Ann Summers boss Jacqueline Gold has left her £17.6million sex shop fortune to her family after losing her battle against breast cancer, it has been revealed.
The lingerie tycoon, who died on March 17 last year, aged 62, left property and savings to her husband Daniel Cunningham, 46, probate papers have revealed.
Trailblazer Gold made her millions by selling raunchy clothing and introducing home parties that turned sex toys such as the Rampant Rabbit into household names.
Her famous father David Gold, the co-chairman of West Ham United who rose from abject East End poverty to a £500million fortune and put Jacqueline in charge of Ann Summers, died two months before, aged 84, after a short illness.
The acclaimed businesswoman left a gross estate of £19million, but this was reduced to £17.6 million after her debts were paid.
Jacqueline Gold at an Ann Summers store launch in Westfield Stratford City in 2011
The Ann Summers tycoon died following a seven-year battle with stage 4 cancer
Her father, David Gold, died a couple of months before Jacqueline following a short illness in a double tragedy for the family
She left her diamond heart-drop pendant and matching earrings to her sister, Vanessa, and the rest of her jewellery to her daughter, Scarlett.
She left the rest of her estate to her husband, Daniel, Scarlett and her family.
Jacqueline is credited with turning her father David’s sex shops into female-friendly spaces.
She was celebrated as a powerful advocate for women in business and once said: ‘I set out to empower women in the bedroom and now I want to empower women in the boardroom.’
She had been battling against stage 4 cancer for seven years before she succumbed to the illness, having briefly, and tragically, been given the all clear in 2020.
Jacqueline was surrounded by close family when she died, including her husband, daughter and her sister Vanessa, who took over Ann Summers in 2022.
Vanessa described her sibling as ‘an absolute warrior’ having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 – the year she was handed a CBE.
In a tribute following Jacqueline’s death, Vanessa said: ‘Jacqueline courageously battled stage 4 breast cancer for seven years and was an absolute warrior throughout her cancer journey. In life she was a trailblazer, a visionary, and the most incredible woman, all of which makes this news that much harder to bear.
Jacqueline, left, with her sister Vanessa and David Gold’s partner Lesley Manning (right) in January as they laid flowers for Mr Gold on Green Street, where he grew up, after his death in January
Jacqueline Gold, then 49, and husband Dan Cunningham, then 33, with the couple’s then one-year-old daughter Scarlett on their wedding day at Oxfordshire’s Blenheim Palace in 2010
Jacqueline, left, who built Ann Summers into a huge brand, was described as a ‘warrior’ as she fought stage 4 cancer
‘As a family, we are utterly heartbroken at the loss of our wife, mum, sister, and best friend.’
Jacqueline took charge of her father’s four sex shops back in 1981. She grew the business to 80 stores, which made annual sales £113.8million.
A statement from Jacqueline Gold’s family at the time said: ‘It is with unspeakable sadness that Ann Summers confirm our amazing executive chair Jacqueline Gold CBE passed away yesterday evening with her husband Dan, daughter Scarlett, sister Vanessa, and brother-in-law Nick, by her side’.
Jacqueline was last pictured laying flowers for her father in the East End of London on the day of his funeral. She was heartbroken at this death and said at the time that the Gold family had lost ‘our hero’.
Jacqueline was made a CBE in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to entrepreneurship, women in business and social enterprise.
In the same year she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she credited with transforming her life because it forced her to enjoy things more.
In 2022 she wrote: ‘It’s no secret I have been through a lot of tragedy in my life. Whilst I would prefer things to have been different, I cope by finding the opportunity in a bad situation. For example, if it wasn’t for my breast cancer diagnosis six years ago I wouldn’t be living my best life now. If you train your mind to find the positive in every event you will banish worry and feel empowered’.
Jacqueline, pictured in 2000, began as an intern at the company before becoming CEO. At one point she was sewing bras (pictured)
Jacqueline Gold being made a CBE by the Princess Royal during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2016
Jacqueline’s sister Vanessa (left) with her father and sibling, said the family are heartbroken
As well as battling breast cancer, she had also struggled to have children.
After a failed marriage she met Dan Cunningham, a City broker 17 years her junior.
They split in 2006 after three failed IVF attempts – but got back together and married in 2010.
In 2009 the couple lost their son Alfie at eight months.
The multi-millionaire businesswoman was told her son Alfie had an abnormality that meant he would not survive childbirth.
But the little boy fought for eight months after birth but was never well enough to leave hospital. Alfie’s twin sister, Scarlett, survived and was her mother’s pride and joy.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2018, Jacqueline said: ‘Alfie did survive the birth. He was crying when he was born but not as babies do – he was crying because he was in pain. No mother should have to go through that, to hear her child cry in pain.’
She added: ‘I desperately want my daughter to grow up believing she can be whatever she wants to be.’
David Gold said Jacqueline and her sister Vanessa had transformed Ann Summers. When he bought the brand with his brother Ralph in 1972, it had four stores.
The London-based company served as a standard sex shop under the ownership of its founder, Michael Caborn-Waterfield.
In 1981 Jacqueline was brought into the company. She quickly set about making her mark, introducing the ‘Party Plan’ concept.
David and Ralph Gold bought Ann Summers and its four stores in 1972 (Marble Arch pictured).
Jacqueline helped transform the brand and build up 80 stores across the UK
This would see ‘parties’ held at the homes of customers, where women would be given presentations on sex toys and lingerie, and would play party games. These proved wildly popular and a good way of getting around laws that prevented sex toys being put on public display.
Ann Summers now has 80 high street stores in Britain and Ireland, and in the years since has become synonymous with the sale of lingerie and adult toys.
Jacqueline Gold’s father David had one of Britain’s ultimate rag to riches stories.
He and his brother Ralph, two years his junior, spoke about their struggle to escape the appalling poverty and anti-Semitism into which they were born in the East End of London in the Thirties.
Gold grew up across the road from West Ham’s Boleyn ground, and as a talented footballer himself, he had hoped that he become a star there.
His market trader father, Godfrey, was in and out of prison for theft, receiving stolen goods and driving a getaway car.
He also had brushes with the Krays and the Richardsons, two gangster families who dominated east and south-east London in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Gold brothers lurked just outside the top 100 of the Sunday Times Rich List for a year – at one time having been one place above the Queen – and were worth a staggering £525 million.
The Sunday Times Rich List claimed in 2019 that Gold’s daughter Jacquie was worth £470 million.