Lee Radziwill Has Died
Caroline Lee Radziwiłł reportedly died on Friday, February 15, 2019 in New York City. She was 85 years old.
Born Caroline Lee Bouvier in 1933 to John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee, she was the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. A cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
While Radziwill was known largely because of her famous family, she was also a figure of note in her own right. She worked briefly as an actress, made a name for herself as an interior designer, and spent years as a powerful public relations executive for a fashion house. She was also known for her style; in 1996 she was named to the International Best Dressed List's Hall of Fame, and she released two books of photos of her fashionable homes, friends, and adventures.
Radziwill was also, for a time, a true American princess. After her first marriage, to Michael Canfield, she married the Polish aristocrat Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwill, which earned her the title "Her Serene Highness." The royal pair would have two children before divorcing in 1974. She married her final husband, the American filmmaker Herbert Ross, in 1988 and the pair divorced in 2001.
She was famously social, counting herself among Truman Capote's legendary "swans" and romping through the mid-20th century with the likes of Rudolf Nureyev, Peter Beard, and Mongiardino. But it was her relationship with her sister-their travels, their family life (who can forget Grey Gardens?), who they dated-that was the lens many chose to look at her through.
Countless articles and books have been published on the highs and lows of their relationship, which has been speculated about endlessly, though Radziwill once told a reporter, “Please tell me this is not a story about my sister and me. I’m just sick of that! It’s like we’re Siamese twins!”
She is survived by a daughter, Anna Christina Radziwill.
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