Winnaretta Singer

Winnaretta Singer was an American-born heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She used this to fund a wide range of causes, notably a musical salon where her protégés included Debussy and Ravel, and numerous public health projects in Paris, where she lived most of her life. Singer entered into two marriages that were unconsummated, and openly enjoyed many high-profile relationships with women. She was styled as Countess Louis de Scey-Montbéliard during her first marriage and as Princess Edmond de Polignac following her second marriage in 1893.