The Duchess was one of only two women to compete in sailing at the 1908 Summer Olympics as owner and extra crewmember of the 8-metre bronze medal-winning yacht Sorais. She distributed the diplomas of special merit to the competitors of the other Olympic sports on 25 July 1908.
The marriage was happy at first and the couple shared many interests, including yachting and motor racing. However, her parents' expectation of personal financial gain through the marriage and her own long absence from home affected her marriage to the conservative Duke. In 1909, the couple's only son and heir apparent to the dukedom died following an operation for appendicitis while the Duchess was away. The Duke accused her of neglecting the child, and the Duchess did not attend the boy's funeral. It was rumoured that the Duchess was having a secret liaison with the Duke of Alba, whilst her husband had what he described as his own "nocturnal adventures". Nonetheless, the couple appeared together at social events until the birth of their youngest child, Lady Mary. In 1913, the Duke requested separation but, with the outbreak of the First World War, the couple turned their attention to war service – the Duke joined his regiment and the Duchess sponsored a military hospital in Le Touquet, housed in a local casino. In 1918, the Duchess was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her service in the war. The couple were divorced – on the grounds of the Duke's adultery and desertion – the following year, with the decree being made absolute 19 December 1919. The alimony settlement of £13,000 a year he made upon her was then the largest in British legal history. After their divorce, the Duke married three more times, including to Violet Cripps, Baroness Parmoor, Loelia, Lady Lindsay, and Anne Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster. The couple remained on friendly terms after 1919, hosting their daughters' debut balls together. Because their subsequent interactions were amicable, it has been surmised that both parties collaborated to achieve the divorce because each wanted to end the marriage and to remarry.
Second marriage
On 14 January 1920, aged 44, the former Duchess of Westminster secretly married her private secretary and agent, Captain John Fitzpatrick Lewis, then in his thirties, at Lyndhurst, Hampshire. She had met Lewis early in the war, while he was being treated at her hospital in Le Touquet. They had no children. The former duchess died on 21 January 1970, aged 94.
In popular culture
dedicated his 1961 thriller Vendetta in Spain to her.
