The Peculiar Truth about the Last Modern Courtesan

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• In the annals of high society, one woman stood out. The general public knew little if anything about her, but the elites knew her sordid reputation.

• She was raised in the English countryside, had a pampered childhood, and lived in an era when women were expected to please men. Which she did. Many times with many men. Three of them were her elderly husbands, although many more were not. In order to get what she wanted, she applied her feminine wiles like a Geisha.

• The result: She became one of the most powerful women of the 20th Century.

• Her name was Pamela Harriman.

• She was born Pamela Digby in Dorset, England in 1920. Her father was a country baron, and she was raised into privilege.

• As a young woman, she was plain and plump. She took an immediate liking to older men, a predilection she maintained for the rest of her life.

• Pamela always harbored grand ambitions and wanted a life of adventure and travel. She was outgoing, flirtatious, and a gifted liar.

• As a teenager, she claimed to have had a private dinner with Adolf Hitler in Munich. She found him dull. Doubts persisted whether or not she actually met the man.

• Pamela met and married Randolph Churchill, the son of England’s famous Prime Minister. Winston Churchill approved of her for a selfish reason; he hoped she would bear Randolph a son before being sent off to fight in WWII. He wanted the Churchill family name to carry on.

• Randolph, however, was a nasty drunk and a terrible gambler who lived far beyond his means. Their marriage was always in shambles.

• October 1940: Pamela gave birth to her son, who was also called Winston Churchill. By providing an heir, however, her usefulness to the Churchill family was fulfilled.

• So Pamela began having affairs. Her first was with the US envoy to Great Britain. His name was Averell Harriman. He was handsome, married, and 30 years older than her.

• But he wasn’t the only man she bedded. There were millionaires and an Arab prince and an American journalist whom she hoped to marry: Edward R. Murrow. The men lavished her with gifts; she in turn supposedly did anything and everything in the sack to please them.

• Still, Pamela remained with Randolph Churchill. Her affairs were open secrets. Then the war ended and so did their marriage.

• In the years that followed, she became mistress to a wealthy Italian playboy and had an affair with Baron de Rothschild, a French banker.

• She eventually found herself in New York City where she married Leland Hayward, a successful Broadway producer of The Sound of Music and South Pacific. He was 18 years her senior. He died in 1971, and Pamela became a widow.

• One day after his memorial service, she sought out an old romance - Averell Harriman. At that time, she was 51 and he was 79. They were married shortly thereafter. He was her final husband, and she kept his last name from then on.

• Through him and his former connection to politics, Pamela became a belle of the US Democratic Party. With Averell’s deep pockets and her skills as a hostess, they became political power brokers.

• She hobnobbed with Jackie Kennedy, Lee Radziwill, and Truman Capote. But Pamela had few true friendships, despite being one of high society’s finest hostesses.

• Averell Harriman died in 1986. After family disputes, Pamela sold some priceless works of art and maintained her lavish lifestyle, a widow once more.

• 1993: After helping him become President, Bill Clinton appointed Pamela Harriman the US Ambassador to France.

• Four years later, while swimming one day, Pamela died of a heart attack. She was 77.

• She received honors from around the world - but not from her son Winston or first husband Randolph Churchill. Both men condemned her for “whoring around” during her lifetime. Some dubbed her the Last Courtesan. It was not meant as flattery.

• Pamela Harriman would not have cared what anyone thought of her. By pleasing the men in her life - or perhaps by manipulating them - she almost always got what she wanted.