As a young woman, in 1923, she had been engaged to novelist and aviator
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; however, the engagement was called off, even though Saint-Exupéry gave up flying for a while after her family protested such a risky occupation. Vilmorin's first husband was an American real-estate heir, Henry Leigh Hunt (1886–1972), the only son of
Leigh S. J. Hunt, a businessman who once owned much of
Las Vegas, Nevada by his wife, Jessie Noble. They married in 1925 (1924 according to other sources), moved to Las Vegas, and divorced in the 1930s. They had three daughters: • Jessie Leigh Hunt (b. 3 February 1929,
Hauts-de-Seine, Neuilly-sur-Seine not 1928 as misreported). She married in 1951 (divorced by 1962) Albert Cabell Bruce Jr. (b. 11 August 1925), only son of Albert Cabell Bruce (nephew of
William Cabell Bruce) by his wife, Helen Eccleston Whitridge (granddaughter of Gov.
Oden Bowie), by whom she had issue, four sons: Cabell, Leigh, Thomas, and James, all born 1952–1959 in
Midland, Texas. She then married Clement Biddle Wood, an editor of
The Paris Review, in 1965. • Alexandra Leigh Hunt (b. 1 April 1930, Hauts-de-Seine, Neuilly-sur-Seine) married Henry Ridgeley Horsey (b. 18 October 1924,
Dover, Delaware, USA). Her children were Henry Ridgely Horsey Jr., Edmond Philip de Vilmorin Horsey, Alexandra Thérèse Leigh-Hunt Horsey, Randall Revell Horsey, Philippa Ridgely Horsey, • Helena Leigh Hunt (23 June 1931, Hauts-de-Seine, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 28 December 1995,
Southampton Hospital, Long Island, New York, aged 64), a realist still-life painter. She was married (div) to John Tracy Baxter (b. 23 August 1926,
Macon, Georgia), with whom according to the New York obituary, she had three daughters, Elizabeth Baxter, Etienne Baxter, and Leigh Baxter (Mrs Warre). Her second husband was Count
Paul Pálffy ab Erdöd (1890–1968), a much-married Austrian-born Hungarian playboy, who had been second husband to the Hungarian countess better known as
Etti Plesch, owner of two Epsom Derby winners.
Palffy married Louise as his fifth wife in 1938, but the couple soon divorced. Vilmorin was the mistress of another of Etti Plesch's husbands, Count Maria
Thomas Paul
Esterházy de Galántha (1901–1964), who left his wife in 1942 for Vilmorin. They never married. For a number of years, she was the mistress of
Duff Cooper, British ambassador to France. Louise spent the last years of her life as the companion of the French Cultural Affairs Minister and author
André Malraux, calling herself "Marilyn Malraux". ==Death and legacy==