John Caudwell: does billionaire have a wife, how many children does he have and where is his house?

British businessman, entrepreneur and billionaire John Caudwell has announced that he is expecting a baby girl with his partner Modesta Vzesniauskaite. Caudwell recently celebrated his 70th birthday last week, on Friday 7 October.

This is everything you need to know.

Who is John Caudwell?

Caudwell is a British businessman and billionaire who founded the mobile phone retailer Phones 4u in 1996. It ultimately became defunct in September 2014.

Born in Birmingham on 7 October 1952, Caudwell grew up in Staffordshire, where he attended the Shelton Church of England School and Berry Hill High School. He dropped out of his A-levels to become an apprentice at Michelin, where he worked for several years as an engineering foreman, earning a HNC at the same time.

As a businessman and entrepreneur, Caudwell invests in different industries like fashion and real estate, and devotes a large portion of his time to charity. In 1999, he was appointed as president of the North Staffordshire branch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

He said: “I was initially approached by the NSPCC to sponsor a cricket match. As is my way I got stuck in, took the whole thing over and was determined to raise as much money as I could.

“I went to one of the NSPCC’s centres and met some of the children who had been victims of cruelty and sexual abuse and it really opened my heart to helping children.”

He founded his own charity, Caudwell Children, in 2000, with its website stating that the charity aims to do “whatever it takes to help change the future of disabled and autistic children by providing diagnosis, equipment, services and support to help them lead a full and active life”.

In 2013, Caudwell was one of the first non-American billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge, which was a movement created by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that called on billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth to charity.

In a statement at the time, Caudwell said: “Those of us who have yet to find philanthropy may find there is a far greater reward from it than from wealth creation. I will give away at least half my wealth during my lifetime and after my death.

“In the meantime I’ll continue to grow my wealth as much as possible so that the amount I bequeath to charities and worthy causes can be as sustainable as possible.”

Who is his partner?

Caudwell has been his current partner, Modesta Vzesniauskaite, for seven years. Vzesniauskaite, 38, is a former Olympic cyclist from Lithuania.

She has competed in competitions like the World Road Champions, the Giro d’Italia Femminile, the Lithuanian National Road Championships and, in 2008, represented Lithuania in the Beijing Olympics.

The two met at a cycling event, with Caudwell telling the Sun in 2020: “We met on a bike, me in scuffy cycling gear so I probably looked like one of the poorer guys in the ride because I never worried about what my cycle gear looked like. When she first met me, she probably thought I was a bit of a pauper.”

Vzesniauskaite said: “On our first date, he took me to a restaurant and came in the ugliest car - it was not something you’d think from somebody wealthy and successful.”

She added: “When I met John I was only 31, I was just divorced and when my close friends and family found out that John was wealthy and older they began to worry about whether he was just going to use me, have fun with me and then dump me. I didn’t panic, I told them all that he makes me happy and now everybody loves John, they adore him.”

How many children does he have?

Over the course of his various relationships, Caudwell has had six children in total and is expecting a seventh.

During his marriage to Kate McFarlarne, whom he was with for 25 years, the couple had three children together - Rebekah, Libby and Rufus. He went on to have another child, daughter Scarlett, with violinist Jane Burgess whom he had a brief relationship with.

Then Caudwell dated former model Claire Johnson for 15 years, and together they welcomed son Jacobi into the world. The couple separated in 2014.

Caudwell is currently expecting his seventh child at the age of 70 with current partner Vzesniauskaite. This will be the pair’s second child together, after Vzesniauskaite gave birth to their son, William, last year.

In an exclusive interview with Hello Magazine, Caudwell said: “We’re expecting a baby girl next March, the same month our son William was born.”

Vzesniauskaite added: “We weren’t planning to have another child at all so it was a beautiful surprise. When I found out I was pregnant again, I couldn’t believe it. I thought there was no hope of having another baby - especially as it took three years to conceive William - so I was happy and scared at the same time.”

She said that she was “desperate” to tell Caudwell about the pregnancy, but also that she felt “so emotional and confused” that she took a day to calm down and decided to surprise him by filling their bedroom “with balloons and a sign saying, “Congratulations new dad””.

Caudwell said: “For a few seconds I had no idea what we were celebrating. I thought, “Have I forgotten our anniversary?” Then I saw the sign and broke into a huge smile.”

What did he say on Good Morning Britain?

Caudwell recently appeared on Good Morning Britain to say that he would be heating only one room in his Staffordshire Broughton Hall estate as a means of damaging Vladimir Putin’s finances.

He said: “I know we’re in a fuel crisis and everyone is worried but we should all be using energy less and I’m going to practise what I preach. I’m going to heat one room where we’ll live and 98% of the house will stay cold.”

Caudwell added: “Putin’s war is being funded by the fuel industry and anything I can do to make him a few dollars worse off, I will.”

According to the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List, Caudwell is worth £1.58 billion, and on the Forbes 2022 list of world’s billionaires, he ranked number 984.