The Tawdry

Learn more about Helena

Helena is the youngest child of Raymond and Elena Bonham Carter (née Propper de Callejón); she has two older brothers, Edward and Thomas. Her father, himself a successful banker, was the son of British politician, Lady Violet Bonham Carter who was, in turn, the daughter of British Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith.

In 1958, Raymond married Elena Propper de Callejón, the daughter of Don Eduardo Propper de Callejón, the then Spanish Ambassador to Norway. Helena’s father was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour in 1979, when Helena was thirteen, and underwent surgery to remove it, during which complications left him quadriplegic and partially blind for the remaining 25 years of his life.

She was educated at South Hampstead High School, and completed her A-levels at Westminster School. Bonham Carter was denied admission to King's College, Cambridge, not because of her academic performance, but because college officials were afraid that she would leave during the course to pursue her acting career.