The aristocracy's first benefits baby: Hard-up Earl of Cardigan announces he's having a baby that he'll bring up on £71 a week... in a house with no heat

They are hardly, it must be said, ideal circumstances for anybody welcoming a new addition to the family – let alone a peer of the realm. 

The Earl of Cardigan, the 60-year-old heir apparent to the Marquessate of Ailesbury, is broke.

So broke that he and his wife live on £10-a-day Jobseeker’s Allowance in the grounds of his ancestral home, the 4,500-acre Savernake Estate in Wiltshire, which has been in his family for nigh on 1,000 years.

They have neither heating nor hot water and are forced to shower at a local public baths. Yet despite their dire financial situation, the couple are celebrating. 

His second wife, the Countess of Cardigan – Joanne, a 48-year-old American – is six months pregnant with the child of the Earl, David Brudenell-Bruce. 

In November, she will give birth to Britain’s first aristocratic baby born into a life on taxpayer-funded benefits.

‘I am absolutely thrilled,’ beams the Earl at his dilapidated home in Lodge House in the grounds of the vast, crumbling estate. 

Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, he said: ‘We had the good news confirmed about two months ago and since then Joanne has had tests and what-have-you which show the baby is completely fine.

‘When we got the news we were certainly surprised and taken aback, but we’d both hoped that something might happen. The pregnancy wasn’t planned but it was certainly welcome.’

But the news will certainly come as a shock to the earl’s son, Thomas, 30, and his estranged daughter, Bo Bruce, 28, a former contestant on BBC singing competition The Voice.

The Earl insists: ‘There was no IVF or anything of that sort. Joanne is too old to be considered for treatment and we certainly couldn’t afford to go private on the few pounds a day we get from jobseekers.

‘We aren’t daunted; we’re delighted. I’m looking forward to the sleepless nights and the nappy changes. 

'I’m particularly looking forward to the sound of a child’s laughter here at Savernake Lodge. It will bring the house alive again.

‘But, yes, as things stand I’m afraid I’ll have to rely further on State benefits to provide for my family, which is not ideal. 

‘It’s not what I wish to do.’

The reason for the Earl’s impoverished state is complex. He has been engaged in a vicious legal battle with the two trustees of the estate.