Central to the evidence that damned Margaret was the Polaroid photos, obviously taken with her consent, with an unnamed lover who became known in the press as 'the headless man'. But there were disturbing indications of what really happened. Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, remains fascinating among a certain set. While in the nursing home bathroom one day, Margaret had a severe fall that broke her neck. An Exclusive First Look at Claire Foy in A Very British Scandal. 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 known for her vibrant, confident personality . 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. These matched the ones Ian Campbell held up in court. The Duchess and a very dirty divorce: The scandalous life of the Duchess of Argyle GRANTING the Duke of Argyll a divorce from his wife Margaret, the judge in the 1963 hearing painted a damning . The marriage did not last long before fractures began to form, and the duke, suspicious that his wife had been unfaithful, hired a locksmith to break into her private drawers while she was away in New York. She looks like a family woman, sitting alongside her husband, the Duke of Argyll and children, but thats only one picture. Jane Beadon (stepmother) 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. A POLAROID picture was one of the key pieces of evidence in the scandalous divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. 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. This laser focus on how she looked and not how she acted got her into big trouble. She was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful young women in the UK at the time, and her sexual adventures became the stuff of great gossip. Lyons was a "scion of a wealthy family" and was the duchess's lover for six years. Margaret agreed to marry him. had ceased to be satisfied with normal relations and had started to indulge in disgusting sexual activities. For Margarets secrets, it was the apocalypse. The dirty tricks begin to rain down: Margaret tries to prove that Ian's two sons, born from a first marriage, are illegitimate. Even her friends thought she completely lacked a sense of humor, and she called herself a bird brain. Traumatic elevator accident or not, Margarets personality had always beenodd. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, The Duke and Duchess of Argyll at their wedding in 1951. As she put it, All Charlie wanted in a wife was a pretty, brainless doll. Orca Spotted Caring For Baby Pilot Whale. (Image credit: BBC) In 1963 the Duke initiated divorce proceedings after discovering a selection of nude polaroid pictures of his wife upon breaking into a locked cupboard whilst she was away . In several photos, Margaret was wearing only a string of her trademark pearls. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. The photo, in which the man was only captured from the neck down, became knows as the 'headless man' Polaroid. 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. Socialite Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, was the talk of Britain in 1963. . Shortly after her birth, the family moved to New York, where Margaret spent . In the early days of Margarets married life, she happily anticipated bouncing babies and domestic bliss. But according to Sweeny, the woman who returned was not the wife he had known before. While the documentary suggested that both Duncan Sandys and Douglas Fairbank Jr could both possibly be the 'headless man', other sources have also speculated over the man's identity. "The Dirty Duchess of Argyll Was ahead of Her Time." Ben Macintyre, The Times, February 2, 2019. forever 'the Dirty Duchess' in the eyes of the public . where he found incriminating letters and 13 racy Polaroid photographs. It was more than enough for the Duke of Argyll to file . 'The Dirty Duchess'. She said: "There have been rumours over the years about who he was. In the photographs, the Duchess of Argyll was very much not alone. On brand for a high-class woman, and Margaret even quipped she was there to, "put the point of view of the horse". If Margaret, Duchess of Argyll gets away with this, what will all women do?" Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, at an event with her friend, Lady Edith Foxwell, in 1959. Photo Credit: . 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. I have a lot of guides you can check out if you really want to get into the weeds, but here's a quick run-down on what's out there: Polaroid has started making cameras and film once more, and some of the new film is compatible with vintage Polaroid cameras.
Thus, the controversial Polaroid was unearthed, alongside another one with her standing naked (bar the pearl necklace) next to a man: In the court proceedings, Duncan Sandys, then Secretary of State for the Colonies and Winston Churchills son-in-law, was named as the man receiving oral sex, while film star Douglas Fairbanks Jr was named as the other man. 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. And once she was finally free, Margaret let loose. In a countersuit, she claimed that the duke had been unfaithful too, but not with just anyone. secret recording, bribery and an explicit Polaroid . But in the months that followed, he truly exacted his pound of flesh. Naked polaroid photos of her performing oral sex on a "Headless Man" (ie a man . As Margaret recalled, doctors thought she must have grabbed onto the elevator cablethis is what likely saved her lifebecause her fingernails were torn and bloody. She was known as the Dirty Duchess after her split from the 11th Duke of Argyll led to a bitter and scandalous divorce. She looked the woman up and down then drawled, Its not that sort of party. On brand for a high-class woman, and Margaret even quipped she was there to, put the point of view of the horse. Among her conquests was a broken engagement with the Texan banker Joseph Thomas as well as a dalliance with the curator for the Met, Theodore Rousseau. The photographs were taken on her newly-bought Polaroid camera, then commercially available in America in 1948, and the headless man (not so headless in additional snaps) had his own stash of . In their efforts to guess at the man, they dug up even more dirt on the duchess. 1. He had much darker ones, too. A POLAROID picture was one of the key pieces of evidence in the scandalous divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll. On our left in the image atop, is the Duchess of Argyll, Margaret Campbell. "Thats interesting in itself as these things that seem so serious at the time, on the front of the newspapers, and no one really remembers it at all," said Claire. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. She was presented as a debutante in 1930, and after early romances with Prince Aly Khan, aviator Glen Kidston, Baron Martin Stillman von Brabus and publishing heir Max Aitken (later the second Lord Beaverbrook) and Prince George, Duke of Kent, she became engaged to Charles Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick. Comply with the table below to know Chuadanga to Khulna train ticket price for all classes. During the divorce proceedings, the Duke produced various incriminating letters and photographs, which he took from the Duchess's Mayfair home. All Rights Reserved. In fact, in the summer of 1928, Margaret caught the eye of an older boy: The 18-year-old David Niven, who later became a Hollywood actor. 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. She claimed he had slept with her own stepmother, Jane Corby Whigham. Destiny Rogers 21 December 2021. Thanks for your help! But dont take this to mean Margaret was settling down.
Paul Bettany and Claire Foy as the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, in the A Very British Scandal. The Channel 4 documentary "proved" that Sandys is the 'headless man', based on a claim from Margaret that the only Polaroid camera in the country at the time had been lent to the Ministry of Defence. Claire Foy is resplendent in pearl necklaces, pillbox hats, fur shawls and satin evening gloves as she reenters the unforgiving world of aristocracy to play the Duchess of Argyll for BBC One's A Very British Scandal. And when she did finally become pregnant for more than a handful of months, it somehow got worse. When the beautiful textile heiress Margaret . Oh, Peggy. Sadly, thats not what happened, and Margaret may have been her own worst enemy. Chuadanga had a literacy rate of 45.91% for the population 7 years and above: 46.88% for males and 44.93% for females. It was a (failed) ploy to safeguard her own powerbut if you think that Margaret stopped there, youre extremely wrong. Margarets reply was cutting. In the documentary, the makers stated that Margaret said at the time that the only Polaroid camera in the country at the time had been lent to the Ministry of Defence - although the claims have never been confirmed. Instead of going for either Greville or Aiken, she dumped them both and went with another man entirely: The businessman and avid golfer Charles Sweeny. One Polaroid image, in particular, taken in 1957, cast Margaret as an infamous trollop in the pages of the tabloids. 1928 was a terrifying time to be an unwed mother, so Margaret took drastic action. Instead, Margaret had become erratic and impulsive with, most alarmingly, nymphomaniac tendencies. According to Lord Wheatley, the judge on the case, he had the morals of a tomcat. With this, the flood gates openedbut Margaret had her own stunning revelation waiting in the wings. From that point on, nothing would be the same again. Indeed, she was usually performing acts on men who were not the Duke of Argyll. [1] Only, before she could do irreparable damage to the Kidston union, disaster came knocking. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. BBC One's follow up to the 2018 A Very English Scandal . So when the press got wind of the truly sordid details of the case, all bets were off. By Hayley Maitland. According to the 2011 Bangladesh census, Chuadanga District had a population of 1,129,015, of which 564,819 were males and 564,196 females. They also claimed that Duncan Sandys agreed to resign following the scandal, but that his resignation was refused. On 22 March 1951, Margaret, 38 at the time, married Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll. Amazon has even produced a series in 2022, A Very British Scandal, based on her electrifying court battle with her husbandin it, Claire Foy plays Margaret, while Paul Bettany plays Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIIIs first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. You know, this despite the fact that Margaret had certainly been out among men for quite some time. 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. Well, karma comes for us all, and it was coming for Margaret. The duchess, he declared, was "a highly sexed woman who ha. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. 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. Rescuers located Margaret, and, miraculously, she was still alive. He was a notorious drinker and gambler, and was hooked on prescription medications to boot. Looking back, this may have been the point it all began to unravel. "When I contacted the son of Joe Thomas, the New York stockbroker she fell in love with after her marriage to Charles Sweeney broke down, he told me about the Polaroids he had found in his dads trunk. David Niven met Margaret while the two of them were on holiday on the Isle of Wight. She was the belle of yet another society wedding, she had a title and a powerful husband, and people still considered her one of the best-dressed women in the world. . As Margaret later related, I apparently fell on to my knees and cracked the back of my head against the wall. For the beautiful daughter of a millionaire, it spelled instant infamy and would likely damage her reputation forever if it got out to her peers. Margarets family was eminently respectable, and they couldnt have a single whiff of their daughters so-called disgrace getting out. Subs offer. Yet the wedding was not to be, as she was soon swept off her feet by the wealthy American, Charles Sweeney, who instead became her first husband. We want our readers to trust us. Not that men didnt try: By the end of the season, the court named her their debutante of the year and Margaret had her pick of suitors, any of whom would eat out of the palm of her hand if shed asked. miniseries . The centre of the country's first major slut-shaming case, socialite Margaret, Duchess of Argyll . She also almost died during a horrific accident while visiting her chiropodist, in which she fell down a lift shaft. There is still much speculation about who exactly the headless man was, but some historians believe we can put the answer to bed. Whether or not Sandys was the headless man, he was certainly a lover of Margarets, and offered his resignation when the scandal broke. Seat Classes. Im a baby naming pro and these are the top so far for this year - would you add them to your list? That May, she got word that her lover Glen Kidston had perished in a horrific plane crash. The photos were part of a lawsuit filed by the Duke against the duchess as part of a divorce proceedings, and a list of 88 men accused of having sex with her in the backyard. Naomi Gordon. Her attitude to the sanctity of marriage was what moderns would call enlightened but which in plain language was wholly immoral.'. . Rural population was 822858 (72.88%) and urban population was 306157 (27.12%). Margaret was utterly devastatedbut she didnt deal with her grief in the best of ways. 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. So when Wheatley eventually granted the divorce, he did it with biting cruelty, sneering that she was a completely promiscuous woman and wholly immoral in his final judgment. View our online Press Pack. Please let us know if a fact weve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect its inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. So one day while she was away in New York and he had ample time to sit and get more paranoid, he called up a locksmith and asked him to break into it. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. As a teenager, Margaret had gotten pregnant all too easily, but when she tried to have children with Sweeny it resulted in a heartbreaking eight miscarriages. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. Except the way she did it was cringeworthy: Soon, Margaret was giving paid tours of her home at 48 Upper Grosvenor Street, AKA the home where her ex-husband had first found those infamous photographs. She had only one option. Yet those were only his picturesque qualities. Both of them, though, show her wearing her iconic three-string pearls, jewellery that she had inherited from her grandmother. 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. Just two years after this episode, Margaret pulled a fast one on society. Although the couple's personal relationship had ended long before the divorce, The Duke of Argyll was furious at the numerous affairs Margaret had during their marriage. Although Margarets experiences with Niven were her first time with a man, one time in her case was very much enough. The Crown star will take on Margaret Campbell, the duchess, opposite Paul Bettany's Ian Campbell, Duke of Argyll . The reasons behind it were eye-opening. Some of the people she was accused of sleeping with were actually closeted gay men, yet if Margaret denied any of them as her lovers on those grounds, their (at the time criminal) secret would get out.