30 Facts About Barbara Hutton

Barbara Woolworth Hutton was an American debutante, socialite, heiress, and philanthropist.

Heiress to one-third of the estate of the retail tycoon Frank Winfield Woolworth, Barbara Hutton was one of the wealthiest women in the world.

Barbara Hutton endured a childhood marked by the neglect of her father and the early loss of her mother at age four who died from suffocation due to mastoiditis.

Barbara Hutton later developed anorexia nervosa and perhaps thereby prevented further childbirth.

Barbara Hutton's son died in a plane crash in 1972 at the age of 36, leaving her devastated.

At her death, the formerly wealthy Barbara Hutton was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of both lavish spending and exploitation by those entrusted to manage her estate.

Barbara Hutton attended Miss Hewitt's Classes, now The Hewitt School in New York's Lenox Hill neighborhood and Miss Porter's School for Girls in Farmington, Connecticut.

Barbara Hutton became an introverted child who had limited interaction with other children of her own age.

Jimmy Donahue inherited a portion of the Woolworth estate with Barbara Hutton and grew up to have notorious, and public, drug, alcohol and relationship problems.

Barbara Hutton lived in the family home at 4 East 80th Street on the Upper East Side.

Alexis was already married to Louise Van Alen, a friend Barbara Hutton met at Bailey's Beach in Rhode Island and a member of the Astor family, when he met Barbara Hutton in Biarritz, France.

The group caught the couple, prompting Barbara Hutton to flee to Paris to avoid facing the scandal, but Roussie threatened Barbara Hutton with negative publicity if she did not marry her brother.

Alexis and Barbara Hutton were married on June 22,1933, in the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris, France.

Barbara Hutton persuaded her to give up her American citizenship, and to take his native Danish citizenship for tax purposes, which she did in December 1937 in a New York federal court.

Barbara Hutton then developed anorexia, which would plague her for the rest of her life and would leave her unable to have further children.

In 1938, Barbara Hutton had a brief affair with Howard Hughes in London at the Savoy Hotel, where Hughes spent several afternoons with Barbara Hutton.

Barbara Hutton was active during the war, giving money to assist the Free French Forces and donating her yacht to the Royal Navy.

Barbara Hutton left California and moved to Paris, France, before acquiring a palace in Tangier.

Barbara Hutton then began dating Igor Troubetzkoy, an expatriate Russian prince of very limited means but world renown.

Barbara Hutton then spent time with Americans James Douglas and Philip Van Rensselaer.

Barbara Hutton's lavish spending continued; already the owner of several mansions around the world, in 1959 she built a luxurious Japanese-style palace on a 30-acre estate in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Barbara Hutton's next husband was an old friend, German tennis star Baron Gottfried von Cramm.

Barbara Hutton later died in an automobile crash near Cairo, Egypt, in 1976.

In Tangier, Barbara Hutton met her seventh husband, Prince Pierre Raymond Doan Vinh na Champassak.

Barbara Hutton lived with Frederick McEvoy, purchasing a chalet at a ski resort in Franconia, New Hampshire, after her marriage to actor Cary Grant.

Barbara Hutton frequently appeared intoxicated in public and was notorious throughout her life for lavish spending.

Barbara Hutton was known to make gifts to total strangers.

Barbara Hutton spent her final years in Los Angeles, living at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where she died from a heart attack in May 1979, aged 66.

Barbara Hutton was interred in the Woolworth family mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.

In 1987, a television motion picture titled Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story starred Farrah Fawcett in the role of Barbara Hutton.