He has pretty well everything your average billionaire might wish for. There is, for example, a place in Marbella and a house in Henley equipped with not one but two tennis courts – part, it’s said, of a ‘vast array of exceptional properties dotted across the world’ – plus a fleet of trophy cars, including several Rollses, a Ferrari and a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, not to mention a devoted wife, son and daughter, and a splendid crown of hair which remains lustrously brown even though he’s just turned 66.
Tej Kohli – self-described ‘investor and philanthropist’ – has, until now, also revelled in his membership of both 5 Hertford Street, the dazzling Mayfair establishment opened 12 years ago by Robin Birley, and Annabel’s, founded by Robin’s father, Mark Birley, in 1963, and now owned by the restlessly entrepreneurial Richard Caring, who made a fortune in the rag-trade before re-directing his energies to the capricious world of restaurants and metropolitan hospitality.
But I can disclose that, in a dramatic and perhaps even unprecedented development, Annabel’s has now slammed its doors shut on Kohli, who made his first millions in the California property market back in the 1980s. ‘Tej has had his membership cancelled,’ a Mayfair boulevardier tells me. ‘Everyone’s staggered.’
Tej Kohli (pictured) is a self-described ‘investor and philanthropist’. Kohli could not be reached to confirm that his membership had been cancelled
American pop superstar Taylor Swift hired the entire club (pictured) last week for a thank-you party for her 200-strong Eras Tour team
Annabel’s declines to discuss how Kohli is alleged to have transgressed. It appears, though, that he feels he has been grievously treated. ‘He’s so upset that he’s instructed a battery of lawyers to argue his case,’ I’m told.
Named after Birley’s then wife, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, the club was visited by Princess Diana visited for the hen night of Sarah, Duchess of York. Queen Elizabeth paid a call for the 70th birthday of her friend, the Countess of Airlie, who died last weekend.
American pop superstar Taylor Swift hired the entire club last week for a thank-you party for her 200-strong Eras Tour team.
Named after Birley’s then wife, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, the club was visited by Princess Diana (pictured) visited for the hen night of Sarah, Duchess of York
Kohli could not be reached to confirm that his membership had been cancelled, with telephones at the Kohli Foundation ringing unanswered in both its Mayfair and Delhi offices, while emails similarly failed to elicit any response. A spokesman for Annabel’s declined to comment.
Kohli has suffered setbacks before, as his foundation made clear in an article in a free London paper last year. ‘His triumphant early success culminated in a downfall which led to him having to rebuild himself and his image,’ it said, without supplying further details.
In 2019, Kohli granted a rare interview – in 5, Hertford Street – ‘the best club in the world,’ he said, before swiftly suggesting that that accolade might, in fact, go to Annabel’s, and tactfully concluding that both establishments were ‘world-class places’.
Given that Annabel’s has now excluded him, does that mean Kohli himself has ceased to be ‘world class’?
