FOR more than 40 years she was one half of a dynamic husband-and-wife team who ran one of Britain’s top tourist attractions.

When Fiona Herbert married Lord Montagu of Beaulieu in 1974 she also took on the task of helping him manage the family business – a job she describes as “24/7”.

The 7,000-acre Beaulieu Estate includes the award-winning National Motor Museum, which welcomes more than 350,000 visitors a year.

Rarely out of the public eye, Lord and Lady Montagu often found themselves playing host to royalty, rock stars and other celebrities on top of all their other duties.

Lady Montagu is full of admiration for her late husband, who died in August aged 88, and describes her time at Beaulieu as "fantastic".

But four decades of helping one of Britain's best-known aristocrats steer a major commercial enterprise took its toll.

Now, as she prepares to move away and start a new life in London, the 71-year-old former TV producer has revealed that the stress of trying to manage a huge workload caused her to collapse three times.

The first incident occurred in 1990 and resulted in her being admitted to a naturopathic clinic in Canada, where she recovered.

“Mentally I’m very strong but I really pushed myself,” she said. "The last time it happened was a couple of years ago. I ended up trailing around Harley Street having various tests.

“I was fine, just exhausted. Lord Montagu never needed any down time but I did.”

Part of the problem was the lack of peace and privacy at the family’s ancestral home, Palace House. Even the couple’s private apartment was open to small groups of visitors for part of the day.

Lady Montagu often found herself seeking refuge in her bedroom, which doubled as an office, while tourists trooped through the adjoining rooms.

In an interview with the Daily Echo three years ago she said: “I’ve always said that I’m not to the manor born, I’m to the manor married.

“I remember the day I walked into my bedroom and a little girl was sitting at my dressing table, brushing her hair. That’s when I decided that maybe my bedroom should be out of bounds to visitors!”

When it all got too much Lady Montagu retreated to her London flat, which is set to become her permanent home early next year.

Once dubbed the only woman who goes to London to get away from it all, she is looking forward to living in the capital full-time.

“After 41 years at Beaulieu it’s time to move on,” she said. “Living in a flat on my own I’ll have a bit of peace and a calmer rhythm to my life.”

During her marriage to the man she describes as the most energetic person she has ever met Lady Montagu was rarely off duty.

Even her 70th birthday was conducted in the glare of publicity.

The lifelong Elvis Presley fan held a rock ‘n’ roll party to raise funds for the National Motor Museum Trust. Surrounded by Elvis lookalikes she was dressed in a white rhinestone-encrusted jump suit as she danced the night away.

The costume came out again in December last year when the museum took delivery of Presley’s last car – a 1977 Cadillac Seville.

Lady Montagu is still recovering from her husband’s death, which followed a severe bout of pneumonia.

After being taken ill he was rushed to Southampton General Hospital, but doctors said there was nothing more they could do for him and he returned to Palace House to spend his final days surrounded by family and friends.

As the popular peer’s life drew to a close Lady Montagu managed only three hours sleep a night and says she still feels “pretty exhausted”.

Known affectionately as Lord M her husband was 25 when he inherited what was then an impoverished estate in danger of being sold off.

He saved Palace House by becoming one of the first peers in the country to open his stately home to the paying public.

The hundreds of mourners who attended his funeral at Beaulieu Abbey Church in September included former motor racing commentator Murray Walker, who lives near Fordingbridge.

Reflecting on his friend’s phenomenal achievements, he said it was an “exceptional example of what one man can do with his life”.

But those surrounding Lord Montagu, including his staff, often struggled to keep pace with the energetic entrepreneur.

Talking to the Daily Echo in 2012 Lady Montagu admitted: “I knew before I came here I’d never be bored and now I quite long for a boring day.”

She still plans to make occasional visits to the village that has been her home for four decades.

However, she has stepped down as organiser of a Christmas fair that raises funds for the Beaulieu-based Countryside Education Trust (CET), which teaches city children about the importance of farming and other aspects of rural life.

After hosting the event for 40 years Lady Montagu says it is time to hand over to the next generation.

Jane Cooper, the trust’s chief executive designate said: “We are hugely grateful to Lady Montagu and her committee for everything they have done over the years – it always make a material difference to what we can accomplish.

“We’ll definitely have some kind of Christmas fair next year. If it’s not at Palace House it will be somewhere else on the Beaulieu Estate.”

Looking back on her life in the village Lady Montagu said: “I’ve had a fantastic 41 years at Beaulieu.

“I’m very privileged to have been here for so long. It’s a magical corner of England and a great place in which to have raised my son Jonathan.”

She insists she has no regrets about her time at Palace House, despite her punishing schedule and the fact she was always “on parade”.

“I’m a very positive person and so was my husband – I don’t think he ever had a negative thought in his life.

“He was also the most energetic person I’ve ever met. When the doctors told me he had to have a pacemaker I said: ‘Do they make one that goes fast enough?’.

“Even when he was in a wheelchair he was still the boss of Beaulieu.

“We made a wonderful team and I was so very, very fond of him. What an amazing man he was.”

LORD and Lady Montagu met at a party and were married at Lymington Register Office on September 26 1974.

His 30-year-old bride was a Zimbabwe-born TV producer, who was given a Citroen car as a wedding present by her new husband.

The ceremony took place a few months after the peer’s first marriage ended in divorce.

Lord Montagu, who already had two children, became a father for the third time when his son Jonathan – now a 39-year-old bio-chemist living in Berlin – was born at Southampton General Hospital in 1976.

Known throughout her marriage as Lady Fiona Montagu she became Fiona, Lady Montagu following his death on August 31.

The new Lord Montagu is Ralph Montagu, the peer’s 54-year-old son from his first marriage. His wife Ailsa is the new Lady Montagu.