One of the biggest scandals in 1960s Britain is the subject of a new BBC mini-series that premieres on Amazon Prime Video today.&nbsp;

Margaret Campbell, former Duchess of Argyll and wife of Ian Campbell, Duke of Argyll, was the center of a scandal that exploded in 1960s Britain. The couple's tumultuous relationship and subsequent divorce precipitated events that created a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/actress-sienna-miller-taboids-dating-jude-law">tabloid</a> frenzy and, decades later, a BBC television show starring <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/claire-foy-a-very-british-scandal-new-bbc-series-first-look" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Claire Foy</a> known as <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/claire-foy-feels-exploited-filming-sex-scenes-a-very-british-scandal">A Very British Scandal.</a>&nbsp;L'OFFICIEL&nbsp;has put together a timeline of events that lead up to and followed the explosive happening.&nbsp;

Margaret Whigham, 1930

Margaret Whigham had three names throughout her life&mdash;Margaret Whigham, Margaret Sweeny, and finally (and most famously), Margaret Campbell. In 1930, a young Margaret was inducted into London's <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/history-of-new-york-high-society-socialites-astor-vanderbilt">high society</a> among the city's most wealthy and elite. She then went on to become a prominent fixture of the social scene&mdash;in constant oscillation through the poshest of parties and clubhouses&mdash;taking and leaving <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celebrity-influencer-fashion-trends-london-fashion-week-fall-winter-2022">London's</a> most eligible bachelors in her wake. Margaret was adored, a darling of high society.&nbsp;

After a slew of unfulfilled promises of marriage to other men, Margaret marries American financier Charles Sweeny, converting to Catholicism along the way. The Hartnell wedding gown she wore garnered so much attention it became such a cultural fixture&mdash;it is now on display at the Victor &amp; Albert collection in London. The event was highly reported in the press and even stormed by some sans-invite. The couple then went on to have three children together before divorcing in 1947 after World War II.&nbsp;

After meeting the heir to the Duke of Argyll on a train to Paris while he was still married to his second wife, the two married in March of 1951. This is where we get into the meat of the scandal. The couple was married for 12 years before they very publicly divorced in 1963. But this marriage was far different than the last&mdash;it began troubled.
Argyll was known to struggle with addictions to alcohol, gambling, and prescription pills. He was also very well known to be cold and violent. His two previous wives reported numerous accounts of physical and emotional abuse.&nbsp;

The divorce that enwrapped Britain in its publicity clutches technically began in 1958, with years and years of the couple tangled in the legal system, suing and counter-suing one another. Margaret forged documents to try and prove that the children Campbell had had in his previous marriage were illegitimate and also accused him of going so far as to have an affair with his stepmother.
In reaction, Campbell broke into and ransacked Margaret's home where he stole dozens of personal documents, letters, diary entries, and photographs which he then presented to the court. One, quite famously, was a photograph of Margaret, only identifiable by the pearls around her neck, engaged in a sexual act with an unknown man that henceforth became the infamous "Headless Man." This was the first known act of what is now known as "revenge porn" in modern history.&nbsp;

This photograph created an abundance of public interest&mdash;the search for the "headless man" was on, with 88 candidates submitted by the Duke, as men with whom Margaret had had extramarital affairs, including many high profile politicians, members of royal families, and famous actors. It must be said, however, that many of the people named in court were later revealed to be homosexual.
The law around homosexuality in the UK at the time was far less favorable, and Margaret knew that. In order to protect those named, she did not object to the claims. The photograph was submitted in court and used as evidence against the duchess, painting her as a floozy, somewhat of a fallen woman, with the judge going so far as to describe Margaret as, "a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men." The public ran with this, slandering and destroying her reputation in the process. The court refused to allow Margaret to give her side of the story without risking imprisonment, which allowed for her very public defamation to increase in intensity. She soon became known as the "Dirty Duchess."

There is an endless amount to say about the shifts in the world that have happened since this case in 1963, most especially regarding Margaret's inability to tell her side of the story, allowing for a public humiliation that neared biblical. However, it follows a certain trend in the UK&mdash;and everywhere for that matter&mdash;that hasn't much changed about the pervasiveness of publicly torching women in the media for entertainment.
Margaret was a victim of an extreme double standard that still exists today. It was quite commonplace for men in the '60s to have extramarital affairs or take lovers while in a marriage. Margaret's reason for being so publicly destroyed was simply because she was a woman that refused to buckle under the pressures of very powerful men and institutions. The public never viewed Margaret as her own person&mdash;simply a display of shock and horror from which they were far enough removed to be pleased and enthralled by.
A Very British Scandal sheds light on Margaret's side of the story&mdash;how these powerful systems worked against her, how she was shredded by the media, how a powerful man who was patently not blameless himself used these structures to malign her. Additionally, explores post-war London and examines the ways in which institutional misogyny was embedded within the culture of the times. After dying in 1993 with a reputation still in pieces, hopefully, the general public can come to learn the real Margaret.&nbsp;

'A Very British Scandal': The True Story of Margaret Campbell

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