The Woolworths’ heiress and original poor little rich girl spent a life in diamond chains, married seven times to men, including Cary Grant, who brought dolour and took dollars.
The only child of Edna Woolworth – who was the daughter of Frank W. Woolworth, the founder of the Woolworth department store chain – and Franklyn Laws Hutton, Barbara Hutton’s early years were tragic.
Her father was a notorious philanderer, while her mother committed suicide when Barbara was only six-years-old. As a result, she was shunted between various relatives and raised by a governess.
On her 21st birthday, she inherited close to $50 million from her mother’s estate. She was portrayed in the press as the ‘lucky’ young woman who had it all. However, the public had no idea of the psychological problems she lived with that led to a life of victimisation and abuse.
Her difficult childhood had set the tone for what became a troubled private life, which was punctuated by no fewer than seven failed marriages, including a brief partnership with Cary Grant. She had her only child, Lance, with Court Haugwitz-Reventlow.
In 1933, she married Alexis Mdivani, a self-styled Georgian prince, but the pair divorced in 1935.
Her second husband was Count Court Heinrich Eberhard Erdmann Georg von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow, who used her great wealth to his advantage. They married in 1935 and he subjected Hutton to verbal and physical abuse that escalated so much that he hospitalised her. He was arrested. In 1937, he also persuaded Hutton to give up her American citizenship and take a Danish one – his native country – instead for tax reasons. They divorced in 1938, giving Hutton sole custody of their son Lance, who was raised by governesses.
By this stage, Hutton had descended into Seconal, a barbiturate-based tranquilliser, and anorexia. Both of these would affect her for her whole life.
Her most famous husband was her third Cary Grant. During the Second World War, Hutton gave money to assist the Free French Forces and used her high profile to sell war bonds. She met Grant in Hollywood and they wed in 1942. The press dubbed them ‘Cash and Cary’ but Grant received no money when they divorced in 1945, suggesting he genuinely cared for her.
In 1947, she married Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, who was a Russian royal of limited means. He drove the first Ferrari to compete in the Monaco Grand Prix in 1948. He filed for divorce in 1951. Following this, she attempted to commit suicide, which made headlines across the world.
Her next marriage to Dominican diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa lasted 53 days between December 1953 and February 1954 as the international playboy continued his affair with Zsa Zsa Gabor.
Hutton then married old friend and tennis star Baron Gottfried Cramm in 1955 but they divorced in 1959. In 1964, she married Prince Pierre Raymond Doan Vinh na Champassak but this proved to be short-lived, ending in 1966.
In 1972, Lance was killed in a plane crash, by which time Hutton had exhausted a large part of her fortune by spending and living recklessly.
Her last years were spent in a Beverly Hills hotel, until she died of a heart attack in 1979. She was virtually broke.
