His mother,
Mavis Cole, met painter
Augustus John (1878–1961) at the
Café Royal in 1928, and agreed to model for him. In 1931 she married
Horace de Vere Cole, a well-known Edwardian practical joker, then in 1932 she became the mistress of Augustus John. Cole was born in 1935 and is believed to be John's last-surviving illegitimate son. Cole was brought up in the John household at Fryern Court,
Fordingbridge, from the age of 18 months, partly by his mother, and then later by
Dorelia McNeill. Cole was educated for three years at
Kelly College,
Tavistock. He married Diana Crosby Cook in 1962 and they had two children, a daughter Jemma and a son, London fine art dealer Cassian de Vere Cole (born 1966). After they divorced he had a son Joshua with Claire Oberman but they split shortly before the birth in 1993. Diana died in 2025. In 2000, he married lawyer Prudence Murdoch. She died in 2010. He lives in
Sutton Scotney, not far from his partner Anne Stow, eldest grandchild of
Neville Chamberlain, a former
prime minister, whose wife was a sister of Horace de Vere Cole. Through his father,
Gwen John was Cole's aunt, his half-siblings were cellist
Amaryllis Fleming, Sir
Caspar John,
Gwyneth Johnstone, and
Vivien John; Johnstone and Vivien also were artists in their own right. Only Caspar was born from his father's marriage, and he later became prominent as an admiral also in the Royal Navy and
First Sea Lord. == Career ==