Born on 1 December 1912, Margaret Whigham was the only daughter of a Scottish businessman and millionaire, George Whigham and his wife, Helen Mann Hannay. After completing her education in , she moved back to the UK, where her and status as an heiress made her much in-demand on the social scene. At the age of 15, she became pregnant with the actor David Niven's child while on a holiday on the , but the pregnancy was terminated.
She was presented as a debutante in 1930, and after early romances with Prince Aly Khan, aviator Glen Kidston, Baron Martin Stillman von Brabus and publishing heir Max Aitken (later the second Lord Beaverbrook) and , Duke of , she became engaged to Charles Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick. Yet the wedding was not to be, as she was soon swept off her feet by the wealthy American, Charles Sweeney, who instead became her first husband. On the eve of the US presidential election back in 2020, friends, DC insiders and Melania herself told Ben Judah how a small-time Slovenian fashion model rose to wear the mantle of First Lady Her Norman Hartnell wedding dress cemented her status as one of the most glamorous socialites of the era, with crowds reportedly gathering to catch a glimpse of it.
She became a life-long patron of the designer, as well as Victor Stiebel and Angéle Delanghe. During her marriage to Sweeney, she had three children, one who was a stillborn girl, as well as a son Brian and a daughter Frances (who went on to marry the Duke of ), and she also suffered eight miscarriages. She also almost died during a horrific accident while visiting her chiropodist, in which she fell down a lift shaft.
The couple divorced in 1947, and she went on to become engaged again to Lehman Brothers banker Joseph Thomas, although they never married. Her second husband was Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll. Married in 1951, Margaret was at the height of her fame as a glamorous and stylish socialite, and had even been name-dropped in Cole Porter's song, The marriage did not last long before fractures began to form, and the duke, suspicious that his wife had been unfaithful, hired a locksmith to break into her private drawers while she was away in New York.
Inside, he discovered a cache of evidence of her infidelities, including Polaroid pictures of her with another man. Like a phoenix from the ashes, Ivanka Trump is rising again – supporting her father in Milwaukee and after his assassination attempt. But what role will she play in his politics? The pictures were part of a legal case the duke drew up against the duchess as part of divorce proceedings, alongside a list of 88 men he accused her of having sex with behind his back.
The case soon became a tabloid sensation, with Margaret dubbed the ‘dirty duchess’ and the identity of the ‘headless man’ in the Polaroid pictures being widely speculated on (Sir Winston Churchill's son-in-law, Duncan Sandys, was one of them, as it was reported only the Minister of Defence had access to a Polaroid camera). While granting the divorce on May 8 1963, the judge said of Margaret that she 'was a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men. Her attitude to the sanctity of marriage was what moderns would call “enlightened” but which in plain language was wholly immoral.
' After the historic case she never remarried, and lost much of her fortune in later life. She died aged 80 on 25 July 1993. As a debutante Wedding to American golfer Charles Sweeny in 1933 Being Presented at the third court of the season in 1934 Recuperating in Hove following a fall down a lift shaft in 1934 In 1936 In 1947 Marrying the Duke of Argyll at Caxton Hall in 1951 With her daughter Frances Helen in 1951 With the Duke of Argyll in 1952 Snapshot from 1953 With Frances in 1953 With Frances at a Lancaster House Party in 1955 With Frances at Queen Charlotte's Ball at The Grosvenor House in 1955 With the Duke of Argyll leaving the pier at Tobermory in 1956 With her pet poodle Louis XIV in 1957 With Frances at Beirut's St George's Hotel in 1958 In 1959 Outside the law courts in the Strand before being sued for slander and libel by her former social secretary Yvonne MacPherson in 1960 With the Duke of Argyll at the family seat, Inveraray Castle, in 1960 At a dinner in 1961 At the premiere of in 1961 At Zia Foxwell and David Kruger's wedding in 1969 At the Odeon in Leicester Square in 1970 At a masked ball in 1971 In 1977 With her poodle Louis at her Mayfair apartment in 1985 At the opening night of in 1986 At the Hairdresser of the Year party in 1986 With Louis in 1989 At her Grosvenor House apartment with Louis in 1989 In 1989.
