Barbara Hutton Biography

Barbara Hutton was an American heiress, debutante, and socialite. She was referred to as the "Poor Little Rich Girl” first when she had an expensive and luxurious debutante ball in 1930 and later due to her troubled personal life. Heiress to the business tycoon Frank Winfield Woolworth, she was one of the richest women in the world in her time. Despite being born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Hutton led a sad life right from her childhood till her death. She lost her mother when she was four, after which she was abandoned by her father. Married and divorced seven times, she gained grand foreign titles but was often treated badly by most of her husbands. Hutton had one child with her second husband with whom she waged a bitter custody battle after their divorce. She suffered from anorexia nervosa which prevented further childbirth. Later, her only son died in a plane crash at the age of 36 which left her devastated. While publicly Hutton was quite envied for her beauty and her luxurious life, privately she remained depressed and insecure, and often took refuge in drugs, alcohol, and playboys. In 1979, she breathed her last, at the age of 66. At the time of her death, she was on the verge of bankruptcy.