Peter Mandelson is married. The long-time Labour powerbroker tied the knot with his partner of nearly three decades, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, in October 2023 after decades together.
The couple’s relationship has been quietly maintained out of the spotlight for years, but recent disclosures about financial links between Mr da Silva and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have put the marriage and Mandelson’s wider public life back in the headlines.
Mandelson first met da Silva in the mid-1990s through mutual friends when da Silva was a student in London; accounts commonly date their meeting to around 1996.
The pair lived together in London from the late 1990s and became a fixture in Mandelson’s private life while he continued a high-profile political career that included senior cabinet posts and a later diplomatic role.
Mandelson has described their relationship as a long, steady partnership that only culminated in marriage decades later, a decision they made in 2023.
Who is Reinaldo Avila da Silva?
He is a Brazilian national who studied languages, reports note he studied Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, and later trained in areas including osteopathy.
He has kept a low public profile despite Mandelson’s prominence, preferring to remain out of the political spotlight.
Friends and those who have spoken publicly describe him as private, multilingual and academically inclined.
The couple share a long life together in London and, according to public reports, a family dog that became well-known when Mandelson served briefly as UK ambassador to Washington.
The current media scrutiny stems from documents and emails released in recent months that show payments and correspondence involving the convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein, Mandelson and da Silva.
Those files, published from U.S. Department of Justice sources and reported on by major outlets, indicate Epstein sent funds to da Silva in 2009 to cover the costs of an osteopathy course, and that there were other transfers and arrangements over the years.
The Financial Times and other papers report multiple payments and correspondence suggesting a sustained contact between Epstein and Mandelson that continued after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
Mandelson has apologised for maintaining contact with Epstein but has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing; he has said he was not involved in Epstein’s crimes.
Those revelations carried political consequences. Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the United States in 2024 became controversial amid reporting of his ties to Epstein, and he was removed from the post amid the fallout; subsequent investigations and political pressure intensified after the release of more files.
Authorities in the UK have opened inquiries into aspects of the newly released material, and Mandelson resigned from certain public roles while insisting he had not committed a criminal offence. The spotlight on his private life and his marriage to da Silva has therefore been inseparable from a broader story about influence, contacts and propriety in public office.
For readers wondering about the timeline: Mandelson’s public emergence as a senior Labour figure stretches back to the rise of “New Labour” in the 1990s.
He served in a string of senior roles, including trade and industry, Northern Ireland, and later business secretary, and was a European commissioner before returning to UK politics.
His partnership with da Silva dates from the late 1990s; the couple formalised their union with marriage in October 2023, after many years together.
The recent disclosures do not change the fact that they have been a couple for decades, but they have changed how that private history is viewed in public.
What the public should take from this: the marriage itself is a private, long-standing relationship between two people who built a life together over many years.
At the same time, the new documents and reporting raise legitimate questions about associations and financial transactions involving a convicted criminal figure, and those questions are the subject of ongoing journalistic and official scrutiny.
Mandelson has responded by acknowledging contact with Epstein, denying culpability in criminal matters, and stepping back from some public roles while investigations proceed.
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