Maxime de La Falaise - Marriages

Marriages

On 18 July 1946, Maxine Birley became the second wife of Alain Le Bailly de La Falaise, Ecuyer (1905—1977); they divorced in 1950, following a series of her infidelities, including an affair with British ambassador Duff Cooper. A writer and translator, he was a younger brother of Henry de La Falaise, Ecuyer, a film director and third husband of American actress Gloria Swanson, and a son of an Olympic gold medallist in fencing, Georges, Count de La Falaise (1866—1910). They had two children:

• Louise Vava Lucia Henriette ("Loulou") Le Bailly de La Falaise (1948—2011) also became a fashion model and, later, a muse to Yves Saint Laurent and a fashion designer herself. Loulou de La Falaise's first husband was Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin, with whom she had no children; they married in 1966, separated in 1967, and divorced in 1970. In 1977 she married the writer Thadée Klossowski de Rola, a son of the painter Balthus, by whom she had a daughter, Anna.

• Alexis Richard Dion Oswald Le Bailly de La Falaise, (died 2004) was a furniture designer who also appeared in the Warhol film Tub Girls. Alexis' son, Daniel de la Falaise, is a chef, while his daughter, Lucie de La Falaise, has worked as a model. Lucie is married to Marlon Richards, son of Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg.

Maxime de La Falaise married, as her second husband, John McKendry, curator of prints and photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who died in 1975.(During the marriage he had an affair with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, while she had one with J. Paul Getty III; her lovers included artist Max Ernst and film director Louis Malle.) La Falaise is said to have aided Robert Mapplethorpe's entry "into high society, European and American." In the following book Du Pays de Caux à la Vendée, Histoire et Généalogie des LE BAILLY de LA FALAISE et de leurs alliances, du XVème siècle à nos jours by GEOFFROY GUERRY (2011)it is reported that Le Bailly de La Falaise do not have the title of Marquis but of Ecuyer. The title of marquis was used in a fancy way by Henry de La Falaise and then picked up by Alain de La Falaise and his descendants.