On the surface, Martha "Sunny" Crawford von Bülow seemed to have it all.
She was attractive. Photographs of her when she was young show a woman who looks remarkably like Grace Kelly. She was rich, having inherited a fortune conservatively valued at $75 million. And she once held the title of Princess von Auersperg because of her first marriage to Alfred, Prince von Auersperg. She had three loving children, two by Prince Alfie â?? Alexander and Annie Laurie, nicknamed Ala â?? and another daughter, Cosima, by her second husband, Claus. They were all as handsome as their mother and had the poise, personality and intelligence to match their immense fortune.
Sunny lived in a world where servants were on hand 24 hours a day to meet their mistress's every whim. But she was not exactly the "idle rich." Sunny was busy when she wanted to be. She was active in Newport, R.I., and New York society, serving on volunteer boards, hosting and attending charity fundraisers and tending to the activities required to maintain her fortune. She had trusts to monitor, business deals to approve, and general interactions with the staff who managed her holdings.
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