The Duchess, Margaret Campbell, was a British socialite known for her lavish lifestyle and a string of high-profile affairs. 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 . Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. The Duke and Duchess of Argyll's divorce case was highly publicised, Margaret Campbell, The Duchess of Argyll, was accused of having over 80 lovers, The identity of the 'headless man' in the photo with Margaret Campbell has been speculated over the years, Claire Foy stars as Margaret Campbell in a Very British Scandal, Paul Bettany stars as Ian Campbell in A Very British Scandal. 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. An Exclusive First Look at Claire Foy in A Very British Scandal. Her lovers reportedly included comedy giant Bob Hope, French . found Polaroid photos of the duchess performing sex acts on a man whose face wasn't in the frame. Phelps hopes her new screen version of the court battle between the 11th Duke of Argyll and his supposedly unstable, "Dirty Duchess" will do something to restore the reputation of his wife, played by Foy. . . She also almost died during a horrific accident while visiting her chiropodist, in which she fell down a lift shaft. Heated debate breaks out after woman claims wiping just with loo roll alone ISNT enough - so which side do you fall on? One Polaroid image, in particular, taken in 1957, cast Margaret as an infamous trollop in the pages of the tabloids. One of the men accused of being one of Margaret's lovers, and named on a list that the Duke of Argyll produced in court, was the Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbank Jr. Over the four years that Margaret and her duke were facing off against each other in court, the press speculated wildly about all of Margarets sins, dubbing her The Dirty Duchess. After the historic case she never remarried, and lost much of her fortune in later life. For Margarets secrets, it was the apocalypse. She became a life-long patron of the designer, as well as Victor Stiebel and Angle Delanghe. . Orca Spotted Caring For Baby Pilot Whale. Oh, Peggy. Yet those were only his picturesque qualities. So when the press got wind of the truly sordid details of the case, all bets were off. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. There was the duchess, wearing only a string of pearls, pleasuring a standing man while on her knees. The Duchess of Argyll's story may have happened in 1963, but is more relevant than ever. Born to a Scottish millionaire, she grew up in New York City and attended some of the most exclusive private schools in the country alongside some of the best, brightest, and definitely wealthiest heirs and heiresses of her day. As the lyrics go: Youre Mussolini / Youre Mrs Sweeny. She was 35. A POLAROID picture was one of the key pieces of evidence in the scandalous divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. In their efforts to guess at the man, they dug up even more dirt on the duchess. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. When she was in her late 20s, Margaret was visiting her doctor on Bond Street when she fell a whopping 40 feet down an elevator shaft in a freak accident. ", News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. When the dust cleared, luck prevailed. "She. Im a cleaning whizz - three common products you need to ditch to save cash She had only one option. Even so, it paid off in a big way. One rumour suggests it was the former Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys (who later became the son-in-law of Winston Churchill). Sadly, thats not what happened, and Margaret may have been her own worst enemy. In light of her husbands allegations and jaw-dropping evidence, Margaret couldnt just sit back and take it. Rural population was 822858 (72.88%) and urban population was 306157 (27.12%). On the surface, it looked like she was on top of the world. On December 21 1960, the New York Daily News informed readers the Duchess of Argyll would soon jet home to London. 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. But in the months that followed, he truly exacted his pound of flesh. Margaret Campbell (ne Whigham) was born to a Scottish millionaire George Hay Whigham on 1 December 1912 and was enjoyed a privileged upbringing, spending much of . Naomi Gordon. Some peoples lives get strictly divided into before and afterbut nothing can hold a candle to what Margaret was about to experience. That May, she got word that her lover Glen Kidston had perished in a horrific plane crash. Somehow, Margaret simply couldnt make her bank account match her extravagant tastes, and she eventually had to move out of her notorious home, swapping it first for the Grosvenor House Hotel and then, at the urging of her children and her first husband Charles Sweeny, a meager apartment building. Who was the Duchess of Argyll? Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. The Duke and Duchess of Argyll's infamous 1963 divorce captured the public's attention with its twists and scandalous revelations. The Polaroid has since become known as 'the photo of the headless man', and the man's identity has long been the subject of speculation, with many books and programmes debating who he could have been. This is Foy as the Duchess, pearls included, of course: Campbells life was always a bit topsy-turvy, long before this sex scandal made her husbandless and penniless. . 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. With 88 possible lovers to choose from, the press had a field day hunting down who the man could be. During her marriage to Sweeney, she had three children, one who was a stillborn girl, as well as a son Brian and a daughter Frances (who went on to marry the Duke of Rutland), and she also suffered eight miscarriages. Although Prince Aly Khan loved to shower Margaret with affection and gifts, it was Kidston who really took her fancyeven though it was Kidston who was most dangerous of all. Following the scandal, he offered to resign from the cabinet but his resignation was declined. He has been granted day-release. After all, the flyboy was already married and had a young toddler at home. With this, the flood gates openedbut Margaret had her own stunning revelation waiting in the wings. October 25, 2021. This was his third marriage - after wedding Janet Gladys Aitken and Louise Hollingsworth Morris Vanneck. Although the former Duchess of Argyll was well into her 70s at this point, and might be excused for an early bedtime, it did point to an overall decline in her health. She was known as the Dirty Duchess after her split from the 11th Duke of Argyll led to a bitter and scandalous divorce. So when Margaret started staying out extra late and getting more distant, the Duke committed a creepy breach of trust. The photo, in which the man was only captured from the neck down, became knows as the 'headless man' Polaroid. He had much darker ones, too. The Crown star's return to on-screen high society sees her star alongside The Avengers' Paul . It was so secret that Margaret completely omitted this episode from her memoirs. But there will be no press release or big [imagesource: Bleecker Street]
Still, Margaret dove in headfirst anyway, solidifying her reputation as something of a Helen of Troy. The case left Margaret vilified by the press in a pre-sexual revolution Britain and branded the "Dirty Duchess," while her former husband, who was also accused of adultery, escaped similar . Lets just, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIIIs First Wife, Scorned Facts About Farida, Egypts Rejected Queen, Infamous Facts About Edwina Mountbatten, The High-Society Rebel, No-Nonsense Facts About Sophia of Nassau, The Woman Behind The King. The most extensive damage, however, was somewhere no one could yet see. His next idea would be the couples downfall. According to them, the man is almost certainly Hollywood actor Douglas Fairbanks Jra married man, at the time. . Her last shred of dignity went soon after. Margaret had only grown more beautiful as the years passed, and when she made her debut she was almost too gorgeous to look at. First, you need to get your hands on a camera. He was a notorious drinker and gambler, and was hooked on prescription medications to boot. Thanks for your help! In 1930, her parents presented her at court as a debutante, which was basically their way of saying she was ready to mingle with men and get married.
Claire Foy is taking on the role of Margaret Campbell, and Paul Bettany is playing her vengeful husband in a show that will air on the BBC early next year. After discovering explicit Polaroid photos, the Duke used these as evidence in the court case, including one that showed the Duchess wearing nothing but a string of pearls, standing next to a naked man whose head had been cut out of the photo. The case soon became very popular, with Margaret calling the 'dirty duchess' and the 'headless man' in the widely thought Polaroid images (Sir Winston Churchill . The case soon became a tabloid sensation, with Margaret dubbed the 'dirty duchess' and the identity of the 'headless man' in the Polaroid pictures being widely speculated on (Sir Winston Churchill's son-in-law, Duncan Sandys, was one of them, as it was reported only the Minister of Defence had access to a Polaroid camera). Unlike like her shocking accident in the elevator, this time Margaret was far too frail to survive. The creators of the documentary claimed Sandys' identity was "conclusively proved" by the duchess's claim that the only Polaroid camera in England at the time had been lent to the Ministry of Defence. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. There was also a polaroid of a man pleasuring himself, again headless. 12 years later, the duke sued for divorce, accusing Margaret of infidelity and producing evidence, in the form of Polaroid photographs of Margaret engaged in sexual acts, to prove it. The first photos of the scandalous new BBC drama A Very British Scandal starring Claire Foy have been released and there is all ready a lot of glamour to ogle over. By the early 1990s, Margaret was no longer able to take care of herself, and her children placed her in a nursing home. While granting the divorce, the judge said of Margaret that she 'was a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men.