201. Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Duchess of Marlborough

Come aboard, friends - today we have a Gilded Age roller coaster!  Consuelo Vanderbilt wasn't born royal - she wasn't even born in a monarchy! But she did grow up in a sort of dictatorship, with a controlling, overbearing mother who demanded that this American daughter of wealth marry into the British aristocracy, whether Consuelo wanted that or not. When Consuelo was a teenager, and her mother Alva learned that her daughter had entered into a secret engagement, Alva locked Consuelo in her room and eventually convinced her that Alva would die of a heart attack if she continued to disobey her mother. So it was that Consuelo became the Duchess of Marlborough, an unhappy union that nonetheless made her a social success in Great Britain, as well as a popular champion of the poor and less fortunate. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on Trashy Royals, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the death of Edwina Mountbatten in 1960, Dickie still had another 19 years of living to do, and while he was single, he was in no way alone. He had romances with plenty of women in his later years, and according to many, he had male lovers - including, it is alleged, boys - as well. A mentor to Prince Charles, his advice to the young man may have contributed to what turned into the tragic marriage, divorce, and untimely death of Princess Diana, who was exactly the sort of woman that Dickie encouraged the playboy prince to settle down with. The men remained close through the end of Dickie's life, and Charles delivered the eulogy at both of Dickie's services in 1979. Dickie was clearly a charming older man who counted Shirley MacClaine, Barbara Cartland, Christina Ford, and Sacha Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, who was also his god daughter, among his paramours. Let's say it was all pretty complicated, but that would only be keeping with rest of his and Edwina's history. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Edwina took pains to lay low in Malta after the scandals of her affairs, Italy decided to exit the League of Nations and invade Ethiopia. To protect their children, she took them to Budapest and installed them in a hotel with their nanny and governess... and then forgot which hotel they were in. For months. As the summer of 1935 turned to fall, and then winter, they just stayed in their hotel until Edwina finally came across the paper she'd written the hotel's name on, tucked into the pocket of an outfit she hadn't worn in a while. Careless people. But then World War II came, and with so much asked of ordinary Britons, the privileged were required to step up. For perhaps the first time in her life, the skills and networking that Edwina had spent her life developing could suddenly be applied to a grand purpose: fundraising, organizing, lobbying for help in the United States. Louis was in the fight as a Naval officer, but Edwina was equally engaged, and the experience brought them together as never before. They would have further adventures together in India, overseeing the end of the Colonial period there, and form a distinct attachment to Indian Prime Minister Nehru that would last to the end of her life in 1960. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Programming note: This episode is a bit more explicit than most, including strong language and descriptions of sex. If you listen with wee ones, use your judgment. The early '30s were a roaring time for Edwina's various romances, though two in particular would have far-reaching implications for her lovers. The first, with American actor Paul Robeson, caused scandal in the London tabloids because Robeson was Black. The Royal Family considered the situation dire enough that they demanded that Louis and Edwina sue the tabloid that wrote it about for libel, and saw to it that the court would handle the case... carefully. An early morning hearing, of which no notice was given to anyone but the Mountbattens, resulted in a quick ruling in Edwina's favor, though the couple notably did not ask for damages. Paul Robeson himself was apparently quite wounded by the whole incident, having been close to Edwina and left to deal with the fallout on his own. The second notable affair was with Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson, a Grenada-born musician whom Edwina had met in New York City. She encouraged him to bring his talents to England, where he became a bona fide star of the 1920s and '30s, entertaining royals and society patrons, and his work gained national prominence with frequent airings on the BBC. During his dalliance with Edwina, there are rumors that the two became "stuck" in flagrante delicto, requiring transportation by ambulance in the pose that was causing them troubles. Louis was outraged especially by Edwina's affair with Hutch, and as the scandal grew, Hutch found that his royal and society patrons had abandoned him. In spite of his celebrity, the Mountbattens appear to have had a role in his near erasure from history. It's all reminiscent of Fitzgerald's line in Gatsby: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Roaring '20s turned into the '30s, Edwina's appetite for other lovers showed no sign of diminishing, and eventually led to a breaking point with her long-suffering husband, Louis. At one point, they decided that divorce was the best option, but quickly reconciled with new rules for their relationship: Edwina would be more discreet in her dalliances, which had previously been headline news, and Louis would be free to take lovers of his own. But a funny thing happened when he finally did - Edwina was jealous! Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It didn't take long for Edwina, young, rich, and alone while her husband Louis was away with the Navy, to begin flirtations and then affairs with various suitors. There were the young men of her social strata, to be sure, but there was also a scandalous rumored fling with the notably female American entertainer Sophie Tucker, "The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas." These affairs took a toll on her marriage and her relations with the British Royal Family, but also laid the template for the Mountbatten marriage. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Louis and Edwina Mountbatten would have a 38-year-long marriage, it isn't quite right to say it was a happy union. That first six months or so though - when they traveled through Europe and the United States, meeting Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and dining with President Warren G. Harding - was a magical time for the couple. Once they returned to England and settled into married life, things quickly went sideways. With Louis frequently at sea for long periods as a Naval officer, and Edwina living large on her huge pile of inherited money, perhaps they were destined to have an unusually promiscuous marriage. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As many will already know, it was the youngest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine who would become a prominent figure in the lives of the modern world of the Windsors. Young Louis Battenberg, later Louis Mountbatten, was known as Dickie to his confidants, and was stung early when his father, First Sea Lord of the British Navy, was removed from his post at the outbreak of WWI because of his German origins. The episode would motivate his son to excel in a Naval career to reclaim the title, and the then-Mountbattens' familial closeness with the House of Windsor would give him an avenue to real political power and influence. Edwina Ashley, future wife of Louis Mountbatten, was born into a family of means, but not of emotional connection. While her grandfather, Sir Ernest Cassel, was kind and involved, her parents left her sister and Edwina to mostly be raised by governesses. After her mother's death, Edwina's father married for a second time to a woman Louis would later describe as "a wicked woman." Edwina was ultimately able to find refuge in her grandfather's home, where as a teenager she became a sophisticated society hostess and a friend to many in the monied elite. Sir Ernest Cassel's death, when Edwina was about 20, made her one of the richest women in England. Upon her engagement to the much-less-rich Louis Mountbatten, Sir Anthony Eden noted in his diary, "Edwina Ashley is engaged to Lord Louis Mountbatten. What a waste." Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prince George of Battenberg, later the 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, was the third child of Louis Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, and was by all accounts a pretty good dude. Like his father, he set his sights on a naval career, and excelled at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, entering the Royal Navy in time to participate in World War I. His 1916 marriage to Countess Nadajda de Torby, called Nada by her friends, would become a source of significant scandal in 1934, when a former maid became a key witness in the high profile custody battle over young heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. The mail alleged on the stand that Nada and the girl's mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, were lovers, and the story was so salacious for its time that the judge cleared the courtroom entirely. After the family dropped "Battenberg" in favor of "Mountbatten" in 1917, at the height of anti-German sentiment in England, George Mountbatten would continue being one of the few stable presences in the life of Prince Philip, and Queen Elizabeth II, his eventual niece-in-law, was extremely fond of George. His death at the young age of 45, from bone marrow cancer, was yet another tragedy in young Philip's life, while Nada would remain close friends with Edwina Mountbatten, her sister-in-law, and the wife of Philip's next mentor, Louis Mountbatten. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second child of Prince Louis of Battenberg (later, Louis Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven) and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine was Princess Louise, born July 14, 1889. While most royal were promptly shuttled into marriage, Louise was an independent, progressive young woman whose heart was set on marrying for love. There were suitors, to be sure, but Louise was insistent that she would never marry a king or a widower, and of course, that the union be based on love. This led her down some blind alleys, most notably with a Scottish portrait and landscape artist living in Paris, whom she met when they worked together at a military hospital during the First World War. Alexander Stuart-Hill was charming but eccentric, and was decidedly not rich. Fearing her family's reaction, Louise kept the pair's engagement secret for two years; by the time she revealed her secret, her parents asked that she delay marriage until the war had ended. After Alexander visited the Mountbattens a few times, earning the nickname 'Shakespeare' from his would-be in-laws, Louis Mountbatten had to sit his poor daughter down and explain to her that there were people called homosexuals, and he believed her fiance was one. It's unclear precisely how this resolved between Louise and Alexander, beyond the fact that the engagement ended in 1918. Princess Louise would find love at last, however, and in a most unexpected place. Sweden's Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, recent widower of Louise's mother's cousin, visited London in 1923 and took a real shine to Louise, then into her 30s. Sure, he was a widower, and sure, he was destined to be King of Sweden, but at long last, Louise had fallen in love with someone who loved her back. Her new in-laws loved her, and she became the devoted step-mother of Gustav's children. As Princess and then Queen Consort, she was beloved by the people of Sweden for her rejection of royal airs, belief in gender equality and civil rights, humanitarian work during World War II, and democratic reforms to the monarchy. Listen ad-free at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices