Barbara Cushing Paley was born on July 5, 1915, into one of America’s most distinguished families. Her father, Harvey Cushing, was a prominent brain surgeon, and her mother, Katherine, was a well-connected socialite. As the youngest of five children, Barbara was nicknamed “Babe,” a name that stayed with her for life.
Along with her sisters Minnie and Betty, she became known as one of the “Fabulous Cushing Sisters,” a trio whose beauty and connections opened doors to the highest levels of society.
Babe made her official debut at a coming-out ball in 1934, at age 18. She was immediately hailed as the most striking of the three sisters, and her arrival in New York society was met with widespread admiration. One observer reportedly said that no matter how often they saw her, it felt like the first time.
That same year, however, a serious car accident on Long Island nearly changed everything. Babe survived the crash, but her front teeth were knocked out and her face was badly bruised. She hid her injuries behind a chiffon handkerchief while undergoing extensive dental surgery.
Remarkably, the procedure left her with an even more refined smile, and she returned to society more beautiful than before.
In 1935, Babe moved to New York City to be near her sisters and quickly entered the fashion world. Within four years, she was appointed an editor at Vogue. Around the same time, she met Stanley Grafton Mortimer Jr.
, a wealthy aristocrat. The two fell in love and married in East Hampton on September 21, 1940.
The marriage looked ideal from the outside, but it was troubled from the start. Babe was more focused on maintaining her social standing than on motherhood. She and Stanley had two children, Tony and Amanda, but the family bond was weak.
Amanda later described her relationship with her mother as virtually non-existent, adding that it was Babe’s choice for it to be that way.
Stanley served in the Navy during World War II and returned a changed man. He struggled with anger and turned to alcohol, which became a serious problem in the marriage. While their divorce was still pending, Babe began a high-profile affair with William Paley, the founder of CBS.
Babe filed for divorce in 1946, and the split caused a significant scandal given the couple’s prominence. Her relationship with Paley was also controversial. Paley had recently ended his own public marriage to Dorothy Hart Hearst, who described him as “cold as ice.”
Babe’s friends warned her about him, with one comparing him to a jungle cat prowling for money. She ignored their advice.
Babe married Bill Paley in July 1947, just four days after his divorce was finalized. She was 32, he was 45. The marriage was widely seen as a transaction.
Paley, who had faced social rejection because of his Jewish faith, gained a high-society wife who legitimized his empire. Babe, who received $40,000 in her divorce settlement, gained access to the opulent lifestyle she had always known.
The Palys became one of the most sought-after couples in New York. They accepted only the best invitations, and Babe reportedly insisted on receiving a formal written request before agreeing to attend any event. Their social circle included some of the most famous figures of the era, including writer Truman Capote.
The couple first met him after a friend asked if they could bring “Truman” on vacation, and they initially thought it meant President Harry Truman. Despite the mix-up, a lifelong friendship developed.
Capote became one of Babe’s closest confidants. He later admitted he was “madly in love” with her, and she became his firm favorite among the glamorous socialites he called his “swans.” But being at the top meant facing competition, and Babe’s main rival was Gloria Guinness, another of Capote’s swans.
The two women engaged in quiet warfare. Babe would remind others of Gloria’s humble beginnings as a nightclub worker in Mexico, while Gloria would go out of her way to upstage Babe, once inviting her on a casual weekend yacht trip only to appear in her finest clothes and make Babe look underdressed.
Babe had more serious problems at home. Bill insisted she be the perfect hostess, and she took the role seriously. She carried a gold notebook to dinner parties to jot down any mishaps so they would never happen again.
She demanded her staff hand-cut the edges of invitations and stamps. Her parties were legendary, with one guest noting that you could hardly get into the bedroom for the flowers. But Bill was never satisfied.
Babe became terrified of her husband’s expectations. On one trip back from Europe, she panicked and called her sister, begging her to remove something from the house before Bill saw it. His control extended to her appearance.
He wanted her to look perfect but did not want to wait for her to get ready. She once admitted he did not want her doing her hair at night. He also did not want much else to do with her at night.
Bill carried on numerous affairs, often with women who looked nothing like Babe. He preferred dive bars and secret encounters while claiming to be on business trips. For a full decade, the couple had no intimate relationship at all.
Babe wanted to leave him, but Capote reminded her she had no money of her own and four children to think about. He told her plainly that Bill had bought her.
Accepting her situation, Babe stayed and played the part of the devoted wife. She had her own discreet affairs with a banker, an American ambassador, and a circle of platonic male friends. In public, she and Bill remained the golden couple.
Throughout her unhappy marriage, Babe remained a fashion icon. Her jewelry collection was so valuable it had to be kept in a bank vault. She bought designer collections from houses like Givenchy and Valentino, often owning pieces exclusively.
She unintentionally started trends, such as when she tied a scarf to her handbag because she felt overheated, and the look became a sensation the next day.
Even as she aged, Babe set trends. When her hair turned gray, she chose not to dye it, and her silver locks became a phenomenon that other socialites copied. Still, she remained deeply insecure.
She was a heavy smoker, partly due to the stress of Bill’s infidelity. Her insecurity worsened as her daughter Amanda grew into a strikingly beautiful woman, and Babe became envious, further damaging their already fragile relationship.
Babe had struggled with health issues since childhood, suffering from severe headaches that confined her to dark rooms for days and required powerful tranquilizers. In 1974, her smoking caught up with her. A year before her 60th birthday, she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
She underwent chemotherapy and, true to form, managed to look stylish even in a turban.
Then came the greatest betrayal of her life. In 1975, Truman Capote published an excerpt from his next book in Esquire magazine. The piece featured a conversation between two characters who were clearly meant to be Babe and Capote himself.
In the dialogue, the woman opened up completely about her troubled marriage and her husband’s infidelities. Babe’s long-held secrets were exposed for everyone to see. She was furious and never spoke to Capote again, though some believed he wrote the piece to protect her from her husband.
As her illness progressed, Babe began to drop the facade she had maintained for decades. She made cutting remarks about Bill, once calling CBS to ask what “the old so-and-so” was doing. According to a friend, she finally unleashed a barrage of obscenities at her husband, saying she had fulfilled his demands too many times.
Bill continued his affairs even as his wife lay dying. He attended their granddaughter’s school performance and met a woman named Joan, 20 years old, who would later become his mistress. He continued the relationship after Babe’s death.
It was said that women at Babe’s funeral approached him, with one overheard declaring, “I’m going to marry him.”
Babe died on July 6, 1978, one day after her 63rd birthday. Even in her final moments, she maintained her composure, reportedly applying a full face of makeup on her deathbed. As the daughter of a doctor, she was realistic about her prognosis.
She planned her own funeral and included a detailed list of her valuables in her will.
But her children were not there to say goodbye. Babe had four children in total: Tony and Amanda from her first marriage, and Billy and Kate with Bill Paley. She was envious of Amanda’s beauty, while Bill was jealous of Tony, the only child with whom Babe had a strong bond.
Billy distanced himself from the family entirely. Kate suffered the most. At age five, she developed alopecia and lost all her hair.
She became resentful of her family and was mocked by the privileged children her parents forced her to associate with. When Babe was ill, Kate reportedly refused to visit her mother and waited until the very last moment to say farewell.
Babe Paley lived a life of extraordinary beauty, style, and social success, but behind the glamour was a story of isolation, betrayal, and family estrangement. She died without the comfort of her children by her side, and her husband’s final betrayals continued even after her death. Her legacy as a fashion icon endures, but so does the quieter, sadder story of a woman who had everything the world could offer and still found herself alone.