The Times Magazine 73She planned to fake a
pregnancy by padding
her stomach and buying
a baby from Poland
The duke and duchess in 1952, and, below, Paul Bettany
and Claire Foy as the couple in A Very British Scandalseal Margaret’s fate, although at the time
she was unaware of it. In 1948, she bought a
Polaroid camera in New York, then newly
available on the US market. At her home in
Upper Grosvenor Street in London, Margaret
and Thomas took explicit photographs in
various rooms around her house. Margaret
kept a set, stashed behind a bookcase, and two
of the remaining prints were given to Thomas.
Thomas’s son, Michael, was 12 years old
when he discovered the Polaroids in his
father’s bureau. In 2018, he told me, “One was
of a good-looking woman with dark hair and
a confident gaze. The other was of my father.
Both were what is today delicately described
as full frontal, nothing left to the imagination.”
The memento of her love affair from 1948
to 1949 would come back to haunt her.
In 1949, Margaret and Ian Campbell were
to meet once more, in Paris. He had inherited
the dukedom of Argyll and she wanted to be a
duchess. In her memoirs, she wrote, “I was so
alone and felt drawn to this troubled man who
had so much charm.”
An air of desperation surrounded Ian,
revealed only to those with whom he was on
intimate terms. He was work-shy and all of his
schemes foundered. Sometimes he threatened
to kill himself to manipulate others into giving
him money to pay his gambling debts. Now,
having inherited the dukedom from his cousin,
he learnt the estate, including the family seat,
Inveraray Castle, was haemorrhaging money.
His cousin’s unpaid bills totalled £82,000 and
death duties were £357,000, which brought
Ian’s debt to £2.5 million.
In the new year of 1950, Margaret was not
only involved with Ian, but was also seeing
Roberto Caracciolo, the 11th Duke of San Vito,
a descendant of the royal family of Naples,
who lived in Paris. Having returned home, she
missed both men and sent them a telegram:
“Bored and missing you. Wish you would
come to London.” Roberto declined the offer
and Ian arrived unannounced.
Eight days later, Ian proposed to Margaret
and she accepted. “Now I’ll get my bills
paid,” he told a friend. Ian was still married
to his second wife, Louise, the mother of his
two sons, and Margaret was named in the
divorce petition.
The day after Ian’s divorce from Louise,
he came to Margaret’s home and verbally
attacked her. He criticised her parenting,
called her children brats and insulted her
father, who had given him £100,000 towards
Inveraray. In exchange for the money, Ian
presented Margaret with a deed of gift, a
worthless piece of paper as the estate was
managed by trustees. Later, she would point
to the tapestries and furniture, reminding
him, “That is mine! That is mine!”
On March 22, 1951, Margaret and Ian were
married at Caxton Hall in London beforewatch. In a drunken rage, Ian shouted, “You
have created nothing in your life. You have
not even created a garden. You have only
created yourself.”
In response to Ian’s cruelty, Margaret began
a misguided plot to secure her future as the
Duchess of Argyll. She desperately wanted a
son with Ian and having failed to conceive, she
planned to fake a pregnancy by padding her
stomach and buying a newborn baby boy from
Poland. Her next step was to discredit Ian’s
sons with Louise, particularly his heir, by
forging letters questioning their paternity. In
Margaret’s world, she would be victorious. Her
plan, however, would not reach fruition.
The turning point came in 1958 when she
refused to pay Ian’s latest debts of £100,000.
In turn, he sought revenge and tried to have
her certified insane due to her head injury
from 1941.
Despite Ian’s treatment, Margaret insisted
on accompanying him to New Zealand and
Australia to visit Clan Campbell and raise
money for Inveraray. It was in Sydney that Ian
opened her diary and saw the names of half a
dozen men. When he accused her of adultery,
she did not deny it. Both were having flings
and she was content with their open marriage.
In London, he broke into a cupboard
and stole her letters. Behind a bookcase he
discovered more letters and diaries. He also
came across sheets of hotel writing paper with
words cut out from letters written by Louise- the blueprints for Margaret’s plans to
discredit his heir and falsify a pregnancy. He
did not confront Margaret and waited for her
to walk into his trap. Eventually, she handed
him two bogus letters, which she claimed
were written by Louise.
A writ was sent by Louise, suing Margaret
for libel and slander. She later paid £10,000
in damages to Louise and received a court
order preventing her from discussing the case.
Ian informed Louise that Margaret had broken
her injunction by speaking of their sons and
so Louise’s lawyers sent an application to
Mr Justice Paull for Margaret’s committal to
Holloway prison. Frightened by the outcome,
Margaret attempted to flee to Switzerland to
stay with Mary Chevreau d’Antraigues, a
friend of her parents. “I won’t have that silly
girl in the house!” Mary said. Luckily for
Margaret, the hearing had gone in her favour.
Before this, Margaret had also forged
a telegram from Ian’s secretary, Yvonne
McPherson, with whom she said Ian was
having an affair. McPherson sued Margaret
for libel and slander and received £5,000 in
damages. At the hearing, Ian testified against
Margaret and admitted to sending McPherson
letters about his wife. “S” was their code for
Margaret; it stood for Satan. “Good God,”
Margaret said of her legal woes. “How much
of this am I going to have to suffer?”
leaving for Inveraray, where he carried her
over the threshold and almost dropped her
onto the stone floor. She spent her honeymoon
in workman’s overalls, renovating her marital
home ahead of opening it to the public.
A short time later, Ian began to humiliate
Margaret in front of guests and to beat her.
His first wife, Janet Aitken, daughter of Lord
Beaverbrook, accused Ian of breaking her
cheekbone and ribs. Margaret’s father
confronted her with the truth: Ian was an
alcoholic and addicted to purple hearts
(painkillers). Her way of seeking help was to
turn her library into White’s, so Ian could
GETTY IMAGES, BBC PICTURES drink in a club-like atmosphere under her