The daughter of a textile millionaire, she dazzled with her beauty (green eyes, fair skin, red lipstick), devil-may-care social strategy (she double-booked men for the evening), and nouveau riche accoutrement (she was chauffeured to and from school in a Rolls-Royce, skied at St. Moritz, and wore gowns from Norman Hartnell). Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. Margaret, Duchess of Argyll with her poodle in 1989. Far from being envious of her lifestyle during the economic depression, the British public adored Margaret Whigham. He could have just given the judgment, I find in favor of the plaintiff. No doubt the television series can tell you the terrible consequences of that marriage. Wheatley is a Puritan, Phelps explains. The toxic love affair between the Duke and Duchess started with Margaret divorcing her then-husband to marry Ian, who would become the Duke of Argyll. Ethel Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll (ne Whigham, formerly Sweeny; 1 December 1912 25 July 1993) was a Scottish heiress, socialite, and aristocrat who was most famous for her 1951 marriage and much-publicised 1963 divorce from her second husband, Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll. Inside the sad decline of 'Fairy Floss Girl': How the racegoer who shot to fame when Kyle Sandilands gushed that Student who refused to enter arranged marriage was stabbed in the chest with a metal spike by her uncle and Theatre issues trigger warning for production which 'involves the handling of a cooked egg'. It was speculated that this "headless man" was the Minister of Defence Duncan Sandys (later Lord Duncan-Sandys, son-in-law of Winston Churchill), who offered to resign from the cabinet. 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Margaret had eight miscarriages and a stillborn child before managing to produce two children: one became the Duchess of Rutland and mother to the current duke, the other a sensible businessman. The hill he is going to die on is putting the sexuality of women into a box marked disgusting. Hes the one who absolutely destroys her. 17/10/1962 : The Duchess of Argyll pictured in London after the hearing of the High Court action in which it is alleged that she detained many Argyll heirlooms at her home in Upper Grosvenor Street, London. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Audiences never finds out the identity of this man, but in later scenes with a female friend, it is suggested that Margaret would regularly sleep with men she met the same evening. The marriages meltdown was such a scorched-earth operation that Phelps says it could have easily carried an entire season of American Crime Story. There were also photographs of the Duchess fellating a naked man whose face was not shown. Margaret Campbell, the famously beautiful Duchess of Argyll, had been a celebrity - and a source of scandal - from even before her debutante days. Her Norman Hartnell wedding dress cemented her status as one of the most glamorous socialites of the era, with crowds reportedly gathering to catch a glimpse of it. Inveraray Castle, the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Argyll, photographed in 2010. Married in 1951, Margaret was at the height of her fame as a glamorous and stylish socialite, and had even been name-dropped in Cole Porter's song, You're the Top. And then I heard that a television biopic, A Very British Scandal, was being made about her by the team behind A Very English Scandal, the series about Jeremy Thorpe. Margaret carried on, though her final chapters were still quite sad. I have to admit I read that and I was like, Go mom, laughs Clea Newman Soderlund, speaking about her fathers posthumous memoir, Paul Newman Says Wife Joanne Woodward Turned Him Into a Sexual Creature in Posthumous Memoir. Image Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo. [9][10], According to Lyndsy Spence, a biographer of the Duchess, the Duke of Argyll forged a deed of sale (sometimes called a deed of gift, thus offering various items from Inveraray Castle as security) before their marriage in exchange for her money used to restore his family home at Inveraray, and wiretapped her car. In those days, society men did not take personalities into consideration when choosing a wife. Foy plays her in later life, both glamorous and sordid, in A Very British Scandal (BBC1). Not a serious thought in my head. Like everybody, Id do anything to have it all over again. At 15, she became pregnant by David Niven; a termination was arranged and this scandal hushed up. After ending a first marriage that yielded a son and daughter, she went on a dating streak that ended with a marriage to Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyllsecuring her familys formal entry to aristocracy, and access to Inveraray, a proper castle in Scotland. When the former husband and wife square off in a Virginia courtroom this week, it will mark the culmination of a divorce that has been without comparison in the annals of modern American celebrity. [8], The Duchess never revealed the identity of the "headless man", and Fairbanks always denied the allegation. The German diplomat and brother of the Nazi scientist Werner von Braun, who invented the Nazis V-2 rocket, was another possible candidate for the 'headless man' in photo. Tatler is mischievous, glamorous, intelligent and fun, providing an insider's view of what is really happening in British society with a compelling mix of fashion, the arts, politics, people, parties and glamour.Tatler UKTatler contributorsThe BYSTANDER Everything about everybody everywhereDI. That attack wounds her, because it exposes Margarets deepest fears about herself. I must have clutched at it, for it was later found that all my fingernails were torn off. The second sex scene took place 26 minutes into the episode. Getty Images. Later, when they met again, Ian had inherited the dukedom, but the eccentric 10th Duke, his late relation, had let things fall to wrack and ruin. History Hit brings you the stories that shaped the world through our award winning podcast network and an online history channel. She was among the VIP guests at his London memorial service. Her photo appears alongside each report. She is penniless, says Phelps. ', Louise Teboul similarly said: 'Watching A Very British Scandal with my mother-in-law and OH [other half] - didn't realise there was going to be so much sex in it - awkward. 25 Feb/23. She became a life-long patron of the designer, as well as Victor Stiebel and Angle Delanghe. He was a bad man before he went in,says Phelps. Foy plays the flamboyantly promiscuous Margaret, Duchess of Argyll who was branded a nymphomaniac by her husband Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll (played by Paul Bettany) in their toxic 1963 divorce hearing, whichbecame the longest and most costly of the 20th century. (Always a poodle, only a poodle! Whilst there may well have been an attraction between them, Margarets money was a key factor in the decision to marry: the Dukes ancestral home, Inveraray Castle, was crumbling and badly needed an injection of cash. The pictures had been discovered by her husband, who allegedly hired a locksmith to gain access to his wife's private papers. They featured Margaret the Duchess, a former debutante of the year, in her Art Deco-style bathroom at her Upper Grosvenor Street home dressed in nothing but her signature three-strand pearl necklace. For the Duchess of Argyll, the sex was not fake and neither was the humiliation. The first episode took place just 16 minutes into the first episode, between Margaret and an unnamed stranger she meets at a fun-filled dinner party. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1980", "For sale: London residence where Duchess scandalised society", "Tony Wilson 'Britain's finest live presenter', "Duchess of Argyll's funeral demonstrates that feelings will not rest", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_Campbell,_Duchess_of_Argyll&oldid=1126443115, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Her divorce from the Duke of Argyll was dramatised in the, This page was last edited on 9 December 2022, at 10:25. Central to the case was a set of blurry Polaroid snaps taken via the bathroom mirror of the duchess's Mayfair apartment of her wearing nothing but her signature triple string of pearls. There was no legal recourse. As a young woman I had been constantly photographed, written about, flattered, admired, included in the Ten Best-Dressed Women in the World list, and mentioned by Cole Porter in the words of his hit song "You're the Top". Having got her own way for 51 years, it is little wonder she behaved badly to try to keep on getting it. Her father, the son of Scottish lawyer and cricketer David Dundas Whigham, was chairman of the Celanese Corporation of Britain and North America. You feel exposed. In 1943, she fell nearly 40ft down a lift shaft, surviving but with a significant trauma to her head: many say the fall altered her personality, and that she was a different woman afterwards. How did it come to this? The judge commented that the Duchess had indulged in "disgusting sexual activities". In the aftermath of the scandal, Lord Denning was tasked with investigating whether any breaches of national security had been caused by Profumo's tryst with Keeler. By Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images. Historical Trips - Book your next historical adventure, 6 Secret Historic Gardens in the United Kingdom, Join Dan Snow for the Anniversary of the D-Day Landings, War of The Worlds: The Most Infamous Radio Broadcast in History, The King Revealed: 10 Fascinating Facts About Elvis Presley, 10 Facts About American Poet Robert Frost. A wealthy heiress and one of the most colourful figures of the swinging sixties, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, married the Duke of Argyll, her second husband, in 1951. Second World War veteran or not, he is without any redeeming grace or even charm. That romance also ended without the couple formalising their liaison, since the mother of two "feared that Ted was not 'stepfather material'". Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, at an event with her friend, Lady Edith Foxwell, in 1959. Inside Wealth-Conference Con Man Anthony Ritossas Wild Web of Lies, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodwards Daughters Appreciated the Fuck Hut Detail Too. You can't help but feel exploited. Buy now for 16.99 at books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 . Wedding to American golfer Charles Sweeny in 1933, Being Presented at the third court of the season in 1934, Recuperating in Hove following a fall down a lift shaft in 1934, Marrying the Duke of Argyll at Caxton Hall in 1951, With Frances at a Lancaster House Party in 1955, With Frances at Queen Charlotte's Ball at The Grosvenor House in 1955, With the Duke of Argyll leaving the pier at Tobermory in 1956, With Frances at Beirut's St George's Hotel in 1958, Outside the law courts in the Strand before being sued for slander and libel by her former social secretary Yvonne MacPherson in 1960, With the Duke of Argyll at the family seat, Inveraray Castle, in 1960, At the premiere of Kings Of Kings in 1961, At Zia Foxwell and David Kruger's wedding in 1969, With her poodle Louis at her Mayfair apartment in 1985, At the opening night of Chess The Musical in 1986, At the Hairdresser of the Year party in 1986, At her Grosvenor House apartment with Louis in 1989, The society beauty found herself at the centre of a toxic divorce case in 1963, after it emerged that both she and her husband had conducted multiple extra-marital affairs. Thats when I began entertaining. You do feel exploited when you are a woman and you are having to perform fake sex on screen. I had become a duchess and mistress of a historic castle. After the historic case she never remarried, and lost much of her fortune in later life. But that didn't stop the Duke and his guest from sleeping together. Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, with her daughter Frances Helen Sweeney . I dont think anybody has real style or class any more, Margaret told The New York Times. The couple married in 1951, but their marriage soon turned sour after the Duke accused Margaret of being unfaithful. As a divorce, she threw lavish parties whose success she attributed to the fact that she only invited beautiful women because she thought it restful for men to rest their gaze on them. After tying the knot the couple lived in luxury, skiing in St Moritz, sailing in the Bahamas and holidaying in St Tropez. Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll is a fascinating and infuriating subject, for history has not been kind to her. This is a morality tale. Her first marriage to Sweeny ended after the war as first he and later she started various affairs. My daughter had married a duke. Margaret Campbell, born in 1912 to a Scottish millionaire, was a British socialite who frequented the 'best dressed' pages of many a magazine and was. She died aged 80 in 1993. The top was what I was supposed to be. (One series) Rather than clarifying the relationships, which would have outed her friends, Margaret refused to comment. The Grit in the Pearl von Lyndsy Spence (ISBN 978--7509-9106-3) online kaufen | Sofort-Download - lehmanns.de She lost her home and, although eventually reconciled with Frances, her children put her in a nursing home in London, where she died penniless in 1993. "I fell forty feet to the bottom of the lift shaft", she later recalled. "Together they are absolutely the essential things in life."[29]. As such, Margaret developed a stammer for which she was treated unsuccessfully by Lionel Logue, King George VI's speech therapist. The house was always packed with the most amusing people, sometimes 18 to dinner with another 10 joining afterwards, she told her biographer. With irrefutable evidence, Argyll was granted his divorce. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Margarets privacy had been violated and sexual desires condemned because she was a woman. As indisputable proof of the duchesss misadventure, however, the Polaroids were the clincher. But the story is too good for me to tell it all to you you must watch the biopic. But she would be remembered for just one thing: the so-called 'divorce of the century', which ended her marriage to the Duke of Argyll in 1963. [2], In fact, Margaret was not mentioned in Porter's original version of "You're the Top". She was briefly engaged to the Earl of Warwick, before marrying Charles Sweeny, a fellow wealthy American. I do not forget. Bettany plays the duke with an absolute absence of sympathy. A Very British Scandal continues on BBC1 tonight and tomorrow at 9pm. The full depth of his cruelty comes as a shock, though. Having sunk much of her fortune into Inveraray, she was also broke. Life was so simple. Many have retrospectively described her as the first woman to be publicly slut-shamed, and whilst the term is somewhat anachronistic, it was certainly one of the first times a womans sexuality was quite so publicly, roundly and explicitly condemned. The sex symbol confessed that "girls thought I was a jokea happy buffoon," before he met his wife. Ethel Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll ( ne Whigham, formerly Sweeny; 1 December 1912 - 25 July 1993) was a Scottish heiress, socialite, and aristocrat who was most famous for her 1951 marriage and much-publicised 1963 divorce from her second husband, Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll. Business, Economics, and Finance. [12] He suspected the Duchess of infidelity and, while she was in New York, engaged a locksmith to break open a cupboard at their Mayfair home, 48 Upper Grosvenor Street. Margaret's rumoured affair with the ex-press officer at the Savoy was named as one of the key affairs in the divorce proceedings. The mystery was only recently put to bed by Lady Colin Campbell, who disclosed in 2013 that the man was the American executive Bill Lyons. The man is summed up when we see him at his hobby, collecting butterflies and mounting them on a board with a pin through the thorax. Most famous of said scandals was the infamous divorce case bought by Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll. The couple married in 1951, but their marriage soon turned sour. [8], In 1943, Margaret had a near-fatal fall down a lift shaft. Before she became known as the Duchess of Argyll, Margaret Whigham, born 1912, was an heiress of a Scottish businessman and millionaire. The first woman to be slut shamed. [18], The Duchess wrote a memoir, Forget Not (published by W. H. Allen Ltd in 1975) which was reviewed negatively for its name-dropping and air of entitlement. That, and three strands of pearls, she reportedly said at the time. The duke began proceedings on grounds of infidelity. Bogus deeds of gift not worth the paper they were written on. She cannot have spoilt herself. Nearly 30 years after her death, the story of the Duchess and her sensational downfall has been dramatised on screen in the BBC's A . Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon Brilliant Rivals, Hitler vs Stalin: The Battle for Stalingrad, How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Humanity, Hasdrubal Barca: How Hannibals Fight Against Rome Depended on His Brother, Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage, Bones in the Attic: The Forgotten Fallen of Waterloo, The Rise and Fall of Charles Ponzi: How a Pyramid Scheme Changed the Face of Finance Forever. Their wedding day in 1933 was a glamorous affair, stopping traffic for three hours as 2,000 guests attended the Brompton Oratory in west London while another 2,000 onlookers gathered to see the stunning 28ft train to her Norman Hartnell wedding gown. He claimed she had taken on an amazing 88 lovers, including cabinet ministers, Hollywood stars and royals, during their marriage. Margaret, nicknamed "the dirty duchess" by the press, died in 1993 at age 80 in a nursing home after a long illness. Margaret, the Duchess of Argyll on the June 1969 cover of Tatler. Following the scandal, he offered to resign from the cabinet but his resignation was declined. The first woman to have been the victim of hacking, in that her own diaries and photos were stolen and used against her. After a teen dalliance with actor David Niven, she dated Pakistani diplomat Aly Khan, millionaire aviator Glen Kidston, publishing heir Max Aitken, and Prince George, Duke of Kent, before settling down for the first of two marriages. Viewers could have expected a fair few sex scenes in the series, after Foy said ahead of its launch that she finds filming them unpleasant, and that they make her feel 'exposed' and 'exploited'. [1], Ethel Margaret Whigham was the only child of Helen Mann Hannay and George Hay Whigham. She struck a lonely figure many times during the first hour, whether trying to entertain her step-children or plunging into a one-night stand after a party, but she never looked more alone than when the public turned on her. We will send you the latest TV programmes, podcast episodes and articles, as well as exclusive offers from our shop and carefully selected partners. I apparently fell onto my knees and cracked the back of my head against the wall". Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. At the time of their first meeting, the Duke was still married to Louise Timpson. Her husband accused her of having dozens of lovers: He estimated the total at 88. One of the explicit photographs presented in court was a Polaroid of the Duchess, wearing nothing but her signature triple-string of pearls, standing next to an unidentified man. They make a quick but racy stop-off in a cleaning cupboard, before going up to see Margaret's parents. Inventing Ivana Trump: Her Improbable Rise and Tragic Death. Her attitude to the sanctity of marriage was what moderns would call enlightened but which in plain language was wholly immoral.'.

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