Season premiere of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans
Click to viewFEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans tells the story of acclaimed writer Truman Capote, once a confidante to society’s most elite women, whom he nicknamed “the swans.” However, his act of betrayal (publishing their secrets in his short story La Côte Basque, which you can read here) effectively destroyed those relationships, banished him from high society, ( Read more... )
Ha, totally. It's because these groups were so insular bordering on incestuous that everyone was somehow connected to everyone else. If they weren't blood related, they were related by marriage or someone in their family had an affair with someone in the other family.
Just within the circle of Capote's swans:
Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman's first husband was Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill, and C.Z. Guest was married to Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, Winston's cousin.
Pamela was involved with Gianni Agnelli for four years (during which time, she got pregnant and he made her get an abortion). His family did not approve of her so when he was in a serious car accident, they brought Marella to his hospital room. When she got pregnant, the family decided she and Gianni should get married.
Pamela later had an affair with Slim's husband, Leland Hayward, who divorced Slim to marry Pamela.
Another swan, Gloria was married four times. Her fourth husband Loel Guinness was first married to Joan Yarde-Buller. Joan's second husband was Prince Aly Khan (who divorced Joan to marry Rita Hayworth). Patrick, Joan's son with Loel, married Dolores, Gloria's daughter with her second husband. After Patrick died, Dolores fell in love with Aga Khan IV, Aly Khan's son with Joan (aka Patrick's half brother). Translation: this family tree looks like a wild bush.
Dolores and Patrick had a daughter, Victoria Guinness, who married Philip Niarchos, the son of Stavros Niarchos and his third wife Eugenia Livanos. Eugenia's sister Athina was the first wife of Aristotle Onassis, who had an affair with another swan, Lee Radziwill.
So yeah, everyone was connected one way or another!
one of the swan's mothers was married to Vincent Astor.
Babe's older sister Minnie was Vincent's second wife.
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I totally forgot about the the whole Gloria Guinness "the family tree does not fork" madness!
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I totally forgot to mention Marie Norton Whitney Harriman (the woman who bled all over Bill Paley's sheets)! Her first husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was the first cousin of Jock Whitney who was married to Babe's older sister Betsey Cushing (Jock was Betsey's second husband).
Marie's second husband, Averell Harriman, was the third husband of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, another one of Capote's swans. Between her first and second marriages, Pamela also had affairs with Jock Whitney and the aforementioned Aly Khan and Stavros Niarchos (from my earlier post). She also had an affair with Bill Paley (Babe's husband) while he was still married to his first wife.
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It always makes me laugh when people (especially conservative politicians) act like infidelity and promiscuity are new, and that back in Ye Olden Times everyone stayed virgins until marriage and then only slept with their spouses. I need to read Pamela's book! How did you like it?
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Her book is great but take it with an enormous shaker of salt. She, of course, has a very generous perspective on her behavior and past LOL
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