Natalia Pavlovna Paley

Natalia Pavlovna Paley
Born	Countess Natalia Pavlovna von Hohenfelsen December 5, 1905(1905-12-05) Paris, France
Died	December 27, 1981(1981-12-27) (aged 76) Manhattan, New York, New York USA
Other names	Nathalie Paley
Occupation	Actress, Model
Spouse	Lucien Lelong (1927–1937) John Chapman Wilson (1937–1961)

Princess Natalia Pavlovna Paley (Наталья Павловна Палей) (December 5, 1905 – December 27, 1981) was a member of the Romanov family. A daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, she was a first cousin of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II. After the Russian revolution she emigrated first to France and later to the United States. She became a fashion icon, socialite and briefly pursued a career as a film actress.

Early life

Princess Natalie Paley was born, as Countess Natalia Pavlovna von Hohenfelsen, at her parents' estate, 2 avenue Victor Hugo (now 4 avenue Robert Schuman), in Boulogne-sur-Seine, close to Paris, France, on December 5, 1905. She was the youngest child of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his second wife, Olga Valeriovna Karnovich, who was of Hungarian aristocratic descent.

Her parents were living in exile after contracting a morganatic marriage. They had met in St. Petersburg in 1895, when Olga Karnovich was married to an officer, and was the mother of three children. Grand Duke Paul already was the father of two, and a was a widower; his first wife princess Alexandra of Greece had died in childbirth. Their relationship did not remain secret for long. On January 9, 1897, Olga gave birth to a son, Wladimir, by Grand Duke Paul. Olga was granted a divorce from her husband and soon left Russia to marry Paul in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy, on October 10, 1902. Their daughter, Irene, was born on December 21, 1903. Not long after, the King of Bavaria gave Olga the title of Countess de Hohenfelsen, a title that was to be handed down to her descendants. They were still vacationing in Rome when the couple was banished to return to Russia by Paul's nephew, the reigning Tsar Nicholas II.

They settled in Paris and bought a house in Boulogne-sur-Seine that previously belonged to Princess Zenaide Ivanovna Youssoupoff. It was there that Natalie was born in 1905, completing their family. Paul and Olga employed a household staff of sixteen maids, gardeners, cooks, and tutors. Wladimir, Irene and Natalie had a happy and privileged upbringing, and for a time, utterly protected from the outside world. Though their parents had a busy social life, the children were very close to them and they ate their meals together, an unusual custom for children of their time and station. On Sundays, the whole family would enter the Russian church on Daru street, but would only attend private mass with the priest who had christened Natalie.

Imperial Russia

In January 1912 Tsar Nicholas II forgave his only living uncle and Grand Duke Paul returned immediately to Russia on the occasion of the tricentenary of the Romanov family. He was followed later by his wife and their three children. It was then when Natalie saw her country of origin for the first time. The family settled in Tsarskoe-Selo in a luxurious palace filled with antiques, and object of arts. In Russia Natalie got in touch with her maternal grandmother, her half-sisters and half brothers. Three months after they had settled into their new life, Wold War I began.

Later life

Paley escaped from Russia in 1920; her father and her brother Vladimir Paley were murdered by the Bolsheviks. With her mother and her sister, Irina Pavlovna, she went via Finland to exile in France.

In 1927 Natalie Paley became the second wife of Lucien-Camille Lelong, the French fashion designer and war hero; they were divorced in 1937. After working for a while as a fashion model for her husband's enterprises, and appearing frequently in Vogue, she became a movie actress and took parts in several European movies, including Sir Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) and Marcel L'Herbier's L'epervier (1933). She eventually moved to the United States, and acted in George Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett (1935), where she began a close friendship with the film's main star, Katharine Hepburn, which would last through her life.

She had a brief affair with the writer Jean Cocteau, which resulted in an aborted pregnancy.^[1]

After charming spectators with her beauty, and experiencing a brief success, she quit acting, married in 1937 the theatre producer John Chapman Wilson (1899–1967), who was a former lover of Cole Porter, and settled with him in Manhattan. There, for many years, she worked in public relations for the fashion designer Mainbocher.

She died in New York City and is buried in the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church in Ewing, New Jersey.

Ancestors

Filmography

• L'Épervier (1933)
• Le Prince Jean (1934)
• The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935) (uncredited)
• Les Hommes nouveaux (1936)
• Folies Bergère (1936)

References

1. ^ Jean-Noël Liaut, "Natalie Paley: La princesse dechirée", Paris: Filipacchi, 1996 (ISBN 2-85018-295-8).

External links

• Natalie Paley at the Internet Movie Database
• Natalia Pavlovna Paley at Find A Grave

Persondata
Name	Paley, Natalia Pavlovna
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 5, 1905
Place of birth	Paris, France
Date of death	December 27, 1981
Place of death	Manhattan, New York, New York USA