The elder daughter of Geoffrey Bennett, of Smelthouses, North Yorkshire,[1] Bennett was educated at Lawnswood High School, Leeds, and Hertford College, Oxford.
[2] She joined The Observer at the beginning of 2008,[citation needed] and was on the Orwell Prize's Journalism shortlist for 2009.
[6] Bennett's column sought to defend female MPs accused of transphobia in the context of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and mentioned Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry and Miriam Cates by name, criticising comments by Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Ben Bradshaw.
[7] From 1985 to 1992, Bennett was married to Robert Sackville-West, who inherited the title of Baron Sackville on the death of his uncle in 2004.
[1] She subsequently had a relationship with the books editor of the Evening Standard, David Sexton, ending before September 2005.