History’s Most Scandalous First Lady HT

A marriage poisoned by secrets, a lesbian love affair, and a first lady dogged by controversy. Right to the bitter end, Elellanar Roosevelt transformed the White House into a den of scandal. In the fall of 1918, Elellanar Roosevelt was unpacking one of her husband’s suitcases when she came across a bundle of letters.

Curious, she opened them and they changed her life forever. More on that later. Born to wealthy socialites Anna Hall and Elliot Roosevelt, Elellaner made her grand entrance on October 11th, 1884. Growing up smack dab in the middle of New York high society, young Elellaner was the picture of privilege. But although her life seemed enviable, her childhood was not a fairy tale.

From the very beginning, her mother resented her. In the eyes of her mother, Elellaner’s plainness was shameful. Her looks inspired a coldness in the one person she looked for unconditional love.  To make matters worse, her mother also had the habit of calling her granny because of her grave and introspective personality.

When she was only 2 years old, Elellanar Roosevelt and her family were traveling aboard the SS Britannic, but it was a doomed voyage. On May 19th, 1887, the ship crashed into the SS Celtic. The ensuing chaos swept little Ellaner up in a dramatic evacuation, her family escaping on lifeboats back to the safety of New York.

After the formative trauma of the SS Britannic collision, Elellanar carried a phobia with her for the rest of her days. She was deathly afraid of ships and the sea. In 1892, she suffered her first real loss when her mother Anne succumbed to diptheria. A year later, Elellaner’s little brother Elliot Jr. fell ill with the same infection that had taken her mother.

He too did not survive. Passed into the care of her grandmother, Elellanar continued to grapple with dark thoughts about her self-worth. She still considered herself an ugly duckling. Luckily, even at a young age, Elellaner was incredibly bright and inquisitive, and it led her to an enlightened understanding of beauty.

At 14, she wrote, “No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and loyalty are stamped upon her face, all will be attracted to her.” In her teens, Elellanar’s confidence only grew. Sent to a private finishing school, she broke out of her shell and captured the hearts of her peers. One of her cousins, Corine, who also attended Allen’swood Academy, described Ellaner as everything at the school.

She was beloved by everybody. Like any wealthy socialite, Elellanar had to face her debutant ball, but she did so with apprehension. Having been away from New York society for so long, she felt like an outsider all over again. Later, in reminiscing on that stressful day, she described it as simply awful.

In 1902, the very same year of that disastrous debut, Ellaner met her future husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But he wasn’t exactly a stranger. [music] Franklin just happened to be her fifth cousin. After running into one another on a train ride, they embarked on a secret romance. When Franklin’s mother, Sarah, learned about her son’s love for Elellaner the following year, she was not enthused.

In fact, she opposed the union so much she tried everything in her power to squash the romance for good. When he announced that he’d chosen Elellanar as his future bride, she made him promise to keep the engagement hidden for at least a year. Elellanar Roosevelt’s wedding was a magnificent occasion.

After all, her uncle Theodore, the American president, no less, walked her down the aisle in the place of her late father. He even gave the couple his stamp of approval, saying, “It is a good thing to keep the name in the family.” The nuptuals made the front page of the New York Times, and by all accounts, Elellanar seemed like the perfect blushing bride.

Elellanar had a whopping six children with Franklin. But sadly, she never truly felt like their mother. Once babies entered the picture, her mother-in-law descended with full force and raised them how she saw fit. It felt as though she had stolen them from Elellaner. Elellanar’s eldest son, James, even remembered how his grandmother once told him, “Your mother only bore you.

I am more your mother than your mother is.” Despite having so many children, Elellanar Roosevelt did not enjoy sleeping with her husband. In fact, she absolutely hated sexual intimacy. So much so that she even confessed to her daughter Anna that it was an ordeal to be born. Evidently, there were many soul crushing aspects of marriage that she had never foreseen.

Didn’t seem like things could get any more miserable. While on vacation with Franklin in New Brunswick in 1921, disaster struck. Franklin fell ill and the diagnosis was bleak. He had a paralytic illness that at the time his doctors thought was polio. Ellaner stepped up to the plate. She threw herself into saving her husband.

And without her careful attention, his illness might have proved fatal. Despite Elellanar’s attentive nursing, Franklin Roosevelt’s legs became paralyzed forever, and his disability wre havoc. While Elellanar persuaded him to stay in politics, her opinion railed against his mother’s wishes.

Sarah wanted her son to bow out and retire. In many ways, Elellaner was the hero of the story. She not only saved her husband’s life, but she also saved the future of his career. Elellanar’s strength during this trying time was a turning point. For the first time, she asserted her dominance over her awful mother-in-law and gained some much needed independence.

After staying so long in the shadows, it was finally her time to shine. She began standing in for her husband because of his disability, making countless public appearances, and becoming an increasingly influential presence. The Roaring 20s were as exciting for Elellanar as they were for everyone else.

But she did find herself going head-to-head with her Republican cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. On one famous occasion, she got caught in the middle of a spat between her husband and her cousin. Franklin had condemned Theodore’s involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal, causing this family drama to explode in the worst possible way.

Elellanar countered Theodore at every turn, and her comeback speeches were bitingly effective, honing in on his immaturity. In the end, Elellanar felt the glow of victory when the Democrats beat out her cousin by 105,000 votes. It was a terrible blow for Theodore and understandably he never forgave her.

The 1930s marked a huge shift in Elellanar Roosevelt’s life, both professionally and romantically. You see, as devoted as she was to her husband and his upcoming presidential campaign, their marriage wasn’t exactly a passionate romp. She had to look for closeness elsewhere. And did she ever.

Enter Lina Hickok, a reporter for the Associated Press who had the future first lady’s head on a swivel. Lina fell madly in love with Ellanar while covering the presidential campaign. It was an old school romance with Ellanar penning 10 to 15page letters to Lina stating scandalous affection for her. For instance, she wrote, “I want to put my arms around you and kiss you at the corner of your mouth.

” Their burning adoration for another was crystal clear, even on the day of Franklin’s 1933 inauguration. During this excitement, Elellanar wore a telltale sapphire ring, a present from Lena herself. However, considering the gravity of Elellanar’s new position as the first lady, if they were ever found out, the resulting scandal would destroy her.

Elellanar Roosevelt wasn’t without her enemies. In fact, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover kept a massive file on the first lady, which eventually grew to an astonishing 3,000 pages. He hated her with a passion for criticizing his surveillance tactics and for her prevailing liberalism. Reportedly, he had evidence of Elellanar’s forbidden relationship with Lena, which he hoped to use as blackmail.

Elellanar’s lesbianism has sparked debate with many wondering whether her relationship with Lena ever became physical. Some even tried to assert that it was only a childish crush. However, in this case, the writing was on the wall. Ellaner helped Lena get a job as an investigator just so they could be closer.

And moreover, their winding, heartfelt letters spoke for themselves. On top of this first affair, it seems as though Elellanar Roosevelt entertained another one behind closed doors. After meeting in 1929, she forged a strong friendship with her bodyguard Earl Miller. At the time, Earl was only 32 while Elellanar was 44.

He became her closest companion, teaching her multiple sports in her downtime. Elellanar was a devoted letterw writer, and just as she spilled her heart out to Lena, it’s likely that she did the same to Miller. The two of them corresponded every single day. and biographer Blanch Weiss Cook believed that Earl was Elellanar’s first romantic involvement during these years.

While Elellanar was busy with her own secret romances, Franklin had a rumored affair with his secretary, Margarite Missy Leand. With infidelity on both sides, the president and his first lady seemed to tread the road to ruin. But surprisingly, that just wasn’t the case. You see, they both still cared for one another deeply.

When Elellanar stepped into her role as the first lady of the United States, she set out to break the rules in the best ways possible, quickly making her an immensely controversial figure. To begin with, she did not disappear into the background. She continued with her public speaking agenda, and in 1940, she was the first to make a speech at the National Party Convention.

Little by little, Elellaner broke down every boundary that the previous first ladies had faced. She penned a widely syndicated newspaper column called My Day and hosted a weekly radio program. But let’s not forget her ultimate power move. She wanted to make as much money as the president himself. During her first year as the first lady, she made $75,000 and then gave most of it to charity.

Elellanar Roosevelt was a staunch supporter of the civil rights movement. In fact, on one famous occasion, she broke a long-standing tradition and invited hundreds of black Americans to the White House. She was also one of the few members of the administration to advocate for equal benefits for all races.

Elellaner never shied away from rocking the boat. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution barred a black performer, Maryanne Anderson, from singing at Washington’s Constitutional Hall. Scandalized by this infuriating twist of events, the first lady protested by resigning from the group altogether.

Then she took it one step further. She organized another concert at the Lincoln Memorial where Anderson could perform freely. In June 1943, critics turned their fiery gaze to the first lady, blaming Ellaner for the race riots in Detroit. The haters were out for blood, but even so, she managed to turn the tables in one respect.

Her popularity absolutely soared among black Americans, turning many Republican voters into Democrats. On December 7th, 1941, tragedy rocked the entire nation. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, effectively dragging the US into World War II. Suddenly, Japanese Americans found themselves under fire.

Elellaner was outraged. Ahead of her time in every way, she railed against the Japanese American prejudice and had the foresight to discourage great hysteria against minority groups. To her horror, Elellaner’s husband decided to place many Japanese citizens in internment [music] camps, an order that she privately despised.

In fact, her support of the Japanese population was so criticized, the Los Angeles Times even put out a call to have her forced to retire from public life. Elellanar Roosevelt’s focus turned toward war refugees. More than anything, she wanted FDR to invite more immigration groups into the country, especially the poor souls targeted by the Germans.

But in this respect, he failed her. Instead of welcoming refugees with open arms, the president restricted immigration. On April 12th, 1949, the president suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away. But his sudden departure unleashed fresh drama in Elellanar Roosevelt’s life. You see, an old ghost came around to haunt her.

Her name was Lucy Mercer, Roosevelt’s social secretary. In the fall of 1918, Elellanar Roosevelt was unpacking one of her husband’s suitcases when she came across a bundle of letters. Curious, she opened them and they changed her life forever. They were love letters from FDR to Lucy Mercer. The relationship was so intense, [music] Franklin had even considered leaving his wife to be with his mistress.

According to Elellaner’s daughter, Anna, there was one woman at her father’s side at the moment of his passing, and that was Lucy Mercer. Anna also told her mother that she’d been aware of her father’s infidelity for a long time. Franklin and Lucy had kept their affair alive for decades, and everyone around him had expressly hidden it from Ellaner.

[music] In 1960, shortly after being hit by a car in New York City, doctors diagnosed Elellanar with alastic anemia. From then on, her health drastically nosedived. 2 years later, her dormant tuberculosis became active in her bone marrow, [music] and it spelled the end. On November 7th, 1962, Elellanar Roosevelt passed from cardiac failure at the age of 78.

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