The new Netflix documentary Murder in Monaco has thrust an unexpected British figure back into the spotlight: author and socialite Lady Colin Campbell. Known to many as Lady C from her appearance on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, her cameo is as dramatic as the billionaire banker's death the film investigates.
A Controversial Cameo in a True Crime Saga
The documentary examines the 1999 penthouse fire in Monte Carlo that led to the death of Lebanese-Brazilian financier and philanthropist Edmond Safra. His nurse, Ted Maher, was convicted of arson causing death after confessing to starting the blaze, though the circumstances remain shrouded in mystery.
Lady C's connection stems from her 2003 novel, Empress Bianca, widely reported to be a fictionalised account based on the life of Safra's widow, Lily Safra. The trailer for Murder in Monaco shows Campbell's characteristically blunt style, where she abruptly ends an interview, stating, "Actually, I'm not doing this. This is at an end. Unf******-believable," before storming off.
Lily Safra successfully sued Campbell's publisher, Arcadia Books, forcing the initial print run to be recalled and destroyed. A revised edition was later published.
An Extraordinary Personal History
Born Georgia Arianna Ziadie in 1949 into a wealthy Lebanese-Jamaican family, Lady C's early life was marked by profound medical intervention. She was raised as a boy named George William Ziadie due to a genital malformation present at birth, following the medical advice of the era.
She endured vicious bullying at the boys' school she attended. At 13, she sought change, but was instead injected with male hormones. It was not until her grandmother intervened that she underwent corrective surgery in New York at age 21. She then legally changed her name to Georgia Arianna Ziadie.
Her marital life was equally brief and dramatic. She married Lord Colin Ivar Campbell on 23 March 1974, just five days after they met. The union lasted only nine months, ending after revelations about her birth characteristics.
Castles, Children, and Royal Revelations
In 1993, Campbell adopted two Russian boys, Michael ('Misha') and Dimitri ('Dima'), stating she had "always been maternal." She later told The Telegraph that adopting as a single mother was pioneering at the time.
A significant chapter of her life is the ongoing restoration of Castle Goring in Worthing, Sussex, which she purchased in 2013. This Grade I listed country house, the ancestral home of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley, was dilapidated. Campbell has admitted the multi-million-pound project is relentless but rewarding.
She is perhaps best known for her series of unauthorised biographies of the British royal family, including one on Diana, Princess of Wales, cementing her status as a controversial chronicler of high society.
Murder in Monaco is now streaming on Netflix, offering viewers not just a deep dive into an unsolved high-society death, but a glimpse into the life of one of Britain's most unconventional personalities.
