The sad story of Eva Rausing
Those who don’t have, it dream of it; those who have it, often put it to good use. Sadly, however, money doesn’t always necessarily bring happiness.
Lottery winners often go off the rails as they spend like silly because they simply are not used to wealth. Those who opt for publicity find they are inundated with begging letters from friends and even those they don’t know. If they give in, they fall into a vicious downward spiral and in many cases the money runs out. If they don’t, the guilt sets in and they lose their friends. The curse of the lottery winner is well documented but equally sad is the tale of Hans Kristian and Eva Rausing.
An inherited fortune, to the majority of us who are potless, sounds like a joy to behold but with such inevitably comes many pitfalls. The likes of Tamara Ecclestone and Anna Abramovich, daughters of first generation self-made wealth, seem to spend their time buying multi-million pound homes and £1 million bathtubs, but does that make them happy? I think not but perhaps I could be wrong. These young ladies seem to bathe in publicity and love the limelight and maybe that even satisfies them.
Eva Rausing’s story, though, is an especially sad case. This daughter of the charming former Pepsi executive Tom Kemeny and his wife Nancy grew up with great privilege and married into an even wealthier family, that of Hans K. Rausing. A posting on her MySpace page sums up the thoughts of this 49-year old Tetra Pak heir’s wife:
“I don’t work, but probably should. Or at least think of a constructive way of using my time, enlarging my life. I fell back into the same hole as before and have been there for nearly 7 years.”
Invitations no doubt flowed through her door on a daily basis and Rausing plainly was not limited by the troubles of an overdraft, a mortgage or credit card debts. For her, it was heroin that blighted her life. The drug of choice of the super-elite, the Rausings met in rehab and their life together continued in the same vein. Though many good friends tried to help them and though they used their very own foundation to try to help others battle addiction, Mrs Rausing sadly is the latest victim of the curse of being wealthy and bored.
Brideshead Revisited has nothing on this dynasty. My most sincere condolences to Tom and Nancy Kemeny and the Rausing family.
