The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree
Surrounded by luxury and indulgence from birth, Lady Jeanne Campbell never learned how to control herself. She took what she wanted; she enjoyed her pleasures. Yet, in the end, her carpe diem lifestyle couldn’t prepare her for the real world.
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1. She Was Born To Luxury
Lady Jeanne Campbell was born into a life of luxury. The daughter of the heir to the 10th Duke of Argyll and granddaughter of newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, nothing was out of her reach financially. However, that lavish lifestyle came with a steep price that Jeanne started paying immediately.
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2. Her Parents Had A Secret
A wealthy playboy, Jeanne’s father, Ian Campbell, believed in indulgence at every turn. Campbell possessed charm in spades; however, judgment, particularly when it came to the gambling tables, proved to be another matter. Even as Jeanne took her first breaths, her father attempted to sink the family into deep trouble.
3. She Nearly Ended Her Mother’s Life
Jeanne’s mother, Janet Aitken, struggled to bring her into the world. As she gave Jeanne life, severe hemorrhaging almost snuffed out her own. Not that her husband cared. Supposedly, as Aitken lay in bed recovering from this trauma, Jeanne’s father had other matters on his mind entirely.
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4. Her Father Couldn’t Help Himself
The story goes that Campbell demanded his bedridden wife give him her jewels to sustain his gambling problem. Aitken, the more reasonable of Jeanne’s parents (at least in the moment), refused. That’s when Campbell took his demands to the next level.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
5. She Almost Lost Her Father
When Janet Aitken told Jeanne’s father no, he refused to back down. Instead of admitting defeat, Ian Campbell escalated the situation. He threatened to end his own life; Aitken attempted to call Campbell's bluff, so Campbell put his money where his mouth was… sort of.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
6. She Entered The World Surrounded By Chaos
Aitken reportedly heard two shots from outside of her room; the story goes that Campbell missed (or perhaps never intended to succeed at all), but Aitken relented anyway. Thus, Jeanne entered the world surrounded by her parents’ chaos. While the marriage did not last, it did not end soon enough to spare Jeanne from her parents.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
7. She Became Forgotten
Ian Campbell and Janet Aitken divorced within a year of Jeanne’s birth. Over the next couple of decades, Jeanne suffered a series of step-parents from both sides. These step-parents appeared to have little to do with Jeanne’s life, at least until it came to her father’s third wife.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
8. She Helped Her Father
Unsurprisingly, Ian Campbell’s marriages did not last long. When it came time to end his third marriage to Margaret Whigham, Campbell enlisted the help of his daughter. You see, much like Campbell, Whigham enjoyed her affairs. Unlike Ian, as a woman, Whigham didn’t have the luxury to get away with it.
9. She Got Her Hands Dirty
Campbell needed proof of his wife’s affairs to extricate himself from his marriage. So, he enlisted the help of his daughter. Supposedly, Jeanne Campbell, “disguised” only in pants and a headscarf, snuck into her step-mother’s rooms to secure what Campbell needed: scandalous diary entries.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
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10. She Couldn’t Get Away
Depending on which version of the story you believe, things did not go smoothly for Jeanne’s heist. Some claim that Jeanne and her father encountered Whigham in her bedroom; when Whigham attempted to call for help, Jeanne jumped into action—no one thwarted her.
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11. Her Father Helped Out
Apparently, at this point, Jeanne’s father (who may have been with her) took charge, pinning Whigham’s arms down as Jeanne took the latest volume of her step-mother’s diaries before both father and daughter took off. While Jeanne made it out of the apartment, it was not the last she heard of the incident.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
12. She Got The Proof
The diaries supposedly contained graphic images of her step-mother and another mystery man that ended Ian Campbell’s third marriage quite nicely, just as he liked it. However, Whigham didn’t go quietly. She sued Jeanne Campbell for trespassing and theft; caught red-handed, Jeanne found her hands tied.
Screenshot from A Very British Scandal, BBC (2021)
13. She Was A Product Of Her Upbringing
Jeanne Campbell must have had little defense against her former step-mother’s accusations, for she ultimately settled out of court. However, this proved to be the least of Jeanne’s problems as she appeared to take after her parents in the worst ways possible. If it weren’t for one person, who knows what might’ve become of Jeanne’s life?
Evening Standard, Getty Images
14. She Had A Supporter
Jeanne’s grandfather, Lord Beaverbrook, remained a looming presence in her life. While both her parents involved themselves in sin and chaos, Beaverbrook took a liking to his young granddaughter. Unfortunately, his attempts to rein in her impulses rarely saw the success he likely hoped for.
Bain Collection, Wikimedia Commons
15. She Had An Insatiable Appetite
Taking after her parents, Jeanne Campbell quickly developed an endless appetite for all things carnal. She caught the eye of men, and they appeared to catch Jeanne’s eye in return. This may not have been a problem if Jeanne didn’t have a liking for the worst men possible.
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16. She Liked Older Men
One of Jeanne’s first conquests might have been Oswald Mosley, a disgraced fascist politician roughly 30 years older than her. Jeanne’s grandfather disapproved of this supposed affair, warned he would cut his granddaughter off. Unfortunately, he couldn’t control Jeanne that easily.
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17. Her Grandfather Took A Stand
While Jeanne Campbell appeared to have a strong relationship with her gr. andfather, she did not fear him or his demands. Realizing that he needed to do something more drastic, Beaverbrook sent Jeanne away instead. If Beaverbrook thought a change of country would curb Jeanne’s appetites, he needed to think again.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
18. She Started Over
Jeanne arrived in New York at the age of 29 and began working for one of her grandfather’s newspapers, the Evening Standard. Jeanne took the offered role; however, Beaverbrook quickly realized his error as Jeanne began to dig into controversial issues with a sharp tongue.
19. She Didn’t Watch Her Words
One of Jeanne’s early pieces with the Evening Standard took a dramatic stance against the very people who housed her. When Jeanne wrote a critical piece about the CIA in America, Beaverbrook realized that he needed to offer his granddaughter more guidance, lest she sink everything he built with her pen.
BetacommandBot, Wikimedia Commons
20. She Needed To Be Warned
Aware of her position as a guest in America, Beaverbrook warned his granddaughter to choose her words more carefully in the future. He encouraged her to “emphasize human interest” and to “keep widening [her] circle of acquaintances”. As far as widening her circle went, Jeanne certainly always kept her options open, in more ways than one.
21. She Made A Connection
In 1959, Jeanne Campbell made the most advantageous relationship with Henry Luce II, founder of Time-Life Inc. At this point, Jeanne was in her thirties. Luce was in his sixties. However, this did not stop Jeanne from enjoying Luce’s company—intimately.
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22. She Went Back To Her Old Ways
If her grandfather thought that sending Jeanne to New York would curb her carnal impulses, then he had another thing coming. Just like Mosely supposedly a few years before, Jeanne took up with the senior Luce, carrying on with him for several years. She only stopped when something else caught her eye.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
23. She Had Her Eyes On The Prize
As Jeanne’s affair with Luce drew to a close, her eye strayed to another man: Norman Mailer. An author, Mailer, likely wouldn’t have held onto Jeanne’s attention for long if it weren’t for one teeny, tiny inconvenience. Unlike her previous affairs, Jeanne learned the consequences of “loving” a man with Mailer.
Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Wikimedia Commons
24. She Got In Trouble
At some point during her affair with Mailer, Jeanne Campbell discovered her pregnancy. Her grandfather supported Jeanne in seeing the pregnancy through to the end. However, he never liked Mailer and advised against marrying him. Jeanne rarely listened to orders from her grandfather or otherwise, even when she should’ve.
25. She Did What She Wanted
Despite her grandfather’s disapproval, Jeanne did what she wanted to do. She married Mailer and, several months later, gave birth to a little girl, Kate Mailer. Unfortunately, little Kate couldn’t erase the truth at the heart of Jeanne’s new marriage: very little love or loyalty appeared to exist there at all.
26. She Should’ve Listened
Jeanne Campbell may have got some satisfaction out of disregarding her grandfather’s warning and marrying Mailer anyway, but Beaverbrook won out in the end. Jeanne’s marriage to Mailer proved to be short and volatile. Barely a year later, the marriage ended, and Mailer had a thing or two to say about it.
Carl Van Vechten, Wikimedia Commons
27. Her Ex Held A Grudge
Much like, it seems, the marriage itself, Mailer’s view of Jeanne shifted over the years. While he later went on to compliment her, calling her a “dear pudding of a lady,” insisting that she’s “almost as interesting, complex, and Machiavellian” as himself, he could not erase the lasting impression of Jeanne Mailer put into print.
28. He Put Her Into Writing
Before laying the egotistical praise of comparing Jeanne Campbell to himself at her feet, Mailer put what one can presume to be his sour grapes over the end of the marriage into his novel American Dream. Many believe Mailer personified his recently ex-wife as the character known only as “The B**ch”. Jeanne, however, had the last laugh.
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29. She Had A Quick Response
Perhaps Mailer wasn’t too far off in comparing Jeanne to himself, for her remarks upon their brief affair remain nearly as cavalier as his own. Sometime after the marriage ended, the writer Gore Vidal asked Jeanne why Mailer attracted her. Jeanne’s response proved as scandalous as the woman herself.
30. She Just Wanted To Try Something New
When Vidal asked Jeanne Campbell what drew her to Mailer, she gave a sinfully simple answer: “I had never gone to bed with a Jew before”. This cavalier answer suited Jeanne perfectly, for she treated the end of her marriage just as flippantly. No sooner had she fallen out with Mailer than did she find herself in the bed of another—or several others, depending on which story you listen to.
31. She Kept Herself Very Busy
During this period, Jeanne Campbell kept herself very busy, or so the story always seems to go. The antidote about Jeanne that proves the most popular insists that in roughly a year, somewhere between the end of 1963 and start of 1964, she fell into bed with not just one but three influential men.
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32. She Made History
The quote that comes up time and time again in conversations about Jeanne Campbell involve John F Kennedy’s funeral, in which Jeanne wrote that his widow, Jackie, had, “given the American people from this day on the one thing they always lacked: majesty”. A stunning compliment, to be sure, but could it have come from Jeanne’s own guilty conscience?
33. She Took Another Woman’s Husband
Aside from her famous quote about Jackie, there is one other story that Jeanne seems to be known for, which is more difficult to prove, yet is intimately tied to Jackie Kennedy’s tragic story. This second story starts a mere month before President Kennedy’s tragic end. In this story, Jeanne gives Kennedy a very different ending.
34. She Was Just Getting Started
If one is to believe the famous rumor about Jeanne, only a month before she was reporting on his passing, praising his widow for her majesty, Jeanne and President Kennedy were together in her Georgetown house, betraying his marriage vows. Who knows if Kennedy would’ve remained a one-time fling if his life hadn’t ended. Yet, it seemed Jeanne had no shortage of powerful men ready to take her to bed.
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35. She Liked Powerful Men
The story starts with John F Kennedy in October 1963 and then, supposedly, moves on to Nikita Khruschev, leader of the Soviet Union, in April 1964. People say that Jeanne and Khruschev enjoyed each other (intimately) at his country home. Jeanne didn’t stop here. No, she apparently had one more conquest.
Cryptic-waveform, Wikimedia Commons
36. She Found A New Home
If we’re keeping track, supposedly, Jeanne had Kennedy in October, Khruschev in April, and finally, one month later in May, she enjoyed a lovely time with Fidel Castro in Havana. Of course, the entire thing hinges on the word of one man (James C Humes). However, true or not, while Jeanne had many affairs, only a few led to marriage.
37. She Married Into Old Wealth
Not long after her divorce from Mailer (and sometime around her trifecta of affairs, if one is to believe they occurred), Jeanne married John “Jakie” Cram, an American who claimed “old wealth” from his railroad baron great-great-grandfather. While Jeanne and Cram’s backgrounds held great similarities, these did little to smooth out their marriage.
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38. She Wasn’t Made For Matrimony
Much like her previous marriage, Jeanne’s marriage to Cram struggled. Jeanne, perhaps, liked the idea of a wedding far more than she liked the actual marriage. During their brief and troubled marriage, Jeanne gave birth to a daughter, Cusi Cram. However, even this event did not lead to marital bliss.
39. She Created Scandal
Jeanne and Cram couldn’t disguise the cracks in their marriage. Another story appeared to have taken place at a family dinner. It’s unclear what started it, but it seems that Jeanne dared to suggest a divorce from her husband over dinner. This was something that his father, Sergeant Henry Cram, did not take kindly to.
40. Her Father-In-Law Wasn’t Impressed
Upon hearing his daughter-in-law’s declaration (and likely fearing her bringing disgrace to his family), Cram decided to throw his weight around, presuming that money would always be the answer. He promised to cut not just Jeanne but her daughter Cusi out of his will if Jeanne followed through. Unfortunately for Cram, Jeanne had a reply already loaded for him.
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41. She Dropped A Bombshell
The story suggests that Jeanne’s father-in-law didn’t intimidate her. Rather than being cowed into submission by Henry’s demands, Jeanne simply got up from the table and delivered her devastating secret with utter calm: “Well, [Cusi]’s not Jakie’s anyway”. Of course, now the question became: who was Cusi’s father?
42. She Wasn’t Lying
Given Jeanne’s outlandish behaviour, assuming she lied simply to get under her father-in-law’s skin seems possible. However, eventually Jeanne revealed the truth that “Jakie” didn’t father Cusi. Instead, a nameless Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations gets the credit. Yet he was just another conquest in Jeanne’s endless line of discarded men.
43. Her Grandfather Got Fed Up
Although Jeanne remained a favourite of her grandfather throughout her life, her outlandish behaviour eventually pushed him to action. At one point, Jeanne found herself at the receiving end of a Beaverbrook rant, making it very clear how he felt about his granddaughter’s behaviour, and what she should do instead.
M. S. Kay, Bolton, Wikimedia Commons
44. She Had His Number
During this rant, Beaverbrook pointed to a maid scrubbing the floor on her hands and knees, insisting the maid was a “real woman” that Jeanne should emulate. Jeanne, however, remained unimpressed with her grandfather’s grandstanding. She understood who her grandfather was—the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree, after all.
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45. She Saw Who He Was
Jeanne understood who her grandfather was, later claiming that Beaverbrook’s “great flaw was his inability to treat his women with dignity. Slowly he would turn on them and devastate them. He made them feel they had no right to exist”. However, despite the contention that existed between grandfather and granddaughter, Jeanne knew how to get what she wanted in the end.
46. She Received A Well-Timed Gift
When Beaverbrook passed, he remembered his granddaughter in his will. He left her $500,000. While not a fortune, this money remained enough to sustain Jeanne’s lifestyle, at least for a time. However, following her divorce from Cram, Jeanne needed more. In classic Jeanne style, she found a creative way to get it.
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47. She Could’ve Been A Novel
Most stories about Jeanne seem to involve a certain amount of hearsay, perhaps because her life seemed too sensational to be true. And perhaps a life as sensational as Jeanne’s deserved to be immortalized in writing. That’s exactly what Jeanne thought, too. At least, it’s sort of what she thought.
48. She Made An Offer
The last great story of Jeanne Campbell’s life involves her memoir. At some point, later in life, Jeanne required cash to continue to support her lifestyle. She figured that the time had come to cash in on her sensational life. Supposedly, she signed on to write a memoir, taking a large advance for the project. That’s where things get… well, sensational.
49. She Didn’t Hold Up Her End
The rumor is that Jeanne took the advance for her memoirs and then never actually wrote the book. One source suggests she spent the money on a villa in Greece. Hopefully, it was something she enjoyed, for Jeanne’s life ended far differently than it started. Left with only stories to her name, Jeanne couldn’t sustain her lifestyle forever.
Evening Standard, Getty Images
50. She Ended Her Life Forgotten
Despite her lofty start in life, it is said that Lady Jeanne Campbell ended her life far differently. Living in a tiny walk-up flat in Greenwich Village, Jeanne lost most of the luxury that had previously surrounded her. For a life filled with high-rolling scandal, none of it kept Jeanne warm in the end. Hopefully, her memories sustained her where money no longer could.
Evening Standard, Getty Images
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