Unforgettable family holidays await at the Solterra Resort in the town of Davenport, Florida, promises the brochure.
It’s the sort of place where holidaymakers can ‘float their cares away’ and ‘gather with family and friends’ in lavish private rental properties handily placed for excursions to Disney World. Extended, multi-generational families are particularly welcome.
The biggest villas in this sprawling complex, complete with palm trees and lush walkways, can have more than ten bedrooms and their own pools, because it was designed on a the-more-the-merrier basis. Communal facilities include a ‘lazy river’ and children’s play areas.
It was, however, never going to be the entire Gibbon clan decamping here from Buckinghamshire for a luxury sunshine break this summer.
Relations had already been strained, to say the least, when patriarch Mark Gibbon, 62, who heads a successful lighting company in the UK (one which previously supplied services for the televised Queen’s speech on Christmas Day) arrived late last month with his former daughter-in-law Jasmine Wyld, 33, and her two children (his grandchildren).
Happily families? Well, no.
The dream holiday ended somewhat abruptly last Sunday afternoon when Gibbon was arrested after allegedly trying to drown Jasmine in the villa’s pool.
Police were called when fellow holidaymakers reported that a man was seen repeatedly holding a woman’s head under the water.
Back in Britain: Jasmine Wyld at home on Friday after returning from the family holiday that ended in her father-in-law’s arrest
Extended family members said they believe Mark Gibbon has been having an affair with Jasmine Wyld, his former daughter-in-law for the last two years – causing a huge family divide
Jasmine, pictured with ex-husband (and Mark Gibbon’s son) Alex and one of their two children
The details of what happened last weekend, on what should have been a lazy afternoon in the Florida sunshine, are sketchy but it is believed the family had been enjoying the sunshine and were taking a dip when, according to Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Gibbon shoved Jasmine’s head under the water then pushed his nine-year-old granddaughter out of the way when she jumped in to stop him.
He allegedly only stopped the attack when two sisters in a nearby property saw what was happening and shouted over that they had called the Sheriff’s Office.
Gibbon was taken into custody at 5.19pm on August 3 and is understood to have told police he had been drinking.
The police report revealed that Jasmine ‘advised that she could not breathe and believed that she was going to drown.
The victim advised that she had to fight Mark in order to get away from him and from under the water but he kept pushing her back under’.
It is believed both adults had been drinking and there are claims there had been a row when Gibbon revealed the contents of his will.
This week, Jasmine and her children flew home to Beaconsfield, while Gibbon – still looking sun-kissed in the police mug shots – swapped his swimming trunks for prison issue orange overalls.
He will be spending the rest of his break in Polk County Jail, having been charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery.
Jasmine and Mark were on holiday at the Solterra Resort in the town of Davenport, Florida, with her two children – his grandchildren – when he is alleged to have tried to drown her
Jasmine, pictured with her two children, who are also Mark Gibbon’s grandchildren
While local reports suggest police are used to attending incidents at the popular holiday ‘village’ – some online reviewers have previously complained about police being required to intervene at drunken pool parties and to deal with noise complaints about rowdy revellers – this was on a much more serious scale and resulted in headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.
County Sheriff Grady Judd took a dim view of the goings-on, telling reporters: ‘We expect vacationers to behave while they visit with us, just as we expect our lifelong residents to do the same.
‘Because Mr Gibbon couldn’t control his anger, he may find himself spending a lot more time in Florida than he had anticipated.’
US police said Gibbon – a wealthy and well-connected man, by all accounts; his company has also provided services for music videos for Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Paloma Faith – allegedly admitted pushing Jasmine underwater, but said he did not intend to drown her. He will face court on September 9.
Ms Wyld is believed to have suffered a scratch to her chest during the incident and was ‘left fearing for her life’.
Of course, far-flung family get-togethers can be fraught affairs but as the background to this disastrous family holiday started to emerge this week, the shock factor soared.
The Daily Mail discovered that some of those extended family members believe that for the past two years, Gibbon and Jasmine have actually been in a relationship – one that has split the family asunder.
Our source, who is someone close to the family, this week revealed that even before this latest holiday debacle, eyebrows had been raised about the complicated car-crash relationship which caused the family to implode after Gibbon’s son Alex – Jasmine’s ex-husband and the father of her children – found his ex-wife in his father’s bed.
The Solterra Resort in the town of Davenport, Florida, where the family drama unfolded
Last year, Alex himself served time in prison after an altercation with his father in 2023 ended with him running the older man over in an £80,000 Porsche.
After a blazing row, Gibbon had tried to stop his son driving off by getting in front of the car. Instead, Alex ran him over. He was released from prison six months ago.
Our source revealed that not only did the family unit collapse after Alex found his ex-wife in his father’s bed, but that the rift is ongoing.
Alex now lives with his mother (who is divorced from his father) in Oxfordshire. Neither she, Alex, nor his sister Natalie speak to or have any contact with Mark Gibbon.
‘The relationship between Mark and Jasmine is very, very, odd… to say the least,’ our source explained.
‘It’s torn the family apart. Alex and his sister Natalie don’t have anything to do with their dad and their mother is so traumatised by the relationship that she’s moved to a different county to get away from him.
‘There’s been so much bad blood between Alex and his dad. He just can’t get over the fact that his father ended up in a relationship with his ex-partner and the mother of his children.’
Although there is no evidence that there was an improper relationship between father and daughter-in-law while Jasmine and Alex were married, after the couple split up in 2021, things became complicated. There was one incident that marked the point of no return.
Mark has been arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery
‘About four years ago there was a big fall-out,’ our source confirmed. ‘Alex had been working away and came back to his family home one weekend to find the place empty.
‘He couldn’t reach Jasmine by phone but even back then he had his suspicions about her and his dad. So he drove from the family home in Bourne End to Beaconsfield where his dad lived and found her car parked outside.
‘Alex had keys to his dad’s house because he used to live there too and, as he went in, he saw Mark standing in the kitchen.
‘He asked him, ‘Where is she?’ and, with a smirk on his face, [Mark] replied: ‘Why don’t you go and find her?’
‘Alex went up the stairs and found Jasmine in his father’s bed. They had a massive row. Jasmine said she had gone on a night out with friends the previous evening and dropped the kids around at Mark’s to babysit.
‘She decided to head to Mark’s after, rather than go home, but during the evening she wandered into the wrong room by mistake.
‘Alex had a fight with his dad over it and the police were called.’
This was ‘maybe a year’ before an even more serious altercation, however, when a full-blown row between father and son spilled into violence.
According to a source close to the family, there was a past incident where Jasmine’s ex-husband Alex found the pair together in bed
Our source continued: ‘There was a big argument between Alex and his father in the street. Alex had had enough and got into his car to try to drive away but Mark got in front of the car to stop him from leaving.
‘Alex shouted to him to get out of the way but Mark continued to obstruct him and was hit by the car as a result.’
Alex pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and harassment without violence.
He was sentenced in February 2024 to two years in prison and given a three-year driving ban as well as a five-year restraining order.
The family has never reconciled. ‘This has destroyed the family,’ stressed our source.
‘No one has contact with Mark. There is so much anger towards him. The relationship is beyond repair. It’s clearly a toxic relationship – especially for the poor grandchildren.’
What a mess – even before this latest twist. The family business has suffered in the fall-out, too.
While at one point Alex worked with his father – he was appointed a director of a company called Ultralight UK in 2019 – he left the firm in 2023.
Meanwhile, Mark Gibbon, who lives in an £800,000 semi-detached property in Beaconsfield, is involved with Ms Wyld’s hairdressing business.
He is listed as a director of Sage Hairdressing, which was set up in July last year.
There is also another lighting company, MRG Lighting Limited, which was established in 2023.
A complex web, indeed, and it does appear that money is a factor in this whole unfolding debacle.
Reports suggest that the row in the swimming pool in Florida last weekend could have been about Mark Gibbon’s money – and who would inherit it.
It is claimed that Gibbon and Jasmine argued when he revealed that he was going to be leaving his fortune to his grandchildren in his will, while Jasmine is not named.
‘I don’t know for sure what happened on this holiday and why Mark has apparently tried to drown her,’ says our source.
‘But I’ve been told that Jasmine was unhappy that they have been in a relationship for a few years and she is not named in his will.
Reports suggest that the row in the swimming pool in Florida last weekend could have been about Mark Gibbon’s money – and who would inherit it
‘Mark is worth about £800,000 and he is leaving everything to his grandchildren. He’s a successful businessman, who runs his own company and owns his own home. His will has caused some tension in the family.’
There is clearly a background of shifting financial fortunes, alongside shifting emotional allegiances.
Neighbours at the quiet street in Beaconsfield where Gibbon lives have been shocked to hear of the developments in Florida, describing him as a ‘lovely guy’ and confirming that Jasmine ‘spends a lot of time at his home with her children.
‘Mark absolutely dotes on his grandkids. They go on holiday together regularly’, our source concurs.
‘Mark and Jasmine do an awful lot together and they go away on holiday with the children a couple of times every year. She is always round at his house. She has a place of her own but she’s nearly always in Beaconsfield with Mark.’
‘They went to Florida two years ago and have been to Budapest where she posted pictures of them together like a couple.’
Social media updates from happier times attest to this. In one picture Jasmine shared a family snap of herself and Mark with one of the children; in another, showing him larking about with beer glasses she quipped, ‘only if all boss’s [sic] was as fun as him’, and followed up with a laughing emoji.
Fun times, such as they were, would appear to be on hold for now. While Gibbon awaits his next court appearance, Jasmine and her children have flown home to the UK.
Alas for her, she will now be dealing with the post-holiday dirty laundry in more ways than one.
