Lies, dead dogs and a very ugly fall-out: Sussex village at war with a multimillionaire who claims his face doesn't fit because he's a gay recovering alcoholic whose not from a local family with a 600-year lineage

Published: 09:39, 21 April 2026 | Updated: 09:42, 21 April 2026 Over the years, the multi-millionaire financial services entrepreneur Ivan Massow has had more than his fair share of run-ins.  There was a vicious court case with Zurich insurers 20 years ago when he claimed they tried to ruin him. The political shenanigans when he stood in the 2016 London mayoral election against Boris Johnson. And a very tricky battle with alcohol and drugs, back in the day.  But he says nothing has ever come close to the trauma of his recent experience with the Coakham Bloodhounds Hunt near his East Sussex home whose members he accuses of displaying the same sort of alarming parochial attitudes you might find in a Joanna Trollope novel.  Over recent months, the hunt’s long-standing committee has alternately rejected Ivan’s offers to save them from collapse, sent him to Coventry, deposed him as head Huntsman and Ivan and others suspect, may be behind unpleasant and unfounded attacks on his personal life and character.  He, meanwhile, claims to have no idea as to what he could possibly have done to upset them.  ‘Maybe they thought I wanted to take over - but I never wanted that. I’m a busy man. I just wanted to help,’ he says.  Right now though, his biggest worry are the hounds because, over recent weeks, he’s heard reports that some have been shot, others are so bored and under-exercised that they are attacking and killing each other.  And the body of one, a six-year-old bitch called Agnes, who used to hang out in his kitchen, was recently found dumped in a meat bin at the knackers’ yard. Ivan Massow (pictured) has had his offers to save Coakham hunt from collapse invariably rejected by its long-standing committee  Ivan Messow: 'I’ve always been an outsider. I’m gay and I’ve always been a bit different. I can’t socialise so well' ‘A few weeks ago she was fine. She was lying right there by my sofa! I’m totally devastated,’ he says.  But before we delve any further into this rural row, let’s rewind for a bit of background. And, before the anti-hunt brigade get all fired up, make it very clear that Coakham is a ‘clean foot hunt’.   Which means their only quarry is human – runners led by a chap called Adrian Paice, 60, who for the past 33 years has raced ahead of the hounds - sometimes 20 minutes ahead, other times hours, and laying miles of scent. And always has been, ever since they were established in 1976 by a vegetarian called Neil Wates. Today, Coakham’s volunteer committee includes farmers and landowners with doggy kitchens and rather blunt manners – but also nurses, teachers, beauticians, grooms, PR managers - all sorts and all ages. For decades, they hunted twice a week under the leadership of a very exacting, brilliant, but often harsh Master Huntsman called Nick Matthews. Until, one day in 2022, he had a heart attack in the saddle, aged 69, with the pack all around him. ‘He was dead before he hit the ground,’ his widow Sue tells me as she stands in her hallway surrounded by dozens of hunting horns. ‘Just as he’d have liked it.’ But Nick’s sudden death threw the hunt into disarray. It seems no provision had been made for its future, finances were in need of attention, rumours started to swirl about the welfare of the hounds (kept in kennels on the Matthews’ farm) and none of the old guard from the committee wanted the job. Not just offering to be Huntsman – the master traditionally in charge of the hounds - but also to provide horses and quad bikes, cover vets’ bills, do his best to find new kennels for the pack and even making a promise of cash going forward – in total worth more than £1.5million.  Ivan pictured with his horse, Timmy, and his bloodhounds, Disney and Sorus  Ivan (pictured riding with his dogs) used to muck out horses in return for free rides as a teenager in Lewes, East Sussex, and has been a master of the Coakham hunt on and off for decades  Partly, because running a hunt is a total nightmare. Hard, often thankless and not helped by the fact that bloodhounds – while brilliantly clever, are the trickiest of all pack dogs to control – hard to breed, difficult to wean and very tricky to keep under control in the field.  But also because, well, Ivan was always a bit different.  ‘I’ve always been an outsider. I’m gay and I’ve always been a bit different. I can’t socialise so well,’ he says. Unlike some of the committee, he is not from a local family who can proudly trace their ancestors back 600 years. Instead, he grew up in foster care, left school with no qualifications, made his first million by the time he was 23 and has had at least 20 portraits of himself commissioned – including one giant work by Darren Coffield in which he wears full hunting gear and which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. On top of that, he is a recovering alcoholic (it was his ‘second mum’ Dame Joan Collins who first helped him face his demons back in the early Noughties) with a very Tiggerish ADHD bounce who struggles in social situations and is invariably neck deep in some huge deal or other. But he adores animals, used to muck out horses in return for free rides as a teenager in Lewes, East Sussex, and has been a master of the Coakham hunt on and off for decades - in between stints living in Barcelona and Los Angeles – and declares the hunt his ‘biggest passion’.  ‘We were all amazed he stepped in,’ says one member who prefers not to be named. ‘I think some people couldn’t understand his motives, but I really do think he was just being kind.’ Runner Adrian puts it slightly differently. Ivan on a hunt. Several members told Jane Fryer how he brought a 'new energy' to the meets ‘If you’re going to have a benefactor, of course they’re going to want to have a say in how things are done, and that’s fair enough. Things have to move forward.’ And at first – after they’d all thrashed out an agreement to accept Ivan’s largesse without it feeling like a takeover – it seemed to be going well. Several members tell me he brought a new energy to the meets, using his charisma and celebrity to bring in new members, and threw himself into fund-raising and was forever posting long Go-Pro videos of himself hunting.  And he was a lot softer on the dogs than the old guard.  ‘He loves them so much and calls them his babies!’ says Diane James, who helps with his animals.  Under his leadership they started applying scents, such as eucalyptus, to the runners, rather than just using their natural smell. (The idea is to stop the dogs being distracted by the exploding deer population and ramblers. And which, when the new Hunt Bill comes in, is likely to be mandatory).  Then, true to his promise, he secured some former beagle kennels local to him – bigger and airier with huge outdoor and all-weather runs, for £240,000.  ‘I felt a bit sick when I paid for them, but I could afford them and we needed them,’ he says.  ‘Compared to the previous kennels they were a palace,’ says Diane. ‘Absolutely perfect. We could have moved in the next week.’  Pictured: Diane James, Ivan's groom. She said Ivan loves the dogs so much he calls them his babies  But sadly they never did. Because behind the scenes, things started going awry.  A lady called Claire Miles, a committee member and neighbour of Ivan, started raising potential issues with the new kennels.  First the fences needed replacing. Then the ditches needed re-digging. Then they needed planning permission.  On and on it went. Soundproofing. Drainage. Electrics. CCTV.  Claire did not respond when approached by the Daily Mail.   At first, Ivan embraced the demands and everyone threw themselves into fundraising to pay for it all. There was a Hunt Ball, a puppy show, an auction and all sorts - when we visited the deserted kennels this week, a fundraising notice with a QR code was still nailed to the door.  Then Ivan found himself in trouble for rehoming an old hound.  Sergio had been the favourite of the late Master Huntsman Nick Matthews and his widow had wanted to keep him, but conditions in the house were so bad she couldn’t do so safely.  ‘Her dogs were being kept in a terrible condition. There were dogs in cages in the house, the RSPCA was called out. It was horrendous,’ says Ivan. And so he intervened, much to the fury of the committee. Ivan was forced to apologise.  ‘I thought that was that, but I’d have done the same thing again. I’d never let an animal suffer.’  Ivan outside his kennels - specifically purchased at vast expense for bloodhounds which were never used  Suddenly, everything he did was wrong. The way he ran the hounds. That he didn’t wait long enough with them. That he didn’t join the jolly fray in the pub after meets.   It all came to a head on October 21 last year, when Ivan was excluded from a meeting in which members passed a vote of no confidence in his leadership.  They also wrote to him saying they would not be using his kennels, would be returning to rip out any fences they’d put in and would want compensation for any work they’d done to his land.  The same day, they arrived with a lorry to collect at least a dozen hounds he’d had on his property. Some he’d bred. Others were tricky dogs with him for a bit of extra care.  One was lovely Agnes, who’d had several litters, could jump the fence in a flash, but adored Ivan.   ‘I was devastated. Suddenly my horses had no riders and I was making up jobs for my staff. And I didn’t know what I’d done wrong. Nobody had said anything to me.’   He wasn’t the only one in the dark. As one regular puts it, ‘once Ivan was out the committee closed ranks. They refused to say why. We still don’t know!’ But even after all that, Ivan insists his heart was with the hunt - of which he remained a Master. So he offered to hang onto the kennels, just in case they changed their mind in the future, and said he was still happy to help out financially. Because it was then, in the aftermath of his sudden sacking, that he heard nasty rumours starting to circulate in the field. It’s not helpful to repeat them here, but as Ivan puts it – ‘it’s typical of the sort of thing people said about gays back in the 1980s’. Ivan with one of his beloved bloodhounds  Even then Ivan didn’t storm off in disgust – probably much to their annoyance. He continued to attend the meets, turning up with his groom Diane and his hunter Timmy. I met Diane this week. ‘It was awful, awful. He’s such a good kind man and they all acted like children and ignored him. It was pathetic. But he kept turning up.’ The approach of the committee has infuriated not just their members but those of other hunts too, all struggling in the current climate. ‘This sort of attitude is why modern day hunting is in the state it’s in. They won’t discuss it - can’t admit they’re wrong. They saw him as a threat and did for him,’ says Byron John, 60, a friend and master of a hunt in South Wales. ‘But Nick Matthews wasn’t perfect either.’ Anyway, they still aren't talking – not to me anyway. Hanging up on me, shutting doors, eventually releasing an anodyne statement that said little and nothing.  ‘Ivan Massow has been a Master between 1998-2000 and 2015-2018 and then from 2020 and is a Master and committee member today. He hunts regularly with the Coakham Bloodhounds in his capacity as a Joint Master.’ They have since declined to comment further when approached by the Daily Mail.  Perhaps they thought he was trying to take over. Having spent a few hours in his very energetic and whirry company, I can understand that some people might find him a bit much. And a man very much used to being in control. But he clearly adores the animals and the hunt, and his supporters queue up all week to tell me how kind-hearted he is. Or maybe they didn’t like his background, or his sexuality – a deeply depressing thought in 2026. Massow pictured hunting with the Coakham Bloodhounds Hunt  Regardless the objected to him enough to cut off his support and energy and fantastically generous funding.  Because despite glowingly positive social media posts, insiders tell me it is a shadow of its former self.  That the meets are less frequent and much more chaotic with delays and the pack dramatically pared back.  For now, some dogs remain at Nick Matthews’ farm – which recently passed its MDBA inspection – and where, from quite a distance, you can hear them barking and howling.  Others will soon be sent for livery at Sandhurst – way round the M25 – at a cost of £27,000 a year.  And of course, poor lovely Agnes is no more.  ‘She was fit and fast and could jump the gates to get out. I had all her pups here. She was fine the week before’, says Ivan. ‘No one told me what she died of. I really miss her.’  Ivan’s offer to keep the new kennels remained open for a long time.  It was only when he was told they were coming back to take out the fences that he finally snapped and consulted lawyers. Who advised him that even the meeting to exclude him had been illegal.  As part of a final settlement agreed last month, the hunt retuned six hounds to Ivan – some of which he’d bred. I saw him with them this week – leaping and licking and lolloping all over him.  ‘I think I’m just better with animals than humans,’ he says sadly. ‘Though I am constantly working on myself.’  So what next in this sorry tale? Ivan is still a Master – they haven’t actually banned him from the field, yet. Will he continue to ride out as everyone ignores him? The thought does bubble up that, of course, with the six bloodhounds now returned, along with the six or so he already has, he has the beginnings of a pack... ‘Maybe I’ll start my own hunt,’ he jokes. ‘I could call it The Sussex. 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