WINSTON Churchill remains one of Britain’s most iconic leaders, leading the nation to victory in the Second World War.
A new documentary has shed light on the life of the great wartime prime minister. But who was Winston’s mother and what was her background?
Jennie Jerome Churchill, formally Lady Randolph Churchill, was born January 9, 1854, in Brooklyn, New York.
Jeanette Jerome was the daughter of a prosperous American financier and a socially ambitious mother.
In 1867 she and her two sisters were taken to Paris by their mother following a scandalous escapade involving their father, and her education and introduction to society followed the manner of the European upper classes.
In 1873 she met and charmed young Lord Randolph Churchill, son of the duke of Marlborough, and they were married in 1874.
Her American vivacity, her wit, and her beauty assured her of social success in London
In 1873 she met and charmed young Lord Randolph Churchill, son of the duke of Marlborough.
And by 1874 the couple married.
They also gave birth to future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the same year.
But Lord Churchill died in 1895.
Lady Randolph is believed to have had numerous lovers during her marriage Milan I of Serbia, Prince Karl Kinsky, and Herbert von Bismarck.
A book released in 2020 reveals Lady Randolph had a two-year sexual liaison with then Prince of Wales, Edward VII, the Queen’s great-grandfather, according to the Standard.
The Churchills had two sons from their marriage.
Winston the future prime minister, was born less than eight months after their marriage.
Winston’s brother John Strange Spencer-Churchill was born 6 years later in 1880, He was commonly known as Jack Churchill.
Writing in her book American Jennie: The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill, author Anne Sebba detailed how Lady Randolph’s sisters believed the biological father of Jack was Evelyn Boscawen, 7th Viscount Falmouth.
But the theory was discredited due to the boys’ striking likeness to their father and each other.
