MILLIONAIRE DIVORCED.
AMAZING STORY OF CRUELTY. HUMILIATED BEFORE GUESTS. Spied upon by servants, humiliated before her guests, and ridiculed in every possible way by her millionaire husband, Mrs Robert Goeiet, a well known Philadelphia heiress, was driven to seek the protection of the divorce laws a few weeks ago. Amidst fashionable society in New York, the case, which was not defended, caused as great a stir as the marriage ceremony. Mrs Goeiet (formerly Miss Elsie Whelen) married Mr Robert Goeiet, the son of the celebrated millionaire yachtsman, in 1905. Miss Alice Roosevelt was one of the bridesmaids. Mr Robert Goeiet is the brother of the Duchess of Roxburgh.
When the petition for a divorce was heard at Newport, Mrs Goeiet deposed that the cruelty consisted of insulting and abusive language, accompanied by numerous petty acts designed to annoy and embarass her to such an extent that she sufferred serious impairment of health. She had been spied upon by the servants, and on one occasion she had actually hired private detectives to protect her guests against her husband.
Defendant’s valet, Drake, she asserted was always offensive to her ; but her husband refused to dismiss him. Drake dogged her footsteps wherever she went, listened to her telephone conversations, made a list of all the callers, and reported to his master everyone with whom she talked. Her husband never answered her when she spoke, and at dinner parties he gazed fixedly at her while advising her unmarried friends never to get married as marriage was a hopeless failure. He checked all her accounts and accused her of extravagance if she ate more than one chop at meals. He alleges that she ate too much fruit, and asked her not to drink too much chocolate, because chocolate was expensive. In the autumn of 1913 he wrote down rules governing her guests’ behaviour at dinner, and so forth, and generally made himself objectionable at all times, more especially when guests were present. On one occasion he told the guests that he would throw his wife out of the house if she should participate in a suffrage parade. In recent months, when she gave a dinner party, he would have his own meals served in an adjoining room in full sight of her guests. He described her liking for music and art as a mere affectation. When Mrs Goeiet entertained the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia last summer she wired for Mr Goeiet to come for the occasion, and he humiliated her by refusing. “He objected to the Grand Duke as an improper person,, although his own mother had entertained the Grand Duke on a previous occasion when he visited America, and Mr Goeiet was personally acquainted with the nobleman—a near relative of the Tsar of Russia.” Finally Mr Goeiet ordered the servants not to serve his wife’s guests at dinner, and she was compelled to hire a public caterer. Sire was obliged to leave her husband last January because she became excessively nervous and feared a complete breakdown.
Evidence iu support of these charges was given by a valet named Wells, by several of Mrs Goelet’s friends, and by her physician.
The court granted petitioner a divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty, which, the judge ruled, ‘ ‘may consist of insulting, abusive language, as well as physical violence,”
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1254, 4 June 1914, Page 4
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553MILLIONAIRE DIVORCED. Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1254, 4 June 1914, Page 4
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