http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/guest-diary/2016/the-courtesan-and-the-consort EXCERPT: Still, men of the World War II generation were enthralled by her as most ached with Churchill-envy, and knew she was the closest they’d ever get to the great man himself. Women, usually, felt over-matched, and they resented her. Not simply because she ignored them, but because she had a past — a vivid, exotic sex-filled past — which had allowed her to accrue wealth from a variety of rich lovers, most of whom were married.
EXCERPT: Daughter of aristocratic titan Averell Harriman, Kathleen Harriman Mortimer was born to wealth, beauty, and blueblood values. But when her father plunged into the politics of World War II as President Roosevelt’s special envoy to Britain and later the ambassador to Russia, she went with him, going from working as a wide-eyed ingénue reporter to enchanting both Churchill and Stalin. After Mortimer’s death last February, and with exclusive access to her previously unknown scrapbooks, Marie Brenner excavates the heiress’s backstage pass to history, including Averell’s affair with Churchill’s daughter-in-law, the legendary Pamela, who would be his last wife. (This article originally appeared in the November 2011 issue of Vanity Fair.) *** https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/08/agnelli200808 THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT THE AGNELLI FORTUNE... Agnelli being one of Pamela's men who kept her, as well as the keeper of Bruna Palombo (a Mistress of the Month here at Mistress Manifesto) EXCERPT: The Agnellis are a study in dysfunction. Gianni, the international titan and epic playboy of a father, turned the family company, Fiat, into a business machine that transformed postwar Italy into the world’s fifth-strongest economic nation and himself into a colossus of power, privilege, and style. His wife, Marella, a Neapolitan princess turned model, photographer, and taste-maker, who was immortalized by Richard Avedon as one of the world’s most beautiful women, and who became one of Truman Capote’s close confidantes (known as his “swans”), was portrayed by Isabella Rossellini in Douglas McGrath’s 2006 film about Capote, Infamous. Attempting to hold her own in the face of her husband’s sexual wanderlust, Marella once told a biographer, “For Gianni, a woman is to be conquered, not to be loved.”
While debutant Pamela Digby was unhappily married to her first husband, Winston Churchill's son Randolph Churchill, and Randolph was away at the war, she had an affair with William Averell Harriman, called Ave. He was unhappily married too and old enough to be her father. He was the first man to have kept her. Though he soon returned to the United States and his marriage, he was a very wealthy man and another man, Lord Beaverbrook, acted as a negotiator and a go between to fund Pamela's apartment in London and expenses. These payments went on for three decades, though he may not have always been paying attention to his finances. When Pamela Churchill Harriman, newly widowed, arrived back in the United States after a trip to Europe to visit her son, Winston, a visit to France, and a cruise, she was invited to a dinner in Washington D.C. She spotted Ave, now 79 and a widow. No one could make his life easy again - except Pamela. They quickly reignited old passions. They were married eight weeks after their reunion. She set out to redecorate and claim her own turf. She expanded their staff. They had a private jet. Now became truly wealthy in her own right for the first time. They married when she was 51. He died when she was 66. Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, the woman who was called the Courtesan of the 20th Century, who started out as a dumpy debutante with no real money compared to her peers, had set herself apart. She went on to become a Democratic Party fund raiser. The girl who was know to say little, to speak only when spoken to, or only to uphold her man, started giving political advice. The woman who lived more than half a century before she felt she had enough money controlled grants given by the W. Averell and Pamela C. Harriman Foundation and the Mary W. Harriman Foundation. She gave out large sums of money every year to effect public policy. The girl who lacked a good education but for a "finishing school," proved to have been someone who learned well from everyone she was involved with. Influential in President William Jefferson Clinton becoming elected to the nation's highest office, she was rewarded when he named her United States Ambassador to France.
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? C 2019 All Rights Reserved Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot Note: The primary reference for posts on Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman is Sally Bedell Smith's book Reflected Glory.
In London in the summer of 1942, Pamela, now supported by Averell Harriman who was gone to American, set her sights on John Hay "Jock" Whitney, who was a Captain in the American army. He had many thousands to spend every month and a fortune as an heir to another American fortune. Different views of this relationship have been stated. That it wasn't serious or that she would have married him. But if the relationship went nowhere, she was on to the next, Edward R. Murrow, a famous broadcaster working for CBS Radio, 35 years to her 23, and married. This was a serious affair for both of them.
This is one of many YouTube videos of Murrow broadcasting during World War II. Pamela's divorce from Randolph Churchill was filed on December 18, 1945 on grounds of three years of desertion! But when Murrow's wife got pregnant and his boss, William Paley, sat him down and told him not to ruin his life and marry Pamela, Murrow had to reconsider. Murrow's child was born on November 6, 1945 and that was the end of the affair. C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot All Rights Reserved Sally Bedell Smith's book Reflected Glory is the primary reference for this post.
William Averell Harriman, an American, grew up in privilege and had money. He was a man who married and married and married - but seemed never to have happiness. His affair with the married Pamela Digby Churchill probably began at the Dorchester Hotel in London during a bombing raid by the Germans during World War II. Nothing like the fear of loosing your life to make you live life to the fullest. He had a history of wrong marriages and affairs and mistresses. The man had a 2nd marriage with Kitty Lawrence who was ill with TB and not compatible. He had mistresses and there were rumors of affairs. Then in 1928 another woman, Marie Norton Whitney was his conquest. She became his third wife in February of 1930. She was 26 and he was 38. Pamela was still married to Randolph unhappily. Ave was much older than Pamela and not much to look at. Like her husband Randolph he appeared older than his years. But Harriman was worth multi millions and he was a courtly and debonair man if not in the best physical shape. Women liked him. By 1941 he and his wife Marie were no longer intimate and so she didn't blame him for his affairs. In fact they were both having affairs. Pamela even befriended his daughter Kathleen, who was about her age, while having an affair with him. Pamela's reunion with Randolph, who asked for another chance, did not go well. They both realized their marriage had been a mistake. She went over to tell her father in law, Winston, that she was getting a divorce. He understood. Pamela had volunteered with the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) as many houswifed did and served as a guide to visiting American dignitaries. (put in previous post) page 103 "PAMELA WAS A DOER, NOT A THINKER OR A RECORDER." Though the affair had to end between she and Harriman, there was Lord Beaverbrook as an intermediary who arranged financial support for Pamela. Randolph was not much of a financial support for her and his son. He spent his money wildly leaving them in debt. Harriman secretly picked up the costs of her apartment by depositing money in Beaverbrook's accounts which then made it to pay the rent. The man actually forgot he was doing so perhaps because he had too many millions to keep accounting of and did so for three decades (check fact. Sometimes it went past due but the Lord would give him a nudge. She was also given a nice yearly allowance. Harriman did well by her... with a little nudging. At 22, she had the name, the son - heir, and a good relationship with her father in law Winston Churchill. She was done with the husband and was supported financially, even as Harriman left town and went back to his life in America. Years would pass, the allowance and rent continuing, but later in life Pamela and Ave would marry. ***** As I read these passages of Sally Bedell Smith's book, I had to wonder. I had learned that Lord Beaverbrook had many house parties that Pamela had attended. Why was he so willing to be an intermediary? Harriman was an American. Did he need to be told how to treat this young British woman who he had an affair with? Could there have been a hint of blackmail or pay back involved?
"Reflected Glory" by Sally Bedell Smith is the primary reference for posts. Pamela Digby was born into the peerage of Great Britain, but she spent 20 years of her life as a courtesan - mistress - a kept woman. She was feminine, flirtatious, and maternal to men and made them - and her select women friends - feel special. Wives worried about their husbands around her. She changed her man and her life many times but she loved to be surrounded by powerful people. She was highly criticized and judged from her earliest days as a society girl but if she knew it she pretended not to or didn't let it get her down. She was a "bad girl" and yet to her funeral came those with prestige and power. Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill of World War II fame, asked her to marry him the first date they had, an arranged date, and had asked many women before who turned him down. She said yes and was married to him before he went off to war. She quickly became pregnant and bore him a son - an heir, named Winston. He would be her only child. Pamela's family had an old title and prestige if not money. Her education was not substantial. They couldn't afford the best schools for her. But they sent her to France to board with a family that took in girls like her and showed them around to absorb the culture. Who knew that in her later years she would become the United States Ambassador to France after having lived as a mistress in that country. At the age of 17 her education had ended. She was "finished." But she went to the Coronation of King George VI, who took over the throne when his brother The King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to be married to Wallis Simpson. Who knew that someday she and Wallis, who was a good 20 years older than she, would become good friends. Pamela Digby made her debut in front of the Queen in 1938, wearing clothes that were not much compared to most of her more wealthy peers, clothing that embarrassed her. But she still attended a marathon of parties, races, and entertainments designed to show off aristocratic girls ready to marry and breed with wealthy young men. More than 1000 girls debuted that year and most of them left the city and went back home to the country to wait on marriage proposals. The others stayed in the city. Maybe a hundred girls were considered popular. Not Pam. That same year Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy and her sister Rosemary, daughters of Joseph Kennedy, the United States Ambassador to Britain, and father of the future American President John F. Kennedy, called her dumpy. As it turned out, she and Kick would have an enduring friendship. Pamela's father won a substantial amount of money at the horse races that allowed him to afford her a Jaguar car, if not the ability to give her a fancy dress ball like other girls. He rented a place in Mayfair, London, to put her in the right neighborhood. But she was taken under wing by her mother, who never failed to have confidence in her, and some of her mother's friends. One, Olive Baille, invited her to house parties where she had famous Hollywood stars on the guest list. Clearly she had something going for her. Pamela did get an inheritance that would have allowed her to be independent, so long as she budgeted, but she wanted more. Fulke Warwick (ie. of Warwick Castle fame) may have been her first lover. But she claimed only a dinner while he dined out on stories of being sexual with her. Debutantes were thought to be virgins. Most of them were chaperoned.
And so she went through a second season, 1939, as did many girls still in need of a husband. She went to a pre-war ball at Blenheim Palace - the home of Winston Churchill's family - that was given by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough for Lady Sara Spencer - Churchill. (Are the names sounding familiar?) But she was set up on a blind date with Randolph Churchill. On October 4, 1939 they married. The smiling bride wore a coat with a fur collar, not the typical white wedding dress, while the smiling groom wore his military uniform. She now had the Churchill name, so respected, and would carry it all her life. Randolph, by many accounts, was obnoxious and probably alcoholic. By January 1940 she was pregnant. He was in the Fourth Hussars. She had to live alone and went from one friend's accommodations to another. (I know, you're wondering what about the Palace?) They were totally incompatible and unhappy but then people thought Randolph as difficult. She was 20. He was 29. Like many wives, Pamela got involved in the war effort and became something of a tour guide, guiding American officers in London. Her ability to organize and plan large and small events would be useful in all her relationships. By the time Randolph returned after almost a year away, Pamela acted excited and happy to see him and introduced them to their son, Winston, for the first time. But she had already met and had an affair with another man who would figure in her life, William Averell Harriman. C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot
