Julie Fisher was born on 17 February 1972 to Thomas Fisher, and was brought up in Sugar Grove, Illinois, as one of five siblings. She went on to study computer science at Indiana University. Fisher moved to London to work for an internet-based company, and was setting up a film school when she met Luke Montagu. She was a single mother at the time, and had assumed he was not interested in her. Three months after they began dating, she noticed that one of his payment cards had "Viscount Hinchingbrooke" written on it. Only then did he explain that he was a member of the aristocracy and his father was the current Earl of Sandwich. A year after they first met, they married at Mapperton House, Dorset, the country estate of the Earl of Sandwich.
Career
When Luke Montagu suffered years of side effects from being removed from prescription medication by an addiction clinic, Julie Montagu began running yoga classes in nearby church halls in order to bring some money into the household. She also started a blog, called the "Flexi Foodie" and wrote a successful cookbook, Superfoods: The Flexible Approach to Eating More Superfoods & Superfoods Superfast. She founded the charity Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry after Luke's recovery, based on their experiences. She was then offered a position on the reality television seriesLadies of London as her husband was recovering. She later said of the series, "We thought long and hard before accepting as it offered financial support for a while. But it was not fun to do. I was expected to behave in a way I wasn't, like an It girl or socialite, when I'm not. They edit you... You have to go along with things or you get fired. But you know it was a job. I was acting." She celebrated when it was cancelled after three seasons. In 2016, the couple took over the running of the Mapperton Estate. The series brought financial stability which allowed the couple to invest further in the Mapperton Estate, turning an old stable block into a wedding venue. Julie also opened her own school of yoga on the grounds, but continues to practice yoga elsewhere, headline an act at the Wanderlust yoga festival in Victoria Park, London. During the lead-up to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Julie Montagu was interviewed on a number of occasions because she is a US citizen who married into British aristocracy; she was also an on-site commentator on the wedding for the BBC. She was also interviewed following such events as Markle's father selling a private letter his daughter had sent him, and the royal couple's break from the monarchy in 2020. In 2020, she began hosting a show on the Smithsonian ChannelAn American's Aristocrat's Guide to Great Estates.
Personal life
She is married to Luke Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, and has four children, two of whom are from her first marriage and two with Luke. She supported her husband through his recovery from a dependency of prescription drugs and now campaigns for greater awareness of the issue.
