Delevingne sex scandal!
No, not Cara – but her VERY racy great-aunt Doris
CARA DELEVINGNE may be famous for her colourful private life but it pales in comparison to the outrageous exploits of her great-aunt.
Doris Delevingne cheated on her husband with countless men, including Winston Churchill and his son Randolph, and also seduced the celebrated photographer Cecil Beaton – despite the fact that he was gay.
Doris later became a lesbian and eventually died of a drug overdose aged just 42.
Her exploits marked her out as the most notorious courtesan of the 1930s. Now they have been detailed in an absorbing new biography, The Mistress Of Mayfair, an extract from which appears in The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine today.
Doris came from humble beginnings, but her life changed beyond measure the night she caught the eye of Viscount Castlerosse, who was drowning his sorrows in a club in St James’s, Central London, after a disastrous day gambling on horses.
He was ten years older, corpulent and balding, but Doris was prepared to entertain his interest because of his fame as a society columnist and his association with the Royal Family.
As their relationship grew she continued to see other men in exchange
She seduced Cecil Beaton - even though he was gay
for money and gifts. Castlerosse described her as ‘breathlessly lovely to look at, with the delicate features of a nervous, sensitive deer and the mobility, strength and grace of a panther’ – a description that could easily be applied to supermodel Cara, 24.
He was also taken by her ‘outrageous, outspoken and shameless’ behaviour – she was known to berate restaurant staff over the quality of the food. The couple married secretly in 1928 and Doris quickly made the most of her new title, having coronets printed on her notepaper and stitched into her bed linen.
But from the start of the marriage, Doris – whose brother Edward was Cara’s grandfather – continued to have affairs. She excused her behaviour to her angry husband by saying that she was ‘a magnet to men’.
In 1930 she met Winston Churchill in France. Rumours abounded that the pair had sex at The Ritz in Paris, after which the future Prime Minister was said to have complimented her on her lovemaking skills.
Two years later Doris shocked Churchill when she began an affair with his 21-year-old son.
The relationship apparently came to light when the maitre d’ of a Piccadilly club opened a door to an anteroom and was ‘confronted by a pair of long, gorgeous legs waving happily in the air’. Seducing Beaton was more challenging for Doris, and although the society photographer was initially reluctant to sleep with her, she assured him he ‘wouldn’t have to do a thing’.
She divorced Castlerosse in 1938 and then embarked on a lesbian affair with wealthy American Margot Hoffman and moved to New York. When they split, Doris returned to London penniless. She pawned the last of her diamonds, unaware this was illegal during the Second World War.
With police launching an investigation, she took an overdose of barbiturates and died in December 1942.