Pamela Harriman

Pamela Harriman (born March 20, 1920, Farnborough, Hampshire, England—died February 5, 1997, Paris, France) was a British-born socialite and American political figure who made a name for herself first as the wife or lover of a succession of prominent wealthy and powerful men and later, in the United States, as a doyenne of the Democratic Party. She was a successful fund-raiser for the party in the 1980s and for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential election campaign, and in 1993 she was rewarded with the ambassadorship to France.

The vivacious daughter of a British aristocrat, Pamela Digby saw that her chance of attaining prominence lay in influencing prominent men. In 1939, shortly after World War II broke out, she accepted the marriage proposal of Randolph Churchill, who was expecting to be killed in the fighting. He was not killed, and the marriage ended in 1946, but not before she had acted as confidante and hostess for her father-in-law, Winston Churchill, and given birth to a son—also named Winston and later a Conservative MP. She had also had liaisons with diplomat W. Averell Harriman and broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, both of whom were married at the time. Following her divorce from Churchill, she moved to Paris, where her lovers included Prince Aly Khan, the Fiat automobile heir Gianni Agnelli, and Baron Elie de Rothschild.

Moving to New York City in 1960, she married Broadway producer Leland Hayward. After his death 11 years later, she again took up with the very wealthy Harriman, who also had recently been widowed. They were married a month later, and she became a U.S. citizen. With her husband’s encouragement and support, Harriman formed a political action committee and became a valuable asset to the Democrats. His death in 1986 left her with a huge fortune, but a court battle with other heirs diminished it considerably. France made Harriman a Commander of the Legion of Honour’s Order of Arts and Letters in 1996, and she was posthumously given the Legion’s Grand Cross.