What Happened To Winston Churchill's Kids?
With his wife Clementine, Winston Churchill had five children — a son and four daughters. The eldest, Diana, was born on July 11, 1909 (per John Pearson's "The Private Lives of Winston Churchill"). As she came into the world, Churchill proudly told David Lloyd George, "She is the image of me." According to the International Churchill Society, Churchill was one to spoil his children, while Clementine acted as disciplinarian. Though both of them sought to be more involved than their own parents had been, Churchill's career and Clementine's devotion to him still came first, and the series of nannies who attended to Diane and her siblings had a mischievous brood on their hands.
When she wasn't acting out, Diane was a shy child, a trait that became more pronounced as she grew. Per Rachel Trethewey's "The Churchill Sisters" (via The History Reader), she was closer to her father than her mother, who often inadvertently wounded her eldest daughter with sharp criticism. As an adult, Diana often accompanied and cheered up her father when Clementine was indisposed, and she shared his interest in politics. Churchill doted on her, but he never saw Diana as a potential heir to his political career on account of her sex.
While affectionate with her father, the introverted and sensitive Diana worried both her parents, according to the Churchill Archives Center. Both her marriages ended in divorce, though her union with Duncan Sandys (a devoted Churchill supporter) bore three children. She experienced a series of nervous breakdowns, through which she said her father was her greatest supporter. Diana would predecease Churchill, dying from suicide in 1963. She was 54.
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