He was 27. She was 28. He invited her to leave the house of Aly Khan, where she remained even though she'd been left behind. Her affair with Aly was over. She went on a cruise with Gianni Agnelli to Capri. Soon he installed Pamela in his own villa which was not so far from the one she'd been left in that belonged to Aly.
Like Aly, Gianni was a man who saw women as conquests. It wasn't love that motivated him. But Gianni had met his match in that it wasn't love for her either. At least not right away.
She carefully worked to have him. Pamela established herself as a symbol of a man's importance. She was good at marketing herself. She had connections every man in business wanted. She helped him network - and that included Americans in the United States. She was an outstanding hostess. She could easily entertain on short notice. She was there for him.
A big plus for Pamela was that Gianni took interest in her son, little Winston, named after his grandfather, the legendary Winston Churchill I. Gianni bought her an apartment in Paris, small but with wonderful views. It was a grand place made special by hiring an esteemed decorator to make it beautiful. The decorator even purchased silk woven for Queen Marie Antoinette to upholster. To give you some idea of Pamela as Mistress's spending, an estimated $10,000 a year was spent just on fresh flowers for the apartment. In 1950 she gave up her London apartment that was rented by Averill Harriman and Agnelli got her another one which was larger, less glamorous, but one more to decorate exquisitely.
Gianni Agnelli gambled and partied. Some say that he always had other women and that his relationship with Pamela was not so much about sex, that she earned her keep by providing him contacts. However in Paris she was accepted as his mistress even though this also probably meant that she could not be considered a potential wife.
A chameleon who changed herself - even her accent - with each new important man in her life, Pamela was quiet and often spoke only to uphold her man to be admired by others.
Then she became pregnant and Gianni had her abort. Her marriage to Randolph Churchill was in the process of divorce. They couldn't have married even if he wanted to. Anticipating that her Protestantism was an obstacle, in the spring of 1950 she converted to Catholicism. She had her marriage to Randolph annulled by the Catholic Church, saying she had been young and foolish, which was granted in 1953. This so she and Gianni and she could marry in the church as his family expected.
She turned thirty.
What was the problem? His family, especially his sisters, were opposed to her. She knew it was over but she did not move on. His family introduced him to Princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto. He married the Princess three months pregnant.
But once again Pamela Churchill kept the friendship.
She was 33 when it was over. Now what?
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Note: The primary reference for posts on Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman is Sally Bedell Smith's book Reflected Glory.
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