Mark Shand was devoted to looking after elephants[PA]But when whispers began that Mark Shand was having a fling with Nancy Dell'Olio, former girlfriend of ex-England football coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, he didn't beat about the bush.
"I am more likely to have an affair with a ripe pomegranate," he declared in typically outspoken fashion only last month.
Nancy may not have been one of Shand's conquests but there were plenty of others in the colourful life of the Duchess of Cornwall's brother.
Shand, who died this week at 62 following a fall in New York, was for many years one of the world's most eligible bachelors.
A real-life Indiana Jones whose rugged good looks and charm proved irresistible he had relationships with a string of stunning high-profile women including Marie Helvin, Bianca Jagger and John F Kennedy's daughter Caroline.
Supermodel Helvin once said: "He was impulsive, emotional and open hearted. He had the most beautiful body I'd ever seen. I lusted after him from the moment we met."
She said they spent entire weekends in bed and while they were dating in the 1980s Shand sent her a dozen white roses every Monday morning.
On a visit to his family home in Sussex where she was allocated Camilla Parker Bowles' childhood bedroom, Shand would tiptoe across the landing at night to make love.
In her autobiography Helvin also says that she "adored" Shand but eventually turned down his marriage proposal on a gondola in Venice because she wanted a more reliable man and hated the pressure from his family to tie the knot.
In his mid-teens Shand was expelled from school in Dorset for smoking cannabis and began working in London during the Swinging Sixties as an upmarket jeweller.
London during the Swinging Sixties as an upmarket jeweller.
But his father Major Bruce Shand urged him to travel and Mark followed the hippy trail to India.
It set the tone for a rather nomadic period of his life during which he became passionately interested in conservation.
He rescued and bought an elephant called Tara and rode her 600 miles across India, later writing about his exploits in a best-selling book.
In other swashbuckling memoirs he recalled tracking down cannibals in Indonesia, hazy nights in Bangkok bars a decade before the tourist trail hit Thailand, an expedition to Tibet to discover the origins of Shangri-la and being shipwrecked during a hurricane in the South Pacific.
Shand with Marie Helvin in 1984 [REX]I haven't made much money in my life but at least I've lived
After the final misadventure he was mistakenly reported dead.
However it was his hedonistic lifestyle and growing reputation as a lady-killer that attracted most attention.
His name regularly appeared in gossip columns and society pages on both sides of the Atlantic.
When the young Shand was not travelling in search of adventure he spent time in trendy night spots in New York and London or wooing beautiful women with apparent ease.
He was a regular at Andy Warhol's notorious Studio 54 nightclub and later recalled: "I think it's a time that will never be seen again.
"It reminded me of the end of the Roman empire.
"The excess was extraordinary but there was an elegance to it.
"It was very chic.
"You got everybody from a bar waiter to Liza Minnelli joining in and they all looked fabulous."
Shand had a brief fling with Princess Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy, who was 20 years his senior.
They are said to have met at a house party in Barbados and she remained a friend and supporter of his conservation work.
She once said: "Mark is irresistible, that's all.
"Always was, always will be."
He moved on to her niece Caroline Kennedy, daughter of assassinated US president John F Kennedy, who was just 18 at the time.
They danced until dawn at parties and she was said to be deeply in love with Shand, following him to London where she studied fine art.
Shand also dated Bianca Jagger after her marriage to Sir Mick ended, followed two years later by wealthy American heiress Averil PaysonMeyer.
He also wooed actress Barbara Trentham, who later married John Cleese.
All this once prompted a newspaper to describe Shand as "the sexiest man in London".
At the age of nearly 40 after Marie Helvin rejected his proposal Shand decided to settle down and in 1990 married actress Clio Goldsmith, niece of financier James Goldsmith and a cousin of Jemima Khan.
The marriage ended four years ago and Shand is survived by their daughter Ayesha, now 19.
He was close to Camilla, not to mention loyal and when her affair with Prince Charles emerged he never commented.
Shand, who was four years Camilla's junior, was once asked if he saw himself as the black sheep of the family, replying: "People have often said that but I don't think so really.
"However I was the youngest and probably spoilt if I'm totally honest."
In 2002 he founded a charity to protect Asian elephants and persuaded celebrities including Goldie Hawn to support it.
His motto was: "Save the elephants and then you save the forest - and then you save yourself."
Friends say his charity work gave him focus in a life which could otherwise have meandered aimlessly.
His connections and playboy charm raised millions for conservation.
Dan Bucknell, head of conservation and campaigns at his organisation, says he had "infectious enthusiasm", adding: "Mark did so much for the charity, he was a very fun-loving, warm-hearted, generous guy and we are going to miss him very sorely."
Before devoting his time to saving elephants Shand had dabbled in rally driving and also tried to become a bobsleigh star.
His work often took him abroad and this put his marriage under strain but he remained in close contact with Camilla and his other sister Annabel, an interior designer.
The Duchess is said to be "utterly devastated" by the death of her brother, who got on well with Prince Charles because of their shared ideals on conservation.
Shand escorted the Prince around a forest with a specially created "elephant corridor" on the royal couple's tour of India last year.
In 2012 he also tackled a 25-mile walk for the National Osteoporosis Society, of which the Duchess is president.
He was a regular guest at their Highgrove home and is said to have been a popular stepuncle to Princes William and Harry.
Shand was attending a fund-raising function in New York on Tuesday night when he fell backwards as he tried to enter the revolving doors of the Gramercy Park Hotel and hit his head on the pavement.
It's been reported that he had been drinking and was on blood- pressure medication that sometimes gave him dizzy spells.
The reason for Shand's forthright denial of the rumours about Dell'Olio is said to be that he was unofficially engaged to socialite Ruth Powys, who helped establish his Elephant Family organisation.
The 36-year-old was at his side at the event in New York, also attended by Princess Eugenie.
After his marriage ended Shand lived in a modest flat in Bayswater, west London.
He dressed flamboyantly, often wearing garish shirts for black-tie events, with a cigarette in hand and kept his grey hair long.
He sometimes reflected that if he'd stuck with his original profession in the jewel trade he would have made a fortune.
However this old-fashioned adventurer would also have found it insufferably dull.
He once remarked: "I haven't made much money in my life but at least I've lived."
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