yesterday's muse #8 - dorian leigh

Dorian Leigh (born Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker, sister of the afore mention muse Suzy Parker) was another of those considered to be among the first 'super models'. Dorian worked from 1945 until the early 1960's, and is rumoured to have been the inspiration for the character of Holly Golightly in Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's.



Leigh was married five times and mothered as many children.
two with her first husband, Marshall Hawkins, whom she met in college. this marriage ended in divorce.
next, she married a US Navy officer with whom she had her third child. they also divorced.
Dorian's third marriage was in Mexico, to a Spanish marquis/race-car driver, who turned out to be married at the time. he died in a crash during a race. the two had a son, Kim de Portago, who later became addicted to drugs and at age 21, jumped from a window to his death.
marriage number four was to Serge Bordat. during this marriage, Leigh had her fifth child with another man.
her fifth and final marriage was to playwright Iddo Ben-Gurion, from 1964-1966.

in 1980, Leigh published an autobiography, The Girl Who Had Everything, which she dedicated to her late son Kim. in Leigh's words: "I really wrote it for Kim, who will never read it. But perhaps other Kims and their parents may learn from my unhappy experiences ".

Leigh lived to be 91 years old, eventually succumbing to the effects of Alzheimer's disease in a Virginia nursing home.