Descended from Latvian Jewish immigrants[2] and educated at Stowe School then St John's College, Cambridge,[2] Bernstein joined the Granada Group, the leisure and television company founded by his uncle, Sidney, and his father, Cecil Bernstein.
Bernstein was a major contributor to the Labour Leader's Office Fund run by Lord Levy to finance Tony Blair's private office.
Created a life peer as Baron Bernstein of Craigweil, of Craigweil in the County of West Sussex, on 15 May 2000,[3] he was active in the Arts, serving on several governing bodies and trusts.
[4] He married Vanessa Anne Mills in 1962; they had a son and a daughter, and divorced in 1993.
In 1995, he married Angela Mary née Beveridge, formerly wife of Sir Nicholas Serota.