English aristocrat and socialite Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, was BOTD in 1757. Born in London, the eldest child of the 1st Earl Spencer, she had an unusually happy childhood for a member of the British aristocracy. In 1774, aged 17, she was married to William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, with whom she had three children. The marriage was unhappy, and she adopted the life of a socialite, becoming one of the most popular celebrities of her age. Preferring Chiswick House in London to the family seat of Chatsworth in Derbyshire, she entertained most of the leading figures of the Georgian period, including Prince George Prince of Wales, Marie Antoinette, the Duchess of Polignac, Lady Melbourne, Charles Grey, Horace Walpole, Lord Stormont and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She is also credited with popularising afternoon tea as a popular meal and form of entertainment. A prominent supporter of the Whig Party, she took part in political campaigns ahead of the 1784 general election, to the fury of her husband. A keen writer, she wrote and self-published poetry, novels and short stories, while maintaining a prolific correspondence with her friends. She had passionate, erotically charged relationship with Mary Graham and Lady Elizabeth Foster, eventually living in a ménage-à-trois with her husband and Foster for nearly 25 years. In 1791, she had an affair with Charles Grey, becoming pregnant to him and fleeing to France to conceal her pregnancy. She gave birth to a daughter, Eliza, in 1792, whom she reluctantly gave away to be raised by the Grey family. Georgiana’s turbulent personal life, overspending and gambling addiction made her the frequent target of gossip, and she was satirised in the popular press as an absentee mother who cuckolded her husband. She died in 1806, aged 48. Her life, legacy and complicated sexuality has been discussed extensively by historians and biographers, with comparisons drawn between her and her descendent Lady Diana Spencer. She has been portrayed frequently onscreen, notably by Kiera Knightley in the 2008 film The Duchess, which drew express comparisons between her and Diana.