The glamorous aristocrat who has won Ralph Fiennes' heart

Fiennes rekindled his friendship with Lady Amanda Harlech, who is one of the new faces of Gap, about ten months ago.

Although Lady Harlech, who studied English at Oxford, spends much of her time at a fabulous suite at The Ritz hotel in Paris, she also owns a large farmhouse in a remote part of Shropshire.

It is there that Fiennes, 43 – who is about to begin work on a Tom Cruise movie about an assassination plot on Hitler – has been discreetly wooing the chic beauty.

Currently, she can be seen modelling a classic French trenchcoat in an advertising campaign for the High Street chain Gap.

She is also a senior stylist with Chanel and personal assistant to Karl Lagerfeld.

Although now single, 47-year-old Amanda was married for 12 years to Lord Harlech, with whom she has two children, the Hon Jasset David Cody Ormsby-Gore, 21, and his younger sister, the Hon Tallulah Ormsby-Gore, 19.

Tallulah, a budding actress who now lives in New York, is said to have diplomatically stayed with friends when Fiennes made his overnight visits to the family home during the summer.

"Amanda is very private," said one source. "Shropshire is her sanctuary. She obviously likes him very much to invite him for private visits at the house."

Ralph, who is as famous for his love life and sexual encounters as his lead roles in The English Patient and Schindler's List, broke up with Francesca 18 months ago after his fling with a Romanian singer, Cornelia Crisan, who was later revealed to be a prostitute.

Francesca, with whom he lived for 11 years, was said to be devastated.

Shortly afterwards, the actor was again caught up in a sordid scandal when Qantas stewardess Lisa Robertson told how she had had sex with him in the lavatory of a plane.

Amanda, the daughter of a wealthy London solicitor, married Francis Ormsby-Gore, son of the British ambassador to Washington, in 1986.

He became the sixth Baron Harlech after his father was killed in a car crash.

But the once happy marriage, living in Shropshire and at the 6,000-acre ancestral seat at Glyn-Cywarch in North Wales, broke down as Francis took to alcohol and drugs.

The couple divorced in 1998 after Amanda found him in bed with another woman.

By then, Francis's sister had died of a heroin overdose and his brother Julian committed suicide. Francis's mother also died in a car crash.

Amanda threw herself into work as a model to pay for her children's school fees.

"Amanda and Ralph have known each other as friends for a while," said the source.

"She is fiercely financially independent and a real tough survivor. I'm not sure you could say this is in any way a full-time relationship as they are both incredibly busy. But it's an intriguing friendship."

Since her divorce, Amanda has had two long-standing affairs – first with Hugo de Ferranti, son of the multi-millionaire Sebastian de Ferranti, and a ten-year relationship with local farmer Neil Gittens.

Amanda, who is in Paris, would not comment on her friendship with the actor.

Last night a friend of Ralph's said: "They are very good friends and have known each other a long time. But to suggest a major romance would be wide of the mark."