Then he changes it to 2035 to catch a few extra votes – what a monstrously negative thing to do! There’s simply no chance of Sunak doing what’s right for Britain.”

During the dinner denunciation, Caudwell is holding hands under the table with Modesta, a stylish and articulate woman. At one stage, he talks proudly of changing their one-year-old daughter’s nappies (they also have a three-year-old son). Would he be happy for them to do national service?

“I think the discipline of being in one of the services is good for young people, so I would have to say yes.” Would his own children – he has seven in all, by four different partners – agree with him? “Um, probably not.”

With the arrival of the turbot, I ask about the Labour leader. Like the beurre blanc sauce, his support is lukewarm. “I’ve met with Keir Starmer, and he sort of agrees with me, but he’s not been as proactive as I would have liked. But any party that backs my principles to make Britain great again, I’d support not just with a vote but with money. I’m there to be grabbed.”

So who will he vote for? “I’m genuinely in no man’s land at the moment, but I think Labour will win by a landslide.” He has many passions but above all else, it seems to me, Caudwell is a pragmatist.

He’s also a paradox. In Antibes, he’s developed and is selling for €70 million (£60 million) plus a newly built eight-bedroom villa, Domaine de la Belle Étoile, set in four acres of beautiful Sissinghurst-meets-the-Mediterranean gardens, as well as 39 apartments and penthouses in the converted Art Deco Le Provençal hotel. He’s also developing a site on London’s Audley Square, due to be completed in 2026, with 29 super-prime apartments expected to fetch well north of £1 billion in total.

Yet he professes to enjoy the simple life. “I really don’t need luxury. I’m very happy on this yacht, I love it, but I’m just as happy cycling through the Alps and paying €40 for bed and breakfast for the two of us.

“Everything I do is profitable and that’s why there’s this dichotomy. I can sit on my yacht that charters very well, and my home in Mayfair [reputedly the largest private home on Monopoly’s most expensive square] is used all the time for charitable events.

“But I’ve not got expensive tastes – I fly on easyJet and my favourite food is Kentucky Spicy Wings washed down by a £6 bottle of Rioja.” More heartburn than Saltburn , then.

Caudwell has publicly pledged to give away 70 per cent of his wealth and is a big believer in targeted philanthropy. “I’m massively better at providing a service than the Government. They’re completely inept, while my team at Caudwell Youth work their guts out to mentor young kids in trouble.

“I think rich people need to do more and get the spiritual satisfaction of knowing they’re changing people’s lives.”

Next morning there’s a swell, so the Jacuzzi is sloshing water towards the table – a particularly rarefied problem. But Roxy and the team have seen it all before, and the offending pool is quietly emptied.

Like they do at Sandringham , we serve ourselves at breakfast, where the healthy ginger, cucumber, lime and celery “green juice” proves a fine hangover cure, the eggs royale perfection.

While John and Modesta, in matching Lycra, leave first to cycle the 30 miles from Antibes to Monaco, I’m deposited back on the jetty next to the Belles Rives hotel , where Zelda drank and F Scott Fitzgerald wrote Tender is the Night .

The ground under my feet is still swaying, maybe from the Titania, possibly the whiskey sours, or just from trying to keep up with the dizzying contradiction that is John Cauldwell.

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Phones4U billionaire John Caudwell, 70, and partner welcome baby girl

Thrilled John Caudwell, now a dad of seven, described the birth as 'one of the most beautiful experiences' and shared three sweet snaps of the new arrival

• 10:32, 29 Mar 2023
• Updated 15:09, 3 Apr 2023

Billionaire businessman John Caudwell has welcomed his seventh child as he and former Olympian Modesta Vzesniauskaite announced the birth of their baby girl.

The thrilled new parents have named their adorable daughter Isabella Sky.

The couple confirmed their second child together arrived at 10.40pm yesterday on social media this morning.

One of Britain’s biggest philanthropists and among the UK's biggest taxpayers, Caudwell, 70, described the birth as 'one of the most beautiful experiences' as he shared three sweet snaps of the new arrival.

Mr Caudwell, who grew up in Wellesley Street, Shelton, and still has his main home in Staffordshire, addedthat Modesta "was so happy she couldn't stop laughing and crying.

"I felt much the same. We look forward to introducing Isabella to her brothers and sisters, family and friends."

The couple welcomed their son, William John, in 2021 after struggling to conceive for three years.

Phones 4u co-founder Mr Caudwell - who gives millions to charities each year - is already a father to Rebekah, aged 42, Libby, aged 34, Rufus, aged 25, Scarlett, aged 20, and Jacobi, aged 18.

And former Lithuanian Olympic cyclist Vzesniauskaite, 39, has an 11-year-old son Leonardo from her first marriage.

The couple share their time between Broughton Hall near Eccleshal, Monaco and London, as well as trips on their yacht Titania.

Modesta's Lithuanian family were welcomed to Broughton Hall for an extravagant baby shower last month.

She recently told Hello! Magazine : “We weren’t planning to have another child at all so it was a beautiful surprise."

With his brother Brian, in 1987 John registered Midland Mobile Phones as a mobile phone wholesaler taking 26 Motorola mobiles at £1,350 each.

It took eight months to sell all 26 phones to plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen at a price of £2,000 each. The company made a loss every month for the first two years of operations.

However, the business then grew exponentially and he sold Phones4u in 2006 for just under £1.5 billion. He has since concentrated on his charity work including setting up Stoke-based Caudwell Children.

Mr Caudwell, who sold his Phones 4u empire for £1.5billion, grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, with his mum working in a post room, while his dad was employed by an engineering company.

He also owns Britain's most expensive home - a £250millon Mayfair mega-mansion, which includes a 120-capacity ballroom, 15 bedrooms, bar and cinema.

It was previously two homes knocked together - one of which was previously owned by Prince Jefri, brother of the Sultan of Brunei.

It contains an indoor river with fish, and a vertical garage to show off his vintage motors.

In 2021, he told the Times that he found becoming a dad again later in life "psychologically" challenging because he feared not being "around long enough to teach my values and my ethos and to help them be successful in whatever way.

"I'd like to be around for William when he's 18, to help him find his path in life and teach him all the things that I believe in. So, from that point of view, that's a negative.

Caudwell previously declared he plans to leave 70 per cent of his wealth to charity.

"They'll still be filthy rich," he told the Mirror in 2015. "They can still ruin their lives."

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Phones 4u founder John Caudwell, 68, is expecting his sixth child with partner and former Olympian Modesta Vzesniauskaite, 37

• John Caudwell and Modesta Vzesniauskaite have announced they are expecting their first child together  
• He met his Olympian partner, 37, who is 31 years his junior, at a cycling event 
• John is currently the parents to five children Rebekah, 40, Libby, 32, Rufus, 24, Scarlett, 18, and Jacobi, 16
• The business magnate is reportedly worth an estimate £1.576billion 
• John has ventures in the fashion and real estate industry, and is the chairman for children's charity, Caudwell children 

By Natasha Hooper For Mailonline

Published: 19:07 EDT, 8 November 2020 | Updated: 07:31 EDT, 9 November 2020

View comments

Billionaire businessman John Caudwell and Modesta Vzesniauskaite have announced they are expecting their first child together.

The Phones 4u co-founder, 68, and his former Olympian partner, 37, who is 31 years his junior, confirmed they will be welcoming a baby boy in the spring.

John, who is already a father to Rebekah, 40, Libby, 32, Rufus, 24, Scarlett, 18, and Jacobi, 16, spoke to  Hello! magazine  this week about the exciting news.

Baby on the way! Businessman John Caudwell and Modesta Vzesniauskaite have announced they are expecting their first child together

He said: 'Most men think the majority of their parenting is done by time they're 50, but with a new baby on the way, I've still got a long way to go, so I'd better stay fit and healthy.

'I'll help with the nappies and the feeds, just as I did with my other children.

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'I'm looking forward to the screaming and the terrible twos, and all those magical moments.'

According to Sunday Time's Rich List published in 2019, John is worth an estimated £1.576billion and has pledged to give away 70 per cent of his wealth to charity.

The business magnate also has ventures in the fashion and real estate industry, and is the chairman for children's charity, Caudwell children. 

Expecting: The Phones 4u co-founder and his former Olympian partner, 37, who is 31 years his junior, confirmed they will be welcoming a baby boy in the spring

Despite living a life of luxury, John doesn't want his son to be spoiled and intends on raising him with good moral values.   

He continued: 'I want him to have a social conscience and a responsibility to make the world a better place.

'I have never spoilt my children with material things. I shower them with love and affection instead.'

John met his  Lithuanian partner at a cycling event and they have been together for five years. 

The former  Olympic cyclist also has an eight-year-old son, Leonardo, from her first marriage, and she met her businessman beau shortly after her divorce.   

Walk her down the isle: John, is already the father to five children Rebekah, 40, Rufus, 24, Scarlett, 18, and Jacobi, 16, and Libby, 32, (pictured) who got married in 2019

Where it all began: John met his Lithuanian partner, who has an eight-year-old son called Leonardo, at a cycling event and they have been together for five years

According to Modesta, it was love at first sight as she said to the publication: 'I think I've been searching all my life for a man like him.

'I don't need the luxury, just someone kind I can trust and who respects me.

'John gives me all of that. I love that life is an adventure with him and we're so happy. He's my everything, and I can't wait for our baby boy to be born.'

The tycoon lives in Britain's most expensive home - an opulent £250 million 15-bedroom Mayfair mega mansion.

Caudwell faced backlash last month after suggesting the government should have made the public build up herd immunity against coronavirus . 

He made the comments on Question Time as it returned to the BBC , saying: 'I've been making the point from day one that we should've invested the money in protecting the aged and the vulnerable, and let everybody else build up herd immunity.'

Viewers were quick to respond to his comments, with one tweeting: 'Something deeply sinister about a man who owns a £250 million mansion advocating herd immunity.

'"We should have let Covid run through the population, as I know full well I wouldn’t have been impacted anyway as I’d be residing in my Bond-villain lair."' 

Mr Caudwell, 67, is the 97th richest person in the UK, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. 

John Caudwell, 67, at the home in London's Mayfair with his partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite, 36, a Lithuanian Olympic cyclist

In 2015, his son Rufus, then 20, fell ill with Lyme disease. Mr Caudwell later found that 15 members of his family had the disease as well as a range of co-infections. 

Mr Caudwell set up the charities Caudwell Children and Caudwell LymeCo and has pledged to give away half of his wealth before he dies.

He sold his phones empire for £1.5 billion in 2006, and this year completed renovations on a 15-bedroom home by joining two Mayfair houses and turning them into one palatial mansion.  

The father-of-five, who donated to the Conservative party last year, splashed out an eye-watering £87 million on the original properties in 2012, planning to restore their original period grandeur. 

Caudwell was previously married to Kate McFarlane for 25 years. The marriage ended in 2001 and the couple share three children. 

He went on to have a relationship with violinist Jane Burgess, with whom he had a daughter, before dating Claire Johnson for 15 years, with whom he shares a son. The couple separated in 2014. 

The full interview is in Hello! out now.

Share or comment on this article: John Caudwell, 68, is expecting his sixth child with partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite, 37

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Billionaire John Caudwell and partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite introduce seven month old son William

Exclusive: with a fortune, beautiful partner and a baby son, life is sweet for john caudwell. and following a recent life-threatening accident, he’s counting his blessings now he is home and well.

• 06:50, 2 NOV 2021
• Updated 08:09, 2 NOV 2021

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It’s not every day you get invited into a billionaire’s home – but John Caudwell and his partner Modesta Vžesniauskaite always make us feel welcome.

And as we walk into their 45,000-square-foot Mayfair mansion, the former Phones 4 U owner and Olympic cyclist introduce us to their first child together, William John Caudwell, who arrived in March.

“I think he might take after me because he doesn’t need lots of sleep but has endless energy,” John, 69, tells us.

But despite having a lot to celebrate this year, John and Modesta have also had some turmoil since welcoming adorable William in Monaco . The family was hit by Covid and just as John was getting back to full health, he had a cycling accident that left him “badly smashed up” with a punctured lung, 12 displaced fractures in his left shoulder and ribcage, and concussion.

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After spending time in an Italian hospital – which he describes as “barbarian” – he was flown to a hospital in Monaco so that he could see his family and be better cared for. When he was stable enough a few weeks later, he returned to the UK.

“Of all of the other 100 fractures I’ve had, including a broken back and broken neck, I’ve never suffered pain like this.

It was extraordinary,” says John, who has broken his back and neck several times over the years.

Despite the difficult time the couple have been through, John – who is also father to Rebekah, 41, Libby, 33, Rufus, 26, Scarlett, 19, and Jacobi, 17, from previous relationships – and 38-year-old Modesta are ever optimistic and dedicated to charity work. That includes putting their heart and soul into the Caudwell Children foundation, which helps transform the lives of disabled kids.

Here, John and Modesta, who also has eight-year-old son Leonardo, reflect on their turbulent year, baby William having already become an uncle and why John plans to donate most of his £1.566 billion fortune to charity...

Hi, both! Firstly, tell us about adorable William...

John: He’s a fantastic baby, albeit I think he’s hard work. Modesta is exhausted at the moment and thinks William’s an angel but he isn’t in a routine yet as she’s having to feed him all the time and there’s no personal time at all. He doesn’t sleep much but Modesta loves him so much it’s not a hardship. She’s had in some ways the most horrendous six months and, in others, the most joyous. She’s loved it because of William and hated it because of everything else. You can’t compete with a mother’s love, especially when they’re breastfeeding. It’s funny, as he’s desperate for his mother but when I’m around and talking he can’t take his eyes off of me.

Aww. You’ve been through a lot in the past six months with Covid and the accident. Yet you both seem so smiley and upbeat...

Modesta: We’re a positive couple and we always have a vision of the future. I know it’s been very tough for John, it’s been quite a traumatising experience.

John: It’s been a very tough six months.

Were you in hospital long after your accident, John?

John: I was in Italy for a week and then transferred to Monaco for a week. It was horrendous because I was really badly smashed up – a punctured lung and all these fractures, and I still tested positive on a PCR test from Covid five weeks before, so they put me on a Covid ward. Everybody was dressed in hazmat suits and Modesta was not allowed to visit me, and very few people spoke a word of English. The Italian hospital, for lots of reasons, was a real nightmare. It felt quite barbarian. I’ve never been treated so badly in my life by a hospital or staff. I was in horrific pain.

It must have been hard for you too, Modesta!

Modesta: Whenever he has an accident he never calls me, or moans or complains.

John: I’m pretty tough and I’ve had accidents before and lost count of the fractures I’ve had – maybe 100! I’ve always rung somebody up and said, “I’m OK but I have had an accident.” On this occasion, I rang Modesta.

Modesta: He said, “I’ve had an accident and I’m all smashed up, come and pick me up.” I said, “You’re joking.” I was on the way and had the most dreadful thought. I thought, “I’ve managed to have a son, move to the UK and have a happy family – and now I’m going to lose all of that.” I prayed John was fine. The doctor said they would do an operation. I said, “Is it serious?” and they said, “It could be.” I thought, “Oh God, I have to tell John’s kids.”

John: There was so much damage and so much possibility of something life-threatening, because I smashed my head really hard. That first 48 hours in the Italian hospital were quite crucial because nobody knew what else might occur because of the accident.

Thank goodness you’re alright. Had you recovered once you left the hospital?

John: A fair bit but when I started to walk my hip gave in on me and I had a fractured hip. It doesn’t sound much fun and it wasn’t. Eventually it was crystal clear, I needed an operation on my collar bone, as it was so badly displaced and broken. Two weeks later I had to drive home to the UK and isolate.

Has it been a wake-up call to prioritise your health and be less of a daredevil?

John: No, as I wasn’t being a daredevil, it was just bad luck. I started cycling down the hill and the front tyre exploded and threw me to the ground. Being thrown to the ground like that shouldn’t have produced the injuries it did. But I was lucky, because if you have that level of injuries, there’s a good chance of real life-threatening situations.

But there has been a silver lining to the year in William. How was the pregnancy overall, Modesta?

Modesta: I had an amazing pregnancy.

I went skiing with John, we went out on the bikes, we did everything and the day before [the birth] I went up to the mountains walking. It was an amazing pregnancy and the labour was fantastic as I had an amazing doctor from Monaco. I told John I could have four more!

John : Oh dear...

Wow! How do you feel about that John?

John: No comment [Laughs]. I need to recover from this shoulder and my injuries first.

Modesta: To conceive William was a little bit more difficult. We had help from a Dr Muhammad in London.

John: He runs a brilliant fertility clinic. Modesta didn’t think she could get pregnant, that’s what all the doctors said because of her cycling career, that the 20 years of extreme cycling and having very little body weight would have affected her fertility – but apparently not! A very big thank you to Dr Muhammad for the help he gave us.

Would you consider having more children?

John: I’d consider it. My main thing is getting healthy again. I’m thinking about nothing other than my own health, my family and the charity. When I get over this and William’s perhaps another six months older, and if Modesta charms me sufficiently...

Modesta, you seem quite keen to have another child...

Modesta: I know we have too many people on the planet and I speak as a spoilt woman, but when you have a man like John and how he is, and what he could give to any child, and what he gives to his five previous children, it’s just beautiful. All of them are wonderful kids and I think that’s because of the parents. I’m a very lucky woman. I’m lucky to be the mother of his child and if we could have more, I would love to. As William was difficult to have I don’t dream too much but I would love to because next to me is a wonderful man.

Are you a hands-on dad, John?

John: I haven’t had to be actually, because of what the past three months dealt me with Covid and the accident, but also because Modesta is a doting mother and leaves very little room for me to fit into the baby process.

I did start off wanting her to express, so I could do the feed late at night. I did it for a while but Modesta has her own way of managing William and she’s the boss! I gave up trying to put my influence in and left her to it. But we spend a lot of family time together, so even though I can’t feed him I’m hands-on making him laugh.

And you’ve become a grandad, too!

John: I managed to become a grandad three months after I became a dad [again], so that was good. A grandson, little Moses. Moses and William meet every so often but Moses is a bit sleepier. Hopefully they’ll get more interaction when they’re toddlers. Funny having an uncle three months older than you!

It will be nice for both of them! What are your hopes and dreams for baby William?

John: Mine for all my children is that they’re happy and they’ll leave the world a better place than they found it. In other words, they’re good human beings.

Modesta: I have a bit of a different philosophy of happiness. Kids learn everything from their parents and happiness, and good people grow up naturally to have those values. I’m lucky to have John next to me to influence our son to be a good human on this planet. But I wish for my child to find for himself what he can do the best and succeed in that.

John: She really wants him to be a world champion cyclist.

Modesta: And ambitious.

John, you’re working with The Giving Pledge, which encourages wealthy people to donate their money to charity. Not everyone is as giving as you when it comes to their fortune, are they?

John: I can’t understand it. Jeff Bezos [the founder of Amazon] is now worth $200 billion and he made $50 billion extra last year as a result of Covid driving traffic to his business, away from everybody else. If I were Jeff Bezos

I would probably be donating 99% of my wealth. If he did donate 99% everyone would think, “Wow, he’s absolutely amazing doing that” – and he’d still be worth $2 billion. The thing is, they don’t have to give it away yet, they just have to pledge that the money will be spent [on charity] during or after their lifetime. It doesn’t stop him being the richest man on Earth, it’s just a pledge that he will give that money away eventually. I don’t know why people don’t do it. I decided 50% wasn’t enough to leave to charity so I upped it to 70% – and if I make a lot more money before I die, I’ll up it again. There’s only so much you want to leave to people to make sure they’re protected and so that they can have their own successes, and the satisfaction of doing that for themselves, not just to live off dad’s rich pickings. I don’t think that’s happiness at all.

Are there any downsides to being so wealthy?

John: Not really. You get people wanting your money and sometimes that’s quite difficult, because you’re quite sympathetic to their cause. I won’t look at individual cases but I feel compassionate towards them and almost wish I could. But I can’t because I have to put my time and money into where it’s going to do a huge amount of good. There’s causes where you’ll affect thousands or even millions of people. I wouldn’t be able to do the charity work I do if I didn’t have the wealth, so it’s mainly upsides. As a family we all feel the same way about wanting to help change lives in the thousands. I just wish more people who could afford to help felt the same way. The Caudwell Children ball is late November and it’s the 21st anniversary. We are hoping to raise money and awareness as we do every year for these children and their various conditions.

You can follow John on Instagram @johncaudwell and Find out more about the Caudwell Children Charity at caudwellchildren.com.

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I’m a self-made billionaire but hate spending money – my jeans cost £29

John Caudwell also owns a helicopter, a yacht and the UK's most expensive home...

• 16:22, 5 JUN 2024

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Billionaire John Caudwell may own the UK's most expensive home, a luxury yacht and a fleet of vintage cars but the entrepreneur claims to hate splurging money. The 71-year-old is known for his eccentric wardrobe which boasts an array of tailored glittery jackets.

However, when it comes to staples like jeans he prefers to hit the high street. One pair he paid just £29 for from fashion retailer Zara.

It's perhaps a nod to his humble beginnings growing up in Wellesley Street, Shelton, before moving to the Bentilee council estate. He went on to build a business empire and is now worth around £1.5billion.

In an interview with the iPaper , former Berry Hill High School student John revealed he describes himself as both 'flashy' and 'frugal'. He said: "Out of the public eye you won’t see me in one of the glitzy jackets I’m known for. They’re just for the charity dinners. At home I’ll be in £29 Zara jeans and a shirt."

READ: I grew up poor in Bentilee and can spot a gold-digger now I'm worth £1.5bn John Caudwell spent a largely unhappy 'street urchin' childhood in Shelton and Bentilee

READ: Inside John Caudwell's tough childhood and relationship with troubled dad Stoke-on-Trent-born Phones4U billionaire Caudwell tells all in autobiography

The Phones 4U mogul also revealed his greatest extravagance was a £1.8 million helicopter he bought in 2009. He also owns a yacht named Titania.

He said: "That sounds a lot, but when you’re a billionaire it’s not really. At the time I needed it to travel around the country quickly, but I don’t need it anymore, so now it is an indulgence."

It's all a long way from moving into the first home he owned on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent which had no furniture or gas.

He said: "We sat on orange boxes, borrowed a stove from my mother’s caravan and cooked bean on toast on that until we eventually got out of the poverty trap. But I didn’t see it as a struggle. It was just where we were at that point."

Incredibly, John is now the proud owners of what is believed to be the UK's most expensive meg mansion in Mayfair, London, which is estimated to be worth £250 million. He spent £65 million and four years renovating the property in one of the world's most exclusive postcodes.

The philanthropist had already splashed out £87 million on buying Ancaster House, and the neighbouring property from Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the brother of the Sultan of Brunei. He then knocked them into one giant 43,000 square-foot mansion - the size of Westminster Cathedral or 55 average London flats - before embarking on the revamp.

It was all made possible from his gamble on mobile phones in the 1980s. With his brother Brian, in 1987 John registered Midland Mobile Phones as a mobile phone wholesaler taking 26 Motorola mobiles at £1,350 each.

It took eight months to sell all 26 phones to plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen at a price of £2,000 each. The company made a loss every month for the first two years of operations.

In 2003 he sold Singlepoint to Vodafone for £405m and completed the sale of the wider business three years later for £1.46 billion to private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Doughty Hanson.

He now claims his money weakness to be charity and once even spent £800,000 for three days in South Africa with Elton John and David Furnish visiting their own charitable work.

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Butterfly Ball Monaco raises €1.3 million for Caudwell Children

• 27 September 2020

Hosted by John and Modesta Vzesniauskaite at the Monte Carlo Bay Resort, on Saturday 26 September 2020, this year’s fifth annual Butterfly Ball Monaco helped raise desperately needed funds for Caudwell Children, which, as with all other charities, has been hit hard by coronavirus fallout.

Speaking about highlights from this year’s event, John said:

“The real highlight? That we were able to pull it off at all.

“With Caudwell Children’s UK fundraising events all cancelled this year due to Covid, Modesta and I were determined that, regulations permitting, the Monaco events would go ahead. But right up until the last minute, there was uncertainty, and occasional panic.

“To even make it possible, we had to move the event outside and this brought the additional vagaries of the weather. Last week, the forecast didn’t look in our favour, but things cleared by Saturday evening – and we provided blankets for guests as temperatures dipped after the sun went down.

“Of course, we also had to drastically reduce attendance numbers – our previous target of 400+ guests came down to just 140 – and adapt to constantly changing numbers allowed on each table, catering and entertainment arrangements.

“Despite all of this, regular attendees said this was the best Butterfly Ball Monaco yet. And, notwithstanding a much smaller guest list, we still managed to raise €1.3 million, all of which will directly help disabled children in the UK.”

This year’s Butterfly Ball Monaco charity auction comprised more than 40 luxury lots donated by supporters, including exclusive art, fashion, jewellery and experiences. John personally donated a week on Superyacht Titania, stays in his Monaco penthouse and Whistler ski lodge, and a one-to-one private business dinner with him at his London home, Mayfair House.

Guests at the black-tie gala evening included Olympic cyclist Mark Cavendish, who rode alongside John in the Cycle Monte Carlo fundraising challenge the day before, Duncan and Nigora Bannatyne, and John and Carolyn Radford.

See more photos on John’s Facebook page .

Philanthropy

• Caudwell Children
• Caudwell Youth
• Caudwell LymeCo
• The Life-Changers Circle
• Giving Pledge
• Caudwell Collection
• Motor Yacht Titania
• Caudwell Marine
• Hyde Park Finance

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