[4] Born Suzanne Cecile Ebel on 27 September 1916 in Sutton, Surrey, England, of an Irish mother and French father, the latter an interior decorator.
[1] She was educated at Roman Catholic schools in England and Belgium.
[4] In London, she worked as journalist on the Woman's Page of The Times, and from 1950 to 1972 as a director of the advertising agency Young and Rubicam.
[5] She married Adrian Belsey, a dentist, with whom she had a son, James, and an adopted daughter, Marigold, but the marriage faltered.
In 1947, she met and began a long affair with John Goodwin.