"Daughter of New York financier Leonard Jerome, Jennie was born into wealth - and scandal. Upon her parents' separation, her mother took Jennie and her sisters to Paris, where Mrs. Jerome was determined to marry her daughters into the most elite families. The glamorous city became the girls' tumultuous finishing school until it fell to revolt. After fleeing to Queen Victoria's England, Jennie soon caught the eye of aristocrat Randolph Spencer-Churchill, son of the Duke of Marlborough, one of Britain's loftiest peers. It was love at first sight, and their unconventional marriage was driven by mutual ambition and the birth of two sons. Undeterred by society's rigid expectations, Jennie brashly carried on a lifelong intimate friendship with Edward, Prince of Wales - a notorious bon vivant - and had two later marriages to younger men. When her son Winston launched his brilliant political career, Jennie, his most vocal and valuable supporter, guided him to success. By turns scandalous, tragic, and exciting, Jennie Jerome's life was unconventional and full of defiance; it was one that enshrined her as an American adventuress." -- Back cover.