He played James Bond with tongue-in-cheek insouciance and a permanently raised eyebrow.
And if anyone embodied the high life imagined for 007 by his creator Ian Fleming, it must surely have been Sir Roger Moore.
At the time of his death in May 2017 at the age of 89, he had an apartment in Monte Carlo, a flat in London’s Eaton Square and a ski chalet in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
At the time of his death in May 2017 at the age of 89, Sir Roger Moore (pictured with his wife Kiki) had an apartment in Monte Carlo, a flat in London’s Eaton Square and a ski chalet in Crans-Montana, Switzerland
The combined worth of his homes is said to have been more than £30 million, and the actor was reputedly worth about £80 million in all.
Latterly, he shared a blissful life of luxury with his fourth wife, a petite blonde Danish socialite called Kristina, widely known as Kiki.
They had been together since 1994, after Sir Roger supported the widow — a friend of his then wife Luisa — in her recovery from breast cancer, and they fell deeply in love.
‘Kiki is my soulmate,’ he would say. ‘We are only ever apart when she goes to the hairdresser’s.’ Life at their home on the Cote d’Azur was wonderful.
The couple would potter in the Bentley from their Monaco apartment overlooking the beach at Larvotto to Le Michelangelo in Fontvieille for a seafood lunch.
In the evenings, they dined at the Hotel de Paris with friends including Prince Albert and his wife, Charlene.
Kiki’s son Hans Christian Knudsen (pictured above), 53, claims that his mother is being charmed and her funds depleted to the tune of millions by her lawyer
They were regulars on the London social scene, too, at red-carpet and A-list events.
Naturally, this being Sir Roger’s fourth marriage, there were naysayers — particularly Luisa, his third wife, a fiery Italian actress to whom he was married for 27 years.
She was deeply wounded and bitter at having been dumped for Kiki, who had been in the Moores’ social circle as they had neighbouring homes in the South of France.
Luisa would characterise her replacement as ‘a hanger-on who’s had two husbands and three facelifts’.
Over time, though, Kiki developed warmer relations with Sir Roger’s three grown-up children by Luisa, Geoffrey, Debbie and Christian.
The statement they issued to announce their father’s death included the line: ‘Our thoughts must now turn to supporting Kristina at this difficult time.’
Two years on, thrice-widowed Kiki, now 77, is still going through a difficult time, albeit for different reasons.
Indeed, an extraordinary family row is being played out in public in the Danish Press — via court documents and a shocking exchange of letters — with Kiki’s son Hans Christian Knudsen, 53, claiming that his mother is being charmed and her funds depleted to the tune of millions by her lawyer.
Ultimately, what may be at stake is the fortune Sir Roger left in his will.
Kiki has responded to her son’s allegations by saying that Hans Christian is a ne’er-do-well who has never worked and is angry because she has cut off his allowance.
She told the Mail this week: ‘I have done only clean things, so I am not really involved in any of this at all.’
Asked about her son, she emitted a sound somewhere between a deep sigh and a groan. But allegations continue to fly back and forth, and the scandal is growing by the day.
Kiki's handsome lawyer, 63-year-old Per Troen, charged £155,000 for his services from November 2017 to December 2018. He is also said to have been given a Rolex watch
These allegations centre on three transactions revealed to a court in Monaco, which has — extraordinarily — put Sir Roger’s widow into a guardianship as a result.
This deprives Kiki of control of her estate on the grounds that she might have been taken advantage of.
There is £2.2 million that was transferred to a trust in New Zealand last year, a gift of £479,000 to a Danish expat couple who are friends of Kiki’s, and legal fees for her handsome lawyer, 63-year-old Per Troen, who, according to court documents, charged £155,000 for his services from November 2017 to December 2018. He is also said to have been given a Rolex watch.
So far, the issues involve Kiki’s personal fortune, which probably stands at about £5 million — she owned property and had two immensely wealthy husbands before she met Sir Roger — but friends warn of wider implications.
Kiki, a car dealer’s daughter, was first married to Hans Christian Knudsen, a fur and leather manufacturer.
Sir Roger Moore played James Bond with tongue-in-cheek insouciance and a permanently raised eyebrow (Above: Moore on the set of The Man With The Golden Gun)
They met when she was working as an air hostess, married in 1962 and had a son — also Hans Christian — and a daughter, Christina.
They lived grandly in the family mansion, summoning servants to the dining table by ringing a bell.
In 1975, though, Hans Christian the elder killed himself after suffering business losses and being accused of tax evasion. Kiki was left with children aged nine and seven.
She wasn’t on her own long, though, marrying Ole Tholstrup, the heir to a butane gas fortune, in 1978.
Her second marriage took her into the top stratum of Danish society —Tholstrup was friends with the late Prince Henrik, husband of the Queen of Denmark, and they would go hunting and shooting together.
The Tholstrups became a fixture at Danish royal parties.
Ole, a relative of restaurateur Mogens Tholstrup, who once dated Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, inherited £35 million when his father died, and the family moved to the South of France to avoid punitively high Danish taxes.
The children were sent to boarding school, with Hans Christian enrolled at Herlufsholm, the ‘Eton of Denmark’.
According to family friends, the separation led to a somewhat strained relationship between Kiki and her children.
Her daughter, Christina, once said in an interview that Ole was ‘verbally abusive’ to his stepchildren; he was also an
