From $1billion to $0: The tragic downfall of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton — all in the name of love

Born November 14, 1912, in New York City, Barbara Hutton came into the world as an heiress to the Woolworth empire, one of the world's greatest fortunes of the time. She was an only child immediately dubbed the "Million Dollar Baby," and at the peak of her wealth, Barbara was worth nearly $1 billion by today's standards. 

Her nickname eventually became "Poor Little Rich Girl," though, in a life marked by loss, excessive spending and multiple account-draining marriages. 

By the end of her life, during which she held titles by marriage including princess, countess and baroness, she would lose her only son as well as nearly everything she had to her name. Despite the massive fortune she'd inherited, and a jewelry collection worth tens of millions of dollars, Barbara died at age 66 in 1979 with just $3,500 in her bank account — and her riches to rags journey became legendary.

A Woolworth's heiress is born

The story of Barbara's fortune begins long before her birth, when her grandfather, FW Woolworth, founded his first successful five-and-dime in 1879. The company soon expanded across North America , and the Woolworth founder and his wife Jennie Creighton had three daughters who became heir to his massive estate: Helena Maud, born in 1878, Jessie May, born in 1886, and the youngest, Edna, who arrived in 1883. 

It was Edna who married the very wealthy Franklyn Laws Hutton — co-founder of famed stock firm E.F. Hutton —  and welcomed an only daughter, the "Million Dollar Baby" Barbara Woolworth Hutton. 

Tragedy at The Plaza and a $1 billion inheritance 

Barbara's early life was marked by tragedy, including the loss of mother Edna when she was just four years old. "MRS. HUTTON FOUND DEAD.; Daughter of F.W. Woolworth Suffocated in Her Room at the Plaza," read the New York Times headline announcing her mother's May 2, 1917 passing. And to make matters worse, it was Barbara, along with a maid, who found the body. 

While there have since been historical reports claiming the death was by suicide, the official record claimed she died from complications of mastoiditis — a severe chronic ear infection —  and suffocation. 

Following Barbara's mother's death, her father stepped back from childrearing and the youngster was instead shuffled between relatives and private schools. As a child of immense wealth, among the elite private institutions she attended were The Hewitt School in New York City (then known as Miss Hewitt's Classes) and Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. 

Financial expert Franklyn, however, did take an active interest in managing his daughter's money. As a result, in the mid-1920s, he administered two trusts for her: the $26.1 million left to her by her grandmother Jennie Woolworth, and $2.1 million in stock from her mother's inheritance. 

But those two hefty trusts weren't the end of the money rush: in 1933, amid the Great Depression, she inherited another whopping $28 million on her 21st birthday. She was then worth around $1 billion in today's dollars, making her one of the richest women in the world.

By this time Barbara was relatively infamous; her lavish debutante ball held during the Great Depression in 1930 was perceived as a "let them eat cake" moment by the press and onlookers. At a cost of around $60,000 at the time, the 18-year-old's party held at the Ritz-Carlton included such illustrious guests as the Vanderbilt and the Astor families.

Seven marriages, European titles, and account-draining divorces 

The only thing missing from Barbara's luxurious life was a royal title. This was remedied when she tied the knot with first husband Prince Alexis Mdivani, was a self-styled Georgian Prince; his wealthy wife was widely referred to as Princess Barbara Mdivani during their marriage. 

The pair divorced after less than two years, and, because of her habit of falling for men with titles, Barbara eventually became a princess three times over through marriage. She became Princess Troubetzkoy when she married her fourth husband, a Russian prince and race car driver Prince Igor Troubetzkoy; and her seventh husband was Prince Raymond Doan Champassak, associated with the former Kingdom of Champasak in Laos. The title was one for which Hutton paid a fee to acquire, presumably so her new spouse would match her own royal rank.

Hutton was also a countess, a title bestowed upon her in 1935 when she wed her second husband, Danish aristocrat Count Curt Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow, father of her only child, Lance.

Last but certainly not least, the heiress became Baroness von Cramm when she wed her sixth husband, a tennis champion and German aristocrat, Baron Gottfried von Cramm.

While she gained many titles, she lost a massive chunk of her fortune through her many marriages and divorces. Some husbands spent her cash freely while they were wed, while others were paid off when they inevitably split. The Woolworth scion's fifth husband, Dominican diplomat and playboy Porfirio Rubirosa,  is perhaps the most famous example: though their marriage lasted just 53 days in 1953, he came away with a reported $2.5million settlement, a plane and polo ponies, too.

"I won't say my husbands thought only of money, but it has a certain fascination for some of them," Barbara is famously quoted as saying.

The exception to this rule was apparently her third husband, Hollywood leading man Cary Grant. Despite being dubbed "Cash and Carry" in the press, the star of such films as Hitchcock's North By Northwest and The Philadelphia Story — who Hutton once called "the husband I loved most" — is widely credited as the one husband who wanted nothing from her. 

Grant also defended his ex-wife publicly, once saying: "It was not her fault that she was born rich."

"Poor Little Rich Girl": Losing her son and dying penniless in a penthouse suite

While Barbara never remarried following her 1966 separation from Prince Raymond Doan Champassak, tragedy did continue to follow her in other ways. Her only son, Lance, was killed at age 36 in a 1972 light plane crash near Aspen, Colorado. It is said she never recovered from the devastating tragedy.

During her lifetime, the unlucky heiress had endured a host of problems with her health — she underwent major surgery for a kidney ailment, was plagued with intestinal problems, and suffered from an eating disorder as well.

She broke her hip a year prior to her son's death, and never recovered good health — her finances also declined, dwindling down to a fraction of the millions she had inherited decades earlier. The aging heiress moved into a penthouse suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, living out her life in solitude, and spending her days bedridden, rarely leaving her room.

Described by the Washington Post as an "ailing recluse" at the time of her death, 66-year-old Barbara died of a heart attack at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on May 11, 1979 with just $3,500 in her bank account. It was a lonely end for the "Poor Little Rich Girl" who suffered so much tragedy and had sought love all her life.