King Ferdinand of Romania (Nando)

[felix]

What was the story of their affair? Marthe was an  open woman about  these things. Was she really in love with him or just looking for power? I read she also had an affair with the Kaisers son and heir. She was also a friend of Queen Maries's.

[TampaBay]

I think Marthe just enjoyed collecting and bedding kings and princes.

[felix]

She was a  character ! Loved her Royals.

[palimpsest]

I'm a fan of Martha Bibesco.
I didn't know of her affair with Ferdinand. Where did this info. come from?

[Finelly]

Another notch in her belt...

[palimpsest]

Another notch in her belt...

wow, is/was she that evil?  

I'm her fan not because of her love life, or her personality, or her writing, but because be did a very good job in restoring Constantine Brancoveanu's palace at Mogosoaia near Bucharest [with the help of a Venetian architect]. Absolutely magnificent work!

[Finelly]

Oh, heavens no!  Not evil!  Well, some might have thought her so, but others praise her to the skies.  There's a bio of her out that I'm thinking of getting.

No, the notch in the belt thing simply referred to the fact that she "collected" famous lovers.  

[TampaBay]

I'm a fan of Martha Bibesco.
I didn't know of her affair with Ferdinand. Where did this info. come from?

Hannah Pakula's "The Last Romantic", a bio of Queen Marie of Romania.

TampaBay

[palimpsest]

I find it hard to believe that Ferdinand could have done something so "wild". Missy on the other hand... . He was to ...soft. But who knows… Marthe and F could have had more than an "intellectual" affinity, as I am inclined to think. In any case I wouldn't put her in the same place with Carol II mistresses. I can’t help seeing Marthe as an accomplished intellectual. All I know about her is from one curator of the Mogosoaia Palace who had a lifetime passion for her and would see all her adventures as “platonic” at best.

[palimpsest]

This is the XVII century palace of Constantin Brancoveanu [recently made a saint by the Romanian Orthodox Church] that Marthe restored and lived in.

Mogosoaia Palace

[TampaBay]

I find it hard to believe that Ferdinand could have done something so "wild". Missy on the other hand... . He was to ...soft. But who knows… Marthe and F could have had more than an "intellectual" affinity, as I am inclined to think. In any case I wouldn't put her in the same place with Carol II mistresses. I can’t help seeing Marthe as an accomplished intellectual. All I know about her is from one curator of the Mogosoaia Palace who had a lifetime passion for her and would see all her adventures as “platonic” at best.

From everything I have read, Nando had numerous affairs with aristocratic women who wanted to bed a King.

TampaBay

[Finelly]

Ferdinand was unfaithful pretty continuously during his marriage.  Probably for two reasons:  first, he was highly sexual and didn't have a family history of prohibitions on adultery. Second, Missie was highly NONsexual and after a few years, really resisted sex with him.  She was one of those people who tended to like the romance of love, but not the physical side.   My understanding of F was that he liked the physical side, but wasn't even aware that there could be much of a romantic side!

[palimpsest]

You're both probably right. I have this idealistic image of F as a benign character you know, and a distorted image about Missy. There was this Canadian ambassador in Bucharest who wanted to make a movie about Missy and was convinced she had an affair with a British officer. This would have added to the "success" of the movie, I'm sure.

[TampaBay]

You're both probably right. I have this idealistic image of F as a benign character you know, and a distorted image about Missy. There was this Canadian ambassador in Bucharest who wanted to make a movie about Missy and was convinced she had an affair with a British officer. This would have added to the "success" of the movie, I'm sure.

 

Palimpset,

This is one of the few stories about Missy that I have not heard and I thought I had heard them all!

Thanks!!!!

TampaBay

[palimpsest]

TampaBay
I'm sorry I don't have any other details for you about this story. The only other thing I know about this is that the ambassador talked to James Cameron [Titanic] about directing... you can imagine what sort of movie we would have ended up with.