The Separation

I took the decision to separate from my husband when, once recovered I returned to the palace and became aware of his infidelities. Despite everything and so as not to harm the inheritance rights of my son, I waited until Ajit reached adulthood.

Somebody said they had seen me ridding in company of a jockey that was not from Kapurthala. The Maharajah became very annoyed. I was not intimidated by his  reaction. After long discussions we signed a separation agreement.

…And the foreign Rani abandoned India.

I passed the first years as a separated princess living in Paris with open houses in Switzerland and Málaga.

If you consult my photograph album you will see me on holidays in Deauville, in the Lido in Venice and in Nice during the saison . Of course I never missed Holy Week in Andalusia, the Seville fair and all the bullfights of the season. In Biarritz I used to play tennis with the Rostchilds, the Sultan Shiras Bey and I was devoted to the social gatherings of writers, painters and intellectuals such as Vicente Blasco Ibánez, Beltrán Massés, Néstor Martín-Fernandez de la Torre…One could say I lead a truly busy life.

I also had some loves and hundreds of admirers.

In 1927 I coincided in Paris with Vicente Blasco Ibánez, the famous writer from Valencia who lived in exile in the Côte Azor. He proposed something unexpected: he had the idea of writing about my life as a Spanish sovereign in India. I gladly accepted. Unfortunately the writers passing months later obliged him to leave his work unfinished.

I passed the Spanish Civil War with my niece in a discreet hotel in the Breton coast, in France, and together we lived the first compasses of the Second World War in Portugal, in relative tranquillity.