Simon Mann, the former SAS officer and mercenary whose life included military service, international prison sentences and a high‑profile society presence, died after suffering a cardiac arrest at the home he shared with his partner, Negar Yazdani, on May 8. Yazdani, 50, who had become the sole executor of Mann’s will, said she tried to resuscitate him and called emergency services but paramedics were unable to revive him.
A memorial service and military tribute scheduled for Thursday in a central London chapel will be attended by family and figures from Mann’s varied life, including Amanda Mann, his third wife and mother of four of his seven children, and Yazdani, who had planned to marry him once his divorce was finalised. Yazdani said she will wear a heart necklace Mann had given her early in their relationship.
Yazdani described the moments leading up to his death in an interview, saying she had been working on a video call when Mann, who had been using a rowing machine, made a noise and collapsed. "I grabbed him, I was holding him on the floor, thinking I have to get him to breathe again, trying to resuscitate him, calling 999," she said. She spent the subsequent hours with police and some of Mann’s children, who arrived at the house, and later helped arrange a funeral with Mann’s eldest son.
The couple’s relationship, which began after Mann’s separation from Amanda, had been intensifying over the last two years. Yazdani said Mann had told her early in their courtship that he wanted to marry her, promising a ruby for a proper proposal and a wedding band where he had previously not worn one. She said the pair had been planning to marry as soon as his decree absolute was granted last month.
Mann, 72 at the time of his death, had earlier in life a turbulent and public career. He served as a Scots Guard before passing SAS selection and working in intelligence and counterterrorism. He later entered the private security world and was involved in operations in countries including Angola and Sierra Leone. In 2004 he was arrested in Harare in connection with an attempt to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, a plot that led to legal cases and prison time in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.
After his arrest and subsequent convictions related to the 2004 plot known as the Wonga Coup, Mann served time in Harare and was later extradited and jailed in Equatorial Guinea. He was released on humanitarian grounds after a period of incarceration. The episode and its aftermath were widely reported and shaped much of Mann’s public profile.
Beyond his military and mercenary activities, Mann came from a family with deep ties to British society and commerce. He was an Old Etonian and a scion of the Watney Mann brewing family; his war bounty, as his supporters framed his earnings, bought him a Hampshire estate that had once belonged to the Rothschild family and a private jet. He was father to seven children, several of whom remain active in public life. One son, Jack Mann, has been reported as a close friend of Prince Harry and served as a best man at the prince’s 2018 wedding.
Yazdani, who trained as a lawyer at University College London and later worked in investment banking before returning to law, described Mann in recent years as having mellowed and sought a quieter domestic life. She said he had been teaching himself to cook, had taken to watching television dramas such as Downton Abbey, was rereading Shakespeare and reciting Rudyard Kipling, and had been studying science and modern technologies including artificial intelligence.
"The morning of the day he died he took my hand and said: 'Look me in the eye. I want you to know I'm the happiest I have ever been,'" Yazdani recalled. She said Mann spoke of wanting a family life that did not involve flying off to conflicts in Africa and that in his seventies he had tried to make up for earlier decades of adventure by seeking domestic routines and companionship.
The couple had recorded about 30 hours of material in which Mann recounted episodes from his life, including elements that extend beyond his 2011 memoir Cry Havoc. Yazdani said the recordings might yet yield further public material that could shed additional light on parts of Mann’s career and the contacts and clients involved in his work.
Yazdani described their relationship as built on mutual trust and affection. She said the two had met through friends and initially discussed potential business ventures before a personal relationship developed. She said Mann had once taken her to a wood and led her into a clearing to show her the stars—"and that's when I knew," she said.
Mann’s funeral and the subsequent wake at a private Mayfair club were attended by family and friends; Yazdani said she organised aspects of the funeral with Mann’s eldest son, Peter. While Amanda Mann attended the service and the wake, Yazdani said the two women did not speak at those gatherings.
In the days before Mann’s collapse, Yazdani said he had been stressed and suffering from poor sleep amid divorce proceedings that had been protracted and acrimonious. She said he tried to resolve disputes without further litigation because he wanted to preserve the happiness of their relationship.
As London prepares to mark Mann’s life with a military tribute, Yazdani said she will wear a dark silk suit Mann particularly admired and that she will use the service to reflect on his life and legacy. She said she plans to return home afterwards to confront the next phase of her life alone but finds some comfort in Mann’s own words: "This too shall pass."