THE SCANDAL THAT RUINED "AMERICAN VENUS" AUDREY MUNSON'S MODELING CAREER

"American Venus" or "Miss Manhattan" : Audrey Muson's image continues in paintings, sculptures, and magazine covers. But her career as a model was brief. Often chaperoned by her mother as a young teen, her image was never used in pornography but as inspired by the works of the ancient Romans and Greeks. She might have fallen in love or not, but in 1919 there was no way to avoid being associated with scandal.

A few years earlier she was in four silent films.  As excerpted from an article linked below from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.... referencing James Bone

Excerpt: In 1915 Munson launched her career in the silent film industry. She starred in a total of four films: Inspiration (1915), Purity (1916), The Girl o' Dreams (1918) and Heedless Moths (1921). She became the first woman in America to appear nude in a film in 1915. (Referencing the New York Times on 15 April 2016). Munson was praised by local newspapers as being, "The transcendent embodiment of feminine grace and beauty" in her films (Referencing The Kingston Daily Freeman on 5 December 1916).

WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION (for Historical Preservation) on AUDREY MUNSON

Excerpt:  ... Munson and her mother were living in a boarding house which belonged to a Dr. Walter Keene Wilkins.  Wilkins fell in love with Munson and murdered his wife so he could be with her, despite the fact that Munson and Wilkins were never involved socially or romantically (Referencing Vaudeville, 22 October 1920).  Wilkins was subsequently convicted of murder and hung himself to escape the electric chair.  This scandal damaged Munson's career and reputation and as a result she struggled to find employment.  Munson lived with her mother who was selling kitchenware door-to-door in Syracuse to support them (Vaudeville).  She became overwhelmed and distraught in 1922 and attempted suicide (New York Post).

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AUDREY MUNSON : AMERICA'S FIRST "SUPERMODEL" : AN ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT WITH A MARRIED MEN LED TO HIS SUICIDE AND THE END OF HER CAREER and SANITY

AUDREY MUNSON

Audrie Marie Munson

1891-1996

I'm electing Audrey Munson, called "America's First Supermodel" to the Honorary Mistress of the Month pantheon here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, because she denied that she had an affair with a married man, but whatever the truth of it was, it ended her career after he, assumed to be love sick and mentally ill,  murdered his wife.  There was plenty of evidence that he did murder his wife, with seventeen blows to the head with a hammer, so the question is, was Audrey a victim of the sexism of the era and the press?

There is also the possibility that she was the mistress of a silver mining heir, one of the richest men in America, who was known to be alcoholic and abusive (and possibly gay, though he did eventually marry), Herman Oelrich Jr.  Audrey may have become pregnant by this man but whatever actually happened, her mother seemed to cover the adventure by declaring her as Audrey Oelrich on two United States census.

Audrey Munson never earned much money and she and her mother, Kittie, who was divorced, mostly lived in boarding houses. She was a chorus girl (called a chlorine) and made her Broadway debut before the age of 18. And she was supposed to have been "discovered" while walking down the street. America's first supermodel made about fifty cents an hour or thirty dollars a week. A loaf of bread was about a nickel but this was just enough for the daughter-mother duo to pay their rent. They were living in one that Doctor Walter Wilkins owned when the murder occurred. 

Perhaps the doctor's motive was to get rid of his wife because she was an obstacle to marrying Audrey. Audrey and her mother moved out and went to take care of business in Canada, behavior that they justified but which was considered suspicious. He denied any involvement with her. She declined to testify against him.

Doctor Wilkens commit suicide by hanging himself while awaiting the electric chair. 

Eventually Audrey herself was committed to a mental institution by her mother and lingered there for sixty-five years. However, her mental or emotional decline may have started before this scandal. She died in obscurity having reached the age of about 104!

Was she cursed as the title if this book suggests?

Was Audrey driven to insanity - paranoia - because of the infamy of this scandal? 

Did Audrey take the Gypsy Queens predictions for her life too seriously, and interpret what happened through the eyes of the psychic?

Now, I have to admit that I hesitated to elect Audrey Munson to this honor because I frankly think her obscurity ended some years ago; there are very many YouTube videos and articles about her and her tragic life that I had to curate. I hope to bring something a little different to my coverage of her.  So while I will be using James Bone's book about Audrey - The Curse of Beauty -  I cast my net wide for information about Audrey Munson.

The first notion that came to me is is that we need to think about what Monica Lewinsky, a young woman who was raised in far more liberated times when it comes to sexuality, has been through. I've been an advocate for getting off Monica's back since way back in the day when she became infamous due to her involvement with the then President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, who didn't suffer a bit in comparison. Let's go back to Audrey Munson's day - the early twentieth century when the judgement about a young woman's sexuality could effect her entire future. It was even assumed that any woman who acted or sang or danced was a prostitute. In 2016, when I covered ballerina Celestine Emarot, the Mistress of Baron Charles de Chassiron and Ferdinand De Montguyon and the French ballerina Courtesons, we learned that a young dancer often had to have a "patron" so she could afford the lessons, toe shoes and clothing, and eat. Not so long ago it was near impossible for a unmarried adult woman to be supported in this world without a man with limited educational and career options.

I'm always trying to sort through the expectations of purity, the expectations of waiting until married (or at least marrying the first man one has sex with), the expectations that one will be sexual after marriage, the expectations that one will marry, the expectations that one will marry once and stay married - and then all the changes in attitude we've gone through until here we are today.

In 1908, she made Audrey Munson first performance as a teenager at the Rocky Point Amusement Park in the "Dancin' Dolls" chorus line. By 1909 she was performing at the Casino Theatre in New York on the "Great White Way" which was what Broadway was called because of the new electric lights.

She became one of the Floradora Girls and all six of the original girls married a millionaire. (Evelyn Nesbit had also been picked out of a Floradora chorus line as a teenager. Certainly she must have heard of the scandal when Nesbit's lover killed another man over her.) Before she turned eighteen, Audrey made her Broadway debut in "The Boy and The Girl." 

Her first break in New York as an artist's model might have been because she was sighted on the street by photographer Felix Benedict Herzog.  For three months she posed for him but with her mother in attendance to protect her. She posed for mythic schemes like in Old Master's Paintings.

Audrey was called "Miss Manhattan" because so many sculptures around Manhattan were ones she posed for, as well as the "Panama-Pacific Girl" and "The Exposition Girl" because she posed for those marketing events for paintings, sculptures, and magazine covers.  "American Venus" is also a more general affirmation of her as a beautiful model.

Audrey was the first Silent Screen era actress to appear nude in a film called Inspiration in 1915!  It was one of three films she appeared in. The film was not pornography. To give some perspective, The Birth of a Nation, Hollywood's first motion picture, came out the same year.

But so much went wrong.  In 1931 by Oswego County court order she was committed to St. Lawrence State Hospital in Ogdensburg, New York and live there almost sixty-five years - the majority of her life. Though her mother thought it was temporary, the woman eventually moved to a boarding house in the same town. Audrey may have had schizophrenia.

So this month I'll muse about the curse as well as what all made Audrey "crazy" enough to be committed to a mental hospital (then called insane asylum) by her own mother, where she languished the majority of her life!  Her records, which staff members saw during her years there, were sealed and she was buried in an unmarked grave.

Missy

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You may find these archived posts interesting:

September 2016

CELESTINE EMAROT-  MISTRESS OF BARON CHARLES de CHASSIRON and FERDINAND De MONTGUYON and the French Ballerina Courtesans

February 2017

EVELYN NESBIT : Teenage Beauty and Mistress of Architect Stanford White: Before It Was All Over There Was A Murder

ACCEPTANCE and ENDURANCE : THE BEGINNING OF DIVORCED TO HER HUSBAND and THE DAY I SAW THEM TOGETHER

Page 247 :  "In June 1993, Andrew and I were seen together at dinner, and then the press snapped him kissing me at Balmoral.  The papers were full of stories about our rumored reconciliation.  The Firm as all aflutter --- why couldn't I just limp off into the sunset like a good little victim?  Suddenly, without consulting either of us, the Firm put out a release to announce our "formal separation."  Which did absolutely nothing, except to reveal the depths of the courtier's concern. In fact, their worries were misplaced.  While my husband and I were feeling easier with each other, if only because the pressure was off, we were essentially playing for time.  We had no set plan for our future -- and no intention of expunging our past.

I was never one to erase a man from my life after a romance was done.  People cannot be reduced to "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" -- when they share something good and real, it lives on forever.  Eight years after we broke up, Paddy McNally remained one of my closest, most trusted friends. More than a year after our separation, Andrew and I still loved each other and we didn't care what the world thought."

(Sarah was inspired by reading about Queen Victoria and her love of her husband Prince Albert, who died at age forty-two.  Victoria remained in love with him her entire life - another forty years or so.  Sarah went on to write  Victoria and Albert : A Life at Osborne House.  Published in 1991, some of the proceeds went to the Prince Andrew Charitable Trust. Secondly, in 1993, she published Travels With Queen Victoria.  Both books were well received.  She says the research and writing of these books helped her understand both Victoria and Queen Elizabeth's sense of duty and sacrifice.  She herself, felt at that point that she had failed miserably.)

Page 282 : "On Wednesday, April 17 (1996), twenty nice uncontested divorce were processed at the family division of the High Court in London.  At the bottom of the list was this one : HRH The Duke of York v. HRH The Duchess of York.   ( A week later,  Andrew and I would have dinner with both lawyers and their wives at a restaurant near Windsor.  We were setting new standards for amicability.)"

Page 287 : "On May 30 (1996), while my daughters and I watched Ballymoss go through his paces at Hickstead, a clerk at Somerset House dated a non-descript sheet of paper, then swung down a red rubber stamp.... My divorce was final."

***

Since this book was published in 1996, Sarah and Andrew continue to be housemates and best friends and have lived at Royal Lodge, Windsor for years. It's a large house but home.  Their daughters are grown and married and the long divorced couple are grandparents to three.

How have they managed the last twenty six years?

She said "We are co-parents who support each other and believe that family is everything.  I'm proud of the job we have done together in bringing up our children and sustaining a strong family unit.  Our bywords are communication, compromise, and compassion."  February 2023 to Hello Magazine.

And now my story...

Long ago I was at an event that The Duke and Duchess of York came to. Word got out that they were coming and suddenly there was a set up between where their limo would pull up and they would get out and walk into the building. A barrier to keep photographers several feet away was set up. The photographers showed up; every kind of camera. Sarah had a Lady In Waiting with her to whom she passed bouquets of flowers off to. She was the epitome of courtesy. Not an Anglophile, but having met some celebrities, I could still feel the excitement in the air. There was great curiosity about them.

I was astonished at how gorgeous they both were. Sarah's hair was thick, not a stray hair. Her complexion creamy. I thought she was well dressed - conservatively - but certainly not frumpy.  And she had jewels in her hair that you could imagine were worth millions. The two of them glowed with health. They were blissfully happy.  They seemed so unified, so in love, I could not imagine that they would have their troubles and end the romance in divorce. One was left with the knowing that yes, these people from the highest society of England were in fact different.

A little while later, the building crawling with Secret Service (really!) I and a friend of mine entered the event. A crowd of perhaps a hundred people were polite but well around them. We never approached or tried to make our way closer. They stayed maybe a half hour and then were whisked away. Leaving us to feel that the event lacked luster now that they were gone.

Missy

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ANDREW SAYS I LOVE YOU : SANDRINGHAM SLAP STICK and QUEEN ELIZABETH APPROVES

Excerpts:   page 82-83

"As Andrew would acknowledge months later, on television, our romance was no "thunderbolt." It was more like a plant with good southern exposure; growing slowly , but thriving by the day.  On occasion I would join him for dinner at the Palace; other times he would park his green Jaguar (protection officer included) outside 40 Lavender Gardens, and we'd dine in my tiny kitchen... At first it was hard to fathom that I was serving baked beans to the Sovereign's second son, but that distanced feeling soon passed.....  We played silly games; we acted like children together.  We liked each other before we loved.

I had dinner with Paddy that autumn and broke it off.  He let me go freely and graciously - it was, I think, what he had hoped would come to pass.  Because he felt that Andrew was a better man for me and that I should be with a younger person, who could give me what I needed.

For New Years Eve (1985) Andrew invited me out to Sandringham, the Queen's private estate in Norfolk.  We were getting serous, all right; a few weeks before, Andrew had asked me to address him by his first name."

(Arriving there, sweating and scared) Page 84:

"Then Andrew staged his sneak attack. As I got out of my car, on that first crisp day of 1986, he said, "I love you." I felt like jumping back in the car and getting out again, because I knew what I wanted to answer but my tongue was knotted, and so I actually screamed.  And when Andrew laughed in response, I just crumbed at the knees.....

My entrance was suitably grand.  No sooner had Andrew brought me a drink than I tripped over the piano leg and sent it splashing over the sofa. Then, as I curtseyed to the Queen, my boyfriends' mother, I kicked one of her dogs. It was a glancing blow, but corgis are a melodramatic breed, and you would have thought the little yapper was bound for the Royal Kennels in the sky..."

(Missy here : I'm laughing out loud!)

Andrew proposed some time after the meeting of the Queen, and then he asked the Queen's  permission to marry Sarah, the commoner.  Sarah was twenty-six years old.  So was Andrew. Sarah gave up her apartment and moved into Buckingham Palace. Though there were 600 rooms in the palace and six of them in Andrew's bachelor quarters became home. It was a large and already decorated apartment with no kitchen. She was chauffeured to work with a protection officer. Meanwhile Andrew was in London for naval officer training and they saw each other frequently. Sarah became the  latest news in the tabloids as well as main stream press. For some time there was nothing she could do wrong. Her spontaneous behavior, even the gaffs, were embraced as just what the Royal Family needed - a breath of fresh air and she was forgiven everything. Soon her husband would be gone most of the time and she would become the newest member of The Firm to make public appearances and speeches.  

I'll continue the story in the next posts!

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THE COURTSHIP OF SARAH FERGUSON : SWEET JOKESTER PRINCE ANDREW and THE GIRL WHO COULD MAKE COFFEE NERVOUS

How did commoner Sarah Ferguson start up with Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip?

Here is how she tells it:

Excerpts page 77-78-79- from Sarah's own memoir

"Given Dads's polo connections, my orbit continued to intersect the Royal Family's every now and again.... I will never forget the first time I met the Prince of Wales at a Guards Polo Club drinks party.  I was eighteen years old...  (Her mom and the future Princess Diana's mom were childhood chums.) It was only natural, then, that I'd get invited to the occasional cast-of-thousands dance at Windsor Castle - for Andrew's twenty-first birthday, for example, and later for Edward's. But the big one came in the spring of 1985, when I found a heavy bond envelope in our postal slot. It was from Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Blair Stewart-Wilson, Deputy Master of the Royal Household, requesting "the pleasure of your company at the Queen's House Party at Windsor Castle during the week of Royal Ascot."

(*Sarah got together a wardrobe that would pass and headed to Windsor... Her boyfriend Paddy McNally drove her there.)

...On my bedside table was a card embossed with the Queen's cypher, listing the four day schedule of mealtimes, along with a seating plan for the day. For lunch I had been placed between a vice-admiral and Prince Andrew, then on leave from his duties on the HMS Brazen.  More jitters.  I had seen Andrew on occasion since our childish games of tag, and one of those occasions had left me red faced...

...I was ultra nervous now, and as he reached across the table to get a paper, I somehow thought he was leaning towards me for a good-morning kiss.  So I gave him one, and he looked at me and said, "Oh, thank you very much!" 

"Oh, I didn't mean to do that!" I cried, which he must have found quite hilarious.  It honestly hadn't been deliberate - just another Fergie fiasco.  And now, just my luck, I was seated almost on top of him, where I'd be at the mercy of his famous needling.  (I had yet to suspect that matchmaker Diana had engineered this.)

.... When I turned (to speak to him at dinner), I was struck by how handsome he was in his morning suit, and soon my worries had flown.  Andrew was easy, and I felt relaxed with him, for me a rare condition --- even though I addressed him as "Sir" as per protocol.

We both knew the same idiot jokes; we both loved a good prank. ...

Out of such humble beginnings came a great and lasting friendship, one that endures today.

As I came to know Andrew that week, he seemed like a very charming, gentle giant who had spring magically from the woodwork. Now a lamp shone into my forest, and I'd been rescued buy this great looking man with a blinding smile.

Small gifts began to flatter me in Clapham; a rose cut from the Palace garden, a romantic letter. Later that summer I was invited to Balmoral; more terror...

I took him aside and told him that I'd been going out with Paddy, and I hoped he didn't mind, and he said, "Why should I mind?  I like you!  I couldn't care less about that."  That was a very good reaction, I thought.  Here was a man taking me as I was, without prerequisites or conditions - who knew what he believed and didn't mind what others thought.  Nor was I ever jealous at the gossip of Andrew with some other lady.  He cared for me, and that was enough.

***

Excerpts from the book, selected by me!

Some notes:

Diana is of course Princess Diana.  Sarah had received an invitation for one and went to the wedding of Diana and Charles by herself.  Diana would continue to be a good friend to Sarah for some years.  She provided cloth for Sarah to make a dress suitable for the Royal wedding and as the courtship continued with Andrew,  Diana lent Sarah clothing that was suitable for various events. She also gave her shoes as they wore the same size.  From another source I know what that size was, so you ladies with big feet will be happy to know they wear the equivalent of an American size ten.

Upon her entry into public life, Fergie was hailed as "a breath of fresh air," because of her naturalness and love of fun...

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Interested in the British Royal Family or King's Mistresses? Try searching for "Great Britain," or Diana Princess of Wales, Camilla Parker Bowles...

SARAH DUCHESS OF YORK : STANDING BY HER MAN NO MATTER WHAT : DIVORCED TO HER EX HUSBAND PRINCE ANDREW : HONORARY MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

The news that Sarah, Duchess of York, has had surgery and is determined to heal from breast cancer, with ex-husband and best friend, Prince Andrew of York, by her side, sparked me to make Sarah, and her exemplary relationship with Andrew, the subject of this months posts.

I always think of memoirs and autobiographies as the best resource when I'm researching.  Oh, I know that many memoirs are written to promote a personality and their reputation.  I expected Sarah Ferguson's memoir to be full of apologies, an attempt to regain her reputation after being called out for various misdeeds - cheating on Andrew or running up debt.  I was surprised to find that Sarah Ferguson's memoir was intelligent, insightful, and eloquent. It certainly rings true. She is a far more substantial person than I imagined. Had my notions about her been too influenced by tabloids? Well, this book gives the details of the media as friend and then enemy, but worse, the way she was treated by The Firm. With co-author Jeff Coplan, the Duchess of York, long happily divorced from Prince Andrew, third child of the late Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Prince Andrew of Greece, created a well written and interesting book.

Was Sarah ever a Mistress?  Well maybe, in the first serious relationship she had with an older man, Paddy McNally. A man who graciously let her go when she fell in love with Andrew, then Duke of York, Prince Andrew.  Paddy and Sarah stayed friends.  

Daughter of divorced parents, raised more by her strict father, the emotional man who loved her, whom she called Dads, than her mother who went into another and long distance relationship, Sarah found herself floundering.  She was an insecure girl who aimed to please in order to be accepted while often missing the point. Her mother followed her heart and moved to Argentina to be with the man who would be her second husband, taking leave as a parent. Sarah also followed her heart into her first serious relationship with Paddy. Was she concerned with preserving her virginity?  Not as her generation came into adulthood. She was not holding out in hopes of being eligible to marry a King or a Prince. She was a commoner who was expected to marry very well, someone from her own set, not in the peerage but adjacent.

Sarah tells the story of a childhood filled with determination and spunk, though she experienced being a misfit time and time again. With curly red hair, hips she thought of as too wide, and a tendency to do first and think about it later, she found her athletics, her love of horses and riding them, to be the very activity that kept her going. Dads was involved in the sport of Polo. She lived for riding horses and country life. Meeting in childhood because of Dads's link to the Royal family, Andrew and Sarah encountered each other growing up. The teenage Sarah was aware that she was not the most slender, the most academic, or a member of the peerage but Sarah was destined to marry Prince Andrew, who clearly found her companionable.  He loved Sarah's fun. The two became friends first and forever. 

With mom across the world, Sarah was sent to a boarding school.

Excerpt page 47: "Never was a fish more out of water.  I was a country girl, a sporting girl, a wild thing who loved fresh air and running free.  And here I was plunked into a rambling old mansion in the middle of town, with no grounds to speak of, pressed to keep pace with kid sophisticates from show business families. I used to run for miles, but now I never ran because the urban fumes choked me. I had always slept with my windows open, cocooned by layers of bedclothes, but here it wasn't safe to open windows at night, and so I parboiled in the bed and cursed central heating. ....  When you have an adolescent weight problem, ballet school is not quite the place to be,  Hurst Lodge (her boarding school) was populated by a colony of sylphlike creatures, impossibly slim and supple as they did their splits, with mirrors everywhere and here came good old Fergie Form, bobbing along, wincing at her own reflection." ......

Though Sarah knew her strict father had the best intentions raising here, her grandmother, Honorable Doreen Wright - her mom's mom, was the one who came to help on weekends.  Sarah says on page 53, "Unconditional love was a core principle for Grummy, and I was a prime beneficiary.  She had been a hard, unyielding mother with Mum, and there still was no getting one over on her, but we could talk about anything, from religion to the Poll. When I got older she'd be okay with all my boyfriends, in contrast to Dads's stern disapproval. Because she never judged me, I confided in her freely, even let the real Sarah peep out now and then."

After graduating from boarding school, Sarah was given little choice in what more education her Dads was willing to afford. She could either go to a finishing school called Winkfield Place to learn to cook and arrange flowers and become a good homemaker or Queen's Secretarial College, which is what she did. After graduation, to get a start, she got a monthly stipend from her dad and took a temp job with a public relations firm In Knightsbridge, London, with a starting salary of $6,000 a year. She was eighteen years old and began to work hard and play hard. Sarah's weekends were consumed with a repetition of house parties and after-work cocktail parties and shoot weekends, the typical entertainments of the young upper class.  She rented with a roommate in humble circumstances. When she took a different job working for an art gallery, she also had to work a second job on the weekends as a salesclerk in a maternity store.

Sarah was still considered to be a Sloan Ranger, which she defines on page 60 as "that well connected set of smug, socially ambitious preppie." But even when she didn't have the money to go shopping, Sarah was experiencing her independence.  On page 70: Sarah wrote "The Sloanes are quite an astounding species -- they will give our future anthropologists a run for their money  What makes them special and distinct is that they think they are frightfully upper class when actually they are not, and so they must try harder than those at the very top.  The Court at Buckingham Palace is full of them....  They all went to the same boarding schools, where little Muffy and Daphne played frightfully well together and became lifelong chums or muckers.  Their dress code was ridged, if eccentric: Laura Ashley shirts, with a frill up top and pearls over the frill; a cardy over the shoulders, tweedy skirts, trailing down near the calf; navy blue tights; practical shoes without heels.  Lightly scruffy, in other words, but expensive.

Sarah would rather go skiing at Verbier, Switzerland. In 1982 it was there that she met Paddy McNally. Sarah, adored him because he was so down to earth, not posh or putting on the social graces. He was the father of two boys.

Page 73  Paddy was probably Dads' worst nightmare: not the right age, not in the Household Calvary, just a man named McNally in motor racing.  Here she goes again....  But I loved Paddy for all the things he wasn't; for the phony graces he rejected, the airs he'd refused to put on, even after he had done quite well for himself.  He had a sharp, practical mind, a large and open heart --- he was just himself, straight down the line.

Sarah wanted to marry Paddy but the age difference meant they were at different times in their lives and though he said he needed to do the right thing, she didn't bring marriage up. Because of Paddy's connections Sarah was able to get a dream job in London. In 1984 she became an acquisitions editor for fine art books. Her salary was still not much - no more than *18,000 a year. But it was a creative job  and included travel.

***

So why have I elected Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York as an Honorary Mistress this month here at Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot, not because of her relationship with Paddy, but because of her marriage with Prince Andrew?  It's because she's lived with and stayed best friends with her ex-husband. Aren't we all aware of the divorced who won't give up torturing each other?  The ones who put their children in the middle of an ongoing battle?  While so many wonder when exactly they should give up and accept the situation, Sarah has been exemplarity. There was no reason that their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, both who married commoners, should suffer the kind of shunning Sarah suffered until, I hate to say it, her father-in-law, Prince Phillip, who apparently hated her, had died. The Princesses had the advantage of, in effect, an intact relationship between their parents. Though Royal Lodge is huge and has many bedrooms, home was the same house for Sarah and Andrew and their daughters. More recently included in the doings of the Royals, perhaps at her daughter's insistence, I have in the past felt sadness for Sarah who was punished for years with isolation and exclusion.

***

The Jeffery Epstein sex trafficking scandals have included Prince Andrew, once called Randy Andy, who may have been targeted for grooming himself by the ambitious Epstein who was no doubt a sex addict as well as chronic molester and rapist of women too young to give consent. I've researched Epstein, including the involvement by the now imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell in locating nubiles for her once-boyfriend and boss. She was friends with Prince Andrew first and both Epstein and Maxwell befriended the Prince.

I strongly feel that Epstein was setting up honey-traps, offering forbidden and illegal sex with girls to powerful men, leaders of the world and in finance, as well as celebrities, in order to blackmail them for money.  The money furthered his reputation as mysteriously rich. As time goes by more and more is revealed about his connections but the question is who took the bait or who dealt with him only for business or charity causes.

I watched the interview Prince Andrew did, trying to clear himself from cooperation with Epstein or charges that he had sex with a seventeen year old.  The media called it a "train wreck" interview but I believed the Prince that he did not recall having sex with the woman when she was seventeen. I believed him until he said he never sweats. (We all do, some more than others.) Do I think Andrew has slept around?  I sure do!  But what of Sarah, the devoted ex-wife, raising the Queens grand-daughters with Andrew and now the carer of the deceased Queens's precious Corgi dogs? She believes he is innocent. She says he's been great father and is a good man.

Sarah has stood by her man, the love of her life, the father of her children, and a man who stood by her when she was going through her own scandals... For while she became a person who quit the Firm, she never quit finding love for Andrew.  And I think he knows this, as he enters his senior years, and her love for him is what has and will give him reason to live.

Sarah and Andrew announced their separation in 1992 after six years of marriage. By then she had become infamous when photographed with another man, one she did not actually have an affair with.  Then, while separated, Sarah had an affair with for some time with the man who was supposedly sucking her toes. I say this was goof-balling around and the photos had a bit to do with being stalked and spied upon by unethical journalists and probably only the photos that could be taken as sexy were reproduced. Still, the Queen was furious with her. 

Andrew had barely been home during their marriage, averaging forty two days a year - one day in ten.  They had managed two children.  Four years later, after the separation, the divorce was finalized. Yet after moving houses with the girls, the two of them settled into co-existance. Neither has ever remarried, leading to rumors that before their lives on earth are over, perhaps now that Prince Phillip has died, and Queen Elizabeth has also, they might remarry.  Sarah says no, she is happy with their relationship as it is. They have been a consistency in each other's lives for over forty years.

Sarah Ferguson has run up debt and also attempted to earn her own money, through writing children's books and romance novels, and diet plan advocacy. It's estimated she's earned a million or more just from those books.  Though not university educated she has managed to work in the publishing business, and to write other books, including romance novels.

Sarah was shunned from family events for years and as a divorced woman did not expect to be included in state affairs such as the Coronation of King Charles III.

This month I'll excerpt from Sarah's book and perhaps together we will come to understand her relationship with Prince Andrew that began when she was just launched into the adult world and how it has endured.

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Interested in more about Great Britain's Royal's and their Mistresses?  Try clicking on the label Great Britain, or search for King's Mistresses!

A Note: In July Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery and is undergoing treatment. Andrew is by her side.  I don't know what these two have been through but I feel as if they have a karmic relationship. 

There must be a million ways to love and one of those ways is theirs.

JERRY HALL BLINDSIGHTED BY RUPERT MURDOCK : CHEEZY MEDIA BILLIONARE USES E-MAIL TO BREAK A MARRIAGE

UPDATE August 2022  News is that the divorce was quickly agreed to and settled and Jerry and Rupert claim they will remain friends....  As it's said, VERY INTERESTING!  Missy

2011 APRIL  was ? MISTRESS ? OF THE MONTH JERRY HALL

The news came from Daily Mail -UK in the last few weeks that Australian media baron and billionaire Rupert Murdock sent "Tall Tales" author, Jerry Hall, his wife since 2016, an e-mail to inform her that the marriage was over and that she should only contact him through his lawyer. (I read that report on July 1, 2020, as well as other earlier reports.) 

No gentleman would ever break with a woman he is married to, engaged to, going steady with, or having sex with using e-mail, texting, or any electronic resource.  

IF YOU CAN'T BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FACE SOMEONE YOU'VE BEEN THAT CLOSE WITH, then I have no respect for you. 

Jerry is a favorite here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot because of her rise from a little Texas town, where she was raised in a working class family and, believe it or not, has a twin sister. She went to Europe and was discovered on a beach, wearing clothes she and her mom sewed at home, went into modeling, attracted the attention of more than one rock star, and lived for years as the Rolling Stone's lead singer, Mick Jagger's mistress. She is a naturally beautiful woman but she spread her wings into acting and has not completely shut down her career for men, even with four children to raise.  

The question marks in the title were because he married her - sort of - eventually - but then when they split he declared the marriage invalid, as if he had fooled her into thinking they were married. While Jerry may have wanted marriage sooner, Jagger was incapable of being faithful. He had women and children before and after Jerry,  and during their relationship.  She hung in there and had four children with him. The same publication, Daily Mail Online, reported he was not so happy that she had married Murdock.

So, I, and well, lots of people were really rooting for Jerry that she had found a man who would give her what she wanted and needed and deserved.  Reportedly Jerry has dealt with Jagger and his children from other relationships in such an adult and mature way, we have to be impressed. It would seem she is capable of that, yet reports are that Murdock's children may have been the problem.

I'm going to link to the article from July 1 : DAILY MAIL : HEARTBROKEN JERRY HALL : RUPERT MURDOCK CHILDREN TO BLAME

If you use the search feature embedded in this blog and put in her name, you'll see that Jerry was an honorary Mistress of the Month back in April of 2011 and has been mentioned since.

Here is a recent modeling assignment Jerry Hall, who is in her 60's, did.

REMINDER ABOUT USING COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG - MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT

I read every comment before deciding if I will publish it.  I'm looking for comments that are well spoken and well considered and that are on spot for the post the comment would appear under. I especially like comments that answer the questions I'm asking.

I do not publish SPAM such as people advertising themselves for sex or relationships, or "help" such as psychics and witch spells... I do not publish ranting, swearing, rude commentaries, or comments targeted against anyone as my blog is not the place to play out personal agendas or disagreements. I'm open to different opinions but please, think of how you spoke in class discussions at school and consider your audience! 

Friends, if there is someone you think I should do more research or reading about, please suggest books, articles, or leads to that information. 

THANKS!

Missy

MONICA LEWINSKY and AMERICAN CRIME STORY : SHE SAYS SHE'S GOING to NEED MORE THERAPY

DAILY MAIL MONICA LEWINSKY and AMERICAN CRIME STORY 

Monica has earned a place here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSOT and was an Honorary Mistress of the Month in March 2012 with the first post entitled Get Off The Back Of MONICA LEWINSKY Why Not Blame President Bill Clinton?

I love the American Crime Story television series, and it was inevitable that they would get around to Monica. Although I doubt that she had any desire to be thrust into the public discussion when she had her rendezvous with the President, she has done her best to get over the scandal and move ahead. 

If you use the search feature embedded in this Google Blogger, you can bring up various posts through time on Monica!

Missy

ANGELYNE RUNS FOR GOVERNER OF CALIFORNIA TO REPLACE NEWSOM - ONE OF 46 CANDIDATES

Party Preference NONE  - Entertainer  Angelyne

Our Honorary Mistress of the month in October 2010, Angelyne threw her see through pumps in to the ring - one of about 46 candidates competing to take over from Governor Newsom in an expensive and time wasting recall vote. Larry Elder, a KFI radio personality and Republican is the front runner should this Republican lead recall actually happen, and as for the Democrats -well, we may as well vote for Angelyne. I think Newsom should stay in office.

Though I don't generally get into politics here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, the truth is I don't blame any of our politicians, doctors, or other experts and leaders for being GOBSMACKED by Covid-19, which is an unprecedented historical event with serious and ongoing ramifications. People point out to me the flu epidemic circa 1916-1919 as if there were vaccines at the time. 

As time goes on there is continually more information and some of it may ultimately prove to be right. I think what a wonder it is that here in the First World we have so much knowledge earned by medical science. I'm still meeting people who refuse to take the vaccine. I have two friends who have long term Covid which they got on a cruise ship early on that was out of Fort Lauderdale. One has an enlarged heart.  The other can't get his balance. This was well before there were vaccines and they both have donated their blood to try and help other people.

Another friend took the Pfizer and proceeded to take three trips during lock down, a road trip to New Orleans, a trip out of the country, and a trip to see family in the Midwest - these last two trips by air.  

Word has reached me that a friend who is Bible based and who goes to a church where they are mostly Republican and did not get the vaccine, has a minister and a Bible study leader in intensive care with Covid.  They had continued to meet for services.

I took the Johnson (J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine) after not being able to get any of the 2 shots locally with ease. That early morning as I sat with another half dozen people six feet apart on folding chairs, I wondered if I was doing the right or best thing.  I thought maybe I was just a follower or weak willed. As time goes on, though I did have side effects, I came to realize that it was the best thing to do considering I have no medical conditions. If a person is immune compromised, as cancer patients often are, then I think, they should follow their doctor's recommendations. I don't believe conspiracy theories such as that the government is using the vaccine to put chips in people. Or that the whole thing was just a Big Pharma money making scheme.

Missy

ANNA BEY on THE NEW USE OF AN OLD TERM : GOLD DIGGER

The video was taken down from YouTube by Bey so....  I will just leave up my commentary!  Missy

********************************************************************************

In other videos Anna explains that she is a feminist and wants to see women treated better as well as honored for their contributions to life.

How do I feel about women paying for men on dates?

I think the person who asks someone on a date should make all the arrangements and pay for everything, based on what they can honestly afford. In other words men, don't dare ask a woman, pick a restaurant, get there, and then tell her she is paying.  If you are a woman who asks a man out, ditto.

I also feel we need to understand that dating is dating.  It's not necessarily a relationship. Lots of people date a lot.  You can date a lot and not be sleeping around.  You can just be meeting people, some of whom you may want as friends. Dating might lead to a relationship.  A relationship may require some honest assessment of what is affordable to all involved.

If a man has little to no money to date, he can still find affordable (free or inexpensive) things to do.

My friends who had more money than the men they were dating and pulled their wallets out early on, found themselves married to men who had the expectation of being supported.  More than one of them spent most of his time on the sofa.  

Missy

UPDATE HERE:  I was going through my archives this morning and was reminded that in April 2010, I did a month on PEGGY HOPKINS JOYCE, much based on a book about her called GOLD DIGGER.

You can find that month in my archives or search for her name.

PEGGY HOPKINS JOYCE

Spendthrifty Gold Digger Who Ended Up With One of the World's Largest Diamonds

Since the title of the book is Gold Digger, I used it correctly, yet I do wonder now, based on what Anna has to say, if Peggy really was just after the money. or if she too suffered for this term.

ANNA BEY : UPLEVELING INFLUENCER and HONORARY MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

 ANNA BEY

One of many images found on Google Images of Anna, who herself posts many images on Instagram.

Just when I thought to honor ANNA BEY with an Honorary Mistress of the Month because I think she'd be (or maybe has been) a successful Mistress, she started the year out by getting married. She moved to Geneva, Switzerland from London, England. She married her love, a man originally from Lebanon, a banker whose privacy she will respect, in a small civil ceremony due to Covid-19 restriction. She'd been with him for about three or four years. She says they'll get around to a proper church wedding after Covid-19.

But that doesn't mean she never was Kept.

I first encountered Anna on YouTube and I must have watched every one of her many professionally made videos in which she talks about elite life; fashion, composure, etiquette, and many other subjects of interest to those women who want to "level up." She starts by addressing her audience as "elegant ladies."

I found that I agree with her on some of what she has to say, though not everything. One thing I strongly do not agree with Anna about is that if a man has women friends he is just not that into you. I'll write more about that later in this month.

I find Anna Bey to be beautiful, charming, intelligent, wise, accomplished, and willing to help other women. She runs her School of Affluence for a reasonable fee, an online finishing school, or you can go to one of her websites where she posts free advice pages to supplement her videos. (You sign up on her mailing list.) I'm convinced that she is sincere in her willingness to share her lifestyle philosophy, that she has learned from harsh experiences in her own life, and that she can be a positive influence on other women. She says no matter what path you've been down, you can always turn around.

Anna believes in self improvement from the inside out though she first became known for modeling fashions she approved of. You can even listen to her video about which handbags that costs thousands are not classy. She even wrote a book on how to be classy. 

Yes, she spent $10,000 to get her nose done and wears hair extensions but she's a also into positive affirmations, dream boards, journaling, astrology, and psycho-therapy too, for as long as it takes. 

Of course, here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT, we know that there are very many ways to love, and that there are very many ways to be a Mistress. In fact, sometimes, with so many people living together today without marriage, it becomes a bit difficult to know what adultery is. Plus some women knowingly and willingly share men and not everyone is interested in monogamy. 

Being a Mistress does not require adultery. It often does but unmarried men have Mistresses too. I'm also sure when I say that being Kept does not require that you be fully supported financially by another person. Though a Classic Mistress expects and gets this, today there are few Classic Mistresses. 

I think a woman's independence begins with education and work. Opportunities for women are better now than ever, at least generally in the West, though still not at all equal to what men have overall. Covid-19 has effected women's employment far more than men's: I was told that by a person who works to help women gain job experience at a non-profit. As a result of today's desire for independence, most women like to be working at something, paid or unpaid. Women like to have their own money, which they earn. For Anna this has become teaching and running her business. She advises women to get busy. She also says the reality is most women who gain an elite lifestyle do so through men.

Has Anna benefited from a man's generosity? Surely, for she advises women not to keep cheap men in their lives and says rich wives should not be embarrassed about living off their husbands.

A moment here from me about "Sugar."

A Mistress and her Man are not in "just" a Sugar Baby and Sugar Daddy relationship either, though some of those experiences become loving relationships that endure. We have to be a bit cautious because there are people who sign on to be Sugar Babies who might be living as escorts or a Sugar Daddy might see it as hiring one rather than having relationships.

Sure there may be economic benefits to being a Mistress, but that's not all there is to it. If that's all there is to it, it probably won't last. Mistresses love their men and their men love them too or what's the point? Why would you chance being punished for going against the social norms or get dragged into a terrorizing divorce to tie yourself to another person in a unloving relationship when you could be out there looking for love? 

Here in the pages of Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot there are examples of women (and some men) who have been Kept, completely, a little, a while, or a lifetime! 

Although I don't know so, I get the feeling Anna has been Kept, without knowing if the man or men were married. I want to say that many women have experienced being in a extra-marital relationship for a while, didn't like it or did, but the experience didn't stop them from one day having a career or a legal marriage if they wanted one.

I will admit, though, that while I watched dozens of Anna Bey videos, the thought kept running through my head, "Is she a Mistress? She'd be a good lifestyle coach for Mistresses." The reason was primarily because of her emphasis on obtaining a partner, a man, who does help a woman financially, that also helps her - as she helps him - "level up," a term I get while wishing there was a better way to put it.

Why not aspire to better and greater for yourself and your children?

Well, the condemnation of Anna is fierce, and it begins and does not end with the term Gold Digger, which she addresses in one of her videos. She says a Gold Digger is a person only into it for money and her high financial standards do not mean she is one. One rake considers her a "former yacht girl" implying she once lived a life of travel and leisure in exchange for casual sex thereby ruining herself for love. (I think of Groupies and think many of them went for the casual sex without the luxury and in some cases any love. There's a lot of raunchy and not elegant aspects to Rock and Roll.) In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine in 2018, Anna admitted to having some experience with the jet set and boating scene. A frightening experience lead her to decide she needed to find a better way to partake in the rich life. Implied is that she could've been entrapped. She started as a blogger with a site called Jet Set Babe in about 2012 and expanded from there. 

Other women, who ought to take down their videos now, attacked Anna with claims that she's a fake because they didn't believe she had a man or was living affluently. 

I have a problem with the attitude. You see, if we condemned every person who once was a nobody with nothing but had aspirations and worked hard on themselves we'd be condemning a hell of a lot of people. Most people aren't born with a lot of advantages. We'd be condemning people such as the author of Sex and the Single Girl and a long time Cosmopolitan magazine editor Helen Hurley Brown, who influenced a generation beginning in the 1960's. We could even find fault with First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis who started out in an elite world but still "leveled up" and believed a woman should do this for her children, not just herself.*

I've also read attacks on Anna from people who seem to think we shouldn't dare try to be more than we got born into; these posters can't be Americans!

Anna has said publicly in interviews that she does not think she could love a man who was poor. That's her honesty. Some people think that way and won't say it. The other side of this is that being obsessed with status can turn a person into a person who's loosing their soul. She is wary of that. She says we are all human, we all make mistakes, and while striving for elegance we must be careful not to get into the perfectionism of elegance extremism.

Another reason I think of Anna as an Honorary Mistress is that she's pragmatic. You see, Anna basically sees femininity in a traditional way, the way until very recently in history most women had to. She sees that it's still a man's world. So some of what she has to say is just what most every older woman I knew growing up thought. Anna isn't "conservative" in thinking her way. (If you think a child needs a daddy, you're conservative.) A man needs to show he can support a woman and a family before he can be in a relationship that could lead to children.

He pays for dates and if he shows off his expensive car to you it's to show you he can support you.

If he is not using some his earnings to help you succeed as a woman, then you may find yourself living like an unmarried woman when "off the market" in marriage to him.

Anna calls the men worth having "high value" men but she also admits that in order to meet wealthy men and keep them you most often have to gain status too. Initially this is about how you look but it's also how you walk and talk, your manners, and the boundaries you set.

Anna Bey, about 35, was born Aija Raty and grew up in Stockholm, Sweden with parents who are professionals. Her mother comes from Russian heritage. After high school, at about 19, she moved to Italy, a country she loves, living in Rome. Her first boyfriend came from money and showed her the good life. She knew she wanted that life. As a self improvement lifestyle coach, she tells her students it takes time to transform. Hers is ongoing. She is multi lingual, has some marketing background, and last summer attended a Swiss "finishing school" to improve her knowledge of entertaining, which she can then pass onto her students.

I will admit, so far I haven't heard Anna talk about being Kept, being a Mistress, or advising women that they should aim for marriage though she has strong ideas about how to avoid bad boys and men who don't treat a woman as his priority. I did find one video where she condemns cheating. Perhaps it's her world view or the words she uses that seem to indicate that she's aware of alternative lifestyles.

Please continue on this month to read about Anna!

C 2021 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

If interested in Helen Gurley Brown or Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, look for posts about them within this blog's archive using the search feature. 

* In a book written by singer-songwriter Carly Simon who was good friends with Jackie, Jackie advised her to marry up, to think of her children. Carly wrote a book also about her life with ex-husband James Taylor and his Mistress Evie was profiled in this blog.

Research for this month's posts including watching dozens of videos by and about Anna Bey, pro and con, reading internet news articles, as well as looking at her web sites, images, and so on. Interviews she willing did tended to be headlined to sensationalize, and gave me the impression she was not being reported accurately or heard. She is not a matchmaker, for instance, nor is she a dating coach and in upleveling she's guiding you on how to have a better life, not guaranteeing a woman will marry a billionaire.

WHAT's UP FOR 2020? MISSY SPEAKS

Dear Readers,

This year celebrates a bit more than one decade of blogging on the subject of Mistresses here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT!  My first posts were in April of 2009 but it was a while before I settled on a less spotty and more structured magazine type format that starred a particular Mistress of the Month (or Honorary Mistress of the Month) or particular topic. For some time I was posting affirmations for Mistresses and discontinued that, though the affirmations were tied in with the title Mistress Manifesto, and you can still find them if you search though the archives. In recent years I've sometimes spent more than a month on a subject.  December - Holiday time - my posts are more uniquely topical.

For 2020 I have a list of persons to elect as Mistress (or Mantresses) of the Month, some really good ideas (more than one suggested by readers in Comments) and a growing pile of books I want to read. But... I can't get them at my library.  How could that be?  Is it that the librarians or other staff who actually buy the books don't think there's interest?  Or is it a moral choice not to provide the non-fiction, the memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies of these people who were or are known to the public? 

As a result I did some brain storming while on a vacation and I think you'll find the start of 2020 a little different and interesting.

As I personally learn more and more about Mistresses (and Mantresses) though my reading, research, and writing, if there is anything this blog (and I) stand for, it's CHOICE. We need to explore how much choice we have in this life just as we yearn for experiences and philosophies.

Mistresses have been a hot topic in romance fiction for decades as women as readers especially try on a role that few are suited for or achieve in reality. I encounter hundreds of fiction Mistress books as I search for the nonfiction - the memoirs, biographies, and biopics including at those libraries where I'm a patron. I've come to think that this is partly because readers want to indulge in what is, if not forbidden, an alternative lifestyle via fantasy.

Fiction books make you think. How do you withstand the ardor you feel for someone you can't have completely? Do you really enjoy sneaking around, if you have to, or for how long? Would you stay with him or her if they no longer had the money to Keep you?

While the fantasies of sexual desire, heart pounding love, and living a secret life (at a time when are privacy is so invaded) can sustain some, for others being a Mistress is a reality. It can be a beautiful fulfilling reality for some and for others a harsh and ugly reality: so much depends on the people involved, the personalities, and  if there is love.

Besides love and sex, the monetary rewards of Mistressing are always a question. Today there are more opportunities to have Hook Ups that have Financial Reward of some sort for having a Sugar Daddy/ Momma. Then there is also, overall, less need to be with another person who can afford us. Women are in the workplace almost always now and some are financially supporting families as well as men. (So I'm always interested in learning about women who Keep men and I don't mean the dad who stays at home to care for the children.) Every individual and situation is different, for we all cannot be at the top of the heap, even with college educations, but I feel that the financial motivation for women to be Kept is much less than it once was. In the past even brilliant women were limited by societal norms and expectations and generally unable to obtain education and income producing employment or grow businesses. 

Every situation and person is a bit different.  There are those who have enough, even more than enough, who see being Kept as having even more.  Still, I think love wins out over sex and money.

Looking forward to the New Year,

Missy

LINDSAY MILLS and EDWARD SNOWDEN MARRIED TWO YEARS AGO : RECENT REVELATION

Update February 4, 2020 Listened to a recent Interview of Edward Snowden on YouTube in which he was asked about his personal life, which of course includes Lindsey.  He called her the love of his life and was entirely honorable in his thankfulness that she had stuck by him through everything.  Notable was that he said there wasn't actually a wedding but rather some paperwork was signed.  This leads me to think they had a civil union in Russia.  He said someday there would be an actual wedding.  The one thing I disagree with is his idea that Lindsey had been portrayed as a sexy pole dancer (or stripper) when this was actually a popular form of exercise for women these days.  I've seen many images that Lindsey herself designed, posed for, took with a camera, and posted and very many of them are suggestive and playing with sexuality.  She has an athletic dancers body but the same photos taken by a more voluptuous figure would undoubtedly be considered even more sexy. - Missy

*****

Update September 17, 2019: In May of 2017 - a little more than two years ago - I elected Lindsay Mills, the beautiful dancer, photographer, blogger, and world traveler, and long time "girlfriend" of Edward Snowden, self exiled in Russia, as an Honorary Mistress of the Month. 

*****

Along with the publication of Edward Snowden's new book, called Permanent Record, in interviews Edward called Lindsey his wife.  According to reports in The Guardian as well as Russian media - TASS - It turns out they married two years ago - date unknown. Edward says he met Lindsay online when he was 22 years old. He says she is the love of his life. After a courtship of over a decade - interrupted due to his whistle blowing and self imposed exile in Russia - the couple is married. Snowden reportedly lives in Moscow and previously news services reported the lived together - but also that Lindsey was a world traveler - suggesting she was not in Moscow all the time.  Before I posted this update I learned that the United States is suing Edward Snowden for the contents of his book are supposed to reveal more secrets.  It's my opinion he will never be back in the United States in his lifetime, at least not willingly. I hope he can move on to France or Germany as he once hoped simply because I personally feel I could not live in Russia myself.  I also hope he and Lindsay will continue to love one another throughout this lifetime.  I'd love to know if she is staying in Russia and if she has applied for citizenship there.

Everyone needs love.  And if it were not for the extraordinary and historic scandal attached to Snowden, I'd think of them as having a rather typical techie meets artiste relationship.

To me their relationship proves that Mistresses do sometimes get to marry the men they love. They are not always "homewreckers" nor are they always women used to get through a man's divorce and then thrown to the curb. Though the word Mistress gets used (and misused) to define many kinds of relationships, in particular celebrity driven media tends to out women who've had as little as a one-nighter as "Mistresses," the idea that a woman is only a Mistress if she is involved with a Married Man and that adultery is a component is out. Lindsay's mysterious financial means is and was compelling as is and was her ability to travel with and without Edward.

Missy

LINK TO : WALL STREET JOURNAL : U.S. FILES SUIT AGAINST SNOWDEN RE NEW BOOK

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG - TRUTH IS HER RELIGION : HONORARY MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

BOOKS  DIANE VON FURSTENBERG - A LIFE UNWRAPPED by GIOIA DILIBERTO



and  THE WOMAN I WANTED TO BE by DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

This is going to be a Diane Von Furstenberg December as I'm, electing her as Honorary Mistress of the Month.  Long the companion and partner and wife of Barry Diller, now a woman who could be said to have everything - wealth, fame, fulfillment, love - and the will to lift other women up, Diane persisted through times in which she was unsure of her direction, overly influenced by the current main man in her life, times in which she had to admit failures, beg for help, even give some nasty business back so she could survive.  

It is especially refreshing to hear her admit as much in the audio book, The Woman I Wanted To Be. She admits to uncertainties, fears, and that bright ideas sometimes fail, while her warm and generous spirit allows her to complement others for their roles, not wasting too much time and energy on condemning. Can anyone actually control their lives totally, especially in the mercurial fashion business?  She made decisions spontaneously, sometimes deliberately, often hiring and surrounding herself by others to move her vision along, sometimes loosing that vision.  She sees life as a series and variety of events.  Her nature has been experimental, and she has reached out to help other women.

I've been fascinated with this woman who says that TRUTH IS HER RELIGION  and that ALL MARRIAGES SHOULD BE OPEN for some time.  But it was the quote in Gioia Dilberto's book that convinced me that she belongs in the posts/pages of MISTRESS MANIFESTO.

IN THIS QUOTE SHE SAYS SHE WOULD LOVE TO BE A MISTRESS... and she knows that this is an attitude that is more European, that American woman might not understand.

Diane is thought by some in fashion to not actually be a designer but more of a producer.  I credit her for figuring out what she could do well and sticking to it, though in her career she has taken departures and had to reassess several times.

Diane Helfin was born in Belgium, the daughter of Holocaust concentration camp survivor, Lily.  She considers her birth to her mother, who came out of the camp emaciated, about a year later, as a miracle. Her parents became well off enough to send her away to private boarding school and in her early womanhood she began to socialize with wealthier people than they were. Her mother also told her to never be ashamed of sex and well, she wasn't. She had love affairs and sex with both men and women as did the man she married quite young, Egon Von Furstenberg, a German and Italian Prince.  (Her daughter Tatianna had an affair with another woman and stayed friends with her, considers herself part of the tribe.) These two sexual adventurers were a hot couple around town in New York City for some time until a magazine profile made them see themselves and their lives more critically.  Diane was a huntress and has no apologies. When they split she was determined to honor the name and the allure of having been married to a Prince but also to make it on her own. 

It was the 1970's. She invented the "wrap dress" that made her rich.  She learned as she went, and the things that made her dress so important, besides capturing the imagination of women from diverse life experiences, was that it was reasonably affordable, the fine fabric manufactured in Italy on which her designs were printed, and the colors and patterns were bold.  The dress looked good on a variety of figures and it moved well and held up well after a hard day of work as a new era of feminism and the sexual revolution accelerated so that you could wear it to work or out of dinner.  She posed for her first ad on a mod white cube, the ad saying, "Be a Woman, Wear a Dress."  Her forays into cosmetics and a perfume named after her daughter went only so well, and she struggled to understand and stick to her own brand.

About her husband Barry Diller,: their relationship wasn't exactly off and on, it was sort of on in some way no matter who else was going on, and some people think he's gay but for Diane.  Unified as a couple and family with her children and grandchildren, the two of them have a fortune that is not just about fashion, but perhaps more correctly pop culture and technological innovation.

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