In 1963 a Polaroid photo showed the Duchess of Argyll having sex – stark naked and only wearing her three-row pearl necklace. These sex selfies were her undoing. The aristocratic marriage quarrel led to the dirtiest divorce in England and is now being made into a film.
The Swinging Sixties are considered to be a decade in which the metropolis of London vibrated with zest for life. British fashion and music were top of the world. In that decade the bitterly poor, dark post-war era was left behind and the British estates began to develop serious cracks. That was due to the scandals that the upper class delivered. There was something like this before, but before that these things were swept under the rug. The nature of the sexual relationship between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson has been rumored numerous times, but never spread in the press. But in the 1960s the tabloids, radio and the new medium of television fought mercilessly for the favor of the masses. There could no longer be any protection for the upper ten thousand and their privileges.
And this pack also tore up the Duchess of Argyll, who afterwards only became known as the “Dirty Duchess”. Her high-profile divorce case is now being filmed by the BBC. Claire Foy plays the Duchess of Argyll in “A Very British Scandal”. She played the young Queen Elizabeth II in the series “The Crown”, for which she received the Golden Globe Award in 2017.
The life of a wild girl
Margaret Whigham led a wild life before marrying Ian Douglas Campbell, the 11th Duke of Argyll. He is said to have been especially enchanted by the money that the heiress brought into the marriage. Margaret loved the title and trusted the comment of the aristocracy, who preferred every conjugal humiliation to public scandal. Under this protection, she intended to continue her dissolute sex life. But she evidently overstepped the curve. The duke could not stand their antics and sought a divorce.
In the spirit of the times, marriage could only be divorced because of serious misconduct. If the couples separated by mutual agreement, one party – usually the man – had to take the blame. The rubber formulas were then “mental cruelty” or “constant disregard”. It was different with this couple, the duke did not hesitate to openly accuse his wife of adultery. And not with a gallant, but with over 88 men. In addition, the allegations were backed up with facts. Because the duchess not only loved sexual excess, she also captured the spectacle with the camera. On one of the Polaroids the Duchess can be seen having oral sex with a man, on another she stands next to another naked man whose face cannot be recognized. In both photos she wears the three-row pearl necklace. An heirloom she was famous for in society. These images destroyed their social position.
The born aristocrat
Margaret Whigham, her maiden name, had her first affairs as a teenager. At 15 she became pregnant, the mistake was covered up by the rich family with a secret abortion. The father is said to have been the then 18-year-old David Niven, who would later become a great movie star. In 1930 she was presented to the court as a debutante and even voted “Debutante of the Year”. She was considered one of the most beautiful women in London and married the businessman Charles Sweeny. The marriage was turbulent also because of the mutual infidelity and was divorced. At 35 she was single again. She is said to have had affairs with the most powerful men in Great Britain, with the Duke of Kent, the movie star Cary Gran, with bankers and art dealers. That went on until she met the Duke of Argyll and married. The Duke wanted her money and she wanted her family’s fame and position. She loved the ancestral home of his ancestors, Inveraray Castle. “The top was where I should be,” she later wrote. “I had become a duchess and mistress of a historic castle. Life was apparently rosy through and through.”
The duchess was at peace with herself: “I was rich, I looked good. As a young woman I was constantly photographed, people wrote about me, flattered and admired, I was on the list of the ten best-dressed women in the world, and Cole Porter had sung about me in his song “You’re the Top”. “
Sex selfies are her undoing
She saw no problem in linking her old life with the new status. Margaret Campbell traveled the world and flirted with famous and less famous men. Once she is said to have invited a 17-year-old teenager to her castle for a bath. When the boy was in the tub, she slipped over to him naked. Their behavior weighed heavily on the marriage. In his records, the Duke only lists his wife as “S” – for Satan. She accused him of drunkenness and theft. He found out that his wife was trying to prove that her husband’s sons from previous marriages were not his own children. Then she wanted to adopt a boy who would then have been a legitimate heir.
This insane maneuver then probably led to the final break. The Duke forbade her by court to enter the castle and demanded a divorce. If she wasn’t going to ruin him, he’d have to prove adultery to his wife. So he had a locksmith break into his wife’s closet. This is where the 13 Polaroids who recorded their transgressions were found. A man who had oral sex from her is said to have been Winston Churchill’s son-in-law, Duncan Sandys – then Secretary of Defense. The Duchess never revealed the names of her lovers until she died.
Mud battle of the decade
In the process, she herself lacked the understanding to strike the flag when a battle was lost. Margaret Campbell was apparently charming but not clever. One article said, “Her father may have been able to give her beautiful earrings, but there is nothing between her ears.” With an early admission of guilt, she could have ended the embarrassing story and saved herself the public humiliation. Instead, her defense lawyer tried to prove her innocence by arguing that adultery at 9 a.m. was unlikely because no one could have sex that early.
Her husband submitted a list of 88 men to the court, all of whom are said to have been lovers of his wife. Celebrities, but also boys from the neighborhood. Much later, one of the boys described how he had lost his innocence to the duchess. The process destroyed their reputation and position in society. The judge was horrified. The verdict was 50,000 words long and is considered the longest in Scottish legal history. In court she was certified as a “sexually perverse” and “a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite can only be satisfied with a number of men”.
Branded like that, no one could officially receive them anymore. The title was also based on the marriage, she herself was “only” the daughter of an American millionaire. When she had also wasted the remains of her inheritance, she lived in a small apartment. In 1993 she died completely impoverished. She was looked after by a housekeeper who was paid by old friends and her first husband, because the duchess was not even able to make tea herself.