Lee Radziwill
Encyclopedia
Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill Ross (née
Bouvier, born March 3, 1933) best known as Lee Radziwill, is an American socialite
, public relations executive, and former actress and interior decorator. She is the younger sister of the late First Lady
, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
. Her niece Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is named after her.
, New York
, Caroline Lee Bouvier, called Lee after her maternal grandfather James T. Lee, was the daughter of John Vernou Bouvier III
and his wife, the former Janet Norton Lee
. Although raised as Catholics, Lee and her sister, Jacqueline, sometimes attended Episcopal churches after their mother remarried to Hugh D. Auchincloss
, an Episcopalian.
. He was the son of notorious socialite Kiki Preston
. It was rumoured that his biological father was Prince George, Duke of Kent
, a member of the British Royal Family
; if so, then Canfield would be a first cousin of the present Queen
. They divorced in 1959, and the marriage was annulled by the Roman Catholic Church in November 1962.
Her second marriage, on March 19, 1959, was to the Polish prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, who divorced his second wife, the former Grace Maria Kolin, and received a Roman Catholic annulment of his first marriage to marry the former Mrs. Canfield. (His second marriage had never been acknowledged by the Roman Catholic Church, so no annulment was necessary.) Five months after the wedding, the couple had a son, Anthony Radziwill
, and a year after that, a daughter, Anna Christina Radziwill
. They divorced on March 3, 1974. Some sources indicate that Lee Radziwill also received an annulment from her church for this marriage. Anthony Radziwill died of cancer at the age of 40 on August 10, 1999, just one month after the death of his cousin John F. Kennedy, Jr.
and John's wife, Carolyn
, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, in a plane crash near Martha's Vineyard
, Massachusetts
.
Five years after her 1974 divorce, Radziwill became engaged to California hotel magnate Newton Cope, but the marriage was called off five minutes before the wedding ceremony was to begin. (Newton Cope, a San Francisco social figure and bon vivant who was chairman of the board of a privately held firm that owned the Huntington Hotel and several other properties on Nob Hill, died November 23, 2005 after a long illness. He was 83 and suffered from bone cancer.)
On September 23, 1988, she became the second wife of American film director and choreographer Herbert Ross
; they divorced in 2001, shortly before his death.
Author Peter Evans in his book Nemesis has stated that she also had a longstanding affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and was privately bitterly disappointed when he married her elder sister Jackie Kennedy.
, starring as spoiled Main Line
heiress Tracy Lord. The play was staged at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago
, and Radziwill's performance was widely panned. A year later, she appeared in a television adaptation of the Hollywood film Laura
, which was also badly received. Radziwill did not continue her acting work.
She also visited India and Pakistan along with her elder sister Jacqueline Kennedy (then First Lady of the United States
) in March 1962.
Radziwill received a great deal of favorable coverage for her personal style in the 1960s and 1970s. The two English homes, a townhouse in London and a manor house called Turville Grange in Turville
that she shared with her second husband, were decorated by Italian stage designer Renzo Mongiardino and were greatly admired and frequently published by Cecil Beaton
and Horst P. Horst
. She herself worked briefly as an interior decorator, as well, in a style much influenced by her association with Mongiardino. Her clientele were the wealthy; she once decorated a house "for people who would not be there more than three days a year." She was seen in celebrity company, such as on the 1972 American tour
of The Rolling Stones
, during which she accompanied Truman Capote
.
For some years, Radziwill was a public relations executive for Giorgio Armani
, the Italian fashion designer. She is also the author of Happy Times (Assouline, 2003), an autobiographical coffee-table book about her life.
Radziwill received the Légion d'honneur
from the French government in 2008. It was presented to her at the home of Bernard-Henri Lévy
and Arielle Dombasle
in Paris.
Lee Radziwill's Paris and Manhattan apartments were featured in the April 2009 issue of Elle Decor magazine.
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Bouvier, born March 3, 1933) best known as Lee Radziwill, is an American socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
, public relations executive, and former actress and interior decorator. She is the younger sister of the late First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
. Her niece Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is named after her.
Early life and Ancestry
Born March 3, 1933 in SouthamptonSouthampton (town), New York
The Town of Southampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, U.S., partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town had a total population of 54,712...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Caroline Lee Bouvier, called Lee after her maternal grandfather James T. Lee, was the daughter of John Vernou Bouvier III
John Vernou Bouvier III
John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III was an American socialite and Wall Street stockbroker. He was the father of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Lee Radziwill...
and his wife, the former Janet Norton Lee
Janet Norton Lee Bouvier Auchincloss Morris
Janet Morris was an American socialite. She was the mother of former United States First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill...
. Although raised as Catholics, Lee and her sister, Jacqueline, sometimes attended Episcopal churches after their mother remarried to Hugh D. Auchincloss
Hugh D. Auchincloss
Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr. was an American stockbroker and lawyer who became the second husband of Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.-Biography:...
, an Episcopalian.
Marriages and Children
Radziwill has been married three times. Her first marriage, in April 1953, was to Michael Temple Canfield, a publishing executive who had been adopted as an infant by the American publisher Cass CanfieldCass Canfield
Augustus Cass Canfield was an American publishing executive who was the longtime president and chairman of Harper & Brothers, later Harper & Row.-Early life:...
. He was the son of notorious socialite Kiki Preston
Kiki Preston
Kiki Preston, née Alice Gwynne was an American socialite, a member of the infamous Happy Valley set, and the alleged mother of a child born out of wedlock with Prince George, Duke of Kent, fourth son of King George V of the United Kingdom...
. It was rumoured that his biological father was Prince George, Duke of Kent
Prince George, Duke of Kent
Prince George, Duke of Kent was a member of the British Royal Family, the fourth son of George V and Mary of Teck, and younger brother of Edward VIII and George VI...
, a member of the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
; if so, then Canfield would be a first cousin of the present Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
. They divorced in 1959, and the marriage was annulled by the Roman Catholic Church in November 1962.
Her second marriage, on March 19, 1959, was to the Polish prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, who divorced his second wife, the former Grace Maria Kolin, and received a Roman Catholic annulment of his first marriage to marry the former Mrs. Canfield. (His second marriage had never been acknowledged by the Roman Catholic Church, so no annulment was necessary.) Five months after the wedding, the couple had a son, Anthony Radziwill
Anthony Radziwill
Anthony Stanislas Albert Radziwill was an American television executive and filmmaker.-Early life and education:...
, and a year after that, a daughter, Anna Christina Radziwill
Anna Christina Radziwill
Anna Christina Radziwill is the daughter of Lee Radziwill and the late Polish Prince Stanislaw Radziwill...
. They divorced on March 3, 1974. Some sources indicate that Lee Radziwill also received an annulment from her church for this marriage. Anthony Radziwill died of cancer at the age of 40 on August 10, 1999, just one month after the death of his cousin John F. Kennedy, Jr.
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. , often referred to as John F. Kennedy, Jr., JFK Jr., John Jr. or John-John, was an American socialite, magazine publisher, lawyer, and pilot. The elder son of U.S. President John F...
and John's wife, Carolyn
Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
Carolyn Jeanne Bessette-Kennedy was the wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.-Early life:...
, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, in a plane crash near Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Five years after her 1974 divorce, Radziwill became engaged to California hotel magnate Newton Cope, but the marriage was called off five minutes before the wedding ceremony was to begin. (Newton Cope, a San Francisco social figure and bon vivant who was chairman of the board of a privately held firm that owned the Huntington Hotel and several other properties on Nob Hill, died November 23, 2005 after a long illness. He was 83 and suffered from bone cancer.)
On September 23, 1988, she became the second wife of American film director and choreographer Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross
Herbert Ross was an American film director, producer, choreographer and actor.-Early life and career:Born Herbert David Ross in Brooklyn, New York, he made his stage debut as Third Witch with a touring company of Macbeth in 1942...
; they divorced in 2001, shortly before his death.
Author Peter Evans in his book Nemesis has stated that she also had a longstanding affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and was privately bitterly disappointed when he married her elder sister Jackie Kennedy.
Career attempts and fame
In the 1960s, Radziwill attempted to forge a career as an actress. Her acting attempt was not a success, but she did receive international publicity. Largely untrained, Radziwill received dismal reviews in the 1967 production of The Philadelphia StoryThe Philadelphia Story (play)
The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 American comic play by Philip Barry. It tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist.-Production:...
, starring as spoiled Main Line
Pennsylvania Main Line
The Main Line is an unofficial historical and socio-cultural region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, comprising a collection of affluent towns built along the old Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad which ran northwest from downtown Philadelphia parallel to Lancaster Avenue , a road...
heiress Tracy Lord. The play was staged at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and Radziwill's performance was widely panned. A year later, she appeared in a television adaptation of the Hollywood film Laura
Laura (1944 film)
Laura is a 1944 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel of the same title by Vera Caspary....
, which was also badly received. Radziwill did not continue her acting work.
She also visited India and Pakistan along with her elder sister Jacqueline Kennedy (then First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
) in March 1962.
Radziwill received a great deal of favorable coverage for her personal style in the 1960s and 1970s. The two English homes, a townhouse in London and a manor house called Turville Grange in Turville
Turville
Turville is a village and civil parish within Wycombe district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about five miles west of High Wycombe and five miles north of Henley-on-Thames....
that she shared with her second husband, were decorated by Italian stage designer Renzo Mongiardino and were greatly admired and frequently published by Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
and Horst P. Horst
Horst P. Horst
Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann who chose to be known as Horst P. Horst was a German-American fashion photographer.-Early life:...
. She herself worked briefly as an interior decorator, as well, in a style much influenced by her association with Mongiardino. Her clientele were the wealthy; she once decorated a house "for people who would not be there more than three days a year." She was seen in celebrity company, such as on the 1972 American tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour , was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones...
of The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, during which she accompanied Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
.
For some years, Radziwill was a public relations executive for Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...
, the Italian fashion designer. She is also the author of Happy Times (Assouline, 2003), an autobiographical coffee-table book about her life.
Radziwill received the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
from the French government in 2008. It was presented to her at the home of Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual, philosopher and journalist. Often referred to today, in France, simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976.-Early life:...
and Arielle Dombasle
Arielle Dombasle
Arielle Dombasle is a French-American singer, actress, director and model. Her breakthrough roles were in Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach and Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa...
in Paris.
Lee Radziwill's Paris and Manhattan apartments were featured in the April 2009 issue of Elle Decor magazine.