All the above she has done while remaining childless, which she does not appear to regret in the slightest. In 2004 she told an interviewer: “I told him [Atkins] that I did not want children.” Today she says: “My then husband made it very clear he didn’t want them.” Perhaps it’s irrelevant who didn’t want what. As Greenfield had been put off motherhood years before by another man: “My brother. He’s 13 years younger than me. I was shocked at the horror of having babies and the smelly nappies and the sleepless nights. All that came as something truly horrible. Although we get on very well now, it came at a time in my life when I could neither be a little mum nor a playmate.”
Another intelligent, creative woman whose creativity and intelligence won't be passed on. Not having children certainly does wonders for the marriage - it appears to have been a question of dumping a stock when it fails to outperform the market.
Occasionally she has reason to drop people, notably her former husband. Peter Atkins, a millionaire chemist, believes that he was abruptly dumped in 2003 because, in his words, he had been “declared redundant”. She rebutted with the claim that, at the age of 52, she had “begun to question marriage as a necessary institution in the 21st century. It is important for all women to use their time in the best way they can, and when I thought about how busy I was with my public life, marriage to Peter no longer seemed the best way to spend any free time I had.”
OK, so her personality won't be passed on. But neither will her honesty.
