Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan was an American socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family and only daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Erskine Smith. Her first marriage to Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough has become a well-known example of the advantageous but loveless marriages common during the Gilded Age. The Duke obtained a large dowry through the marriage and reportedly told her – on their honeymoon — that he had married her only "because he felt obliged to save Blenheim," his ancestral home.
- Occupation
- philanthropist, socialite
- Citizenship
- United States
- Born
- March 2, 1877
- Died
- December 6, 1964
