Sharon Burgess-Close, a 66 year-old musician and dancer, living in Geelong, Australia, had the surprise of her life went she appeared on an Australian TV show 'The Secret DNA of Us', a programme that features participants who give DNA samples to discover family relationships.
One hundred applicants were chosen from the Geelong area to participate and among several people highlighted in the episode was Sharon Burgess-Close, who had grown up never knowing who her father was.
Born in the UK in January, 1959, Sharon learned early on about her mother Linda's colourful life.
In the early 1960s Linda (whose birth name was Dina) was a dancer at the famous Murray's Cabaret, in London's Soho, and is reported to have shared a flat with Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, who were known for their central role in the Profumo Affair, the political scandal of 1963 centred around John Profumo, MP, Minister without Portfolio, a leading member of the Macmillan government.
Sharon's mother died in 2024 without ever revealing the identity of Sharon's father. So when she saw the advertisement on social media seeking participants for the SBS show she thought at last she might finally discover the identity of her father. Was he perhaps one of the high society aristocrats, or famous actors who frequented the Murray's Cabaret club?
A hundred Geelong folk gathered together and gave DNA samples and then it was a waiting game while their DNA was analysed. Some eight weeks later, Sharon received a call asking if she could make herself available for two days of filming. So, it was with some trepidation that Sharon met the production team at the Federal Mills to learn what they had discovered. Firstly, producers handed Sharon a photograph and told her 'This is your grandmother.' She was an American heiress, Clothilde Quigley, who came to the UK to make an aristocratic marriage. While still processing this information, Sharon was handing a newspaper clipping that revealed her father's name, - William James Cavendish-Bentinck, a scion of the now extinct Dukes of Portland. Sadly, this newspaper article also revealed her father had died 4 September,1966, at the age of 42, without any legitimate offspring. If he had lived to survive his father he would have become 10th Duke of Portland.
William Cavendish-Bentinck, the thrice married descendant of the Dukes of Portland, was born 6 July, 1925, the only son of the diplomat Victor Cavendish-Bentinck (1897-1990), Assistant Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office 1944; Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Poland 1945-47, and his first wife, Clothilde Quigley, from whom he was divorced in 1948. In 1977 Victor's elder brother, Ferdinand, succeeded a cousin as 8th Duke of Portland, and upon the 8th duke's death without a male heir, 13 Sept, 1980, Victor succeeded as 9th (and last) Duke.
Sharon burst into tears, overwhelmed by emotion. In a few short moments she had found her family and lost them all at once. There were more surprises in store as Sharon was told that Queen Elizabeth II's grandmother was related to her father, and her maiden name was also Cavendish-Bentinck, and King George VI and the Queen Mother were also her father's godparents. Burke's Peerage does not show that William was a godson of either King George or Queen Elizabeth, and such details are usually recorded. Victor however was a close friend of his royal cousin, Queen Elizabeth. On Victor's death, 30 July, 1990, the Dukedom of Portland became extinct, but the Earldom of that name passed to a distant kinsman, Henry Bentinck.
Finding out about her father and his mother and her royal connections (she is a fifth cousin of King Charles III), has given Sharon answers to who she is. She said she always felt like something was missing and she had no identity.
Victor, the .9th Duke was also father of a daughter, Lady Mary Jane Cavendish-Bentinck (born 16 December, 1929, who died 1 March, 2010), who married twice, and was mother of two sons, Sharon's cousins, William and David Georgiades. Whether she reaches out to meet them or not, Sharon is not sure. She doesn't want to upset anyone, but would love to meet someone who knew her father, who could tell her more about him, what he was really like?
For now, Sharon will simply continue on with life as she knew it, performing with her husband Paul in their two-piece band PASH. The experience has been a positive one for Sharon. There is now closure of sorts.
See the Geelong episode of The Secret DNA of Us on SBS on demand. The show continues region by region on Thursdays at 7:30pm."
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