John Caudwell, one of Britain’s wealthiest men who is popularly known as the Phones4 U billionaire, has vowed to make Russian President Vladimir Putin poorer by banning heating in his massive mansion this winter. John Caudwell appears like a believer in the saying, “Little by little; a little becomes a lot.” The 70-year-old magnate will get warmth from the joy of burning a hole in Putin’s pocket and happily shiver to set an example of the same. Per Mirror, the billionaire businessman commented, “I know we’re in a fuel crisis, and everyone is worried, but we should all be using energy less, and I’m going to practice what I preach. I’m going to heat one room where we’ll live, and 98% of the house will stay cold. He added, “Putin’s war is being funded by the fuel industry, and anything I can do to make him a few dollars worse off, I will.”
John and his partner Modesta Vžesniauskaite, 38, an ex-Lithuanian Olympic cyclist, live with their two boys in the stately Broughton Hall estate, purchased in the 90s. They are not only a family with noble thoughts and great words but are truly leading by example. In addition to switching off his radiators, Caudwell invited a Ukrainian mother and her eight-year-old son to live on their estate as the father stayed back to fight. The family is well looked after, with a self-contained apartment on the estate and a car, and the boy attends the same private school as John’s son.
The generous billionaire said, “They are building their own lives. But the first few months were very difficult. The mum was very emotional all the time and would just keep breaking down in tears.” Caudwell understands trying times all too well, having grown up in abject poverty in Stoke in the 50s. “When I was a child, we didn’t have any heating, there was ice on the inside of the windows, and we had just a couple of pieces of coal to burn in one room. We used to put warm clothes on. I’m not saying we should all go back to living like that, but there are things we can do.”
The legendary 16th-century Broughton Hall house-
While John Caudwell bought Broughton Hall in the 90s, the Jacobean manor was built in the 1600s. Mr. Caudwell bought Broughton Hall 20 years ago for £800,000 ($887,000). The 45,000-sqft property sits within 28-acre grounds and boasts no less than 50 rooms. The Staffordshire mansion includes several family suites for his children, but the highlight remains the steam railway in the grounds. The palatial abode is joined by other impressive properties like a mansion in Mayfair, London, two luxurious ski chalets in Vail, in the USA, and Whistler in Canada.
About John Caudwell- entrepreneur, business leader, and philanthropist
The self-made billionaire John Caudwell was raised in poverty in Staffordshire, England. He turned the tables at a young age owing to his commercial and creative streak. With his brother in tow, John Caudwell started a successful car dealership in his hometown. The communications problem was turned into a business opportunity.
John and his brother Brian started selling mobile phones in 1987, which later shaped into the Caudwell Group. This pioneering telecommunications company included Phones 4U, the UK’s largest independent mobile phone retailer with over 600 stores across the country. He sold Phones4u for $1.6 bn in 2006 before it collapsed in 2014.
