Élisabeth de Gramont had grown up among the highest aristocracy; when she was a child, according to Janet Flanner, "peasants on her farm... begged her not to clean her shoes before entering their houses".

She looked back on this lost world of wealth and privilege with little regret, and became known as the "red duchess" for her support of socialism and feminism.

Before their divorce in 1920,[4] they had two daughters together:[5] In 1921, she sued the Duke alleging that he "wrongfully appropriated many valuable works of art and detained for his own uses 3,500,000 francs of her money.

"[8] She died in Paris on 6 December 1954, outliving her former husband and both daughters, and is buried at Ancy-le-Franc, near the family Château de Clermont-Tonnerre.

American writer Natalie Barney and Duchess de Clermont-Tonnerre first met in the spring of 1909; they became lovers on 1 May 1910, a date that they celebrated as their anniversary.