TRUTH BEHIND FAMOUS SCANDAL-HIT ARISTOCRAT
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her w i th t raumat ic inju r ies , scandal and heartbreak followed as Margaret swung from lover to lover, society to society.
“This culminated in her notorious divorce case of 1963 that sent shockwaves round the world and was only overshadowed by the Profumo affair the same year.”
During the case, her second husband Ian Campbell produced a list of 88 suspected lovers and stolen, graphic Polaroids of her in compromising positions with two other men.
One photo showed the duchess performing a sex act on a man, whose face is not visible and there has been much speculation over the years as to his identity. Duncan Sandys, Winston Churchill’s son-in-law, actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and US airline excutive Bill Lyons have all been in the frame.
But using previously unpublished sources and personal transcripts, Lyndsy not only tells the full story behind this fragile and damaged woman but reveals for the first time the most likely identity of the “headless man” as Texan millionaire Joe Thomas.
Margaret had married Campbell, the 11th Duke of Argyll, in 1951 and he set about using her family’s millions to restore his crumbling seat – Inveraray Castle in Argyll and Bute.
Their marriage was unhappy and volatile but it was the duke who set about destroying his wife in public court by stealing the compromising photos from her bedroom.
Lyndsy, who lives in County Antrim, said: “In many ways, Margaret was one of the first Me Too victims as her husband stole her personal property and used it to violate her in open court.
“Producing the Polaroid pictures and ruining her reputation was a horrific and vengeful thing to do. It should never have been allowed to happen.
“The duke had no problem blackening her name, claiming she was having affairs with more than 80 men who were mentioned in her diary of engagements.
“Many of the men in Margaret’s diary were gay but, because in those days homosexuality was still illegal, she took the rap by staying quiet to protect them.”
She added: “Ian never really showed any love for her and it was clear from the outset that he only wanted her millions to do up Inveraray Castle. She was naive and was taken advantage of quite easily.
“The 1963 trial ruined not only her reputation but also her life. She was viewed as a freak show and it earned her the nickname of the ‘ dirty duchess’.
“The judge ignored the ill- gotten evidence and sided with Campbell, proclaiming Margaret to be a ‘ highlysexed woman who had ceased to be satisfied with normal sexual relations.’
“As a divorcee, she was portrayed as
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a mentally unstable villain in the press and cast out from the very uppermost echelons of English society.”
As part of her research for the book, out on February 11, Lyndsy spoke to the son of Joe Thomas, who believes his father was the “headless man”.
She said: “There have been rumours over the years about who he was.
“In 2013, Margaret’s stepdaughterin-law Lady Colin Campbell claimed the duchess had told her it was American airline executive Bill Lyons but I think I have stumbled upon the most likely truth.
“When I contacted the son of Joe Thomas, the New York stockbroker she fell in love with after her marriage to Charles Sweeney broke down, he told me about the Polaroids he had found in his dad’s trunk. These matched the ones Ian Campbell held up in court.
“The dates matched too as Margaret was in New York in 1947 and 1948 and Polaroid brought out their first camera in 1948.”
Lyndsy admits she fell in love with the larger- than- life yet fragile Duchess while writing the book. She said: “She was often portrayed as a villain but I loved the fact she didn’t care. She was a victim of her circumstances and there is redemption in her story.
“There was a very caring side to her nature. She loved her two children – Brian and Frances, who she had to her first husband Charles.
“She adored all animals, especially her dogs, and she helped put two poor brothers through school.
“Looking back, it was clear she was probably suffering from PTSD after eight miscarriages and giving birth to a stillborn daughter.”
She added: “Margaret died in poverty in 1993 in a nursing home in Pimlico, London. She was 80 but right up until the end she took pride in her appearance.
“She was a remarkable woman who took a bid to gain independence in a life that befell so many women of her generation – and lost. It was such a privilege for me to write about her.”