She used to come and sit on my sofa and tell me her troubles. At 23, she became the youngest ever councillor for the borough of Westminster. “She invited me to her house at 40a Hill Street in Mayfair,” he says. Wasn’t that sweet? She had a successful season, not only being named "Deb of the Year," but becoming engaged to be married to the heir to an earldom, the Hon. “I ended up on two councils: the council of tourism and the improvement of the Promenade des Anglais,” she says. Raine, who’s collected five fabulous aristocratic titles down the years, is best known as the stepmother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Several times a month, for 19 years now, she has put on a Lachasse outfit (“I love colour; I’ve got lots of dresses in coral and purple”), climbed into her chauffeur-driven car, and travelled the four-minute journey from her Chelsea townhouse to Harrods, where she is a director of Harrods International and Harrods Estates. [10], The Count, a younger son of Jean-Pierre Pineton de Chambrun, Marquis de Chambrun (a deaf biochemist-artist), was previously married to an American, Josalee Douglas. Raine, Countess Spencer, was born Raine McCorquodale in 1929, the only child of a short union between the army officer and printing heir Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland.

When I was a girl, mummy had a manicurist who taught me.”, More than a decade later, her husband inherited the title of Viscount Lewisham; four years after that, he became Earl of Dartmouth, and Raine a countess. As the museum director Sir Roy Strong put in his diaries when recalling how Raine got the National Portrait Gallery listed as a historic building to protect it from demolition where others had failed: “I couldn’t at the time reconcile this diamond-bespangled fashion plate with anyone remotely effective. Once a month, I do egg and oil. “I started off in ladies’ cashmeres, you know, and that wasn’t me at all. I’m an indoor girl. But what was lovely was that she thanked me at the end for looking after him.” (Johnnie had a cerebellar haemorrhage in 1978 but went on to live another 14 years.) She was born Raine McCorquodale – the only child of Cartland and Alexander McCorquodale, an army officer and heir to a printing fortune. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Raine is a character of some complexity: an unapologetic admirer of men, though she surrounds herself with women; slightly camp (the hair is a marvel); fiercely intelligent. [6], In 1978 Lord Spencer suffered a brain haemorrhage; his wife nursed him, and his recovery is credited to her care and devotion coupled with the use of an untested drug. It was said that she replaced the grand portrait of Robert, the first Baron Spencer, that had hung over the main staircase with a life-size oil painting of herself in her prime. Raine was allowed to read all the volumes but two: Candide by Voltaire and Dark Island by Vita Sackville-West.
A society figure and a local politician, she married three times, and amassed various aristocratic titles. She also tried to make Althorp pay its way. Raine Countess Spencer, the only child of novelist Dame Barbara Cartland, was accused by her stepchildren of selling off a 100 years of family history at the family seat, Althorp in Northamptonshire He succeeded to the courtesy title Viscount Lewisham in 1958 and became the 9th Earl of Dartmouth in 1962.
Gerald was the most wonderful man, a fantastic father, an amazing person. I loved him, and we were always ‘darling Raine’ and ‘darling Gerald’ for the rest of our lives.”, Raine, the city girl, moved to Althorp, the Spencer seat that consumes 550 acres of Northamptonshire. He was German, but it’s a French translation.”. A lot of people, Raine explains, “want to buy a house and do it privately…without their own relations knowing, or neighbours, or whoever.” The agency’s territory is Knightsbridge, Mayfair and South Kensington – London’s most desirable areas, where an apartment costs £3m and a stucco-fronted house £20m. Her parents divorced in 1936, and her mother promptly married Alexander's cousin, Hugh McCorquodale, by whom she had two sons, Ian and Glen. They were happily married for 28 years and had four children. “That was something special.” Each month, visitors to Harrods can witness Raine’s continued connection to the Spencers for themselves. As Countess Spencer, Raine was unpopular with her stepdaughter Lady Diana Spencer and her siblings, who referred to their stepmother as "Acid Raine". [3] She and Legge married on 21 July 1948.

It is true that she was not allowed to remove a single item from Althorp, though Johnnie left her a grand Mayfair house and a reported £4 million in his will. Viscount Althorp succeeded his father as the 8th Earl Spencer on 9 June 1975. Viscount Althorp succeeded his father as the 8th Earl Spencer on 9 June 1975. You must come to Shanghai.

“He was wonderful. [3], Viscount Althorp succeeded his father as the 8th Earl Spencer on 9 June 1975. Your hair eats it up.

“I go once a week, darling, and it just goes into rollers,” she says. Raine was not allowed to take a single item unless she could prove that the item belonged to her and all of her staff were fired without notice.

“There’s a limit to how many of those serious-looking men in wigs you can have looking down on you,” she says, “however well painted.” She filled the house with more personal pieces. He was funny, sweet, affectionate. “I thought he was joking,” she says. It was my husband [Earl Spencer] who practically lived there. At other times, she was making headlines for complaining about the hygiene standards at Heathrow Airport. It was made by Worth, a copy of one for Empress Eugénie: all tulle and lace and run through with blue ribbons.” She was named debutante of the year and became engaged to Gerald Legge, heir to the earldom of Dartmouth. We had all the Seagos in our private sitting room.”.

He is a QC,” she says, as proudly as any mother could. There are lots of trips to China, Russia and any place with new money and people looking for that London bolthole. Her par­ents di­vorced in 1936, and her mother promptly mar­ried Alexan­der Mc­Corquo­dale's cousin, Hugh Mc­Corquo­dale, by whom she had two sons, Ian and Glen McCorquodale. they divorced three years later. The royal, then 28, berated Countess Raine Spencer, who had married her father, Johnnie, 13 years earlier. [9] They married in a civil ceremony in London. On certain evenings, a lady in a fur coat with elaborately coiffed hair leaves Harrods department store by the staff entrance and climbs into a waiting car. Whether I understood it or not… I read Karl Marx, all 600 pages. “I do believe star signs are creepily accurate. “She always said I had no hidden agenda,” she said in her evidence. You see, I always do my own. It was a very draining life." Gerald Humphry Legge.

Some young girls now, they do each nail a different colour, my dear; you’ve probably noticed. Sometimes she was called Acid Raine, apparently a nickname the adolescent Diana had dreamed up.

[4], The Earl fully endorsed and assisted in his wife's alteration to Althorp and fund-raising activities.

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