Netflix has no shortage of must-see dramas, but The House of Guinness is one show that should most definitely be on your watchlist.
The eight-part season, penned by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, follows the four children of Ireland’s wealthiest entrepreneur, Benjamin Guinness, and his sprawling beer empire.
When Benjamin dies, the siblings are forced to maneuver through the intricacies of their family business while also handling their own rivalries and taking on outsiders who seek to bring them down (you’ll never quite look at a pint of the black stuff in the same way ever again).
Think of The House of Guinness as the 19th century answer to Succession—only with top hats, tails and lace.
Back in the real world, the Guinness family is still going strong (and yep, are still incredibly rich) over 200 years after The House of Guinness is set. Now based in England, the aristocratic dynasty is fronted by Arthur Edward Rory Guinness (Ned to his friends), a man who boasts the title of the ‘Earl of Iveagh.’
Cosmopolitan UK did some digging, and here is everything you need to know about the family’s latest patriarch.
Who is the current Guinness heir, the Earl of Iveagh?
Arthur Edward Rory Guinness is the fourth Earl of Iveagh. He inherited the title in 1992 at age 23, when his father, Benjamin Guinness, passed away. Arthur is a direct descendent of Edward Guinness, who was the head of the family's eponymous brewing business and lifelong chair of the board.
The Earl of Iveagh title was first given to the Guinness family in 1919, awarded to Edward Cecil Guinness (who is played by Louis Partridge in The House of Guinness). The title was bestowed onto Edward after he bought Elveden Hall in Suffolk back in the 1890s, taking it off the hands of Indian Maharajah, Duleep Singh.
The Grade II listed stately home, where Arthur still lives, is used for agricultural purposes. According to its website, the Elveden Estate keeps cows, pigs and sheep, and also grows onions, potatoes and other crops (plus Christmas trees to fit the season).
When Arthur became the Earl of Iveagh, it allowed him to enter the House of Lords as a peer—at the time, he was the youngest hereditary peer on the benches. He was a regular attendee of the House of Lords, where he served as a crossbencher (this means he was not affiliated with any political party), but found his peerage removed by the new Labour government in 1999 (during his landslide 1997 election, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to reform the House of Lords and in 1999, and 667 hereditary peers lost their entitlement to sit and vote in the chamber).
Elsewhere in 1999, Arthur sold his family's Irish home, Farmleigh (where he grew up) to the Irish Government for the market price of about $225 million (£18.9m). It is now used as a place for heads of state to stay when they visit Ireland.
Elsewhere, Arthur, now 56, is not shy in divulging more details about his family’s storied past. A book set to be released in October this year, Guinness: A Family Succession, is set to share never-before-seen correspondence and photographs of his predecessors’ success, and the journey of making Guinness one of the biggest beer brands in the world. The book was written alongside Antonia Hart, an Irish historian and writer.
Who is the current Guinness heir, the Earl of Iveagh, married to?
Arthur married Berkshire-born interior designer Clare Hazell in 2002, making her the Countess of Iveagh. The pair share two children—their eldest son, also named Arthur, is 22, and is set to become the fifth Earl of Iveagh upon his father’s passing. Their younger son Rupert is 20.
In 2021, the Mail on Sunday reported that Clare and Arthur had separated, with Clare having filed for divorce. News at the time set tongues wagging; with the Guinness heir’s significant fortune nearing a billion dollars (or £900 million), the battle was set to be one of the biggest in British history.
A source at the time told the publication: “Clare and Ned were a great couple but she has been unhappy for several years and doesn't feel their marriage has been a priority for him for a long time.”
The pair declined to comment.
