Barbara Daly Baekeland - Fashion, Facts and Facts

Barbara Daly was born in the year 1922 in Boston, Massachusetts to Nini and Frank. Her mother had experienced a nervous breakdown just a few years prior to her birth. Barbara apparently inherited her mother’s emotional instability and erratic behavior.

While her mother was still trying to cope with her own nervous breakdown and was coming to terms with the birth of her daughter, she received a rude shock when her husband committed suicide in 1932; Barbara was then just a little girl aged 10.

Her father had actually died of a planned carbon monoxide poisoning that occurred as he purposely locked himself in his car and inhaled fumes from its exhaust pipe. He apparently wanted to mislead people into believing that it was an accident so that his wife and daughter could claim his insurance money.

On collecting the insurance payment, Barbara and her mother shifted to the Delmonico Hotel in New York City.

All through her childhood and formative years, Barbara Daly suffered through a number of severe mental health issues.

As Barbara grew up to be a glamorous young woman, she became a celebrated socialite in New York and began her career as a model, aiming to be a Hollywood star. Thanks to her stunning looks, she got regular modelling assignments with reputed fashion publications such as ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ and ‘Vogue’.

More often than not, because of her amazing beauty and social status, she would be invited to the glitziest parties and she gradually became a constant fixture in high-society circles. Her exquisite looks attracted many men who belonged to the elite class and hailed from ultra-rich families. Meanwhile, she continued working as a successful model with various premium magazines before she considered becoming a movie star.

She received an offer from Hollywood to appear for a screen test along with celebrated Hollywood star Dana Andrews. However, this golden career opportunity did not culminate in film stardom for Barbara but led to her meeting Cornelia Baekeland, another aspiring actor much like her. Her friendship with Cornelia eventually returned rich dividends; Cornelia introduced her to Brooks Baekeland, her younger brother who was then associated with the Royal Canadian Air Force as a trainee pilot.

Brooks and Barbara made a dashing pair as they were both incredibly attractive and led flamboyant lifestyles. Their friendship culminated in a hugely sensational wedding.

Their early married life was apparently near perfect as the couple seemed to surround themselves with rich and famous friends who kept them entertained at numerous bacchanals that took place in exotic locations such as Paris and Manhattan. These crazy parties were characterized by endlessly flowing alcohol, sexual experimentation, and stimulating music and were often attended by celebrities such as Tennessee Williams, Yasmin Aga Khan, Greta Garbo, and William Styron.

Barbara and Brooks continued to enjoy their extravagant lifestyle, excessive drinking, lavish parties, and extramarital affairs. However, bitterness crept into their relationship and it adversely affected their marriage.

Barbara’s mental health issues were also at play throughout the course of the relationship as a result of which Brooks grew exasperated of her offensive outbursts, unstable character, and repeated suicide attempts. Despite being treated by psychiatrist Foster Kennedy, her emotional issues got even worse because of her drinking habit, drug abuse, insecurity, multiple affairs, and tumultuous relationship with her husband.

In 1946, Barbara gave birth to a son Antony and this eased the tension between the couple for a while. Antony was apparently smart, intelligent, and stunning, just like his socialite parents who had lofty dreams about their son and thought that he would become a celebrated writer, fine painter, a polo player of repute and much, much more.

Though Antony demonstrated a lot of promise, he too developed mental issues and started requiring psychiatric care just like his mom. Antony suffered from schizophrenia and often demonstrated paranoid tendencies.

In 1968, Brooks finally walked out of the marriage, leaving Barbara for an attractive young seductress called Sylvie who happened to be his son’s classmate and had visited them over a weekend. After the eventual divorce, Barbara moved in with her son Antony and they gradually became obsessively codependent.

When Antony son was 20, Barbara came to know that he was in a romantic liaison with Jake Cooper, a bisexual man and she was emotionally shattered. Barbara seemed to have a complicated, neurotically dependent, and an incestuous relationship with Antony, her gay son and in her obsession to make things right for him, she hired prostitutes and invited her socialite friends to sleep with her son to gratify his sexual urges. When all else flopped, she persuaded her son to sleep with her because she thought this could help solve his homosexuality issue.

When Antony son was 20, Barbara came to know that he was in a romantic liaison with Jake Cooper, a bisexual man and she was emotionally shattered. Barbara seemed to have a complicated, neurotically dependent, and an incestuous relationship with Antony, her gay son and in her obsession to make things right for him, she hired prostitutes and invited her socialite friends to sleep with her son to gratify his sexual urges. When all else flopped, she persuaded her son to sleep with her because she thought this could help solve his homosexuality issue.

Even though Brooks Baekeland found Barbara incredibly beautiful and was impressed by her self-confidence, he was certainly not contemplating marriage when Barbara informed him that she was pregnant. In fact, she was not expecting at all, and the pregnancy ruse was created by her to trick him into marrying her.

In 1969, she happened to meet Samuel Adams Green who was a renowned pop art curator and she started a romantic liaison with him. She even introduced her son Antony to him and took the opportunity to show his paintings to Samuel who seemed pretty indifferent to Antony’s artistic skill. After six weeks, the relationship was called off by Green. Barbara was completely obsessed by Green and was not willing to let go. She even went to the extent of walking barefoot in snowy conditions across the Central Park wearing just her Lynx fur coat just to impress him and gain a re-entry into his apartment and his life.