The Eviction of the Texas Princess

York Times article written by reporter Jason Horowitz. The subject Frinshipseriti Buon Campagne Ludovisi, widowed wife of Italian Prince Nicolo von Companie Davisi. She was formerly known as Rita Genrette and Rita Carpenter before that. Americans marrying into European aristocracy, even royalty, is of course statistically rare, but not without

plenty of examples long before Megan Markele. Grace Kelly will pop into mind for some, and of course, there was the cultural wave of the American dollar princesses during the Gilded Age, the women whose marriages supplied struggling European houses with cash and new money, American families with fancy titles in return. Rita's story, however, is a little different than

the one you might be imagining. Chances are you don't know many ranchers daughters turned political researchers turned congressional wives, turned playboy models turned authors, actors turned real estate agents turned princesses. Still, despite a life with that many twists, Rita claimed she had never seen anything like the inheritance battle that followed the death of her husband, which she was embroiled in for years, a battle that only ended

this April. It's a scale of an inheritance battle that would make succession fans drool. But instead of Roman roy we have Roman princes, along with the Italian government and the ghosts of Caravaggio. Rita married her prince, but it turns out happily ever after. In the real world can involve a lot more bureaucracy than fairy tales might have prepared us for. I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood.

Born in nineteen forty nine in San Antonio and raised in Austin, Rita may not have been born a princess, but she was the closest thing America has to royalty. She was the daughter of a millionaire. Her father was c. Hunt Carpenter, the founder of the Shamrock Insurance Company in San Antonio, who came into major wealth after discovering natural

gas on one of his ranches. Rita's mother, Riva Garlington, was described by Rita as a quote blue blood who was pleased with the eventual match between her daughter and a prince, as she felt that Rita had quote finally married someone like her. By this, Riba meant that her ancestors had settled in Virginia in the early sixteen hundreds,

where they owned tobacco plantations. The aggressive gone with the Windian style of the names Sea Hunt Carpenter and Reba Garlington might have been a clue that this story would eventually have a plantation. Money cameo. In the early eighteen hundreds, the Garlington family relocated to Texas and established Garlington Ranch

in Jasper. A nineteen fifty five Times Magazine National Affairs blurb about Texas under the Delightfully Southern Gothic headline The Deer Slayers describes the Garlingtons as quote a tough aloof plan of ranchers who have prospered as breeders of Brahmin cattle end quote. Growing up, Rito was a self described tom boy who spent her days climbing trees and reading. Her carefree nature shifted when she skipped two grades and was suddenly an eleven year old with thirteen year old peers.

I felt like an alien being, she reflected, remembering her attempts at wearing makeup as she realized everyone around her had grown up. She describes every day from seventh to ninth grade as hell, absolute hell, often eating lunch alone in the bathroom or sitting on her glasses so she could get sent home early. This summer before tenth grade was Rita's the summer I turned pretty puberty, turning her

unrecognizable to her peers. She remembers one boy came up to me and said, Hi, do you want to go out? I'll never forget it. I said, no, I don't want to go out with you. You were so cruel to me when I was in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. I cried every single night. Things would only get better for Rita Following those school years. In nineteen seventy one, Rita graduated cume loud from the University of Texas with honors and with a degree in history and a minor

in political science. Do you think she listens to the show? In nineteen seventy three, Rita married a US Army pilot named Edward Coleman, but the couple would split only a little over a year later. The same year she was married, she secured her first position out of school as director of research for the Texas Republican Party, and in nineteen seventy five she was appointed opposition research director of the Republican National Party. Life in d C, however, ended up

taking a different path than Rita could have imagined. This same day Rita interviewed for the job, she met John Jenrette, a first term Democratic congressman from South Carolina who was making a name for himself not for his politics, but for a very messy divorce in which his wife named twenty three quote correspondents, and he was reportedly surprised that she could name only twenty three. John asked Rita out that day, proposing he'd fly her to the Virgin Islands,

where they'd sunbathe naked together. She turned him down smooth. He was not, she wrote years later, but she did accept to date. The next time they met, he showed her the glamorous side of DC, and though Rita had come from wealth, she considered the environment like nothing she had seen in Texas, and she was decidedly wooed. The two fell in love, moved in together, and when her boss at the RNC told her she either had to dump her Democratic boyfriend or quit her job, she quit.

A year later, in nineteen seventy six, the couple were married. He was forty and she was twenty six. Things were okay at first, but a year in Rita realized she was in another unhappy marriage. John continued to build his repertoire of correspondents, apparently near constantly flirting or going much further with other women, and all of that was exacerbated

by his serious drinking problem. However, Rita didn't love the idea of being twice divorced by twenty seven, and John and his team didn't love the optics of being a twice divorced congressman, so they tried to stay together. Rita was all so grappling with the career change from congressional researcher to congressional wife. Quite bluntly, I hated my life as congressional wife, she wrote in The Washington Post in

nineteen eighty I have played that game long enough. I'm fed up with people trying to paint me as a dumb blonde and a gold digger because I'm an attractive woman who happened to marry a congressman. I'm tired of having to smile and be polite while constituents and lobbyists elbow me out of the way so they can rub shoulders with my husband. I've had it with small town reporters who never bother to check the facts and then accuse me of being publicity hungry when I try to

set the record straight, well, said Rita. At the time of writing that piece, Rita was no longer a congressional wife, not because the couple was divorced, but because John was no longer a congressman. He had been implicated in the FBI staying operation known as Abscam, where seven members of Congress were caught on tape accepting bribes from a fake Arabian company. Abscam aka arab Scam. I've got larceny in my blood, John was recorded saying I'd take it in

a goddamn minute. You can say a lot about Rita and John, but they did not mince words when it came to public statements. They finally separated the following year, and Rita's next move would both put her on a national stage and define much of her public life to this day. In nineteen eighty one, she appeared in a Playboy spread, photographed with a feather boa a brandy snipper

and that's about it. Why did she choose to do it? John, known serial cheater, had apparently told her no one wanted to see a thirty one year old woman with her clothes off. I just thought I'll show you, she reflected years later, also once admitting that the money was needed, with John about to be convicted, she was the sole

breadwinner in the family. The photos were accompanied by an article she wrote entitled The Liberation of a Congressional Wife, in which she expressed many of these same feelings of isolation and diminishment that she would recount in the post piece, but with an additional Playboy twist. The article's bombshell came in the form of Rita writing that one night she and her husband made love on the marble steps that

overlooked the monuments. She published a Tell All My Capital Secrets that same year, promising details of quote the Endless Parties, drop your clothes at the Door, Orgies, alcoholic bashes, the cocaine, the call girls and call boys from quote The Lady Who Blew the Lid off Washington. It was a best seller. Listeners of the podcast You're Wrong About will be familiar with the knowledge that the media in the eighties loved

a few things. Women behaving quote badly, political scandals, and sex scandals, and Rita served up all three on a silver platter. A nineteen eighty six article referred to her public image as a racy curiosity, a one woman freak show. She did the talk show circuits and the big interviews, and defended her book's legitimacy. When a man like Daniel Ellsberg writes an expose, he's applauded. When a woman does it, suddenly it's a kiss and tell, she told The Washington

Post in eighty one. When the interviewer countered with the reminder that Daniel Ellsberg did not pose for Playboy, nor did he reveal that he made love with his partner on the Capital Steps, she responded, quote, I don't see what taking off my clothes has to do with what I wrote. She openly declared herself a feminist in the same interview. The thing is, however, that Rita now claims that the story about the Capital Steps was never true. I think part of me said, Okay, this is the

image you think of me now. I'm this sexy playboy fem fetale, and I'm here to take over and marry rich and famous men. That's what you think of me, so that I'll give you somehow, she said. She further clarified that what actually happened was a quote romantic moment, but not a salacious one, just some good, clean, above the waist kissing between two married people. Rita has never said she regrets Playboy, but in twenty eleven, she reflected on that time of her life, saying, quote, I'm a

serious person and I read a lot. I have a one thirty nine IQ. So to have this other image, which was just like another person, was so traumatic for me. I was lost. She would post for Playboy one more time in nineteen eighty four, this time on the cover, but she also pivoted toward different career pursuits, first acting, appearing on Fantasy Island in nineteen eighty two and in a nineteen eighty four film called Zombie Island Massacre. Lots

of island related projects on her resume. She then worked for some time as an on air journalist for Fox's Current Affair, described by the Times as quote the salacious television news weekly. Rita then pivoted in a a different direction real estate. Her biggest deal the sale of the General Motors building to none other than Donald Trump in nineteen ninety eight. He will be the first of two

huh inducing cameos in this story. Rita's real estate era also finally brings us to her meeting with one Prince Nicolo bon Campaigne Ludovisi. Rita and the Prince had mutual friends who connected them for work. In two thousand and three. They called me and said, we have this prince who would like to develop a hotel on his property. She recalled. I said, oh, for heaven's sake, everyone in New York

calls themselves count or prince or whatever they're not. Despite the prince already being married to his second wife, he claimed their meeting was quote probably written in the stars. He described their first encounter to the New Yorker in the couple's joint twenty eleven profile. I said, in the clumsiest way one can even imagine, Well, you are not ugly. She's beautiful, of course, but she's as beautiful inside. She's

candid like a child, but trud like a fox. The Prince invited Rita to his property in Rome, which she agreed to, likely in part because of her degree, which was studying Italian history. There they fell in love and married in two thousand and nine. This is probably a good time to figure out exactly who the bon Campanie Ludoviss are, so let's run through a few names and dates. They were, of course, not always the bon Campania Ludiviss, but once the bon Campanies and the Ludoviss, two powerful

noble families with papal titles. The Ludovss are known as an ancient noble family originating from Bologna, while the bon Campanies settled there in the fourteen hundreds, likely coming from Umbria. A bon Campani was Pope Gregory the thirteenth, while a

Ludovisi was Pope Gregory the fifteenth. In sixteen thirty four, the Ludovisis acquired the principality of Piombino in Tuscany, and after the sixteen eighty one marriage between Gregorio il bon Campagni and Ipolita Ludovisi, the families merged in seventeen oh eight, ruling together as the bon Campania Ludovisis, which was a strategic move to keep the Ludovisi name in power after the princess had no sons. No one has actually ruled Piombino since eighteen oh one, but the title of prince

is still held by sons of the family. The Ludovisi family had acquired the property that would be called the Casino de ville on Compi Ludovisi in sixteen twenty one, which is the villa that will focus on today. The property was originally established by Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who, beyond his religious duties, was in intellectual and a connoisseur of the arts. He's best known today for his early

patronage of Caravaggio as well as Galileo. The Cardinal's support resulted in the villa becoming home to the only painting Caravaggio did on a ceiling fifteen ninety sevens Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, its symbolism reflecting the cardinal's interest in alchemy. The writer Henry James once stayed at the villa, writing in eighteen eighty three, certainly there is nothing better in Rome, and perhaps nothing so beautiful inside. There is everything dark,

avenues shaped for centuries with scissors, valleys, clearings, groves. The same year that James visited the Bon Campagne, lu Navisi princes sold and divided much of the property they kept in the family, the former hunting lodge known today as Villa Aurora, where one can find the Caravaggio, along with works from Gercino, Pameranchino, and Michelangelo, among others. Quote from my perspective, the whole history of the West is in

that building. T. Cory Brennan, professor at the American Academy in Rome, told the New Yorker this is the home Rita would come to live in with her husband, and the home she would dedicate herself to restoring and archiving. In that same article, Rita gave a tour to the writer and guests. This is my husband's coat of arms, our coat of arms now, she explained. She showed them the statue of pan by Michelangelo in the garden trough near the front gate that dated back to Hadrian, the

Roman Emperor's time. She pointed out the tunnel in the kitchen that she believed used to connect the villa to the medi Chi palace. She put on a pair of white gloves and read to the guests the letters from Marie Antoinette and King Louis the fifteenth she and her husband found in a storage room. She never said, let them eat cake, Rida told the guests as she showed off the queen's signature. She got a bad rep again. Princess,

I feel like she would enjoy this show. Arriving at the Caravaggio, a guest remarked that it was quite obscene in your faced sexuality, Rita replied something she had been familiar with his penis and everything else. He was courageous. You were talking about post Reformation when they were still burning people at the stake end quote. Years after this art, she would claim she spotted the ghost of Caravaggio quote in a loincloth like Tarzan, hunting the grounds and if

you're thinking, Dana, tell me more. I am so sorry to report that that is the extent of the story that we get. Rita and Niccolo's renovation project was both costly and slow, partly thanks to the villa's designation as a national monument, meaning the government had to be consulted on many tasks. Water damage, disease, trees, the kind of things that have been known to bankrupt noble families in

charge of massive estates. The family had apparently neglected the villa for many years, and when Niccolo inherited it after his father's death, it was abandoned, with birds flying through it. We gave up everything, Rita said. I didn't go out shopping and buy burke and bags and shoes in the latest fashion or anything else at all. And Rita began

to give tours to support the renovation costs. The princess wanted the villa to once again become a haven for artists and intellectuals, as it had been in the days of Carnal del Monte. She hosted a dinner for and here is your second huh, Cameo Woody Allen, of all people who she once auditioned for, and Annie Leibovitz attended

one of her tours. Rita also found a team of scholars, with whom she worked on archiving the one hundred and fifty thousand pages of historical documents found in home storage, including the letters from Marie Antoinette. Rita and the Prince did not have children together, but Niccolo had three sons from his previous marriages. When they were small, you would have eaten them up, he said in The New Yorker. When they grow up a sort of regret that you didn't.

Perhaps Caravaggio should have chosen for his painting the myth of Saturn devouring his son. Niccolo's children were not eaten, and so the sons would become important players in our story. In twenty eighteen, Prince Niccolo died at seventy seven years old, setting off an inheritance battle between Rita and the Prince's children from his earlier marriage over the state of the villa.

In the legal nitty gritty, Niccolo's will gave his wife the right to stay in the property for the rest of her life, and if sold, the proceeds were to be split between Rita and his sons. The dispute was best summed up in an article from Tadler explaining quote, Rita claimed that Prince Niccolo's will gives her the right

to stay in the mansion for the rest of her life. However, his three sons dispute this, arguing that their grandfather, print Gregorio, had intended for them to one day inherit the historic building and that their father had mismanaged his fortune end quote. On a personal level, the brothers argued that Rita was a gold digger who did not have their father's longevity at heart. Rita, in turn, pointed to the brother's respective

legal troubles. Rita and the family weren't able to reach any form of agreement, so a judge ordered in twenty twenty two that the villa was simply to be sold the asking price upon auction four hundred and seventy one million euros or five hundred and thirty three million dollars,

the number of bidders zero. The professor at the University of Rome, who was tasked with establishing the monetary value of the villa, regarded that it was priceless from a cul ural standpoint, but imagined an estimated ten million euros would be required for necessary restoration work, not many people would be up to that task. For the duration of the legal battle, Rita was allowed to live in the villa's third floor apartment, which her stepson, Prince Bonte referred

to disparagingly as the peasant quarters. Rita lived with her four Bishon Frize dogs, George Washington, Joya Millard, and Henry James. After the once visitor. Rita also lived with her Ukrainian maid and her maid's daughter and grandchildren, who fled Key

of last year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, all of that ended this January, when a judge ruled that Rita was to be evicted on the ground that she had not been properly maintaining the building after the collapse of a wall led to the posure of an adjacent street. She was additionally accused of organizing unauthorized tours. In April, Rita and her Bechanfrezes were escorted out of the villa as the eviction was finalized and a locksmith

changed the locks on the front door. Prince Bonte waited outside to want quote being liberated from that woman. Princess is not her title, he shouted, because she is American. She cannot do whatever she wants, he told reporters who had gathered. He later told The New York Post, this is our country. We have our police, we have our judges, and you need to respect our countries. Otherwise you can go back to where the hell Texas or the place

she's from. The Post takes this time to note that Prince Bonte is wanted in the US for his conviction in a domestic assault case against his American wife in Newport, Rhode Island. His brother Francesco was jailed in the early nineties for a scheme to counterfeit two hundred and fifty thousand credit cards, and in twenty seventeen he served an additional jail term in Austria for tax evasion. But what did Rita have to say? As another era in her very full life of twists and turns came to a

close quote. I feel like I'm in a surreal movie like Sarcha's No Exit, She told reporters on the street. I see no logic in this. I was a good custodian for the villa. I love Italy and I'm so sorry to have such a brutal ending to what has been a labor of love for twenty years. That labor of love is apparently culminating in a book about the villa, which she told those reporters she would release later this year.

It's dedicated to my husband, Niccolo, she said, before getting in a taxi with her dogs, waving out the window to reporters and speeding away. That's the story of the stranded Princess Rita bon companie Ludovisi. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about Rita's work and how you can find it for yourself. Rita's work in the villa not only included archiving the documents that she and her husband found, but digitizing them

as well. The extensive collection, the Archivo Digital Buoncampi Ludovisi is classified as a collaboration between T. Corey Brennan, the professor mentioned earlier, The Prince and the Princehipessa. It's full of posts documenting the family history from the tenth century to the present. And if you're a history nerd, which I imagine if you're here you might be, it's something you might want to check out for free online. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild

from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Shchwort, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.