Bena is this youngest daughter of Nathalie "Jean" McCance, born on 30 June 1961.  She was brought up in Sussex and educated locally.  She moved to London where she met and married Graham Cooper, though they have now broken up.  They have two sons, Woody (b.19 May 1989) and Connie (b.7 Jan 1991).  

Woody & Connie

They moved to the west of Ireland in the early '90s where Bena started working for her father as a trainee "draughtsperson".  When he died unexpectedly, she was left in charge of his clients, who insisted that she continue to manage their projects in spite of having no formal qualifications.  She went into partnership with a local qualified architect to circumvent this problem but the arrangement did not last long and she now does much the same work but in the capacity of an architectural consultant.  Much of the last few years has been taken up by helping Jeremy Irons to restore his castle in West Cork, which has been an extremely absorbing challenge.