“The Strumpet with the Trumpet.” “Nympho Dyke.” “Cocaine Slut.” “Black-Magic Voodoo Queen.”
Somehow, a former cheerleader from upstate New York got branded all of those things by the national media when her wealthy older husband decided to divorce her after six years of marriage. They were not famous (well, sorta). But their marriage coincided with the last gasp of the freewheeling decadence of the ‘70s, so there were plenty of lurid details to air in public. And neither Roxanne Pulitzer nor estranged husband Herbert Peter Pulitzer held back in their Palm Beach divorce trial.
After their marriage on January 12, 1976, Roxanne was officially part of the Palm Beach society crowd, and they ushered her into the fold. Unfortunately, it was a fast crowd and both she and Herbert started participating in some things—like cocaine binges and threesomes—that would come back to bite not both of them, but the wife and mother of twins.
Eventually, Roxanne ended up humiliated on the national stage, without custody of her sons and with just $2,000 a month in alimony for two years. How did it happen? Mark delivers the dish in this torrid episode.
