Simon Mann, the former SAS officer and private security figure who was due to remarry after a long and controversial life, died of a sudden cardiac arrest on May 8. His fiancée, lawyer Negar Yazdani, has described trying to revive him at their London home and said she is now the sole executor of his will as a central London memorial is held this week.
Yazdani, 50, told reporters she was at home on a video call when Mann, 72, got onto a rowing machine and collapsed. She said she grabbed him, attempted resuscitation and called emergency services, but paramedics were unable to revive him. Those at the house included some of Mann’s children, who arrived after the emergency call and spent the night with Yazdani, she said.
Mann’s life combined military service, private security work and high‑profile legal trouble. He served in the Scots Guards before passing SAS selection and spent much of his conventional military career in intelligence and counterterrorism roles. In 2004 he was arrested in Harare and later extradited to Equatorial Guinea in connection with an attempted coup known as the Wonga Coup. He was imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea’s Black Beach prison, later sentenced in that country and released more than a decade ago on humanitarian grounds after serving part of his sentence.
Yazdani said Mann had told her early in their relationship that he wanted a quieter family life and had plans to marry once his divorce was finalised. She said the couple intended to wed after his decree absolute was granted; Mann had promised her a ruby engagement ring and to wear a wedding band with her. Yazdani said she would wear the heart pendant Mann gave her when they first became a couple and described him in recent years as more subdued and domestic than his earlier image suggested.
The memorial service, arranged as a military tribute in a central London chapel on Thursday, is expected to be attended by members of Mann’s family and acquaintances from across his varied career. Yazdani said she and Amanda Mann, Mann’s third wife and mother of four of his seven children, would both be present; she declined to comment on private interactions between the two women but said both would honour him with dignity. Yazdani said she had helped arrange funeral arrangements with Mann’s eldest son from his first marriage and that a wake was held at a Mayfair private members’ club.
Born into a family associated with the Watney Mann brewing business, Mann was educated at Eton and later pursued adventures and private security work in countries including Angola and Sierra Leone. His activities and the 2004 coup plot brought international attention and legal consequences, but Yazdani said he had in recent years focused on quieter pursuits: learning to cook, reading Shakespeare, reciting poetry, taking an interest in science and technology and planning endurance challenges such as a solo Atlantic row.
Yazdani, who emigrated to Britain with her family from Persia (Iran) in 1979, is a graduate of University College London and qualified as a lawyer with Mischon de Reya before working in investment banking and founding a litigation practice specialising in corporate and commercial work in 2010. She described meeting Mann through mutual acquaintances after his separation from Amanda and said the pair initially discussed business before their relationship became romantic.
She recounted private moments that, she said, showed a changed man. Yazdani said Mann told her the morning he died that he was "the happiest I have ever been" and that he cherished their time together. The couple recorded some 30 hours of Mann recounting his experiences and adventures, material Yazdani said might yet be used to shed further light on his life and work beyond his 2011 memoir, Cry Havoc.
Mann’s family includes children from earlier marriages who have moved in prominent social circles; one son has been associated with members of the royal family. Yazdani said family members rallied after Mann collapsed and she praised them for their support during the immediate aftermath.
Yazdani described the weeks before his death as strained by the stress of legal proceedings connected to his divorce. She said Mann had tried to resolve matters without protracted court battles so the couple could maintain the stability of their relationship. She said she had been expected to marry Mann and to share a quieter life with him, but now faces a future without the partnership they had been planning.
The memorial service this week is a formal recognition of Mann’s military past and will be attended by a cross‑section of acquaintances from his military, business and social life. Yazdani said she would attend wearing a dark silk suit Mann liked and that she hoped the event would be an opportunity to reflect on his life and legacy. She added she finds comfort in his reported final words about enduring through hardship: "This too shall pass."
Authorities have not disclosed further medical or investigative details beyond the account provided by Yazdani and the outcome of the emergency response. Mann’s legal history and public profile remain a substantial part of how he will be publicly remembered, alongside the personal recollections offered by those who survived him and the recordings he left behind.