STEPHANIE and David moved to Corwen from Manchester 20 years ago.
“When I first moved here my autobiography was just being serialised in the News of the World and my friend Romano said to me ‘you’re the biggest thing to happen to Corwen since the Second World War,” Stephanie recalls.
“Then he paused and said ‘no, even that didn’t happen to Corwen!”
Stephanie said she has not really had any problems or prejudice here but does experience some ‘zoo effect’ with people coming to meetings to have a look at her.
I think only Stephanie would see this in a positive way and use the opportunity to get people on board to help her latest business plan though.
“I have never found anywhere else I preferred, I think it is fantastic. You go around the world and there are very few places as beautiful,” she says.
The only run-in she has had is with the North Wales Tourist board.
She says: “They try to promote it as ‘the big country’ when it’s not; it’s the small country.”.
Spending £79,000 on consultants to decide how to brand the area has put a bee in Stephanie’s bonnet too.
Her business aide, Nigel, is also present in Stephanie’s office, which is graced by a few of the 300 rescue animals she has taken in.
They are dotted around the place as pheasants perch outside the window.
Nigel says Stephanie has been welcomed by the locals, even though she isn’t born and bred locally.
“I think people are grateful to have someone come in with a fresh view,” he says.
“They can see it differently and come out with a different perspective.”
“I don’t think the area realise the impact Stephanie has had.”
Nigel is present throughout our morning and I wonder if he is ever tired of hearing Stephanie having to relive her life story.
“No never! There is always a new funny part that I haven’t heard before that comes out,” he chirps.
Some precarious situations have arisen when Stephanie and David have left the country though.
As Stephanie reveals some memorable holiday moments, she has the room in fits of laughter.
Women comparing childbirth pain and asking if she is going through ‘the change’ are a few highlights.
“I just say ‘yes I went through the change years ago’, which isn’t a lie really!
“If people know about me before they meet me, they are apprehensive and worry they will make a mistake.
“If they meet me, they find out it is more traumatic for them.
“I won’t tell people, but I wont lie and we have a rule not to tell people when they’re eating soup.”
It is endearing how open Stephanie is about her life, there is no subject of limits and she is unfazed by the presence of press in her home.
She talks as if we are old friends, which I was surprised by, after all this is a woman who has been dragged through the tabloids and forced to air all her laundry in public.
I was captivated by her zest for life and sharp business brain, after having to build up a business empire from scratch I thought she may want to slow things down.
Stephanie must have been the only person to see the recession as an exciting challenge and managed to boost hotel profits by nearly 30 per cent in the past year.
Her new projects now include producing a new lifestyle magazine, organising Llangollen Christmas festival and the Llangollen Chamber of Trade and Tourism.
“I will give it up until there’s no challenge left,” she declares.
There is also the second autobiography on the way with the working title of The Lady of Llangollen, which the hotelier thought was a more apt title than Hotel Stephanie for the current BBC2 Wales TV documentary which follows her as she goes about her day-to-day business.
Cheryl Cole, Colleen Rooney and Victoria Beckham are just some of the women around today for young girls to look up to and aspire to, but after a few hours with
Stephanie she was my new heroine and had more personality and talent than the three knocked together.
She is a whirlwind of a woman who has been pushed to the edge of society but fought hard to claw her way back in.
She says: “When I was news worthy I was thought of as an unacceptable pauper, but when I became rich you become an acceptable eccentric.”
Stephanie is more sure and secure in herself than any ‘WAG’ and so I find it hard to see why some people would shun her. Denbighshire is lucky to have such a character hidden amongst its countryside.
We should all live by the Stephanie Booth mantra; “The people who mind don’t matter, and the people who matter don’t mind’!”