Addict’s mother runs off with married millionaire who promised to help her

When self-made millionaire Mike Holland read Kate Mayne’s courageous account of coping with her daughter’s heroin addiction, he decided to get in touch and see what he could do to help.

But within weeks, the two were having an affair. They have now left their partners and moved in together.

Affair: Kate Mayne and Mike Holland on a night out

Mrs Mayne, 47, an interior designer from Brighton, decided to reveal the extent of her daughter Hannah’s drug problem to raise awareness of the issue.

She spoke out in April last year about how her daughter, then 19, had been reduced to burgling the family home, where Mrs Mayne lived with her husband Peter and their younger daughter.

She told how she was once forced to leave a celebration meal to go and pay off Hannah’s drug debts, and how she watched her daughter inject herself ‘to make sure she didn’t overdose’.

Heroin addict: Hannah, left, with her mother, Kate, who has now moved in with her millionaire boyfriend, above

One of those who read about Mrs Mayne’s plight was Mr Holland.

The property developer and his wife Nina saw her story in their local paper and decided to get in touch.

Friends said that Mrs Holland, 46, was not surprised when her 60-year-old husband - who is renowned for his philanthropy - declared his intention to help ‘that poor family’ by campaigning for better treatment for drug addicts.

A friend said: ‘The offer of help from Holland must have seemed like a gift from God at first.’

But the two fell for each other and by November, Mrs Mayne had left the £1million Georgian family home.

She and her husband, a financial director, had struggled for more than three years there to maintain some degree of normality for their younger daughter as Hannah’s life spiralled out of control.

Mr Holland also walked out on his wife, their disabled 14-year-old son and two other children.

Their boy’s diagnosis with cerebral palsy as a toddler had inspired the couple to raise millions to help other children like him.

The first that Mrs Holland knew of her husband’s adultery was when she found his car, packed with clothes, in the drive of their Brighton home.

The new couple moved into a £1.4million penthouse and Kate, who now uses her maiden name of McKenzie, told a local society magazine that she envisages a ‘1950s Hollywood glamour style’ for the love nest.

Before news of the affair spread, Mrs Mayne was seen by those closest to her as something of a ‘ superwoman’.

Nina Holland: First knew of her husband's affair when she found his car packed with clothes in their driveway

She worked on interior design contracts in historic houses while fighting to hold her family together and battling for better healthcare for drug addicts.

One source said: ‘Her poor husband must wonder how on earth she even found time for an affair.

‘She was always in meetings, fighting for better support for addicts, running round after Hannah or trying to make sure Hannah’s younger sister was not forgotten.’

Her lover’s friends are equally perplexed.

Mr Holland is a self-made man, who claims to have arrived in Brighton with just £5 to his name.

After he made his fortune, he paid £29,000 for the title of Lord of the Manor of Plumpton, once held by the Earls of Chichester. He also bought the decaying 500-acre estate that went with it.

One associate said: ‘Mike’s most endearing characteristic has always been his slavish devotion to charity work and his disabled son.

‘Now his enemies are queuing up to snipe at how he has picked up a more attractive version of his wife, leaving poor Nina to look after their disabled son and two other children on her own.’

Mr Holland yesterday said that his new relationship was a private matter.

‘We are just two normal people having a normal relationship and I can’t see why that is of any interest to anyone else,’ he added.