Who Is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Wife? All About Madeleine Gurdon

Andrew Lloyd Webber is a leader in the world of musical theater — with Cats and The Phantom of the Opera among his most successful productions — and his wife, Madeleine Gurdon, is often by his side.

PEOPLE first reported the equestrian’s relationship with Lloyd Webber in July 1990, six months after his divorce from second wife, Sarah Brightman. “We’ve become great friends in recent months,” he said of his relationship with Gurdon at the time.

In his memoirs from 2018 No mask, Lloyd Webber wrote, “I met Madeleine Gurdon in 1989 through mutual friends when my marriage to Sarah Brightman became shaky.” He continued: “There was publicity about Sara’s affair with the original Phantom keyboard player, and I like him very much as I still am, things were not the same for me after that.”

Brightman and Lloyd Webber divorced in January 1990, and he married Gurdon in a secret ceremony early the following year. On February 9, 1991, they had a church ceremony in England to bless their marriage. The New York Times reported that the couple “decided to distract the media with a quiet wedding.”

The couple then had three children. Alistair Adam Lloyd Webber was born a year after their wedding in 1992, William Richard Lloyd Webber in 1993, and Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber in 1996.

Here’s everything you need to know about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s wife, Madeleine Gurdon, and her relationship with her EGOT-winning husband.

She is from a military family

Lady Madeleine Lloyd Webber and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber at the 2012 Cartier Racing Awards at Dorchester on November 13, 2012 in London, England.

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Gurdon was born on 30 November 1962 to Brigadier Adam Gurdon, an officer in the Scottish military group called the Black Watch, and his wife Gillian Thomson, whose father was also in the Black Watch. He has three sisters, Miranda, Melanie and Mary-Louise, per The Sunday Times. Her parents married in 1958 and remained married until Brigadier Gurdon’s death in 2019.

Her father’s work took them all over the world, and the family spent time traveling to places throughout Asia and Africa.

She joined Lloyd Webber in the world of theatre

Madeleine Gurdon and Andrew Lloyd Webber at the 72nd Annual Tony Awards on June 10, 2018 in New York City.

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Although not a musician or performer, Gurdon became part of her husband’s theater empire. According to the UK government companies website, Gurdon is a director of the Really Useful Group, Lloyd Webber’s production company which represents his work, including all his hit musicals, for production, licensing and promotion.

Gurdon is also a director of LW Theatres, Lloyd Webber’s company which owns six theaters in London’s West End.

They got married in 1991 and started a family the following year

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Madeleine Gurdon at a wedding blessing ceremony on February 16, 1991 in London, England.

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Although the couple did not reveal the exact date of their wedding, they were married in a private ceremony at Westminster Registry Office in London in February 1991.

Lloyd Webber and Gurdon had intended to marry on 9 February 1991, but a large media presence was expected in light of his divorce from Brightman a year earlier, so they decided to wed first in secret. Then they held a church ceremony on February 9.

Their first child, Alastair, was born the following year, on 3 May 1992. They had a second son, William, on 24 August 1993 and a daughter, Isabella, on 30 April 1996. All three children currently work in the media and entertainment industry.

Lloyd Webber has two children with his first wife, Sarah Hugill, named Imogen and Nicholas Lloyd Webber. Nicholas died in March 2023 of stomach cancer.

She is an accomplished rider

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and wife Madelaine arrive at Royal Ascot for the third day of the Royal Meeting June 19, 2003 in Ascot, England.

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Before meeting Lloyd Webber, Gurdon was a competitive equestrian. She was a member of the Easton Harriers branch of The Pony Club in the United Kingdom and won the eventing championship in 1981, by Horse & Dog. She also competed in the 1986 World Championships in Poland and the Burghley Horse Trials between 1983 and 1988, finishing second in her final year.

When she was appointed president of The Pony Club in 2010, taking over from Princess Anne, she reflected on her relationship with the organization in Horse & Dog. “Pony Club has been an important part of my life for almost 40 years, whether I was involved as a teenager or as a trainer, and now as a Pony Club mother I was scared of!” said Gurdon.

Gurdon also works as the director of Newbury Racecourse in England.

Breeds champion racehorses

Lady Madeline Lloyd-Webber pictured after jockey William Buick rode The Fugue to victory during the Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes Day.

Barry Cronin/PA Images/Getty

Gurdon and Lloyd Webber bred several prize-winning horses. She turned her passion for horses and riding into a business in 1992 when she and her husband founded Watership Down Stud in Berkshire, near the couple’s home. In 1996 they added Kiltinan Castle Stud in Ireland. Champion racehorses from these locations have won races across the UK and around the world.

She was recognized for her work in 2022 when she was awarded the Devonshire Award for outstanding achievement and contribution to the British breeding industry.

She collaborated with the Oscar winner on the screenplay

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Lady Madeleine Lloyd Webber attend the premiere of the play “Nurey’s Legend and Legacy” on September 5, 2022 in London, England.

David M. Bennett/Dave Bennett/Getty

Gurdon once drew inspiration from real-life events to create a screenplay with Emerald Fennell, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for A promising young woman in 2021.

The screenplay was inspired by the true story of Gurdon’s work with an up-and-coming state comprehensive polo team — a high school that does not require special academic achievement — that wanted to compete against established teams at elite private schools. As the team did not have many of the resources offered by their competitors, Gurdon stepped in and gave the players access to the horses at his Watership Down Polo Club, along with training sessions with a leading polo instructor.

The team won the Association of Schools and Universities Polo Cup in 2007, according to Reuters, and was believed to be the only state school in England to play polo competitively.

In a 2012 interview, almost a decade before she made her Oscar-winning film, Fennell said Standard that Gurdon had commissioned her to write a script partly inspired by a team of underdogs. Although the script has not yet been developed into a film, Fennell worked with the family again when she wrote the story for Lloyd Webber Bad Cinderella.

Gurdon and Lloyd Webber are friends with the British royal families

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Madeleine Lloyd Webber watch the race while attending the 60th Hennessy Gold Cup on November 26, 2016 in Newbury, England.

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty

Gurdon’s connection to the British royal family predates her marriage to Lloyd Webber, who was knighted in 1992 for his services to the arts and made Lord Lloyd Webber in 1996. In her equestrian days, Gurdon’s circle included Princess Anne, and the pair remained friendly. over the years attending races and polo events across the UK

She and Lloyd Webber frequent events such as Royal Ascot, one of Britain’s most popular race weekends, where she was photographed with Queen Camilla. The Telegraph reported that Gurdon was also present at the coronation of King Charles along with Lloyd Webber, who composed the anthem for the occasion.

Queen Elizabeth even visited their Berkshire home, Sydmonton Court, when she was in the area. Lloyd Webber shared the story during a guest appearance on BBC’s Breakfast in 2022

“She came to our house once,” Lloyd Webber recounted. “Do you know what the children did? It was so mean of them. They were old enough to know better, but they put the football shirts outside the window as the past came and the Queen said, ‘Do you normally put your laundry outside the window?’ ”

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Source: HIS Education