FASHION Magazine
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Sibling Revelry: The parallels of Pippa Middleton and Lee Radziwill
Lee Radziwill and Jacqueline Kennedy shot by Apic/Getty Images. Kate Middleton shot by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images. Pippa Middleton shot by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images. View the Pippa Middleton and Lee Radziwill photos »
View our Kate Middleton wardrobe gallery »Midway through the seventies, Lee Radziwill—her cheekbones Chopard-sharp and her heels Louboutin-high—was the society mountaineer of the decade. Having held court on the international party circuit, the former princess and sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis grew tired of being known solely as the belle of all balls and decided it was high time she got a job. She snapped up a plum TV position hosting a CBS talk show called Conversations With Lee Radziwill, an opportunity offered to her by good friend and broadcast impresario Bill Paley (husband of Babe). The show’s MO seemed right up Radziwill’s alley as it involved purring sit-downs with the famous (translation: her friends). Filmed in the sitting room of her Fifth Avenue pad, her show’s subjects ran the gamut from Gloria Steinem to Rudolf Nureyev to Jaws scribe Peter Benchley. Unfortunately, the show was bludgeoned in the ratings. One particular interview with Halston left few limbs intact: When Radziwill asked the famed designer what clothes from his label women could purchase for $25 or less, he gravely shot back, “Nothing.” The show was cancelled after six episodes.
“I’m nobody’s kid sister,” coursed the cover quote next to Lee Radziwill’s visage on the front of People magazine in November 1976, cresting her Easy Breezy hair and artichoke-sized diamond studs. That magazine tag could easily be attached to another professional kid sister—Pippa Middleton.