ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHNS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 23, 18 November 1938, Page 22

ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHNS

writes for the "RECORD" the true, "behind-the-head-lines’ story of the life of

Barbara Hutton,

Countess Haugwitz Reventlow

In this, the last instalment of the life story of Barbara Hutton, Adela Rogers St. Johns tells of the tragic events which led to the separation between Barbara Hutton and her second husband, the Danish Count Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow. There have been several developments. since this story was written, but Miss St. Johns reveals everything. which was. relevant to the first court procecdings in London. And what does the future hold for Barbara Hutton? After her two so unhappy experiences of marriage, will she ever find happiness? Will her great wealth for ever remain a barrier to romance? Miss St. Johns does not attempt to answer these questions. TE reason for Barbara’s living abroad was the fact, impossible as it may sound, that she actually believed that her death would be weleome to her own country, that the dislike that had .somehow srown up around her would make people glad if she died. I tell you, it hurt very much to see her, sitting there so very white and still, so very small-she only weighed ninety pounds then and she is just five feet tall-still looking so frail and ill, and see by her eyes that she believed that. She got better and the baby grew strong and fine and the Haugwitz-Reventlows lived in their stately house in London and built up around themselves some very good friends. I know that Barbara took the greatest pains always to see that the Count was regarded as the head of the house. Everything was referred to him.

So Tacttul

She was so very charming with him, so tactful, that I was really ‘amazed. Count Haugwitz-Reventlow said to me, "We shall spend part of the year in Denmark, that is my. place and I have obligations there. But "Are you coming back to America?" I asked them, and I noticed that Barbara waited and let her husband answer. "My wife wishes to bring up her son as a-Yankee," he said. "If Barbara wants to go ‘home-and. home to her is America-we will go. 1 have discovered that she _ loves America very much." Yet within a. year of that time, within a year of the time they said those things to me, Barbara Hutton did come to America-only to leave it forever. She didn’t come home as she planned then. She didn’t bring her son. home to see the land where his forefathers lived and the great fortune that Wiggs Si

That news, when it appeared in the papers, shocked me beyond belief. I simply couldn’t believe it, remembering all the things she had said to me, how she had told me that she was homesick for America, how there had been tears in her eyes when [I told her she was wrong, we had wanted her to get well, we were glad she was happy and had her lovely baby boy-remembering all these things I simply didn’t know how to accept such news. It was, lots of people said, to escape American taxes. More and more she was investing her money -very little of which is now in the Woolworth concerns-in Huropean bonds.

But 1 cauldn‘t believe that it was money that made Bar. bara give up America, "T do not say for one minute that I don’t love a great many things money can do for you. f would be a liar if I said that," Barbara Hutton said. "I love my beautiful things-I love to travel -but all my life I have had a dream that the time would come when I wouldn’t have a penny. That dream has been so vivid that I honestly-actually-knew just how it would feel. And a great deal of money carries many burdens and fears and temptations and obligations, If you are not very wise, you can make awful mistakes with too much money." No, I couldn’t believe that it was money. And I knew positively that Barbara had meant to come home, hoped to come home, and that she had even made plans to have someone handle her return to this country with her son.

Fateful Gesture

Two things happened the day she made that fateful gesture of signing away her American rights, it waS a grave and serious mistake from the standpoint of the world’s judgment of her. And it was the beginning of the end of her marriage. No one behind the scenes in London seems to take very seriously the theory of another man -the "gentleman from London" whom the Count, according to court testimony, threatened io "shoot like a dog." Yet the separation of these two did not come as a great surprise to their friends. Barbara accused him in court of threats, she said that it was differences over the education and upbringing of their son that brought about the end of their happiness. But I think it is easy, it seems simple, to know what happened. Beeause you can’t stop being an American girl, independent of thought and action, and hecome a foreign wife just by signing a piece o% paper. is no seerct that Count Kuri Haugwitz-Reventlow was not popular with Barbara’s friends, as a whole. They thought him too cold and too severe, and they said that he lacked utterly a sense of humour. One young English matron of title said to me: "{ don’t see how Barbara puts up with his domineering ways. He wants to run everything. And he isn’t any fun. I don’t suppose that’s a crime, but it’s not a. very goad basis for a happy marriage. He’s probably a very fine man, but he is also a dreadiul wet blanket." But these two faced, in marriage, a great problem. The money was Barbara’s, The money that paid for the magnificent home in London, the money that bought luxuries, that eared for little Lance. The millions given away, the millions spent to help others, to : _give a helping hand to Barbara's ‘ewn father, Who has beet hjt like many other people by ‘the

And her husband is a proud man, of a thrifty and careful race, member of an old feudal house where the man has always been the one and only ruler, and his wife has followed the ancient and accepted custom of being a wife and nothing more. Barbara loves gaiety and laughter. Cousin Jimmy Donahue is probably the person in the world she likes best, because he’s so gay and amusing. Her father is a man of great wit and charm.

Her Own Way

And Barbara, of course, has been pretty used to having her own way. Who was there to tell her she couldn’t? Who was there to stop her when she was sixteen and wanted her own establishment? What could you do to stop @ girl with all that money? Fortunately, Barbara was naturally kind and gentle, But, it is also beyond question that for the first 22 years of her life she .had always had her own way about. practically everything. ° Slowly and carefully, she was being weaned away from America. There had never been © ny marriage settlement upon wount Haugwitz-Reventiow. What private arrangements he and his wife may have had were not known to the public nor even to her own family. But a year ago-two years ago even-it became apparent that Barbara’s money was being taken out of this country, being invested in foreign securities and in the foreign market. And the man who was controlling her investments to a large degree, who was more and more taking over the handling of her vast wealth and her financial matters was her husband, the Danish Count. Now no one knows what actually happened to this seemingly happy marriage-why it blew up in such a violent fashion, filling the courts and the papers with ‘almost unbelievable tales of threats and testimony that shocked every American. But I do know this. There is just one thing in the world that could turn Barbara Hutton in five minutes from a devoted and loving wife to a cold, ruthless young fury. And that is any possible idea that her husband was trying to gain control of her fortune and that therefore he might possibly have married her for her money. I" might not be true. It might be that-let us say-the Count really wished to serve her, that he wished to relieve her of all responsibility, that he considered himself better able to take care of such matters for his still young girl wife. It might be, also, that his love for her has led him to believe that he knows better than she does how their lives should be governed. He is older, more experienced, he comes of a fine old feudal house. It is quite possible that in every way he believed he was doing only what in the end ‘was best for the lovely, spoiled dollar princess. I don’t know. All women know how those things can happen. A marriage reaches a certain place-there is trouble — quarrels — differences about the child-about friendsand two honest people try to reconcile their differences, Then possibly there seems to be one thing that constantly makes trouble. A mother-in-law. A group or friends. Money. Anything. And one persons tries to make the sacrifice: that will save love and marriage. And then-perhaps she gives in, I remember well a time when I thought Barbara Hutton was just a nuisance. She seemed to me to stand for everything I most disliked. I didn’t know her and I didn’t understand her and I thought she ought to be making better use of her time and money and position,

Why She Left

"Tt Jeft America because I couldn’t stand people disliking me .89 much and always thinking the w Worst of, me, Tam living in Eng+Poty weet we 14 ea? BD hOaLC eer

land because they don’t pay any attention to me." That is what she said, and meant. So already her heartbreak had made her feel that it didn’t matter very much what she did about America. We didn’t love her anyway. So, if it became a question, if she was advised, to give up the mere formality of citizenship, to become a Dane, to arrange matters so that her husband could. control everything, probably’ she could do it without too much pain. Already she had made the real break and she still believes we made it. We tossed her out a long time ago, the way she saw it. So, if it seemed the wise thing for peace, for saving her marriage, for a smoother working of her life, what difference did it. make if she signed a little piece of paper and became-a woman without a country. Her one idea was to keep her marriage safe if she could. _ Also, it is probable’ that she really felt that she needed help in bringing up her son. From the moment of his birth this girl was obsessed with a great desire to bring her son up well, and I think she felt a little helpless about it. "HAT was and is her main concern. The job is bringing up her son. And I think she felt-in fact, I know-that when I talked to her she felt deeply that her husband would be of great assistance to her in this "job" as she called it. But once let her have the faintest idea that anyone was interested only in her money, that control of that money and of her son would be taken from her, not for love, not for devotion, but for anything that had to do with money alone, and it would hit at the deepest wound in her nature.

Her One Fear

From childhood on that has been her. one fear and her greatest unhappiness-that no man would marry her except for her money. She has, in this case, as usual refused to say anything’ except what was actually said in court. It has never been her habit to talk, nor to explain things-and that has in most instances been a mistake. If long ago. she -could have realised that her money made her a public figure, and established for herself some sort of public relations counsel, someone to advise her about her publicity and about how and when to talk, she would have been much better off. There are certain true stories that are more thrilling and much more unbelievable than anything that a mere fiction writer can conceive. The life story of Barbara Hutton is like that. If you started to write a novel about an American golden girl, a millionairess, you couldn’t possibly write anything more sensational than all the things that have actually happened to Barbara Hutton-you couldn’t find a cast -more amazing than Phil Plant and the boy from Yale and Prince Alexis. Mdivani and the Count Kurt HaugwitzReventlow. ‘

Incredible

You couldn’t find a more incredible heroine than this girl, who, at twelve, became one of the world’s richest women, who at sixteen took her life into her own hands and became the Broadway play-girl, and now has been married and divorced, married and separated. The next act in the.drama has not yet been written. From London comes word that in spite of the unhappiness of both Barbara and the Count there is no possibility of a reconciliation. But just what will happen to Barbara now? Where does she go from here? When she was twelve, the little Woolworth _ five-and-ten-cent Store heiress inherited over 26,000,000 dollars. To-day, when she is 26, that fortune probably amounts’ to 40,000,000 dollars-for Barbara has given away. millions,., and made’. settlements. upon. Alexis

Mdivani and others which have brought down the grand total. She is still a very young woman and she is more attractive to-day by far than she ever was before. Since her illness, she has taken great care of her health and she is slim now and that means a great dea! in her life. There can’t be any question that much that happened to Barbara came about in part from her loathing of heing fat. Like her mother, who also had difficulty about weight all her life, Babs was naturally fat-a fat little girl, a plump girl when she first made her appearance in the world. And how she hated it! It seemed to convince her that she couldn’t ‘be attractive. UT she is so now-and ghe has at last learned to wear clothes. When she was a debutante not all her money couid

make Barbara Hutton smart. Today she is one of the smartest women in Europe-and is indeed becoming famous for her elothes.

Life and Living

She has learned a great deal about life and living in these past years and the shyness and the wild gauche child of ten years ago no longer ‘exists. The Countess Haugwitz-Reventlow is a lady of charm, polish, culture and great poise. She was in love .with Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow, as she never was with Mdivani. If that love has ceased to be | know that she must be desperately unhappy, and if she made the unpopular move of sacrificing her own country for his. The saga of the five-and-ten-cent store heiress goes on-to

more chapters yet to be lived. Will she, at last, fulfill her ame bitions and spend her time in travelling and exploring? Will she be content to live alone in a foreign land, with only her son for company?. What will be the revelations when a divorce suit is brought and tried? And will -Barbara Hutton, who is certainly too young to siay single the rest _ of her life, when and if she mar‘Ties again, find another titled foreigner, or will she at last marry an American? It continues to be one of the _ great stories of Americana-part of our amazing national history, but | don’t think we = should forget that in Barbara’s mind at least she gave up America be- _ cause it first gave her up. (This concludes Miss St. Johns’s story of the life of Barbara Hutton.)