Consuelo Vanderbilt Biography

Consuelo Vanderbilt was an American socialite from the Vanderbilt family who became the Duchess of Marlborough following her marriage to Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, the 9th Duke of Marlborough. While she was with the Duke for just over a decade, she is best known for their loveless but socially advantageous marriage. The most prominent of the American 'Dollar Princesses', she was brought up under the strict discipline of her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, to entice eligible men from European aristocratic families in an attempt to trade money for status. After being separated from her husband, Consuelo Vanderbilt became one of the first aristocratic women to legally obtain a divorce, and later married Lt. Col. Jacques Balsan, a pioneering French aviator who once worked with the Wright Brothers. Consuelo remained close friends with Winston Churchill, the first cousin of her first husband, even after she was divorced.