Amber is an advisor, fundraiser and ambassador to the Blue Marine Foundation in 2016 Amber paddle boarded 236 miles of the River Thames, then in 2017, she became the first woman to cross the English Channel on a paddle board with the goal of raising awareness and funds for Blue.
It was while working in London that Amber, at 28, met fiery chef Tom Aikens at a dinner party.
The romance was swift. The two wed in June 2007 in a lavish ceremony at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea – a stone’s throw from Aikens’s eponymous restaurant, for which he won his Michelin star in 2004. Just weeks after walking Amber down the aisle, Sir Nicholas died from cancer.
‘We had to bring the wedding date forward by a few weeks because Papa was so ill,’ says Amber. ‘He died on the day we had originally been scheduled to marry. My wedding day was spellbinding but under an encroaching black cloud.
‘Everyone there knew it was his last hurrah and I remember sobbing quietly when he left before I could dance with him.
But her marriage to Tom, and the subsequent fallout, has certainly tested Amber’s mettle. Although she is diplomatic on the subject, Tom can’t have been easy to live with (he reportedly branded a kitchen assistant with a hot palette knife early in his career).
Amber and Tom never worked together, but she devoted considerable energy to helping him with his business: their honeymoon was spent in Cornwall sussing out fish and chip shops with an eye to Tom setting up his own, which he did (it is no longer open).
Amber had her own restaurant-world credentials, and experience of hot-blooded chefs, having worked with Marco Pierre White. ‘I love that world and so many people in it, but I wouldn’t get involved again. It’s tough,’ she says.
It’s also a world that has been hard on Tom. His business – now healthy – went into administration during their marriage, which broke down under the strain after three years, in 2010.
Tom is now settled with a new partner and two daughters.