Early life Preston was born in 1898 in
Hempstead, New York, and his wife Helen Steele (d. January 4, 1958). Preston's mother was a great-granddaughter of Justice
Samuel Chase, one of the signatories of the
United States Declaration of Independence, as well as a granddaughter of
Joshua Barney, commodore of the
United States Navy during the
American Revolutionary War. She was descended from Peter Jacquette, the second Dutch governor of Delaware. The marriage was a rocky one, and they were separated at some point before reconciling. Besides Kiki, they also had two sons, one being Edward Erskine Gwynne, Jr. (1899 – 5 May 1948), known as Erskine Gwynne, who later became a writer, the publisher of the magazine
Boulevardier, and a columnist for the European edition of the
New York Herald Tribune. Their other son, Edward C. Gwynne, joined the United States Army Air Corps in his early youth and was killed when his aircraft was shot down. Between 1898 and 1904, Preston and her family resided at different times in Paris, Nassau County, and Park Hill in New York. In 1899, while in Paris, Gwynne obtained a loan worth several thousand dollars from a jeweler. In February 1901, Gwynne transferred his interest in his property to his mother, Louise Gwynne. Two years later, on May 10, 1904, Preston's father died of acute kidney problems at the age of 35, the same day the case of the suit was to be brought up in the court. Preston was five years old at the time. After Louise Gwynne's death, the property that had been conveyed to her by her son was held in trust for Preston and her siblings. However, in February 1908, the Paris money lender revived his legal attack against the Gwynnes, demanding their property in lieu of the unpaid loan of $40,000. Preston was also educated in England. The money lender continued with a series of court appeals between 1910 and 1912, although the Gwynne family managed to emerge victorious from the lengthy legal battle. According to writers Lynn Kear and John Rossman, Preston also worked as a
cabaret performer in her youth.
Marriages and Happy Valley In 1919, she married Horace R. Bigelow Allen, after he completed his service with the United States Army. In later years, Allen became an executive in a plastics corporation. Preston and Horace had a daughter, Alice Gwynne Allen, who later married
pilot officer Geoffrey Borden Russell, Living in Paris with her husband, Preston met and befriended some of the future key members of the
Happy Valley set, such as
Alice de Janzé and
Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll. The Happy Valley set was a community of mainly British expatriates in Kenya, in the Wanjohi Valley close to the
Aberdare Mountains, which had become known for its hedonistic lifestyle. In November 1924, Preston applied for divorce at the Paris courts, on the grounds of desertion. Horace R. B. Allen died on December 17, 1961, in Harbour Island, Bahamas. In April 1925, Preston married investment banker Jerome "Gerry" Preston (15 March 1897 – 28 May 1934), a Harvard alumnus from Colorado, a man later described by writer Frédéric de Janzé in his memoirs as "a creature of instincts" and "untamed". Shortly afterwards, she formed a brief but close friendship with actress
Kay Francis. The Prestons lived in a Dutch-style house they built at the shores of Lake Naivasha and associated with the Happy Valley set. Both she and her husband were successful as big game hunters Friends of the couple in the community included Alice de Janzé, Lord Erroll and his wife
Idina (Preston was often entertained in their mansion), and aviator
Beryl Markham. Preston was a scandalous presence among the Happy Valley set, noted both for her beauty, as well as her wild lifestyle, which included partying all night long, rising from bed during dinnertime and drug abuse.
cocaine and
morphine. She was reported to often take out the silver syringe to inject herself, oblivious to onlookers. Swedish Baron
Bror von Blixen-Finecke's second wife Cockie once remarked of Preston: "She's very clever with her needle". Reportedly, Prince George had a
ménage à trois with Preston and an Argentinian named Jorge Ferrara. In an attempt to rescue his cocaine-addicted brother from the influence of Preston,
Edward, Prince of Wales tried to persuade George and Preston to break off their relationship, but he was unsuccessful. Eventually, Edward forced George to stop seeing Preston and also forced Preston to leave England, while she was visiting George there in the summer of 1929. For years afterwards, Edward feared that George might relapse to drugs if he maintained his contact with Preston. Indeed, in 1932, Prince George ran into Preston unexpectedly at
Cannes and had to be removed almost by force.
Personal losses In the 1930s and 1940s, many people in her social circle of relatives and friends met untimely deaths. Previously, in May 1929, her 30-year-old brother, Edward Erskine Jr., almost died of a heart attack. Preston rushed back to Paris to be by his side because it was believed he was close to death. Erskine ultimately survived. On November 16, 1933, her cousin, 26-year-old socialite William K. Vanderbilt III, son of
William K. II and
Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, was killed in a car accident; her brother, Erskine, was also in the car and suffered minor injuries. In August 1935, he was in another accident, when the car he was driving collided with a truck, injuring three. He was tried, fined $50, and incurred a 30-day suspended sentence. On account of that accident, Erskine later suffered a paralysis in 1938. In February 1937, her brother-in-law (Jerome's brother), sportsman Lewis Thompson Preston also died, at age 37. On January 25, 1941, her friend,
22nd Earl of Erroll, aged 39, was murdered in Kenya. Later that year, on September 30, her friend and fellow American expatriate in Paris,
Alice de Janzé, committed suicide with a firearm. On August 25, 1942, her former lover, Prince George, was killed in a plane accident, aged 39. On June 6, 1944, her son Ethan Allen was killed during the
Normandy Landings. Allen was serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Preston died by suicide on the night of December 23, 1946, jumping out of a window of her fifth-floor apartment in the
Stanhope Hotel of New York City and landing in a courtyard of the hotel. According to her companion, Lillian Turner, Preston had been in poor health, depressed and nervous. Preston's mother, Helen Steele, was living at the same hotel at the time. ==Rumours of royal illegitimate birth==