Helena Zimmerman - the Duchess, was referred to in the English and American press as a 'dollar princess', the title was given to wealthy American heiresses who married into the British Royal line. Helena was a beautiful and modern young woman who together with the dashing Duke made a glamorous much talked about young couple. Although her father and mother at first frowned upon her marriage to the Duke because of his reputation as a rakish playboy and gambler, they did eventually come to support the couple financially. Helena spent a somewhat lonely life at
Kylemore with her three young children as the Duke continued to travel widely in Europe and America, often as the paid guest of wealthy Americans such as Randolph Hearst. The Duke and Duchess divorced in 1931 and Helena went on to marry the 10th Earl of Kintore, Scotland. The Duchess is remembered as speeding along the narrow fuchsia lined laneways of Connemara in her Daimler motor car, a highly unusual sight for Connemara of the early 1900s!