A matchmaker says she has seen demand for her services soar during lockdown – despite the fact that she charges her clients £20,000 for a six-month membership.
Many people are currently watching the pennies right now as the coronavirus pandemic has hit many people’s purses.
However, Olivia Rigg, who runs London dating agency Hamilton Rigg, has seen business boom.
The millionaire matchmaker says she has seen demand soar because events where high society usually mingle have been cancelled.
This includes events such as the Grand Prix or St Moritz ski trips, where high net worth individuals would usually meet face-to-face.
(Image: Olivia Rigg)
Olivia also said that spending so much time at home has also given people more time to think about their love lives.
She said in an interview with Tatler: “Covid has made people at every level think much more about their relationships than ever before, whether that’s about finding a great relationship, bringing the spark back in or making it sexy. In normal life, everyone is too busy.”
Olivia and her team only accept men as clients at the moment. These include royalty, aristocrats and people the world of entertainment.
(Image: Instagram)
Despite her £20,000 fee seeming mind-boggling to some, Olivia says it’s not uncommon for her to be offered a million-pound success fee if a client ends up married, according to the Sunday Times.
She first screens any potential clients over video call, and then sets about finding them a perfect match from the network of 500 women she has on her books.
All of these women have met Olivia or a member of her team at least once.
Talking about her clients, Olivia continued telling Tatler: “Some are royalty, some are from big dynastic families, right through to people who are super self-made.
“The commonality is that they’re all very driven, results-orientated, successful and at the top of their game.”
(Image: Instagram)
Olivia’s youngest client is 29, meanwhile her oldest is 73. She works with around 15 to 20 clients at a time.
The matchmaker, who worked in the charity sector as well as in PR for Marks & Spencer before setting up the agency, added to Tatler that she decided to focused “on very specific types of people” that “she is familiar with”, either from her own personal life or someone who she’s socialised around.
She said her clients “know what they want” and aren’t online dating types, as they want to prioritise relationships.
Olivia concluded: “We help filter out the dating noise, even before Covid, for these people it’s not about bumping into someone randomly in a members’ club.”
