A FORMER Denbigh pupil is the UK’s richest woman for the third year running!
Britain’s wealthiest woman is a former Miss UK who went on to marry a biotech billionaire.
In The Sunday Times Rich List 2010, Kirsty Roper and her husband Ernesto Bertarelli are jointly ranked fourth, with a fortune of £5,950 billion.
Their wealth has increase 19 per cent since last year’s list.
The couple have found themselves in the top 10 for the past three years, in 2009 they were ranked at number four, and in 2008 at number six.
Born in Staffordshire, Kirsty was educated at Howell’s School, Denbigh.
After gaining seven O-levels, she left school at 16 and joined the Manchester Model Agency.
At just 17, she was catapulted onto a new plane by winning the Miss UK contest and then coming third in Miss World.
But her life was transformed when she met Bertarelli through mutual friends and the pair married in 2000.
Ernesto’s father built up the pharmaceutical company Serono, the biggest biotechnology organisation in Europe.
Serono was sold to Merck of Germany in 2006 for $13.3 billion, forming a new company, Merck Serono.
Ernesto is also the owner of the successful Alinghi Switzerland team that has won yachting's coveted America's Cup in 2003 and 2007.
Kirsty and Ernesto and their three children live on the shores of Lake Geneva, where neighbours include Michael Schumacher.
Denbighshire is again mentioned in The Sunday Times Rich List 2010.
In 740th place, with £51 million is Aston Martin owner David Richards, originally from Llanfair DC.
In at 751st place is Peter Neumark, who now lives in Tremeirchion. Mr Neumark made £50 million after selling Target Express Parcels