On November 7, 2010, a newcomer joined the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders on the field to help spur on the team in front of 60,000 fans, at a home game against the Indianapolis Colts. Few on hand would have guessed that the lithe, energetic blonde with great legs and a megawatt smile was close to three decades older than most of her bouncy squad mates—or that she has occasionally spent weekends with the Queen of England. But such is the life of remarkable contrasts led by my dear friend Lynn Forester, now known as Lady de Rothschild.

"I convinced the owners of the team that we need to engage women—particularly older women—with the NFL," recalls Lynn, who was 56 at the time and celebrates her 60th birthday in July. "Needless to say, I couldn't be a linebacker."

I've known Lynn for 25 years, and I can't help but think that Henry James would have been fascinated by her: a vivacious, brainy girl from a proud middle-class New Jersey family who grew up to marry the reigning patriarch of one of Europe's most storied and longevous financial dynasties. Her husband, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, served as an usher at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and later headed the bank that used to help set the price of gold in the world. Lynn, though, made her own fortune before she married into one. While working for the magnate John Kluge's Metromedia in the '80s, she was an early investor in cellular technology, an area that eventually became the cornerstone of her own telecommunications empire. Together she and Sir Evelyn now run E.L. Rothschild, a private investment firm they founded that looks after their interests in the Economist Group, among its other holdings; the couple also preside over a transatlantic brood that includes five kids (two of Lynn's from a previous marriage and three of Sir Evelyn's), with four homes on two continents.

Lynn's warmth and intelligence have won her a legion of friends and fans in numerous spheres of life, from business and the arts to politics, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sting, Bono, Tony Blair, Carlos Slim, V.S. Naipaul, and Frederick Forsyth. She is a legendary hostess, throwing book parties for Hillary and organizing fund-raisers for Britain's Tate museums along with myriad other dinners, events, and blockbuster gatherings. She sits on the boards of Estée Lauder and the Peterson Institute for International Economics and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. But the big date on Lynn's calendar right now is May 27, when E.L. Rothschild will cohost with Fiona Woolf, the Lord Mayor of London, "The Conference on Inclusive Capitalism," a high-powered symposium at the Mansion House and Guildhall, with a list of keynote speakers that includes former president Clinton, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney. The basic theme of the topics under discussion will be how to restore capitalism's battered image around the world and the ways that the private sector can both profit and achieve the broader purpose of building stronger economies and communities.

"There are some very influential people who are absolutely appalled by what led to the financial crisis and by the growing inequality and lack of opportunity in the world," Lynn says. "The point of this conference is to bring these concerned people together in one place to discuss the future in pragmatic terms. What can powerful corporations and investors do to make capitalism work for more people around the globe? In order for things to improve, we have to generate a new sense of trust and optimism. It's imperative."

You can't be friends with Lynn and not know that the woman she most admires is Hillary Clinton. Lynn's own entrée into politics came in 1976, when she worked on New York Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan's first senatorial campaign. She met the Clintons when she became actively involved in Bill's presidential run in 1992, and has remained close with them ever since. "What I loved most about Hillary from the beginning was that she made Chelsea her first priority—I identified with her as a mother," Lynn says. "And then I watched her navigate the very difficult waters of being a public figure."

In fact, Lynn's commitment to her friend is so absolute that when Hillary dropped out of her own race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, Lynn jumped ship to support the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona—a move that some Democrats regarded as heresy. "I knew that Hillary would be a great president," she says. "I had nothing against Obama, but I believed that he had neither the experience nor the temperament to be leader of the free world. People excoriated me to my face, and mainly behind my back. But unlike most of my friends, I'm not disappointed in Obama. I saw it coming. For the sake of our country I pray for him to succeed."

Lynn Forester grew up in Oradell, New Jersey, the only girl among three brothers. Her father was an entrepreneur and executive in the aviation industry. Her mother was a homemaker who played the piano in church on Sundays. "Mom was a conservative Republican who was related to the late, great Herbert Hoover," she says. "Let's just say that we had our differences. But before she died in 2009, she was happy that I finally voted Republican."

Lynn grew up more interested in football than in dolls. "I was part nerd, part skinny waif," she says. "I drove my brothers nuts by being ultracompetitive with them. My parents wholly approved."

Her entrepreneurial spirit blossomed early: When Lynn was in high school, her mother took her on a trip to Israel. Lynn had read that Israelis loved American blue jeans but had a hard time finding them. "I brought along five pairs and sold them for 10 times my cost," she says.

Lynn went on to attend Pomona College in California and law school at Columbia University. But it was in the early '80s, while practicing law at the Wall Street firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, that she met Kluge, who hired her to help him acquire small companies around the U.S. that held local cellular licenses. The experience gave Lynn the knowledge and the wherewithal to go into partnership with Motorola, owning and running a series of telecommunications companies, which made her a multimillionaire. She sold her stake in one, TPI, to Motorola in 1995 for a figure reportedly between $80 million and $100 million. She went on to found another, FirstMark Communications, which had significant interests in broadband in Europe; in 2000, Fortune listed her as the fourth most powerful woman in business on the Continent. "John was one of my most important mentors," she says of Kluge. "He said, 'Never think about your net worth, only about your vision, your excitement, and your commitment. The money will follow.' "

While Lynn's career took off, her private life wasn't always smooth sailing. Her first marriage—to a law school sweetheart—was short-lived. Her second, in 1983, was to then–Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein, who is the father of her two sons, Ben and Jake, both now in their 20s. "Our marriage wasn't the fairy tale it seemed to the outside world," says Lynn of her union with Stein, which lasted a decade. "My success meant a lot to me. Of course, there were times when I felt conflicted. I think women have more of a struggle balancing business and family. As long as the boys knew they were my first loves, I felt I was getting the balance right."

It was in 1998 that she met Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, at the Bilderberg Conference in Turnberry, Scotland, when they were introduced by a mutual friend, Henry Kissinger. The couple exchanged vows in London two years later, and were feted back in the States at a wedding party given by Senator Moynihan and his wife, Liz, in a private room at the Capitol, where they were toasted by the Clintons, among others. "After two marriages I was convinced I'd never fall in love again," Lynn says. "Then Evelyn turns out to be the love of my life."

Sir Evelyn soon became friendly with the Clintons, and Lynn got to know the Queen and Prince Philip. (The Rothschilds have spent time at both the White House and Windsor Castle.) In marrying Sir Evelyn, Lynn also became the chatelaine of Ascott House, a Rothschild family residence in rural Bedfordshire that was gifted by Evelyn's father to Britain's National Trust in 1949.

Ascott is filled with Rothschild ancestral treasures, but Lynn wanted to put her own stamp on the estate. In creating the Lynn Garden, she and Sir Evelyn hired Belgian landscapers Jacques and Peter Wirtz to help create a modern earthwork of green lushness and Zen-like grass mounds. The contribution she is most proud of is the artist Richard Long's stone piece Ascott Circle, juxtaposed with a bronze Venus fountain designed by the 19th-century sculptor Thomas Waldo Story. Lynn has even done that very English thing of trying to breed the Ascott Rose, seeking the delicate peach color from one of the ancient Chinese vases in the estate's collection.

The couple's other residences—an airy town house in London that once served as the painter John Singer Sargent's studio, a duplex overlooking the East River in New York, and a new compound on Martha's Vineyard—feature a more contemporary aesthetic, with pale colors and sleek furniture set off by spotlit paintings and sculptures from an art collection that includes works by Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Luc Tuymans, Bill Viola, and Gerhard Richter. "I like casual elegance, a calm monochromatic ambiance that is cozy and comfortable," Lynn says.

She hopes that initiatives like "The Conference on Inclusive Capitalism" will help change the way that people think about the future—a daunting task, but a worthy one for a woman who relishes a challenge. "Frankly, we are the generation that fought against racism and sexism—let's not also be the generation that lost the American dream," she says. Lynn, of course, is still a die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter ("She's an amazing woman with a profound strategic vision for America that I very much believe in"), but, interestingly enough, she also remains friendly with John McCain, serving on the board of the McCain Institute for International Leadership.

Lynn now feels completely at home on both continents—a grand English lady and an American good old gal. Her older son, Ben, is a partner in his own investment firm, and her younger son, Jake, runs the film side at Russell Simmons's Def Pictures. "Being a mom was always my first priority," she says. "Maybe I was naive, but I also believed I could have a career." She continues, "The boys probably never knew how hard it was for me to be away from them. But I think kids thrive when they have a mother who adores them and respects them as individuals." And one tough enough to survive the three-hour full-squad workout that preceded her professional cheerleading debut. "I was so exhausted and achy," Lynn recalls. "I texted Evelyn and the boys and said, 'In the event that I die tonight, I love you all!'

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