During the trial, the Duke presented a list of 88 men he said the Duchess had slept with during their marriage, as well as Polaroids stolen from him, which depicted the Duchess performing oral sex on an unidentified man, whose The head was not in the frame. ,
In 1963 ruling in favor of the Duke to divorce, the judge said that the Duchess was an “absolutely lascivious woman” who had “engaged in abhorrent sexual activities to satisfy a perverted sexual appetite”. British newspapers gleefully recounted photographs of the “Headless Man”, embroiled in the matter for months. Margaret dazzling socialite Margaret became the “Filthy Duchess”.
During the rest of his life, he ruined the property he inherited from his father over a series of unsuccessful legal lawsuits and questionable investments. Her personal relationship didn’t get much better: she was out with a daughter from her first marriage and several of her friends. The Duchess died at the age of 80 in a retirement home in London. The first hymn at his funeral in 1993 began, “Dear God and Father of the human race, forgive our foolish ways.”
Sarah Phelps, who wrote the screenplay for “A Very British Scandal”, said the Duchess’ affair and the media furore surrounding it represented “the end of an era”. “It was the birth of a different kind of journalism, and a way of writing about sex and scandals in a very precise way,” she said. And it paved the way for later media portrayals of Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Meghan Markle — “the viciousness and anger that is directed at women in the public eye,” she said.
When the initial outrage faded, the Duchess remained the subject of decades of squabbles. Smiling men will pose for photos next to the boarding sign of a Scottish boat that shared its name: “Queing here for the Duchess of Argyll.”
Today’s TV viewers will be more sympathetic to the Duchess, who now looks like a victim of “slut-shaming” and non-consensually shares photos of her like “revenge porn.” It is unlikely that many viewers will judge her for the sex act that some women’s magazines now give tips on performing. Yet he may find it difficult to warm to the Duchess, who Foy plays as an arrogant, scheming snob.
