Skip to content
A new nepo baby has entered the villa. 17-year-old Nell Burton, daughter of Oscar-nominated actor Helena Bonham Carter and macabre filmmaker Tim Burton, just made her modeling debut in a regal campaign featuring some dazzling heirloom jewelry. The younger Burton posed alongside her mother, 59, in a fashion shoot celebrating the 25th anniversary of the haute jewelry brand Larkspur & Hawk, with the duo dripping in over $18,000 worth of jewels inspired by founder Emily Satloff in photos obtained by People.
“I love jewelry and how it can out survive us humans, carrying stories over the decades, and over the centuries,” Bonham Carter said of the campaign in a press release. “I also basically love dressing up and make believe is what I do for a living, so when Emily asked if I’d be up for a commemorative photoshoot, I jumped at the chance of going full Georgian.” Indeed, the campaign’s jewels have featured on period dramas like Queen Charlotte.
In an especially touching twist, Nell is wearing a Larkspur & Hawk necklace that belongs to her mother: specifically, the Sadie Large Riviere piece, which Bonham Carter received as a gift from her own mother, Elena Propper de Callejón, as a birthday present. “One day it will be on to my own daughter, Nell, if she doesn’t steal it before!” the Harry Potter star joked of the heirloom piece. “My riviere will be our baton.”
The shoot marks something of a debut for Nell Burton, who has spent very little time in the public eye despite her parents’ worldwide acclaim. In 2016, she attended the premiere of Tim Burton’s film Alice Through the Looking Glass alongside her brother, 22-year-old Billy Raymond Burton. In 2019, the pair were among the guests of honor at the premiere of another Tim Burton film, Dumbo, and in 2021, they rubbed shoulders with the culturati at the Rome Film Festival. This year, the mother and daughter joined forces at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Preview Party, with Nell proving that she has inherited her mother’s Baroque style in a stunning pink dress.
Helena Bonham Carter, Frankie Chainey Wallens and Nell Burton attend the 1500th performance of “Cabaret At The Kit Kat Club” on July 7, 2025 in London, England.Dave Benett/Getty Images
Bonham Carter is no stranger to the royal family, having played Princess Margaret in the The Crown and the Queen Mother in The King’s Speech. But Nell very nearly joined the royal inner circle after her mother’s “tipsy” encounter with the Prince William in Mustique, as Bonham Carter has jokingly revealed. While holidaying on the elite enclave, the actress asked the future king whether he might consider being Nell’s godfather.
“Thing is, I’d spent all my friends as godparents on my first child, so Billy had 11 godparents (Johnny Depp among them),” Bonham Carter said on Watch What Happens Live. “So, I thought I could make up for Nell, you know, who came along suddenly, and we didn’t have any left. I thought, ‘Well, if I give her Prince William, that would cover,’ you know?”
Alas, the endeavor was a fruitless one, as Bonham Carter went on to explain. “He just said, ‘You don’t want me to be godfather to your child.’ And I left.” Prince William’s known godchildren include Prince Constantine Alexios of Greece and Denmark, Thomas Pettifer, and Grace van Cutsem.
But Nell Burton has a pretty illustrious family tree in her own right. Bonham Carter’s grandparents, Sir Maurice Bonham Carter and Lady Violet Bonham Carter, were esteemed Liberal politicians, and through Violet, the family can trace their lineage back to Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith. On her mother’s side, Helena is a descendant of Baroness Helene Fould-Springer, whose sister Liliane was the wife of Baron Elie de Rothschild.
A mother and daughter debut in a suite of dazzling heirloom jewels? As an introduction to society goes, it doesn’t get more glamorous.
Originally published in Tatler
-
How Caroline Flack’s Grieving Mother Is Trying to Clear Her Daughter’s Name
-
Actor, Villain, Victim: Allison Mack Finally Tells Her Story
