AS a hopeless junkie, billionaire Hans Rausing hid his wife’s corpse in their home for two months because he “couldn’t cope” without her.
Little more than 13 years on from this dark abyss, the philanthropist was among the great and the good knighted by King Charles on Tuesday.
Former crack addict and billionaire Hans Rausing received a knighthood from the King to honour his service to the artsCredit: PA
The knighthood was a moment of true redemption for a man once so tortured he was lost for decades to heroinCredit: Noble – Draper
Amid the pomp and ceremony at Windsor Castle, Sir Hans, 62, said he was “immensely proud to receive this prestigious honour”.
His daughter Lucy and her husband Constantin Kirwan-Taylor accompanied him to the investiture as the monarch presented the honour for service to the arts.
Hans has given more than £500million to good causes, including the National Gallery as well as prison and youth charities.
It was a moment of true redemption for a man once so tortured he was lost for decades to heroin and the crack pipe.
The heir to the Tetra Pak food packaging fortune had a deadly lifestyle which would only unravel when his first wife Eva was found dead.
Driving his red Bristol sports car erratically through Wandsworth, South West London, in July 2012, Sir Hans was pulled over by cops.
‘His upper arms were thinner than his wrists’
Officers discovered a crack pipe, heroin and cannabis plus a carrier bag full of unopened letters addressed to Eva, which led them to the couple’s £70million Belgravia mansion.
In a barricaded second-floor bedroom swarming with flies, they found Eva’s decomposing body concealed by a tarpaulin and bin bags.
Just 48, the mother of Rausing’s four children was still clutching the crack pipe that killed her. A formal identification was only possible by reading the serial number on her pacemaker.
Sir Hans tested positive for cocaine, morphine, diazepam and temazepam. He was given a suspended sentence for preventing the decent and lawful burial of his wife and driving under the influence.
So how did a man in the throes of such despair turn his life around and then become a knight of the realm?
Born into great wealth and privilege, his silver spoon may have proved more a curse than a blessing.
The family’s estimated £9billion fortune came from Tetra Pak, a liquid food packaging company started by his Swedish grandfather Ruben Rausing.
Most fridges across the globe contain milk and juice cartons that were developed by Tetra Pak.
According to his sister Sigrid, Hans and elder sister Lisbet had a happy and normal childhood in Lund, South West Sweden.
“We didn’t have cooks or chauffeurs,” said Lisbet. “I learnt how to cook and so forth, my brother and sister and I always had the same pocket money as everyone else, and we went to normal village schools.”
In 1982, their father Hans senior moved Tetra Pak from Sweden to the UK, attracted by a more beneficial tax regime.
By 1994 the Rausings had topped the Sunday Times Rich List with a £9.6billion fortune, nudging ahead of the Queen.
Hans senior outwardly lived a simple life, driving a battered Morris Minor to shop at his local Costcutter.
But he also owned a 3,000-acre estate in East Sussex filled with Picassos and a garage-full of vintage cars, including a 1926 Rolls-Royce.
Both his sisters were gifted academics who forged successful careers, but shy Hans junior lacked purpose.
In a barricaded second-floor bedroom swarming with flies, police found Eva’s decomposing body concealed by a tarpaulin and bin bagsCredit: Rex Features,DDesmond O’Neill
Just 48, the mother of Rausing’s four children was still clutching the crack pipe that killed herCredit: Getty – Contributor
He followed the hippy trail to India trying to “find himself”. Instead, he found hard drugs and was introduced to heroin on a beach in Goa.
Sister Sigrid is angry with herself for missing the early signs of his addiction when he was 20.
“Why didn’t I see it when he came back from India in 1983?” she said.
“His hip bones jutted out, his upper arms were thinner than his wrists, he had cut his own hair. He was in hospital, eating bagfuls of wine gums, hooked up to a drip. He had a stomach parasite, he claimed.”
To his family’s sadness, Hans was plagued by addictions for decades.
At a rehab clinic in the US he met fellow addict Eva Kemeny, the daughter of a US Pepsi Cola executive.
PLAGUED BY ADDICTION
They married at the Swedish Church in London in 1992.
Sigrid, a publisher, wrote: “I remember Hans and Eva together in their first flat, filled with hope after long hard years of addiction and recovery for both of them.”
The pair enjoyed a jet set lifestyle, with a five-storey townhouse in Chelsea, a bolt-hole in Barbados and an apartment on a cruise liner.
They had four children together — and were generous donors to a number of drug addiction charities.
But after 11 years of apparent sobriety, a celebratory glass of champagne on New Year’s Eve in 1999 sent them spiralling back into drug habits.
Hans was given a suspended sentence for preventing the decent and lawful burial of his wife and driving under the influenceCredit: Alamy
The family’s estimated £9bn fortune came from Tetra Pak, a liquid food packaging company started by his Swedish grandfather Ruben RausingCredit: Alamy
‘I have made a serious mistake which I regret’
The Rausing family tried to stage interventions, even hiring eight former SAS soldiers at a cost of £100,000 a month to tail the couple and ward off drug dealers.
Yet Eva wrote on her MySpace site in 2006: “Lots of problems, I know what I need to do, but can’t seem to do it.
“Please send me some energy, motivation, good vibes, anything!” In 2007, their four children — the youngest aged six — went to live with Sigrid and her husband, Eric.
Sigrid would write in her 2017 memoir, titled Mayhem: “Hans and Eva loved their children; I know that.
“But isn’t that also a cliché of parenting? What’s the point of love if drugs come first?”
In 2008, Eva was stopped when entering the US Embassy for a function when crack cocaine and heroin were found in her handbag.
When police searched the home she shared with Hans, they found crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin.
DRUGS AT EMBASSY
The next day Eva told reporters: “I have made a serious mistake which I very much regret.”
But both she and Hans escaped prosecution and King Charles stood by her as a trustee of his charity, then named the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.
An aide to the then Prince of Wales pointed out his charities worked with young people, many of who had also had drug problems.
“They aim to give these people a second chance to help them rebuild their lives,” the spokesperson said.
“It would therefore be hypocritical for the Prince not to give Eva Rausing a second chance.”
Eva and Hans sought treatment but were unable to turn their lives around.
In 2024 Hans suffered fresh devastation when Julia – the woman to whom he owed everything – died aged 63Credit: Getty – Contributor
One former addict said: “In my experience of 25 years of recovery I can count on one hand the number of addicts I know who’ve cleaned up whilst still having money.
“It’s usually the degrading things you have to do to get drugs when the money’s run out that makes you realise that you have to do something.”
There was no chance the Rausing fortune would run dry.
Four years later, Eva was dead, with Hans saying he had not alerted authorities because he could not “confront the reality” of her death.
Then, for nearly two years, he was a patient at a Marylebone psychiatric hospital where, with the help of an old friend, he made a slow recovery.
He first met Julia Delves Broughton — a baronet’s daughter — in 2002 when he and Eva attended a lunch at auction house Christie’s.
Now the couple fell in love as she helped the billionaire find purpose in life once more.
In July 2014 they married quietly at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, and immersed themselves in philanthropy, giving away more than £500million to causes including the National Gallery as well as prison and youth charities.
BEAT HIS DEMONS
A friend said Julia had brought “Hans back from appalling grief” and “helped him find joy in life again”.
In 2020 they donated £18million to the Charity Survival Fund and £16.5million to other Covid causes. The friend added: “They were palpably in love and were a very touching couple who focused most of their time on how to give away money to those in need.”
In 2024, Hans suffered fresh devastation when Julia — the woman to whom he owed everything — died aged 63.
After collecting his knighthood from the King, he said that the honour “would have meant a great deal to my late wife”.
Declaring that she had the “foresight” to start their charitable trust in 2014, he added: “It is as much a tribute to her work and legacy as it is to me.”
Julia had also been central in rescuing Sir Hans from his often self-inflicted demons.
A man whose apparent struggle with his gilded life of inherited riches was soothed by giving much of his fortune away.
