Lady Colin Campbell

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Lady Colin Campbell

Born August 17, 1949 (1949-08-17) (age 58)
Jamaica
Occupation Author, socialite, radio hostess

for Lady Colin Campbell (1857-1911), see Gertrude Elizabeth Blood

Lady Colin Campbell, (born George William Ziadie[1], known as Georgie, August 17, 1949[2]), is a British writer, biographer, autobiographer, novelist and radio interviewer, known for her biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, The Real Diana.

Campbell was born in Jamaica, the child of Michael Ziadie. The Ziadie family is prominent in Jamaica, the decendants of half a dozen Maronite Catholic brothers who emigrated from Lebanon in the early 1900s; she says they have gone from being "revered to reviled to treasured as exotica" and are a more important family than the aristocrats into whom she married.[3]. She grew up largely in the United States. In 1974 she married Lord Colin Ivar Campbell, the son of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, and divorced him the following year. The marriage was violent and she had to have her face reconstructed two months into the marriage [4].

She has two adopted Russian-born sons, a chateau in Provence, and a maisonette in Kennington, near central London. She is described as a former society beauty and a "flamboyant if controversial aristocrat"[5]. She praises meritocracy but trades on her aristocratic connections.

She was born with an unspecified form of intersex, and was brought up as a boy until her late teens. At 13 she realised something was wrong and secretly sought the help of a gynecologist, but her parents authorised brutal treatment with other physicians who forcibly gave her male hormones. When she was 18 and working in New York City as a model, she had gender reassignment surgery. She describes this as a handicap that she has overcome, making her a stronger person.[6].

She has been linked with Oliver Eden, 8th Baron Henley, Conservative minister; Larry Lamb, actor; and Robert Lund, convicted ex-pat wife-killer whose innocence she champions[7].

[edit] Books

  • Lady Colin Campbell’s Guide to Being a Modern Lady (1986)
  • Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows (1992)
  • The Royal Marriages: What Really Goes on in the Private World of the Queen and her Family (1993)
  • A Life Worth Living (1997), autobiography
  • The Real Diana (2005) - a republication of her 1997 book, with sources
  • Empress Bianca (2006) - withdrawn after legal threats from the world's richest widow Lily Safra

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "A very unladylike lady!" by Jenny Johnson Daily Mail 10 January 2008
  2. ^ Lady Colin Campbell - Biography
  3. ^ "A very unladylike lady!" by Jenny Johnson Daily Mail 10 January 2008
  4. ^ "A very unladylike lady!" by Jenny Johnson Daily Mail 10 January 2008
  5. ^ "A very unladylike lady!" by Jenny Johnson Daily Mail 10 January 2008
  6. ^ "A very unladylike lady!" by Jenny Johnson Daily Mail 10 January 2008
  7. ^ "A very unladylike lady!" by Jenny Johnson Daily Mail 10 January 2008