The heir to Longleat has revealed he has fallen out with his mother after she questioned his marriage to his half-Nigerian wife, claiming he was ruining '400 years of bloodline'.
Ceawlin Thynn, 41, said the row resulted in him banning his mother, the Marchioness of Bath, from attending his wedding to Emma McQuiston, 29, and from seeing the couple's 11-month-old son.
The row erupted when Viscount Weymouth approached his mother in the drawing room of the Elizabethan country house at the sprawling estate in Wiltshire and informed her he planned to marry the daughter of a Nigerian oil tycoon.
He claims his 71-year-old mother, Ann Gael, the Marchioness of Bath, responded by asking: 'Are you sure about what you're doing to 400 years of bloodline?'
According to the Sunday Times, he was furious with her response and informed his wife-to-be - who he has since married. She was said to have been left 'devastated' by the incident, claiming its the first time she had ever been made to feel race was an issue.
Ceawlin hoped his mother's view would change but said once she made the point on two other occasions, he felt he had no other opportunity but to ban her from the couple's lavish wedding.
He told the newspaper: 'Emma is the least confrontational, least dramatic person, but I don't think anyone could have that happen at least three times, and not just say, well… fuck this.'
Lord Weymouth added that the feud has now become so bad that he and his new wife have chosen to stop the Marchioness from seeing their 11-month-old son John over fears she will share her views.
'I don't want him contaminated by that sort of atmosphere and those sort of views', the Viscount said.
One family member familiar with the estate's internal politics confirmed that the atmosphere at Longleat is tense to say the least.
Following the row with his mother two years ago, Ceawlin is still not on speaking terms with the Marchioness and 'works hard to avoid her' when she visits Longleat from her home in Paris.
Lord Bath - nicknamed ‘Loins of Longleat’ - famously fell out with his son in 2012 when he removed some erotic murals his father had painted for him and his sister when they were children.
Relations between the men were so bad that Lord Bath also missed Ceawlin and Emma's wedding in 2013.
Three years later and the row flared up once more when Cealwin failed to consult his father about a proposed colour scheme while renovating the house.
In a previous interview with the Mail, Lord Bath sniffed: 'I suppose I just have to accept what has happened. But my relationship with Ceawlin will not be the same again.
'I don't feel inclined to pay any interest in his wedding.' Instead, he and wife Anna went to a different wedding, of a friend in Hampshire.
According to the Sunday Times, the Marchioness claims it was her decision not to attend her son's wedding and she was not aware she had been banned from seeing the couple's child.
The row emerges just days before the airing of a three-part BBC series, called All Change At Longleat, about the eccentric aristocratic family and the future of its glorious estate.
The BBC is currently putting the finishing touches to the intriguing, fly-on-the-wall documentary, which has been described by producers as ‘an intimate upstairs-downstairs portrait of an aristocratic family at a time of transition'.
A family source said: ‘Everything within the family is so touchy. People feel if you want to speak to other people you have to do it through lawyers. And there are no family values.
'They never all sit down together for Sunday lunch and say “hello” to each other like normal families do. In fact, generally, members of the family don’t talk to each other.’
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