Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener discretion advised.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty one, a socialite named Ethel Margaret Wigham
Speaker 1: held her nineteenth birthday party at the Embassy Club, one
Speaker 1: of London's most exclusive supper clubs at the time. It
Speaker 1: was the kind of place where film stars and royalty
Speaker 1: co mingled, and Margaret was the center of it all.
Speaker 1: She was the beautiful, wealthy daughter of a Scottish business man,
Speaker 1: and after her coming out as Debutante of the Year
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty she soon became a darling of London
Speaker 1: society thanks to her glamorous fashion and her aura of confidence.
Speaker 1: According to legend, the knight of the birthday party, Margaret
Speaker 1: had an astrologer predict her future. I see happiness, laughter,
Speaker 1: much love, but beware there is danger. Danger from what
Speaker 1: Margaret asked, treachery. The astrologer replied, you will be betrayed
Speaker 1: by the people you trust. Flash forward thirty years and Margaret,
Speaker 1: then fifty years old and the Duchess of Argyle, arrived
Speaker 1: at court wearing a tailored peacoat, mink rap and pearl earrings.
Speaker 1: She was there to begin the divorce proceedings from her
Speaker 1: second husband, the Duke of Argyle, which would end up
Speaker 1: being the longest and costliest divorce proceedings British history had
Speaker 1: ever seen. The couple had met after Margaret's divorce from
Speaker 1: her first husband, American businessman Charles Sweeney, but it soon
Speaker 1: became clear that Margaret had found another doomed match. The
Speaker 1: Duke was filing for divorce from his wife on the
Speaker 1: grounds of adultery, alleging that Margaret had taken eighty eight
Speaker 1: lovers in their time together, a list of lovers that
Speaker 1: included cabinet ministers, Hollywood actors, and royals. It was a
Speaker 1: tabloid frenzy, not only thanks to the couple's titles and
Speaker 1: the breadth of the accusation, but because of the voyeuristic
Speaker 1: intimate details that were being made public. Margaret later described
Speaker 1: her second husband as quote in every essence a Gemini Gemini.
Speaker 1: People are usually two faced, aren't they? You should never
Speaker 1: trust them? Charming and treacherous. The story of the Argyle
Speaker 1: divorce and the story of Margaret's life are both complicated
Speaker 1: ones to tell. It's hard to separate the truth from
Speaker 1: the tabloid narrative, and it's hard to discern what the
Speaker 1: truth even is at all. Margaret's recountenances are filled with contradictions, misrememberings, and,
Speaker 1: according to some outright lies. In more recent years, there
Speaker 1: have been attempts to reframe Britain's view of Margaret with
Speaker 1: our modern understanding of issues at play, like sledge shaming
Speaker 1: and ideas about revenge porn. Last year, the BBC aired
Speaker 1: the drama A Very British Scandal, which sought to paint
Speaker 1: a more nuanced, insightful portrait of the inner lives of
Speaker 1: the subjects at the heart of the scandal. But as
Speaker 1: you might imagine, television is meant to entertain, and the
Speaker 1: show still provides all of the sensationalized scandal that you
Speaker 1: might hope for from its title. Perhaps in the end,
Speaker 1: that's the only way you can really do justice to
Speaker 1: the story of the woman who thought of herself as
Speaker 1: a sensation. Later in life, Margaret would reflect quote, I
Speaker 1: had wealth, I had good looks. As a young woman,
Speaker 1: I had been constantly photographed, written about, out, flattered, admired.
Speaker 1: Included in the ten Best Dressed Women in the World
Speaker 1: list and mentioned by Cole Porter in the words of
Speaker 1: his hit song You're the Top, The top was what
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be. That last claim is actually
Speaker 1: only a half truth. In the original version of his
Speaker 1: song for the musical Anything Goes, Cole Porter never wrote
Speaker 1: a line about Margaret. The original lyric of the song
Speaker 1: and the one that is used today goes You're an
Speaker 1: O'Neill drama, your Whistler's Mama, great charming. But in there
Speaker 1: was a British production of Anything Goes with some of
Speaker 1: the lyrics anglicized by P. G. Woodhouse. Today, that one
Speaker 1: production is a curio of history with lyrics that sound
Speaker 1: not only less relevant but downright confusing to some listeners today.
Speaker 1: Whatever you're expecting the ang a sized lyric to be,
Speaker 1: it's probably not this, But the PG Woodhouse couplet goes
Speaker 1: your Mussolini, your Mrs Sweeney. Mrs Sweeney, of course, referencing Margaret.
Speaker 1: Any person who could share a lyric with Mussolini, where
Speaker 1: audiences would think, yes, those two people are of the
Speaker 1: same cultural cash a certainly deserves our historical examination. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: for all of the glamor of Margaret Wigham Sweeney Campbell's life,
Speaker 1: there was also a twisted undercurrent of pain and a
Speaker 1: now all too modern story about how tabloid media builds
Speaker 1: women up just to tear them down. I'm Danish sports
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Margaret was the only child
Speaker 1: of George Wigham, the millionaire chairman of the Selling Ease Corporation,
Speaker 1: and his wife Helen. Though Margaret was born on her
Speaker 1: maternal grandparents estate in a sleepy Scottish town a few
Speaker 1: miles outside of Glasgow, Margaret's first memory of a home
Speaker 1: was the Park Avenue apartment in New York City, where
Speaker 1: she spent much of her childhood. Margaret recalled having no
Speaker 1: friends as a girl, preferring to keep the company of
Speaker 1: teddy bears. When she wasn't with the Teddy's, she preferred
Speaker 1: the company of her parents. As the only child of
Speaker 1: a wealthy family, she became spoiled and close with her
Speaker 1: doting father. Her relationship with her mother was more difficult.
Speaker 1: Margaret would later recall that she would enter her mother's
Speaker 1: bedroom each morning, not knowing if she was going to
Speaker 1: be quote bright and loving or complaining and bad tempered.
Speaker 1: As Margaret grew up, her mother became obsessive over her
Speaker 1: daughter's appearance. The fixation with looks likely came from Helen's
Speaker 1: own childhood insecurities from never feeling like she was attractive
Speaker 1: enough compared to her siblings. The constant attention given to
Speaker 1: Margaret's looks, even though it was negative, made the young
Speaker 1: Margaret a self described vain little girl. Her mother also
Speaker 1: took issue with Margaret's developing stammer, which began after she
Speaker 1: was forced to start writing with her right hand, even
Speaker 1: though she was naturally left handed. Margaret was taken to
Speaker 1: London to be treated by Lionel Log, the same speech
Speaker 1: therapist who helped King George the sixth manage his stammer,
Speaker 1: who you might have seen portrayed by Jeffrey Rush in
Speaker 1: the movie The King's Speech. The real Lionels methods proved
Speaker 1: ineffective on Margaret, much to her mother's disappointment. Margaret would
Speaker 1: later recount her mother telling her, no matter how pretty
Speaker 1: you are, Margaret, you will get nowhere in life if
Speaker 1: you stammer. As Margaret grew older, the effect of a
Speaker 1: childhood without hearing the word no from her father began
Speaker 1: to cement in Margaret's personality. She believed that anything could
Speaker 1: be bought, and she had little respect for authority or
Speaker 1: for any adults who weren't her parents. Though Margaret was
Speaker 1: beginning to physically appear older and present herself as more sophisticated,
Speaker 1: she still doated on the teddy bears from her childhood,
Speaker 1: much to her mother's chagrin. One day, Margaret forgot to
Speaker 1: bring her teddy bears inside from the lawn and found
Speaker 1: them the next morning soaked and destroyed. She would consider
Speaker 1: this the spiritual end of her childhood. Margaret's mother soon
Speaker 1: gave her the talk, which Margaret recalled as going something
Speaker 1: like quote, it's this awful thing we women have to
Speaker 1: put up with, we close our eyes and bear it.
Speaker 1: Margaret had no desire to hear about this, and the
Speaker 1: discomfort with the topic of sex stuck with her for
Speaker 1: some time. Margaret's parents thought she was growing up too fast,
Speaker 1: and so she was transferred to the Heathfield School, where
Speaker 1: girls learned academics, played lacrosse, and attended twice daily prayer.
Speaker 1: None of that interested Margaret, who detested the school's expectations
Speaker 1: of conformity. She once retreated from her peers and noted
Speaker 1: that she had no friends at the school, proclaiming, quote,
Speaker 1: I don't like women in a mass I think they
Speaker 1: should be individuals. Margaret was brought to and from school
Speaker 1: every day in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, which probably
Speaker 1: provides some indication as to how her fellow students saw her.
Speaker 1: Margaret felt that the disdain with which the other girls
Speaker 1: treated her was earned simply because she was much more
Speaker 1: sophisticated than them. As the car drove away, she shouted
Speaker 1: bye bye, girls. Enjoy your hockey and your lacrosse. I'm
Speaker 1: off to a matinee in London. She She was at
Speaker 1: the school for only two months before her family was
Speaker 1: forced to make a decision. Margaret could live at the
Speaker 1: school as a boarder or she'd be forced to leave,
Speaker 1: so she left and began learning from a governess. During
Speaker 1: that time, Margaret found her passion for boys. She was
Speaker 1: surprised to find they liked her speech impediment, seeing it
Speaker 1: as a vulnerability they could care for, something she described
Speaker 1: as a cold comfort. When Margaret was fifteen, her family
Speaker 1: spent the Easter holiday at Benbridge on the Isle of Wight.
Speaker 1: It was there she met David Niven, a seventeen year
Speaker 1: old public schoolboy and future Oscar winning actor. Margaret became
Speaker 1: infatuated and soon lost her virginity to him. Even once
Speaker 1: she returned home from the vacation, she couldn't stop thinking
Speaker 1: about David, and she roped a friend into sneaking off
Speaker 1: to London with her to visit him, an incredibly bold
Speaker 1: move for a woman, let alone a fifteen year old
Speaker 1: girl of the time. Her rebellious streak came to a
Speaker 1: sudden halt when she learned she was pregnant. Her father
Speaker 1: was furious and all hell broke loose in the house.
Speaker 1: This was the nineteen twenties and teen pregnancy is still
Speaker 1: taboo today. Margaret underwent a secret abortion and no one
Speaker 1: was to speak of the quote incident again. In ninety nine,
Speaker 1: Margaret and her mother began preparing for Margaret's debut as
Speaker 1: a debutante, despite being a year younger than the typical
Speaker 1: deb Margaret reflected that quote, my mother must have realized
Speaker 1: that there was no holding me back. On May one,
Speaker 1: nine thirty, the first day of the London Social season,
Speaker 1: Margaret's coming out party was held. Their bold choice to
Speaker 1: kick off the season was backed up by an unlimited
Speaker 1: dress budget. They were determined to make a splash. Margaret's
Speaker 1: popularity with boys, while recently traumatizing to her family, led
Speaker 1: her mother to see Margaret in a new light. Margaret
Speaker 1: was no longer simply the stuttering, plain looking creature who
Speaker 1: seemed so foreign to her. The nineteen thirties wave of
Speaker 1: debutantes favored women like Margaret, bright and bold, fashionable and modern. Quote.
Speaker 1: The girls of the nineteen thirties not only had good looks,
Speaker 1: they knew how to dress, and they had far more
Speaker 1: self confidence than their predecessors. Margaret would later reflect. Margaret's
Speaker 1: party cost forty thousand pounds and entertained four hundred guests.
Speaker 1: She made her entrance to the sound of a big
Speaker 1: band orchestra, and she was dressed in a Norman Hartnell
Speaker 1: turquoise dress embroidered with diamonds and pearls. Her mother had
Speaker 1: insisted that she wear white, the traditional color for debutantes,
Speaker 1: but Mark Gret wanted to stand out from the others.
Speaker 1: She purposefully stained the white dress that her mom had
Speaker 1: bought for her, which of course forced her to change
Speaker 1: into the turquoise one. The dresses designer, Norman Hartnell would
Speaker 1: eventually become dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth the Second, and Margaret
Speaker 1: would credit herself with Hartnell's rise to fame, and we
Speaker 1: can't say she's entirely wrong. She was a bona fide sensation.
Speaker 1: One Society column summed it up by saying, quote, she's
Speaker 1: shown out above everyone else, as is fitting for the
Speaker 1: heroine of such an evening. Throughout the season, at just
Speaker 1: seventeen years old, she became one of the most photographed
Speaker 1: women in London, and magazines called her the prettiest debutante
Speaker 1: of the set. Margaret's celebrity was on the rise, and
Speaker 1: her mother, Helen began to grow exhausted by the number
Speaker 1: of different invitations her daughter received. Eventually, Helen stopped going
Speaker 1: with her altogether, leaving Margaret to attend events unschaper owned.
Speaker 1: It was during this time that Margaret developed what she
Speaker 1: called the Wigham system. She danced with any boy who
Speaker 1: asked her for the first half of the night, decide
Speaker 1: her favorites, and then dance only with them for the second.
Speaker 1: The men didn't mind, but other debs began to refer
Speaker 1: to her as quote that Maggie Wigham. That year, she
Speaker 1: also began to frequent clubs like the Embassy with a
Speaker 1: different number of men, including the Prince Ali Khan, who
Speaker 1: tried to marry her side note he would later marry
Speaker 1: Rita Hayworth. And Margaret also developed a sizeable friend group
Speaker 1: of other society women. One of the men she would
Speaker 1: eventually charm was American businessman Charles Sweeney, who claimed to
Speaker 1: initially dislike her. I could not stand her, he wrote
Speaker 1: to me. She was a conceited, garrulous show off whose
Speaker 1: company I avoided as much as I could. Their mutual
Speaker 1: friend groups made encounters unavoidable, and one night, due to
Speaker 1: them both ending up without a partner, they agreed to
Speaker 1: be each other's dates to the Embassy Club. Sweeney would
Speaker 1: write that that night changed everything. He quote fell under
Speaker 1: the spell of Margaret Wiggham's charm. After a few more dates,
Speaker 1: Charles Sweeney unofficially proposed, and she accepted. This meant the
Speaker 1: world to him, but little to Margaret, who didn't see
Speaker 1: proposals as real commitments. The proof is in the fact
Speaker 1: that she soon also became unofficially engaged to their friend
Speaker 1: Max Aitken. Neither of the men knowing about the engagement
Speaker 1: she had to the other. Eventually, despite a third, more
Speaker 1: formal engagement being thrown into the mix, Margaret had begun
Speaker 1: to see more of Sweeney, who was hurt by her
Speaker 1: betrayal of multiple engagements but still harbored feelings. Once Margaret
Speaker 1: had officially broken off the other engagements, she and Charles
Speaker 1: Sweeney became officially engaged. The wedding date was set, and
Speaker 1: her time as quote the Wigham as the press called her,
Speaker 1: was coming to an end. The wedding was a glamorous affair,
Speaker 1: so many onlookers and members of the press wanted to
Speaker 1: see her heart n all dress, which featured an eighteen
Speaker 1: foot train embroidered with orange blossoms that surrounding traffic was
Speaker 1: blocked for three hours. The literal traffic stopping dress was
Speaker 1: recently displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. After the wedding,
Speaker 1: Margaret would become pregnant, but it would be the first
Speaker 1: in a series of miscarriages, of which there would be
Speaker 1: eight total. During a later pregnancy, Margaret became so ill
Speaker 1: that the baby had to be delivered still born in
Speaker 1: order to save her life. Margaret fell into a deep depression,
Speaker 1: both from the loss of the child but also from
Speaker 1: Charlie's absence, despite staying at her side throughout her illness,
Speaker 1: as she recovered, he would visit her briefly in the
Speaker 1: hospital each night before heading out to a club. While
Speaker 1: it would still be a while before their divorce, that dynamic,
Speaker 1: no doubt reaffirmed Margaret's feeling that Charlie Sweeney did not
Speaker 1: see her for the person she was. That quote, all
Speaker 1: he wanted for a wife was a pretty brainless doll.
Speaker 1: She tried to be that for the next several years,
Speaker 1: but as World War Two began, their focus was torn
Speaker 1: away from their personal conflicts, and each contributed in their
Speaker 1: own way to the war effort. While the couple did
Speaker 1: eventually have two children together, the tears in their marriage
Speaker 1: were forever evident. Both of them committed adultery, but neither
Speaker 1: would accept the blame for the dissolution of the relationship.
Speaker 1: In the pair officially divorced, Margaret was thirty four years old.
Speaker 1: In the wake of the Second World War. The London
Speaker 1: social scene was just beginning to return, and Margaret was
Speaker 1: now ready to return with it. She would find the
Speaker 1: next major phase of her life beginning not in London, though,
Speaker 1: but on a train to Paris, where she would be
Speaker 1: seated across from a tall man with a pointed nose
Speaker 1: she'd come to learn that his name was Ian Campbell
Speaker 1: and that he would soon be the Duke of Argyle.
Speaker 1: He already knew who she was, apparently over a decade earlier,
Speaker 1: he had seen Margaret on the staircase of a London nightclub,
Speaker 1: and he turned to his wife at the time and said,
Speaker 1: quote that captivating creature is the woman I'm going to
Speaker 1: marry someday. Ian Douglas Campbell was penniless but titled. His
Speaker 1: great grandfather was the eighth Duke of Argyle, and thanks
Speaker 1: to the ninth and tenth not having sons, Ian inherited
Speaker 1: his family's title and home in Verae Castle from his
Speaker 1: second cousin, the eleventh Duke of Argyle, was a bit
Speaker 1: of a mad academic, and his neglect of the castle
Speaker 1: in favor of other pursuits saw it fall into ruin.
Speaker 1: That meant that Ian also inherited the responsibility of restoring
Speaker 1: the estate. For this he depended on his wife Janet
Speaker 1: and then his second wife Louise, both heiresses. Ian himself
Speaker 1: never worked and was addicted to alcohol, drugs, and gambling.
Speaker 1: Even before his dukedom, he was in deep debt. Both
Speaker 1: of his wives would later accuse him of abuse and
Speaker 1: squandering their money. Years later, his future son in law
Speaker 1: would describe him as quote one of the cold list
Speaker 1: nastiest men I've ever known in a wild cameo. That
Speaker 1: future son in law also just happened to be the
Speaker 1: writer Norman Mailer, who if you know anything about Norman Mailer,
Speaker 1: you know that he might have given Ian a run
Speaker 1: for his money in the bad husband department. But back
Speaker 1: to Ian and Margaret. When the pair met, they were
Speaker 1: both recently single, Ian and his wife having separated after
Speaker 1: the war on the ground of mutual adultery. I can
Speaker 1: imagine that pointing out other women he wanted to marry
Speaker 1: while the two were together didn't help. On that train
Speaker 1: ride to Paris where they met, Margaret was a sympathetic
Speaker 1: listener to ian struggles, and he to hers. Ian had
Speaker 1: been a prisoner of war and he was readjusting to
Speaker 1: a life of freedom. Both were starved for connection. Margaret
Speaker 1: invited Ian back to her home as soon as they
Speaker 1: arrived in London, and there they slept together for the
Speaker 1: first time. Margaret soon began to pursue Ian with the
Speaker 1: intention of marriage. Her first husband, Charlie, would later write
Speaker 1: in his memoir quote, she had always been intrigued by
Speaker 1: the idea of becoming a duchess Ian. By this point, officially,
Speaker 1: the Duke was still in the process of persuading Louise
Speaker 1: to agree to an official divorce. He was thrilled by
Speaker 1: Margaret's pursuit of him. This time, he didn't have to
Speaker 1: do the work of finding an heiress himself. Their courtship
Speaker 1: was largely secretive due to his status as technically a
Speaker 1: married man and hers as a divorcee. One night, they
Speaker 1: attended a West End play together, Ring Round the Moon,
Speaker 1: about a twins attempt to rescue his brother from what
Speaker 1: he believes will be a disastrous marriage. In hindsight, it
Speaker 1: seems like an omen that evening, Ian proposed to Margaret
Speaker 1: with the promise that as soon as the divorce with
Speaker 1: Louise was finalized, she would be his duchess. Of course,
Speaker 1: Margaret accepted. Ian's charm worked on Margaret's parents just as
Speaker 1: it had on her. They were impressed with his title,
Speaker 1: and they were excited at the prospect of their daughter
Speaker 1: becoming a duchess Ian. Even immediately charmed George into becoming
Speaker 1: a patron of the Campbell clan. And he pledged twenty
Speaker 1: five thousand pounds towards Inveray's restoration, with no return expected.
Speaker 1: Margaret herself was determined to bring the castle back to
Speaker 1: its former glory, and she blamed much of its current
Speaker 1: disarray on Louise, his ex wife, and not Ian himself.
Speaker 1: For Margaret and her father's donations, they received a deed
Speaker 1: of gift which will come back to bite her later.
Speaker 1: But in nineteen fifty one, Louise finally agreed to the divorce,
Speaker 1: but with Ian about to be officially mark it, he
Speaker 1: began to reveal his true colors for the first time. Unprompted,
Speaker 1: one night, he launched into a verbal attack on Margaret's children,
Speaker 1: her father, even Margaret herself. The next morning, she asked
Speaker 1: him what had provoked his rage, which only sent him
Speaker 1: into another tirade. This was just days before their wedding.
Speaker 1: She felt that it was too late to back out,
Speaker 1: and she was too ashamed to tell her father, who
Speaker 1: she knew would tell her to call off the marriage
Speaker 1: and prioritize her happiness, the advice that he had given
Speaker 1: her during one of her earlier engagements. Plus there was
Speaker 1: the guilt that Margaret felt about the money they had
Speaker 1: already sunk into Ian's castle, so Margaret wrote it off
Speaker 1: and went through with the marriage. On the eve of
Speaker 1: Margaret and Ian's wedding, she received a letter from her
Speaker 1: ex husband, Charlie, warning her not to marry Ian. Charlie
Speaker 1: had spoken Louise, who had told him of Ian's opportunistic
Speaker 1: scheming and his mistreatment of her and their sons. Charlie
Speaker 1: Sweeney wrote quote, I only hope you're not deluding yourself
Speaker 1: that Campbell is inspired by any great love, because he's not.
Speaker 1: Margaret ignored this letter, thinking that both Charlie and Louise
Speaker 1: were jealous bitter xes. Margaret and Ian were married on
Speaker 1: March twenty second, nine six hours after the divorce with
Speaker 1: Louise was official. It was a smaller ceremony, a far
Speaker 1: cry from Margaret's first wedding. This time, she wore a
Speaker 1: gray chiffon dress with a pussy bow, a feathered hat,
Speaker 1: and her signature set of pearls. The two honeymooned at Inverie,
Speaker 1: and she spent the time in workman's overalls. Immediately following
Speaker 1: through on her promise to help restore the castle, post
Speaker 1: of Margaret's work was unfruitful in very ray was beginning
Speaker 1: to seem like a lost cause. The money she was
Speaker 1: putting into the castle was also being put towards Ian's debts,
Speaker 1: which she learned about upon their return to the home.
Speaker 1: As much as Margaret cared about restoring the castle, she
Speaker 1: was not suited to life in the countryside, and it
Speaker 1: was agreed that Margaret would keep her home in London
Speaker 1: for social visits. As you might have predicted, Ian's character
Speaker 1: didn't improve after the wedding. He would often get into
Speaker 1: public altercations, and Margaret spent much of their time together
Speaker 1: in public apologizing for him. His verbal abuse eventually escalated
Speaker 1: into physical violence, and during a trip to Jamaica, Margaret
Speaker 1: remembers an acquaintance having to rush into their room to
Speaker 1: stop Ian from physically attacking her. Margaret attempted to prevent
Speaker 1: her husband from drinking so often, hoping to return him
Speaker 1: to the man she originally knew. She offered to recreate
Speaker 1: his favorite club Whites, in their home so that he
Speaker 1: could avoid the party atmosphere, but he bitterly explained that
Speaker 1: he went to the club to escape her. Ian began
Speaker 1: to belittle her in front of her friends and As
Speaker 1: a result, her stammer started to worsen, which made it
Speaker 1: difficult for her to speak up for herself. Margaret later
Speaker 1: wrote that quote Ian had a markedly sadistic streak in
Speaker 1: his character. Things like that were done deliberately to hurt me,
Speaker 1: and hurt me they always did. I realized now that
Speaker 1: if I had not given him the satisfaction of knowing this,
Speaker 1: Ian would have been deprived of much pleasure. Their relationship
Speaker 1: was complicated by Ian's manipulative nature and Margaret's willingness to
Speaker 1: make excuses for it. Quote out, he toyed with me
Speaker 1: as a cat plays with a mouse. Every time he
Speaker 1: sent that I had come to the end of my tether.
Speaker 1: He would then choose to become his most agreeable self,
Speaker 1: ready to do anything to please me. Eventually, after three
Speaker 1: years of marriage, in Veray was ready to open to
Speaker 1: the public for tours. Ian took his role as duke
Speaker 1: seriously and spent his days greeting visitors and leading tours.
Speaker 1: Margaret was hopeful that he had turned a new leaf,
Speaker 1: but when the tourist season ended, he reverted right back
Speaker 1: to his old cruel ways. Margaret decided to take a
Speaker 1: trip abroad and their lives and eventually homes became separate.
Speaker 1: They remained married, but Margaret considered nineteen fifty six to
Speaker 1: be the real turning point for the rest of her life.
Speaker 1: This is where things take a turn for the soap operatic.
Speaker 1: The divorce wasn't actually the first legal proceeding that would
Speaker 1: make the Argyle's headlines. That was actually a libel suit
Speaker 1: against Margaret from Ian's secretary. Van McPherson was the widow
Speaker 1: of a man who had been a prisoner of war
Speaker 1: with Ian, and so their connection between Ivan and Ian
Speaker 1: went beyond the typical employer employee relationship. Vaughan's loyalty to
Speaker 1: Ian was so apparent that Margaret began to believe that
Speaker 1: the two were conspiring against her. Margaret's assessment that Ian
Speaker 1: could do something drastic wasn't entirely out of nowhere. Ian
Speaker 1: had recently recovered from influenza, but had become addicted to
Speaker 1: drena mill, a drug that was so widely abused in
Speaker 1: the UK at the time that it's no longer prescribed.
Speaker 1: The drugs led to bouts of erratic behavior and mania.
Speaker 1: We don't know if Margaret's suspicions about Vane were accurate,
Speaker 1: but Ian was in act plotting against her with his
Speaker 1: doctor to have her certified as insane. Years earlier, Margaret
Speaker 1: had fallen down an elevator shaft and the pair in
Speaker 1: and his doctor wanted to claim that it had caused
Speaker 1: brain damage. To do so, they needed a note from
Speaker 1: Margaret's doctor, who had refused and informed her of their plan. Margaret,
Speaker 1: even having her paranoia validated, continued just to blame her
Speaker 1: husband's actions on the adrenalmal and so loyal as ever
Speaker 1: to her husband, Margaret focused on the belief that Yvonne
Speaker 1: was the one speaking to the press. She later claimed
Speaker 1: that the proprietor of the Daily Mail told her that
Speaker 1: Yvonne was on the books for years, but there's no
Speaker 1: actual evidence. Margaret was so convinced in fact, and so
Speaker 1: determined to prove her case that she sent in a
Speaker 1: fake telegram pretending it was from Van. It read quote
Speaker 1: rushing off for and days, but all as ready as
Speaker 1: we planned to tear strips off Margaret financially and otherwise
Speaker 1: A million thanks for your love, support and invaluable information
Speaker 1: without which I would be helpless. Happy Easter and then
Speaker 1: into battle side by side a Vaughan. Ian asked Margaret
Speaker 1: to apologize. She refused, and soon she received a letter
Speaker 1: notifying her that Van was suing her for damages. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, Ian and Margaret took a trip to
Speaker 1: Australia on ducal duty. There, Ian discovered the diary that
Speaker 1: Margaret had kept for the past three years. Inside were
Speaker 1: the names of half a dozen men and a meticulously
Speaker 1: recorded schedule that showed each time she had met with them.
Speaker 1: When Margaret discovered him with the diary, he accused her
Speaker 1: of cheating, and she didn't deny it. How could she
Speaker 1: really Ian flew home alone in the next day and
Speaker 1: their marriage was effectively over. Instead of following her husband
Speaker 1: back to England, Margaret extended the trip to New York.
Speaker 1: Ian took the opportunity to go through Margaret's belongings in
Speaker 1: their home. He hired a locksmith to break into her
Speaker 1: cupboards and stole her letters, diaries, and a Manila folder
Speaker 1: addressed to her. Inside were some notes of no consequence
Speaker 1: and two polaroid photos which would go on to become
Speaker 1: the central scandal that would mar Margaret's legacy for the
Speaker 1: rest of her life. The photos showed Margaret performing oral
Speaker 1: sex on an unidentified man who would become something of
Speaker 1: a folk legend as quote the Headless Man. Although Margaret's
Speaker 1: back is to the camera, she could easily be identified
Speaker 1: by her signature, pearls and hairstyle. Wrapped around the photographs
Speaker 1: were sheets of paper reading before during oh and finished.
Speaker 1: The polaroids, inflammatory as they were, didn't anger Ian as
Speaker 1: much as another piece of paper he found On a
Speaker 1: sheet of hotel parchment, Margaret had pasted fragments of words
Speaker 1: cut out from innocuous letters written by Louise, Ian's ex
Speaker 1: wife and the mother of his children. The excerpts, which
Speaker 1: included Louise's signature, were arranged into a fake letter in
Speaker 1: which she is questioning the paternity of her and ian sons.
Speaker 1: It seems that Margaret, in an attempt to save her
Speaker 1: status as Duchess, was seeking to discredit the legitimacy of
Speaker 1: Ian's sons from his first marriage and then have her
Speaker 1: own child with him. Or rather, Margaret was trying to
Speaker 1: fake a pregnancy by patting her stomach and later pass
Speaker 1: off a child as Ian's. She asked a Polish friend
Speaker 1: to bring her a baby to England. Don't be stupid,
Speaker 1: dear was the friend's response, and Margaret abandoned the plan,
Speaker 1: Although she kept all of the incriminating evidence. This was
Speaker 1: the final straw for Ian. He wasn't a particularly involved father,
Speaker 1: but his wife had crossed a clear line. Margaret was
Speaker 1: furious when she returned home to see that Ian had
Speaker 1: stolen her possessions, but she had yet to realize that
Speaker 1: he had also discovered her drafts of the forged letters
Speaker 1: from Louise. So when Margaret went through with the plan
Speaker 1: to quote find these letters and show them to Ian,
Speaker 1: it resulted in her second libel suit, this time from Louise.
Speaker 1: Ian knew that he had sufficient grounds for divorce, but
Speaker 1: he still needed the smoking gun, the diary that he
Speaker 1: had found in Australia. He devised a plan with his
Speaker 1: daughter Jean to raid Margaret's house for it. At six
Speaker 1: in the morning, they entered her home using a key
Speaker 1: that Ian had kept. Not having found what they were
Speaker 1: looking for in the study, they entered her bedroom, where
Speaker 1: Margaret was still sleeping. The noise woke her, and when
Speaker 1: she asked what they wanted, Jean held her down to
Speaker 1: the bed while Ian stole the diary from her bedside table.
Speaker 1: The two fled the scene immediately. Ian swiftly notified Margaret
Speaker 1: that his divorce petition was sent to the Court of
Speaker 1: Session in Edinburgh, and he informed her that she was
Speaker 1: now banned from Inverary Castle, which was only functioning because
Speaker 1: of her father's money. She would make sure that Ian
Speaker 1: remembered that, and soon she visited with her father and
Speaker 1: his new wife, Jane, who he married after Helen passing
Speaker 1: several years earlier. In perhaps the most bizarre accusation yet.
Speaker 1: During that trip, Margaret noticed Jane and Ian spending time
Speaker 1: alone together and concluded that they were having an affair.
Speaker 1: Margaret's paranoia was no doubt fueled by her view of
Speaker 1: Jane as an interloper in her and her father's relationship.
Speaker 1: After that trip, Margaret remained persistent in her assertion that
Speaker 1: she had a right to live in Inveraray, despite her
Speaker 1: clear distaste for country life, and so Ian formally acquired
Speaker 1: an interdict banning her from the castle. Margaret was given
Speaker 1: one day to retrieve her belongings and identify what was hers,
Speaker 1: as decreed by the deed of gift she and her
Speaker 1: father had received at the time of her engagement to Ian.
Speaker 1: Margaret would soon learn that the deed, like much of
Speaker 1: her early impression of her husband, was a facade. Ian
Speaker 1: had more gagged everything on Margaret's deed in nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 1: before they had even been married. Margaret's deed was worthless.
Speaker 1: In February of nineteen sixty two, Margaret and Ian arrived
Speaker 1: at the Edinburgh Court of Session. The courtroom was packed
Speaker 1: to capacity, with both British and foreign press, all eager
Speaker 1: to see what would become of the Duke and the
Speaker 1: quote dirty duchess. Presiding over the case was Lord Wheatley,
Speaker 1: a judge known for his harsh sentences for crimes involving sex.
Speaker 1: He also happened to be a member of the Campbell
Speaker 1: clan on his mother's side. The trial began with Ian
Speaker 1: presenting his evidence. Margaret's lawyer rejected the use of her
Speaker 1: diary on the grounds of confidentiality, but wheatly approved it
Speaker 1: and it remained the key piece of evidence. Ian was
Speaker 1: cross examined for five hours. Margaret was cross examined for thirteen,
Speaker 1: while Ian ultimately accused her of sleeping with eighty eight men.
Speaker 1: There were three who were brought into the trial. Baron
Speaker 1: Sigmund von Braun, a former Nazi and then West German
Speaker 1: ambassador to the u N John Cohene, an American businessman,
Speaker 1: and Peter Combe, the former chief press officer at the
Speaker 1: London Savoy Hotel. Worth noting is that of the eighty
Speaker 1: eight men that the Duke claimed he could list, a
Speaker 1: number were actually gay. Margaret didn't want to out her
Speaker 1: friends at a time when homosexuality was still a criminal offense,
Speaker 1: and so she didn't defend herself against the accusation. Of
Speaker 1: the three men who were brought into question, only Comb
Speaker 1: denied an affair. Margaret confessed she had an affair with
Speaker 1: von Braun, who was married, but it had happened before
Speaker 1: her own marriage to Ian. As their letters were not dated,
Speaker 1: the court couldn't conclude that she was lying. The evidence
Speaker 1: against Kohene was also too weak to utilize. That left
Speaker 1: Comb the sole defender present in court. He was twelve
Speaker 1: years younger than Margaret and she knew his mother, so
Speaker 1: Margaret claimed the relationship was strictly platonic. What she didn't
Speaker 1: know was that Ian had hired a private investigator to
Speaker 1: watch her, and the investigator had taken photographs of Comb
Speaker 1: leaving her house in the early hours of the morning.
Speaker 1: Margaret argued that Comb was helping her to take care
Speaker 1: of her beloved French poodles, but the judge dismissed that
Speaker 1: claim with the belief that Margaret would have entrusted that
Speaker 1: task to servants. Having gone through the diaries and the letters,
Speaker 1: only the polaroids, those pieces of evidence that would follow
Speaker 1: Margaret for the rest of her life remained. Initially, Margaret
Speaker 1: denied she was the one in the photographs, insisting they
Speaker 1: were from Ian's pornography. Collect once the court was able
Speaker 1: to identify that it was in fact her due to
Speaker 1: the specificity of the necklace and hair, she admitted that, yes,
Speaker 1: it was her, but she claimed the headless man was Ian.
Speaker 1: This story wasn't bought, but to prove that it wasn't him,
Speaker 1: Ian underwent a medical examination. It provided a win in court,
Speaker 1: but a loss in self esteem. As Margaret's biographer put
Speaker 1: it quote, Ian had to live with the humiliation of
Speaker 1: publicly declaring his lesser dimensions. Margaret never revealed the identity
Speaker 1: of the headless man, but it has been the topic
Speaker 1: of speculation for years. Was he a Hollywood actor politician?
Speaker 1: The British press debated for years it even prompted a
Speaker 1: personal investigation from the Master of Roles at the time,
Speaker 1: who came up with a scheme to compare the handwriting
Speaker 1: of government men he suspected as potential culprits to the
Speaker 1: handwriting on the captions of the Polaroid. It was a
Speaker 1: fruitless attempt. Ultimately, Ian was granted a divorce from Margaret
Speaker 1: on ground of adultery with Peter Comb in May, three
Speaker 1: months after the proceedings began. Margaret was not present when
Speaker 1: Lord Wheatley read his fifty thousand word judgment, a reading
Speaker 1: that lasted three hours and ten minutes. Ian was there, though,
Speaker 1: and he heard the judge his distant cousin describe his
Speaker 1: now ex wife as quote, a highly sexed woman who
Speaker 1: had ceased to be satisfied with normal relations and had
Speaker 1: started to indulge in what I can only describe as
Speaker 1: disgusting sexual activities to gratify a basic sexual appetite. Years later,
Speaker 1: in a rare interview, Margaret would reflect on Wheatley's judgment quote,
Speaker 1: I thought he was such a bastard. You don't attack
Speaker 1: if you're a judge, you judge, she said, mimicking balancing scales.
Speaker 1: It was the longest and costliest divorce Britain had ever
Speaker 1: seen up until that point. Margaret was ordered to pay
Speaker 1: seven eighths of the cost. Ian paid just one eight,
Speaker 1: seeing as that was all he could afford. Ian's own
Speaker 1: adultery was of little concern to Wheatley or the public
Speaker 1: at large. Margaret was given all sorts of nicknames in
Speaker 1: the press, all crude and none particularly clever. Quote dirty duchess,
Speaker 1: blowjob duchess, fallacio duchess. Some of the headlines at the
Speaker 1: time read such dirty linen in high places or She's
Speaker 1: a poisonous liar. Margaret was one of the earliest targets
Speaker 1: of the British presses relentless vitriolic vexation on a noble woman,
Speaker 1: a relation ship from the British press that we've seen
Speaker 1: in more recent years with women like Diana, Princess of
Speaker 1: Wales and Megan Markle. Calling Margaret a liar wasn't untrue.
Speaker 1: She had lied to Ian, and she had lied in court,
Speaker 1: but the press went steps beyond steps too far. Later
Speaker 1: in life, Margaret, who had been a tabloid star since seventeen,
Speaker 1: reflected that she had seen a drastic shift in the
Speaker 1: tabloid presses level of professionalism and their treatment of celebrities.
Speaker 1: In a very British statement, she remarked, quote, they've become
Speaker 1: very unkind to put it quite mildly. Just three weeks
Speaker 1: after the divorce was finalized, Ian married an American heiress
Speaker 1: with whom he had been having an affair for the
Speaker 1: past two years. He and the heiress remained together until
Speaker 1: his death in ninety three. Over the core of the
Speaker 1: years following the divorce, Ian sold the right to publish
Speaker 1: his and Margaret's private letters. His thirst for revenge, even
Speaker 1: after he had won in court, would come back to
Speaker 1: bite him. His beloved club Whites, where he had once
Speaker 1: went to quote escape Margaret voted him out on grounds
Speaker 1: of poor conduct. As for Margaret, she never remarried, but
Speaker 1: she continued to live her life as she always had.
Speaker 1: This included more men, more scandals, more legal conflicts, and
Speaker 1: more poodles. It's possible the poodles were maybe the truest
Speaker 1: loves of her life. When she eventually began to run
Speaker 1: out of money, she opened her London home up for tours.
Speaker 1: She was later forced to move into a suite in
Speaker 1: a hotel, and when she couldn't pay that rent, she
Speaker 1: moved into a nursing home, where she ultimately passed in
Speaker 1: nine she was eighty one years old. Two years later,
Speaker 1: an opera based on her life and divorce, titled Powder
Speaker 1: Her Face, premiered. To sum up his work, the composer
Speaker 1: Thomas A. Day quoted the phrase, even horrible people are tragic.
Speaker 1: That's the story of the Duchess of Argyle. But stick
Speaker 1: around to hear Margaret in her own words. So much
Speaker 1: of Noble Blood is me attempting to create portrayals of
Speaker 1: historical figures that are nuanced and empathetic but not fawning.
Speaker 1: I always try I to frame a story to be
Speaker 1: true to the fundamental humanity of the people involved. No
Speaker 1: one is all good or all bad. Everyone is products
Speaker 1: of their environment and experiences. But because this is a
Speaker 1: history podcast, often we're constructing our versions of figures from
Speaker 1: history from multiple sources. Sometimes, if we're lucky, we get
Speaker 1: their own writing, but usually it's from the writing of
Speaker 1: other people around them. My goal with this podcast is
Speaker 1: always to give voice to people from the past who
Speaker 1: maybe we never thought about in nuanced terms. In the
Speaker 1: case of the Duchess of our Gyle, we are afforded
Speaker 1: a rare gift her actual voice. Thanks to the BBC Archives,
Speaker 1: you can hear the Duchess actually speaking about her own
Speaker 1: life and her scandalous divorce. I'm linking a video in
Speaker 1: the episode description and I think it's well worth a
Speaker 1: listen to try to understand one of the most impossibly
Speaker 1: complicated women in history in her own words. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Speaker 1: Danish Sports. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Il Kali, with supervising producer
Speaker 1: Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.