Who Was the Real Duchess of Argyll?
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If one were to rattle off just a few of the most sensational society divorces in recent memory, the task would be quite easy. The list is near endless: The very obnoxious, very-good-for-the-art-world Macklowe split—that, after six excruciating years, will finally be resolved in May when the rest of their Warhols and Rothkos are sold at Sotheby's—may come to mind. Or the stunning saga of Jordanian Princess Haya bint Hussein's attempt to escape from her tyrannical husband, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai. And we can't forget the billion-dollar tech un-couplings featuring the world's two richest men, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
But back circa 1960s, as revolutionary as the decade would turn out to be, divorce was a rare occurrence—among the British aristocracy rarer still. Which is why even by 2022 standards, the fantastically sordid breakdown of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll's union still remains one of the nastiest splits in history, one in which she was subjected to revenge porn, having her adulterous liaisons exposed, her sex life publicly dissected by a vicious media. And now the tale is being revisited once more, for television.
A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany as the doomed couple, is a three-part limited series that premiered in the UK (on BBC) in December and will cross over to this side of the Atlantic via Amazon Prime starting Friday. In preparation for the weekend binge, here is everything we know about the real Margaret Campbell, the formidable woman at the center of it all—and the scandal that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Watch A Very British Scandal on Amazon Prime
She became a society fixture in the 1930s and had a string of high profile romances.
Margaret was born in 1912, the only daughter of George Whigham, a Scottish millionaire, and his wife Helen. She was presented at Court in 1930 and christened "Debutante of the Year," though the honor came not before she had already had some fun with society's most eligible, including Prince Aly Khan; Max Aitken, son of publishing magnate Lord Beaverbrook; the future actor David Niven; and Prince George, Duke of Kent. With her canny ability to work the tabloids to her advantage (pre-divorce, at least), both socially and financially, Margaret became one of the most glamorous socialites of her era.
She was engaged three times and married twice.
After her coming out, Margaret was engaged to Charles Guy Fulke Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick, but broke it off after she fell instead for Charles Sweeny, scion of a wealthy American family. They were married in February 1933 at the Brompton Oratory in London. The event, plus the bride's wedding gown, which was designed by royal dressmaker Norman Hartnell (he later made Queen Elizabeth's wedding dress), drew such a crowd that traffic in Knightsbridge was gridlocked for hours.
The Sweenys were married for 14 years and had three children (including a daughter who was stillborn) before divorcing in 1947. Before meeting Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll, on a train from Paris, Margaret was engaged to a Lehman Brothers banker, who—in what might have seemed a bit karmic—broke it off with her after meeting someone else. But no matter, by 1951, Margaret had become a duchess.
Who was the Duke of Argyll?
Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, was chief of Clan Campbell, historically one of Scotland's largest and most powerful clans. He presided over the duchy from Inveraray Castle, the family seat since the 18th century. (And which you might also recognize from Downton Abbey's 2012 Christmas episode—it was a stand-in for the fictional Duneagle.)
When he married Margaret in 1951, he was 48 (she was 39), twice-divorced, and had three children. Even though the Duchess of Argyll's adultery and sex life would later get the glaring national spotlight, her husband was hardly innocent. He was notorious for being violent and emotionally abusive, not to mention addicted to drugs, alcohol, and gambling. He also had a habit of manipulating his wives' wealth to sustain and maintain Inveraray.
Margaret, for her part, used forged letters to try to convince the duke that his children from his second marriage were illegitimate and even attempted to fake a pregnancy by asking a friend to find her a baby boy from Poland—the friend declined to participate. Plus, in 1960, she was sued for libel and defamation by her former social secretary, Yvonne MacPherson.
Now about that divorce...
The duke began to suspect infidelity and so while his wife was away in New York, he broke into her personal drawer and discovered explicit polaroids, including one that showed her clad in nothing but pearls and engaging in oral sex with an unidentified man. He submitted these in court as evidence for divorce. In 2022, this is revenge porn and it's a punishable offense. Not so in 1963: Margaret was dubbed the "Dirty Duchess" by the tabloids and received a scathing rebuke from the judge, who said "her attitude to the sanctity of marriage was what moderns would call “enlightened” but which in plain language was wholly immoral." He also called her "a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men."
In addition to the photographs, the duke had produced a list of 88 men, including government ministers and members of the royal family, that the duchess had supposedly been unfaithful with during their 12-year union. The press, naturally, had a field day with all of these titillating details and speculation ran rampant about that man in the polaroid. The government even called in a judge, Lord Denning, to figure out his identity. Actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Duncan Sandys, the former son-in-law of Winston Churchill, emerged as the likeliest candidates though these claims were never really proven.
What happened to the Duchess of Argyll?
For the rest of her life, Margaret made several unsuccessful attempts to recuperate her reputation and once again monetize her social standing. She launched a series of libel lawsuits that only left her in further financial ruin. She wrote a memoir and a guide to entertaining, both not very well-received, opened her London house up for tours, and made a couple appearances on talk shows. By the late '70s, her mounting debts forced her to move into a hotel—in 1990 she was evicted for failing to pay the bills. She died in a nursing home in 1993, at age 80.
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