Frank Costigliola, a history professor at the University of Connecticut and author of Roosevelt’s Lost Alliance: How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War, told the BBC: . “Pamela was invaluable to Churchill given the importance of wartime information. Ignoring history is misogynistic.”
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Parnell does not dispute Harriman’s sexual exploits, recalling how she became known as “the greatest courtesan of our time” in The Kingmaker. Journalist Harrison Salisbury famously recalled this in London during World War II:, “Sex hung in the air like a fog.”. So while it wasn’t unusual for Pamela to fall into bed with a new partner, it was probably an outlier in terms of how often it happened. Her (partial) list of lovers included CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow.this Murrow’s CBS boss Bill Paley, who was on General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s staff.
It remains unclear what information Pamela passed on to Churchill, or what she asked him to pass on to the powerful Americans she was close to, but Parnell writes: “Her pillow talk reached the ears of leaders and influenced high-level policy on both sides,” according to the Atlantic. Although Lewis branded this an “exaggeration” in his review, it is notable that when Randolph Churchill eventually learned of his wife’s affair with Harriman, he accused his parents of complicity.
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Divorced after the war, Pamela moved to Paris and became part of an international circle, having relationships with wealthy men such as Prince Ali Khan, Gianni Agnelli, and Elie de Rothschild. These mistresses financed her lavish lifestyle, but no one dared to put a ring on her finger. Nearing 40, she persuaded Leland Hayward, a successful Broadway and Hollywood producer, to keep his attractive wife Nancy, known as “Slim,” with him.
