A View from the Top: Cleo Rocos, the former TV star turned tequila maker

Ex-actor and producer tells Andy Martin how she turned her vision into a success, in spite of other people’s misgivings

Rocos with a range of her award-winning AquaRiva products (Ian Scammell)

Health warning: any nuns reading this, members of the Salvation Army or graduates of AA – avert your gaze now.

Sometimes you just have to get yourself expelled from school. Cleo Rocos, chief executive of tequila company AquaRiva, went (briefly) to a convent school. She didn’t take to the nuns because they had a habit of smacking her over the knuckles with a ruler.

One sister had a pronounced moustache. So naturally the young Cleo, aged 11, bought her a pack of razors for Christmas. An inspired and kindly thought which probably had the desired effect of getting her booted out of the convent. She has never looked back.