4/6
Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
Poor Consuelo Vanderbilt. All the sweet-natured socialite wanted to do was to make her mother happy and, in doing so, found herself in a loveless marriage to the ninth Duke of Marlborough. Alva was the matchmaker behind the arrangement, as connections to the British aristocracy secured their place in society forever.
The marriage was doomed, with the pair divorcing in 1921. Consuelo remarried for love, this time to an adventurous pilot, Col. Jacques Balsan.
We see similarities between Consuelo Vanderbilt and Gladys Russell, the innocent daughter of the social-climbing Mrs. Russell on The Gilded Age.