WEBVTT - The Argyll Scandal 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:05.240 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:16.840 and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. In nineteen 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:21.720 thirty one, a socialite named Ethel Margaret Wigham held her 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.800 nineteenth birthday party at the Embassy Club, one of London's 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.159 most exclusive supper clubs at the time. It was the 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:33.760 kind of place where film stars and royalty commingled, and 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.560 Margaret was the center of it all. She was the beautiful, 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.840 wealthy daughter of a Scottish businessman, and after her coming 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.280 out as Debutante of the Year in nineteen thirty she 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.279 soon became a darling of London society thanks to her 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:54.200 glamorous fashion and her aura of confidence. According to legend, 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:58.120 the night of the birthday party, Margaret had an astrologer 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:03.560 predict her future. I see happiness, laughter, much love, but 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:09.959 beware there is danger. Danger from what Margaret asked, treachery. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:14.319 The astrologer replied, you will be betrayed by the people 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:20.479 you trust. Flash forward thirty years and Margaret, then fifty 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.479 years old and the Duchess of Argyle, arrived at court 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:30.360 wearing a tailored peacoat, mink wrap and pearl earrings. She 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.560 was there to begin the divorce proceedings from her second husband, 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.080 the Duke of Argyle, which would end up being the 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:43.840 longest and costliest divorce proceedings British history had ever seen. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.600 The couple had met after Margaret's divorce from her first husband, 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:53.800 American businessman Charles Sweeney, but it soon became clear that 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:58.960 Margaret had found another doomed match. The Duke was filing 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.280 for divorce from his wife on the grounds of adultery, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.440 alleging that Margaret had taken eighty eight lovers in their 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.240 time together, a list of lovers that included cabinet ministers, 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:16.000 Hollywood actors, and royals. It was a tabloid frenzy, not 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.160 only thanks to the couple's titles and the breadth of 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:24.480 the accusation, but because of the voyeuristic intimate details that 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:29.240 were being made public. Margaret later described her second husband 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:34.560 as quote in every essence a Gemini Gemini. People are 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.239 usually two faced, aren't they? You should never trust them? 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:44.600 Charming and treacherous. The story of the Argyle divorce and 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:48.840 the story of Margaret's life are both complicated ones to tell. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.000 It's hard to separate the truth from the tabloid narrative, 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.320 and it's hard to discern what the truth even is 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:02.560 at all. Margaret's recountenances are filled with contradictions, misrememberings, and, 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.400 according to some outright lies. In more recent years, there 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.800 have been attempts to reframe Britain's view of Margaret with 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.120 our modern understanding of issues at play, like slutshaming and 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:19.560 ideas about revenge porn. Last year, the BBC aired the 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:23.680 drama A Very British Scandal, which sought to paint a 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.280 more nuanced, insightful portrait of the inner lives of the 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.760 subjects at the heart of the scandal. But as you 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.920 might imagine, television is meant to entertain, and the show 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.280 still provides all of the sensationalized scandal that you might 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.400 hope for from its title. Perhaps in the end, that's 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.240 the only way you can really do justice to the 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.560 story of the woman who thought of herself as a sensation. 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.520 Later in life, Margaret would reflect quote, I had wealth, 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:57.400 I had good looks as a young woman, I had 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:03.080 been constantly photographed, written about, flattered, admired. Included in the 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.840 ten Best Dressed Women in the World list and mentioned 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.520 by Cole Porter in the words of his hit song 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.400 You're the Top. The top was what I was supposed 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:18.360 to be. That last claim is actually only a half truth. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.960 In the original version of his song for the musical 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.840 Anything Goes, Coleporter never wrote a line about Margaret. The 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.320 original lyric of the song and the one that is 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:34.040 used today goes You're an O'Neill drama, your Whistler's Mama, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:39.560 great charming. But in nineteen thirty five there was a 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.120 British production of Anything Goes with some of the lyrics 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:48.039 anglicized by P. G. Woodhouse. Today, that one production is 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:52.920 a curio of history with lyrics that sound not only 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:58.279 less relevant but downright confusing to some listeners today. Whatever 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.560 you're expecting the angler size lyric to be, it's probably 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:08.000 not this, But the P. G. Woodhouse couplet goes your Mussolini, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:14.799 your missus Sweeney, missus Sweeney, of course, referencing Margaret. Any 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:19.120 person who could share a lyric with Mussolini, where audiences 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.440 would think, yes, those two people are of the same 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:29.640 cultural cachet certainly deserves our historical examination. Unfortunately, for all 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.720 of the glamour of Margaret Wigham Sweeney Campbell's life, there 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:38.080 was also a twisted undercurrent of pain and a now 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.880 all too modern story about how tabloid media builds women 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.200 up just to tear them down. I'm Danish Sports and 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:56.880 this is noble blood. Margaret was the only child of 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.919 George Wigham, the millionaire chairman of the selling Nanse Corporation, 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.440 and his wife Helen. Though Margaret was born on her 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.279 maternal grandparents estate in a sleepy Scottish town a few 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.200 miles outside of Glasgow, Margaret's first memory of a home 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.560 was the Park Avenue apartment in New York City, where 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.240 she spent much of her childhood. Margaret recalled having no 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.520 friends as a girl, preferring to keep the company of 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.240 teddy bears. When she wasn't with the teddies, she preferred 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.039 the company of her parents. As the only child of 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.120 a wealthy family, she became spoiled and close with her 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.560 doting father. Her relationship with her mother was more difficult. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.080 Margaret would later recall that she would enter her mother's 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.040 bedroom each morning, not knowing if she was going to 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:49.880 be quote bright and loving or complaining and bad tempered. 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.039 As Margaret grew up, her mother became obsessive over her 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:58.920 daughter's appearance. The fixation with looks likely came from Helen's 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.440 own childhood insecurities from never feeling like she was attractive 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.719 enough compared to her siblings. The constant attention given to 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.880 Margaret's looks, even though it was negative, made the young 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:17.240 Margaret a self described vain little girl. Her mother also 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.880 took issue with Margaret's developing stammer, which began after she 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.080 was forced to start writing with her right hand, even 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.760 though she was naturally left handed. Margaret was taken to 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.640 London to be treated by Lionel Lowe, the same speech 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.400 therapist who helped King George the sixth manage his stammer, 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.520 who you might have seen portrayed by Jeffrey Rush in 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:44.040 the movie The King's Speech. The real Lionel's methods proved 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:49.240 ineffective on Margaret, much to her mother's disappointment. Margaret would 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.840 later recount her mother telling her, no matter how pretty 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.760 you are, Margaret, you will get nowhere in life if 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:00.440 you stammer. As Margaret grew older, the effect of a 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.280 childhood without hearing the word no from her father began 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:09.000 to cement in Margaret's personality. She believed that anything could 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.480 be bought, and she had little respect for authority or 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.200 for any adults who weren't her parents. Though Margaret was 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.960 beginning to physically appear older and present herself as more sophisticated, 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.440 she still doated on the teddy bears from her childhood, 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.960 much to her mother's chagrin. One day, Margaret forgot to 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.160 bring her teddy bears inside from the lawn and found 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:37.040 them the next morning soaked and destroyed. She would consider 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:42.000 this the spiritual end of her childhood. Margaret's mother soon 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:46.840 gave her the talk, which Margaret recalled as going something 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.600 like quote, it's this awful thing we women have to 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.480 put up with, we close our eyes and bear it. 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.480 Margaret had no desire to hear about this, and the 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.880 discomfort with the topic of sex stuck with her for 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:05.319 some time. Margaret's parents thought she was growing up too fast, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.000 and so she was transferred to the Heathfield School, where 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:13.920 girls learned academics, played lacrosse, and attended twice daily prayer. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.520 None of that interested Margaret, who detested the school's expectations 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:23.840 of conformity. She once retreated from her peers and noted 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.199 that she had no friends at the school. Proclaiming quote, 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.960 I don't like women in a mass I think they 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:34.640 should be individuals. Margaret was brought to and from school 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:38.800 every day in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, which probably 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.480 provides some indication as to how her fellow students saw her. 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.000 Margaret felt that the disdain with which the other girls 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.920 treated her was earned simply because she was much more 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.120 sophisticated than them. As the car drove away, she shouted 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.320 bye bye, girls. Enjoy your hockey and your lacrosse. I'm 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.640 off to a matinee in London. She was at the 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.839 school for only two months before her family was forced 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.040 to make a decision. Margaret could live at the school 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.480 as a boarder or she'd be forced to leave, so 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:15.959 she left and began learning from a governess. During that time, 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.240 Margaret found her passion for boys. She was surprised to 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.520 find they liked her speech impediment, seeing it as of 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.360 vulnerability they could care for, something she described as a 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.840 cold comfort. When Margaret was fifteen, her family spent the 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.400 Easter holiday at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. It 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.800 was there she met David Niven, a seventeen year old 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:44.320 public schoolboy and future Oscar winning actor. Margaret became infatuated 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.640 and soon lost her virginity to him. Even when she 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.600 returned home from the vacation, she couldn't stop thinking about David, 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.400 and she roped a friend into sneaking off to London 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.480 with her to visit him, an incredibly bold move for 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.520 a woman, let alone a fifteen year old girl of 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.880 the time. Her rebellious streak came to a sudden halt 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.720 when she learned she was pregnant. Her father was furious 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:13.760 and all hell broke loose in the house. This was 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:18.200 the nineteen twenties and teen pregnancy is still taboo today. 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.000 Margaret underwent a secret abortion and no one was to 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:28.920 speak of the quote incident again. In nineteen twenty nine, 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.840 Margaret and her mother began preparing for Margaret's debut as 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.000 a debutante, despite being a year younger than the typical 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.400 deb Margaret reflected that quote, my mother must have realized 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.679 that there was no holding me back. On May first, 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.760 nineteen thirty, the first day of the London Social season, 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:53.600 Margaret's coming out party was held. Their bold choice to 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.479 kick off the season was backed up by an unlimited 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:02.679 dress budget. They were determined to make a splash. Margaret's 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:07.480 popularity with boys, while recently traumatizing to her family, led 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.120 her mother to see Margaret in a new light. Margaret 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.040 was no longer simply the stuttering, plain looking creature who 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:19.280 seemed so foreign to her. The nineteen thirty's wave of 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:26.640 debutantes favored women like Margaret, bright and bold, fashionable and modern. Quote. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.240 The girls of the nineteen thirties not only had good looks, 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:32.800 they knew how to dress, and they had far more 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:38.040 self confidence than their predecessors. Margaret would later reflect. Margaret's 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:43.360 party cost forty thousand pounds and entertained four hundred guests. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.560 She made her entrance to the sound of a big 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.200 band orchestra, and she was dressed in a Norman Hartnell 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:55.280 turquoise dress embroidered with diamonds and pearls. Her mother had 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.120 insisted that she wear white, the traditional color for debutantes, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.120 but Margaret wanted to stand out from the others. She 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.679 purposely stained the white dress that her mom had bought 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.319 for her, which of course forced her to change into 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.480 the turquoise one. The dress is designer Norman Hartnell would 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.840 eventually become dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth the scond and Margaret 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.840 would credit herself with Hartnell's rise to fame, and we 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.840 can't say she's entirely wrong. She was a bonafied sensation. 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.959 One society column summed it up by saying, quote, she 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.960 shone out above everyone else, as is fitting for the 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:40.080 heroine of such an evening. Throughout the season, at just 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:44.080 seventeen years old, she became one of the most photographed 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.960 women in London, and magazines called her the prettiest debutante 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:52.520 of the set. Margaret's celebrity was on the rise, and 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.000 her mother, Helen, began to grow exhausted by the number 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:01.079 of different invitations her daughter received. Eventually, Helen stopped going 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:06.480 with her altogether, leaving Margaret to attend events unchaperoned. It 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:10.040 was during this time that Margaret developed what she called 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.080 the Wigham system. She danced with any boy who asked 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.199 her for the first half of the night, decide her favorites, 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.360 and then dance only with them for the second. The 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.640 men didn't mind, but other debs began to refer to 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:29.240 her as quote that Maggie Wiggham. That year, she also 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.440 began to frequent clubs like the Embassy with a different 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.160 number of men, including the Prince Ali Khan, who tried 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.840 to marry her side note he would later marry Rita Hayworth. 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.640 And Margaret also developed a sizeable friend group of other 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.320 society women. One of the men she would eventually charm 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:53.240 was American businessman Charles Sweeney, who claimed to initially dislike her. 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.560 I could not stand her, he wrote to me. She 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.640 was a conceited, garrulous show off whose company I avoided 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.280 as much as I could. Their mutual friend groups made 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.480 encounters unavoidable, and one night, due to them both ending 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.440 up without a partner, they agreed to be each other's 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.360 dates to the Embassy Club. Sweeney would write that that 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:20.240 night changed everything. He quote fell under the spell of 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.880 Margaret Wigham's charm. After a few more dates, Charles Sweeney 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.560 unofficially proposed, and she accepted. This meant the world to him, 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:34.040 but little to Margaret, who didn't see proposals as real commitments. 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.040 The proof is in the fact that she soon also 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:41.560 became unofficially engaged to their friend Max Aiken. Neither of 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:46.480 the men knowing about the engagement she had to the other. Eventually, 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.520 despite a third, more formal engagement being thrown into the mix. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.000 Margaret had begun to see more of Sweeney, who was 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.760 hurt by her betrayal of multiple engagements but still harbored feelings. 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:03.120 Once more, Margaret had officially broken off the other engagements. 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:09.760 She and Charles Sweeney became officially engaged. The wedding date 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.760 was set, and her time as quote the Wigham as 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.160 the press called her, was coming to an end. The 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:22.120 wedding was a glamorous affair, so many onlookers and members 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.080 of the press wanted to see her heartnel dress, which 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.960 featured an eighteen foot train embroidered with orange blossoms that 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:35.440 surrounding traffic was blocked for three hours. The literal traffic 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:40.400 stopping dress was recently displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.040 After the wedding, Margaret would become pregnant, but it would 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.040 be the first in a series of miscarriages, of which 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.520 there would be eight total. During a later pregnancy, Margaret 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.480 became so ill that the baby had to be delivered 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.880 stillborn in order to save her life. Margaret fell into 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.480 a deep depression, both from the loss of the child 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:07.200 but also from Charlie's absence. Despite staying at her side 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.520 droughout her illness. As she recovered, he would visit her 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.840 briefly in the hospital each night before heading out to 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.480 a club. While it would still be a while before 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:22.200 their divorce, that dynamic, no doubt, reaffirmed Margaret's feeling that 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.720 Charlie Sweeney did not see her for the person she was. 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.119 That quote, all he wanted for a wife was a 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.080 pretty brainless doll. She tried to be that for the 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.800 next several years, but as World War II began, their 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:40.800 focus was torn away from their personal conflicts, and each 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.320 contributed in their own way to the war effort. While 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:48.200 the couple did eventually have two children together, the tears 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.800 in their marriage were forever evident. Both of them committed adultery, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.000 but neither would accept the blame for the dissolution of 0:17:56.040 --> 0:18:01.320 the relationship. In nineteen forty seven, the pair officially divorced. 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:06.960 Margaret was thirty four years old. In the wake of 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.760 the Second World War, the London social scene was just 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:15.360 beginning to return, and Margaret was now ready to return 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.159 with it. She would find the next major phase of 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.399 her life beginning not in London, though, but on a 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.560 train to Paris, where she would be seated across from 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:29.159 a tall man with a pointed nose. She'd come to 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.320 learn that his name was Ian Campbell and that he 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.120 would soon be the Duke of Argyle. He already knew 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.720 who she was. Apparently over a decade earlier, he had 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:44.720 seen Margaret on the staircase of a London nightclub, and 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.040 he turned to his wife at the time and said 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:53.119 quote that captivating creature is the woman I'm going to 0:18:53.200 --> 0:19:02.399 marry someday. Ian Douglas Campbell was penniless but titled. His 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.440 great grandfather was the eighth Duke of Argyle, and thanks 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:10.720 to the ninth and tenth not having sons, Ian inherited 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.520 his family's title and home in Verrey Castle from his 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.360 second cousin, the eleventh Duke of Argyle, was a bit 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.200 of a mad academic, and his neglect of the castle 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.679 in favor of other pursuits saw it fall into ruin. 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:30.400 That meant that Ian also inherited the responsibility of restoring 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.560 the estate. For this he depended on his wife Janet 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:39.600 and then his second wife Louise, both heiresses. Ian himself 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:44.399 never worked and was addicted to alcohol, drugs and gambling 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.160 even before his dukedom, he was in deep debt. Both 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.359 of his wives would later accuse him of abuse and 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.840 squandering their money. Years later, his future son in law 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.359 would describe him as quote one of the cold list 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:05.680 nastiest men I've ever known in a wild cameo. That 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.879 future son in law also just happened to be the 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.119 writer Norman Mahler, who if you know anything about Norman Mayler, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:15.440 you know that he might have given Ian a run 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.200 for his money in the bad husband department. But back 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.600 to Ian and Margaret. When the pair met, they were 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:27.600 both recently single, Ian and his wife having separated after 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:31.320 the war on the grounds of mutual adultery. I can 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.600 imagine that pointing out other women he wanted to marry 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.040 while the two were together didn't help. On that train 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.480 ride to Paris where they met, Margaret was a sympathetic 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.720 listener to ian struggles, and he to hers. Ian had 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.600 been a prisoner of war and he was readjusting to 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:53.600 a life of freedom. Both were starved for connection. Margaret 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.040 invited Ian back to her home as soon as they 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.080 arrived in London, and there they slept together for the 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.639 first time. Margaret soon began to pursue Ian with the 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:08.120 intention of marriage. Her first husband, Charlie would later write 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.119 in his memoir she had always been intrigued by the 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.760 idea of becoming a duchess Ian. By this point, officially, 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.480 the Duke was still in the process of persuading Louise 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.320 to agree to an official divorce. He was thrilled by 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.199 Margaret's pursuit of him. This time, he didn't have to 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.800 do the work of finding an heiress himself. Their courtship 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:35.000 was largely secretive due to his status as technically a 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.239 married man and hers as a divorcee. One night, they 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:43.080 attended a West End play together, Ring Round the Moon, 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.760 about a twins attempt to rescue his brother from what 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.800 he believes will be a disastrous marriage. In hindsight, it 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:55.840 seems like an omen that evening Ian proposed to Margaret 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:58.679 with the promise that as soon as the divorce with 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:03.440 Louise was finalized, she would be his duchess. Of course, 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:10.080 Margaret accepted. Ian's charm worked on Margaret's parents just as 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.959 it had on her. They were impressed with his title, 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.760 and they were excited at the prospect of their daughter 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:20.640 becoming a duchess Ian. Even immediately charmed George into becoming 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:24.840 a patron of the Campbell clan, and he pledged twenty 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:30.119 five thousand pounds towards Verrey's restoration, with no return expected. 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:34.520 Margaret herself was determined to bring the castle back to 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.119 its former glory, and she blamed much of its current 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:42.320 disarray on Louise, his ex wife, and not Ian himself. 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:47.320 For Margaret and her father's donations, they received a deed 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.840 of gift which will come back to bite her later. 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:56.640 But in nineteen fifty one, Louise finally agreed to the divorce, 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:01.280 but with Ian about to be officially Margaret, he began 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:06.359 to reveal his true colors for the first time. Unprompted, 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.840 one night, he launched into a verbal attack on Margaret's children, 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:16.359 her father, even Margaret herself. The next morning, she asked 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.640 him what had provoked his rage, which only sent him 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:23.879 into another tirade. This was just days before their wedding. 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:26.680 She felt that it was too late to back out, 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.040 and she was too ashamed to tell her father, who 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:32.560 she knew would tell her to call off the marriage 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.120 and prioritize her happiness, the advice that he had given 0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:39.720 her during one of her earlier engagements. Plus there was 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.520 the guilt that Margaret felt about the money they had 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:47.480 already sunk into Ian's castle, so Margaret wrote it off 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:50.800 and went through with the marriage. On the eve of 0:23:50.880 --> 0:23:54.160 Margaret and Ian's wedding, she received a letter from her 0:23:54.200 --> 0:23:59.040 ex husband, Charlie, warning her not to marry Ian. Charlie 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:02.159 had spoken with with Louise, who had told him of 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:07.040 Ian's opportunistic scheming and his mistreatment of her and their sons. 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:11.960 Charlie Sweeney wrote quote, I only hope you're not deluding 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:16.119 yourself that Campbell is inspired by any great love, because 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:21.639 he's not. Margaret ignored this letter, thinking that both Charlie 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:28.520 and Louise were jealous bitter exes. Margaret and Ian were 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:33.400 married on March twenty second, nineteen fifty one, six hours 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:37.199 after the divorce with Louise was official. It was a 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:42.280 smaller ceremony, a far cry from Margaret's first wedding. This time, 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:45.120 she wore a gray chiffon dress with a pussy bow, 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:49.719 a feathered hat, and her signature set of pearls. The 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:52.960 two honeymooned at Inveray, and she spent the time in 0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:57.680 workman's overalls immediately following through on her promise to help 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:03.720 restore the castle. Host of Margaret's work was unfruitful. Inverrat 0:25:04.119 --> 0:25:08.040 was beginning to seem like a lost cause. The money 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.920 she was putting into the castle was also being put 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:15.360 towards Ian's debts, which she learned about upon their return 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:19.280 to the home. As much as Margaret cared about restoring 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:23.240 the castle, she was not suited to life in the countryside, 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:26.400 and it was agreed that Margaret would keep her home 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:31.040 in London for social visits. As you might have predicted, 0:25:31.400 --> 0:25:36.320 Ian's character didn't improve after the wedding. He would often 0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:40.439 get into public altercations, and Margaret spent much of their 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:44.960 time together in public apologizing for him. His verbal abuse 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:49.720 eventually escalated into physical violence, and during a trip to Jamaica, 0:25:50.080 --> 0:25:54.160 Margaret remembers an acquaintance having to rush into their room 0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:58.959 to stop Ian from physically attacking her. Margaret attempted to 0:25:59.000 --> 0:26:02.840 prevent her husband from drinking so often, hoping to return 0:26:02.920 --> 0:26:06.159 him to the man she originally knew. She offered to 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:10.639 recreate his favorite club Whites, in their home so that 0:26:10.680 --> 0:26:15.040 he could avoid the party atmosphere, but he bitterly explained 0:26:15.440 --> 0:26:19.680 that he went to the club to escape her. Ian 0:26:20.119 --> 0:26:23.320 began to belittle her in front of her friends, and 0:26:23.440 --> 0:26:27.400 as a result, her stammer started to worsen, which made 0:26:27.400 --> 0:26:31.400 it difficult for her to speak up for herself. Margaret 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:36.160 later wrote that quote Ian had a markedly sadistic streak 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:39.800 in his character. Things like that were done deliberately to 0:26:39.920 --> 0:26:43.960 hurt me, and hurt me they always did. I realize 0:26:44.000 --> 0:26:46.680 now that if I had not given him the satisfaction 0:26:46.800 --> 0:26:50.600 of knowing this, Ian would have been deprived of much pleasure. 0:26:52.080 --> 0:26:57.240 Their relationship was complicated by Ian's manipulative nature and Margaret's 0:26:57.280 --> 0:27:01.359 willingness to make excuses for it. Quote he toyed with 0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:04.680 me as a cat plays with a mouse. Every time 0:27:04.720 --> 0:27:06.520 he sent that I had come to the end of 0:27:06.560 --> 0:27:09.359 my teather. He would then choose to become his most 0:27:09.400 --> 0:27:14.320 agreeable self, ready to do anything to please me. Eventually, 0:27:14.480 --> 0:27:18.280 after three years of marriage, Inveray was ready to open 0:27:18.320 --> 0:27:21.880 to the public for tours. Ian took his role as 0:27:21.960 --> 0:27:26.600 duke seriously and spent his days greeting visitors and leading tours. 0:27:27.480 --> 0:27:30.160 Margaret was hopeful that he had turned a new leaf, 0:27:30.600 --> 0:27:34.399 but when the tourist season ended, he reverted right back 0:27:34.440 --> 0:27:39.159 to his old cruel ways. Margaret decided to take a 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:44.800 trip abroad, and their lives and eventually homes became separate. 0:27:45.640 --> 0:27:50.239 They remained married, but Margaret considered nineteen fifty six to 0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:54.080 be the real turning point for the rest of her life. 0:27:54.920 --> 0:27:58.560 This is where things take a turn for the soap operatic. 0:27:59.400 --> 0:28:03.320 The divorce wasn't actually the first legal proceeding that would 0:28:03.320 --> 0:28:07.800