Aspinall is the son of Jane Gordon Hastings and John Victor Aspinall (d2000) who was a zoo owner, gambler, founder of Aspers, conservationist and the stepson of Sir George Osborne, 16th Baronet. Damian"s step-mother is Lady Sarah Aspinall. In 1972, his father had married, (for the third time), Lady Sarah ("Sally") Courage, widow of the racing driver Piers Courage and daughter of Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe (d1964).
From the age of six, Damien Aspinall was educated, as a boarder, at Millfield School, Somerset.
Aspinall"s wealth is estimated to be around £200m. Aspinall acquired his wealth independently in the real estate business - his father refusing to assist him financially. He runs the John Aspinall Foundation started by his father, and his stated goal is to breed gorillas and return them to the wild.
He manages Howletts Wild Animal Park and nearby Portuguese Lympne, where 120 gorillas have been born and 77 presently live.
The foundation has released 51 gorillas to secure areas in Africa. Several of them have been found dead, possibly due to having been primed to humans and being unable to care for themselves in the wild.
Critics, among them the president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund have commented that this outcome was predictable. Kwibi, the celebrity gorilla released when 5 years old in 2005 in Gabon, had been born and raised at Howletts, a wild animal park in Kent.
Aspinall tracked Kwibi in 2010 and the video of the reunion became widely viewed on YouTube.
