The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People (64 page)

After Octavian’s forces reached Egypt, Cleopatra fled to her mausoleum, barricading herself inside with three attendants. Antony received a report that she had committed suicide, and in his grief he stabbed himself. Mortally wounded, he was informed that she was still alive and was transported to her mausoleum, where he died in her arms. Cleopatra was soon captured by Octavian, and for once her seductive powers proved unsuccessful. She took her own life upon learning that she was to be paraded as a captive in the streets of Rome upon Octavian’s triumphant return.

—L.A.B.

The Royal Rake

EDWARD VII (Nov. 9, 1841–May 6, 1910)

HIS FAME:
Albert Edward, who

ascended to the throne in 1901, ruled

Great Britain as one of its most popular

kings. As Edward VII, his personal style

of diplomacy helped gain acceptance of

the
Entente Cordiale
, an agreement

between Great Britain and France for

closer diplomatic cooperation, and

earned him the nickname “Edward the

Peacemaker.”

HIS PERSON:
The eldest son of Queen

Victoria and Prince Consort Albert,

“Bertie,” as Edward was called, had a

bleak and lonely childhood. Hoping to

King Edward and Queen Alexandra

turn him into a paragon of virtue, his

parents separated him from other children. Victoria wanted her son to grow up as good as her beloved Albert, in spite of the fact that she believed that no one could be “so great, so good, so faultless” as the prince consort. Bertie set about to prove that she was right. He completely rebelled against his parents’ strict moral code. He turned a deaf ear to his tutors’ lectures on morality and ignored his father’s memoranda on propriety. The pursuit of pleasure in all its forms became his life’s goal. He was addicted to cigars before he turned 20. A man of gargantuan appetite, he ate several meals a day, sometimes consuming as many as 12 courses in a sitting. He paid so much attention to clothes—he was a stick-ler for proper attire down to the last button—that even tea was a full-dress affair.

Bertie occupied himself with “bachelor outings” (even after his marriage to Danish Princess Alexandra) which lasted several months of every year and consisted of visits to Paris, Bad Homburg, and the Riviera, or hunting and shooting at his country estates. He was usually surrounded by his aristocratic friends of the “Marlborough House set,” forerunners of the modern jet set, who joined him for gambling at baccarat parties or at the horse races at Ascot or Epsom.

Bertie’s own horses won the Derby three times.

Because of Edward’s frivolous ways, Victoria would not allow him to assume any governmental responsibilities. He was the official host and tour guide for visiting dignitaries, and Victoria’s standin at public ceremonies. When his “eternal mother” finally died in 1901, he dropped the name Albert and the following year was crowned Edward VII. He was 60 years old.

SEX LIFE:
Bertie became king 40 years after his father had died. It was Bertie, Victoria believed, who had caused her dear husband’s death. While serving with the British army in Ireland, 19-year-old Bertie lost his virginity when fellow officers smuggled actress Nellie Clifden into his bed. Albert passed away soon after hearing of his son’s “fall into sin.” It was decided that Bertie should marry immediately to remove him from further temptation.

Victoria chose Princess Alexandra as her son’s bride, and he accepted the selection. The beautiful teenage princess and the stocky, handsome Prince of Wales were married in 1863. Alexandra bore five children over the next six years, and with marriage as a “cover” Bertie played the field for over 40 years.

In spite of her husband’s wanderings, Alix—as Alexandra was called by friends and family—always believed he loved her best and said that “if he
was
a cowboy I should love him just the same.” In a sense he was a cowboy; he put his brand on women all across Europe. As prince and king, he took frequent trips to German spas, where he indulged himself with steam baths, high colonic enemas, and sex. His favorite watering holes were in Paris.

French police recorded Edward’s comings and goings at hotels and intimate restaurants where he enjoyed the company of actresses, courtesans, and noblewomen. At one Parisian dinner, a huge covered serving tray was set before the prince. When the lid was lifted, Bertie happily discovered he had been presented with the infamous and beautiful Cora Pearl, clad only in a sprig of parsley and a string of pearls. Giulia Barucci, who called herself the “world’s greatest whore,” let her gown slide to the floor when she first met Bertie. He was pleased, and when her escort upbraided her she replied that she had only “showed him the best I have—and for free.” He dallied with stage star Hortense Schneider, Moulin Rouge cancan dancer Louise Weber, known as
La Goulue
(“The Greedy One”), actress Sarah Bernhardt, and courtesan La Belle Otero.

Not all of the king’s lovers were notables. He often cavorted at Le Chabanais, a Parisian brothel, where the chair upon which he sat with his lady of the evening became a conversation piece for the establishment’s proprietor. It was said that King Edward, when he was a bit too rotund to enjoy the pleasures of the bed, would lounge in this chair and be fellated by a young woman.

In spite of Bertie’s tendency to stoutness, he was by all accounts a very virile man. He had great sexual stamina and staying power. No woman ever gave him poor marks; he was a “very perfect, gentle lover,” said his mistress Daisy Brooke, Countess of Warwick.

According to the Duke of Cambridge, in his later years Bertie had a special liking for young girls. Three young women he frolicked with became known as “H.R.H.’s virgin band.” However, his favorites by far were married beauties.

In general, their husbands were from his inner circle of friends and considered it their duty to be cuckolded by Bertie. His schedule usually consisted of visiting a woman’s home in the afternoon while her husband was away, joining his regular mistress in the evening, and often meeting his latest actress friend later in the night. The Marlborough House set was usually sufficiently discreet, but the arrangement caused a nasty scandal at least once. When Lady Harriet Mordaunt had a child that was born blind, she believed that this was God’s curse and confessed to her husband that she had “done very wrong … with the Prince of Wales and others, often and in open day.” Bertie was forced to swear in court that he had not been the woman’s lover.

Bertie’s lengthy affair with professional model Lillie Langtry was severely chilled when the scandal sheets started rumors that her husband was about to divorce her and name the Prince of Wales as corespondent. His five-year liaison with the “Jersey Lily” began in 1877, and it was a very special one. She was independent, never subservient, and different from Alix in that she was punctual. (Because Alexandra was always late, Bertie, who was a fanatic about punctuality, kept the royal clocks set half an hour fast.) Even Alix became fond of Lillie and spoke of her in glowing terms. The princess seldom became jealous of her husband’s other women, knowing that they posed no threat to her marriage, but she didn’t take too kindly to an American actress named Miss Chamberlain, whom she disparaged as “Miss Chamberpots.”

In the late 1880s Bertie fell deeply in love with Daisy Brooke, the Countess of Warwick, a seductive beauty 20 years younger than he. Their relationship worried Alexandra more than any of her husband’s other dalliances. Bertie and Daisy exchanged rings, and he addressed her as his “little Daisy wife.” He became involved with her when she went to him for help in a personal matter, her lover of the moment having had the nerve to make his own wife pregnant.

Daisy was a volatile woman who couldn’t stand such “infidelity,” but that didn’t prevent her from taking the Prince of Wales into her own bed. Their affair lasted almost seven years, but he began to see less of her when, in spite of her wealth and class standing, she lectured him on the economic exploitation of the lower classes.

The king’s last longterm mistress was Mrs. Alice Keppel, who was Edward’s junior by 30 years. During Edward’s 12-year romance with her, both Mr. Keppel and Alexandra fully accepted Mrs. Keppel’s role as second wife to Bertie. Mrs. Keppel often called at Windsor Castle, where she became Alexandra’s good friend, and Edward frequented the Keppel home and played with Keppel’s two daughters. Alice Keppel was the first person Alexandra notified when Bertie lay dying of bronchitis at age 68. Alice’s daughter Sonia later wrote about “kingy’s” visits and remembered the game she played with him.

They would race buttered toast, buttered side down, along the king’s trousers, he betting a penny on one leg, she betting that the toast on the other leg would be the first to slide to the floor. Bertie was, as Prime Minister Gladstone once wrote, “kept in childhood beyond his time.”

—R.J.F. and V.S.

The Abdicating Lover

EDWARD VIII (June 23, 1894–May 28, 1972)

HIS FAME:
King of England for only

renown that stemmed not so much from

his short reign as from his abrupt abdication in order to marry “the woman I

love.” After leaving the throne, Edward

became the Duke of Windsor, a title he

held until his death.

HIS PERSON:
Edward was born to be

king. As George V’s eldest son, Edward

(David to his friends) passed his youth

preparing for his turn to rule. But his

childhood was not a happy one. His

father, a strict disciplinarian, showed his

Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson

children no affection. (Edward even

admitted to a friend, “My father doesn’t like me…. Not at all sure I particularly like
him
.”) He preferred his mother, but their relationship was never close either and Queen Mary confessed to her intimates a distaste for raising children.

Nor was Edward’s youth otherwise auspicious. He completed his prescribed schooling, but did so lackadaisically. During WWI he clamored for a demanding military assignment, but his royal position made that impossible. When the war ended, however, Edward began to come into his own. Dispatched as an unofficial roving ambassador, Edward (as Prince of Wales) toured the globe, and his unaffected bearing and abundant native charm soon made him one of the world’s most popular figures. Even after his abdication he retained his popularity, and his personal wealth (an estimated $15 million) allowed him to pursue a leisurely luxurious life as a resident of France, where he frequented the nightclubs upon which he doted and immersed himself in golf and gardening. A heavy smoker, he died of throat cancer in the arms of the woman he loved and for whom he had abdicated his throne. He was a month shy of his 78th birthday.

SEX LIFE:
Edward’s rank, wealth, and charm cinched for the 5 ft. 6 in. slender young man acclaim as the world’s most eligible bachelor. He reveled in that role and enjoyed the women it brought him. His affairs, or at least the bulk of them, were brief. An acquaintance once remarked that Edward “reset his watch by every clock he passed,” and where women were concerned, his fickleness was undeniable. Only four women succeeded in engaging him in lengthy affairs.

He met the first, Lady Coke, when he was 21. Although 12 years older and married, Lady Coke was deluged with Edward’s love for three years. When in England, he strove always to be with her. When he was abroad, Edward’s letters cascaded upon her home by the score. Whether Lady Coke reciprocated his strong affection is unknown. What is known is that her marriage remained firmly intact throughout Edward’s courtship.

When Freda Ward entered the scene, Lady Coke exited. Edward met Freda (who was married to a member of Parliament) in 1918 when an air raid drove the two strangers to seek shelter in a cellar. They conversed, and at the raid’s end Edward insisted that she join him at a party, where they danced for hours.