John Nash was a captain in the British army, and not at all wealthy when he married Jean Donaldson. Soon after their marriage, gown, shoe, and fur coat makers were suing Captain Nash for thousands of dollars in bills run up by his wife. It was during their divorce proceedings that the Justice McCardie, as a means of admonishment, stated that Jean was the “best dressed” and “most extravagant” woman in the world, labels by which she was identified for the rest of her life.¹¹

Much has been written about Jean Gazlay Donaldson, known mostly by her third married name, Jean Nash, and her six marriages, her celebrity as the “world’s best dressed woman,” and her other social adventures that captivated the imagination of the media and the public, such as gambling among the rich and famous. Jean fostered her own renown by authoring a series of 15 weekly chapters of autobiographical articles from 1 February through 10 May 1925 that were carried in newspapers nation-wide, among them the Milwaukee Sentinel and the Pittsburgh Press. In the articles, Jean recounts numerous anecdotes that provide fascinating insight into her life and the high style to which she was accustomed.¹²

Jean was born in Nutley, New Jersey, and was raised by her mother after her father died in 1904. While attending school in Dobbs Ferry, New York, Jean met and formed a relationship with John Stanley Kirwan. Her mother objected to the relationship, and so proceeded to make plans to move Jean to a school in Europe. Jean discovered the plan, and quickly eloped with Kirwan in New Jersey, which naturally shocked her mother. Their marriage was annulled in April 1913, aided by Jean’s eventual second husband, Winfield Sifton, when he engaged the services of a lawyer in New York. Jean’s marriage to Kirwan produced a son, Andrew, born in the fall of the 1910.^{9, 12}

Jean met her second husband, Winfield Burroughs Sifton, at an embassy ball in London. Winfield was the son of Sir Clifford Sifton, who was Attorney General, Provincial Lands Commissioner and Member of Parliament of Canada. Despite Jean’s initial rejections, Winfield persisted in his desire to marry Jean, and in July 1913 he and Jean slipped away from Jean’s mother, sailing across the ocean from Europe to New York. They were married in “the oddest wedding last night that Milburn [New Jersey] had ever seen,” being married in a motor car, under the light of a street lamp, in the presence only of the reverend and two of Winfield’s friends. The wedding supper consisted of chocolate ice cream sodas served in Newark before setting out for Milburn, where they able to obtain the marriage license. Jean and Winfield’s daughter Elizabeth was born in London when the couple lived there, and Elizabeth lived with the Siftons until she died in 1950. Jean never got along with her mother-in-law, Lady Sifton, mostly over Jean’s taste in fashion.^{9, 12, 13, 14}

Her mother Emma could never control Jean. In March 1914, Jean locked her mother in a closet and refused to let her out until Emma signed a deed of trust to the Knickerbocker Trust Co., conveying Emma’s interest in several pieces of property in Cincinnati to Jean. Emma, aided by a relative, Oscar W. Kuhn, filed suit against Jean, then Mrs. Jean Sifton, her husband Winfield, and the trust company to recover the deeded property. The suit was eventually dismissed in October 1914 on motion of counsel when the property was re-conveyed back to Emma.^{9, 15}

Jean met her third husband John Victor Nash toward the end of her marriage with Winfield Sifton. Needing a divorce from Sifton, Jean filed for divorce in Canada since the marriage was recorded there. The divorce was finalized on 12 July 1919, and five days later Jean and John Nash were married in London. Jean’s extravagant lifestyle eventually overwhelmed John’s modest salary as a captain in the British army. Eventually he sued for divorce, which was made final in March 1923.¹²

Following her divorce from Nash, Jean was courted by several suitors, including Mohammad Sabit Bey, an Egyptian prince, whom she met in a casino in Cannes. Sabit pursued Jean’s affections, and they were engaged to be married. Jean broke the engagement, but eventually she agreed to marry him. She was required to adopt the Moslem faith, and she took the Moslem name of Dowlett. Jean and Sabit were married on 1 February 1925 in a Moslem church in Cairo, with only three witnesses present. Very soon, Jean learned that Sabit had incurred many debts all over Europe, and so may not be able to support her high lifestyle. Also, she and Sabit could not agree on the degree of freedom that she should be allowed. Jean was accustomed to the independence customarily allowed to American married women, whereas Sabit could not disregard the Egyptian habits of the harem and the centuries-old traditions where women are shut out from the world. They were divorced a month after they married.^{12, 16}

Shortly after their divorce, Sabit was arrested in Paris on three charges of swindling cash, jewels, and motor cars, valued at $75,000. He pawned his first wife’s jewels that, it was claimed, were not paid for. Jean was also implicated in the alleged crime but was not arrested. Sabit was acquitted after spending a month in jail.¹⁷

In a secret Paris wedding in 1926 with only two witnesses present, Jean married Paul Dubonnet, of the Dubonnet apéritif wine family. Jean maintained her image as the “world’s best dressed woman,” living in Paris and on the Riviera. Her choices in the latest clothing styles still captured the attention of the media wherever she went. Jean frequented the great gambling resorts of the Continent, including Monte Carlo, Deauville, and Cannes, and her winnings were especially newsworthy. Eventually, she settled into a more quiet life than she had previously known, raising her and Paul’s daughter.¹⁸

Jean, Paul, and Jean’s mother Emma, stood by Jean’s son Andrew (from her first marriage) during his 1934 trial and eventual acquittal for murder. Paul, in fact, was the only witness who testified for the defense.

Although Jean’s marriage to Paul Dubonnet was her longest, nearly 22 years, it too ended in divorce, in 1948.⁹

In 1950, Jean married Guy Douglas Bridge Puckle, a British stock broker who traded in London and New York. Jean died on 9 February 1956 in Paris, and is buried as Jean G. D. Puckle in the Donaldson plot in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati.^{5, 8, 9}