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Sex, intrigue and betrayal: ex-lover of von Bülow reveals all in memoir
Terry Kirby26 Aug 2009
The trials of London socialite Claus von Bülow - convicted then acquitted of attempting to murder his wife - have been a source of fascination for more than two decades.
One of the central figures of the affair, Andrea Reynolds, von Bülow's former lover, is breaking her silence on the events with a book promising revelations of sex and betrayal among the super-rich.
Married for the fourth time to Shaun Plunket, the heir to an Irish peerage, Mrs Plunket, 71, has written the inside story of her four-year relationship with von Bülow.
Mrs Plunket, a Hungarian-born socialite and freelance journalist, met von Bülow in the Sixties. They began an affair after his 1982 conviction for the attempted murder of Sunny von Bülow with an insulin overdose, for which he received a 30-year sentence.
After von Bülow's appeal, she helped with his case and gave evidence on his behalf at his second trial in 1985, when he was acquitted. Mrs von Bülow remained in a coma for 28 years, dying last December.
Mrs Plunket wrote the memoir of her affair with von Bülow in New York state's Catskill Mountains, where she runs a bed and breakfast with her husband.
Her literary agent, David Kuhn, said: "I would describe it as a memoir that is part love story and part detective story which looks at an iconic trial from an insider's perspective." He said the book was being circulated among leading publishers.
A source close to the book said: "It will shake up American society. It is about love, sex, intrigue, betrayal and contains graphic details of the self-indulgent rich and famous of the Eighties. It might shake-up Claus von Bülow as well."
The book is not said to raise any questions about von Bülow's innocence, which Mrs Plunket has always supported.
She and von Bülow parted in 1987 and she married Plunket in 1989. In 1990, she was portrayed by Christine Baranski in the film Reversal of Fortune, for which Jeremy Irons won an Oscar as von Bülow. The following year she was in the spotlight for securing an interview for Tatler with Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War.
Von Bülow, 83, is from a wealthy Danish family. He attended Cambridge at the age of 16 and was a barrister in London before becoming an assistant to billionaire J Paul Getty.
He married Sunny, an American heiress, in 1970 and the couple lived in Rhode Island.
After his acquittal, von Bülow returned to London, living in Knightsbridge close to his and Sunny's daughter, Cosima, and two grandchildren. He is legally prevented from talking about the case due to the civil suit settlement involving his ex-wife's two other children.
He has worked as an art and theatre critic, and is a regular figure on the capital's social scene with a wide circle of friends including historians such as Antony Beevor and Andrew Roberts.
Mrs Plunket and von Bülow are still in occasional contact. Although he is aware of his former lover's intentions and is reputed to make macabre jokes against himself about his "murderer" status, friends say he is likely to be uncomfortable about the book because of his inability to respond publicly.
Insulin mystery of wife left in coma for 28 years
On 21 December 1980, Sunny von Bülow was found in an irreversible coma on the marble floor of her bathroom in Rhode Island. Her husband Claus was indicted on two counts of attempted murder by insulin injection.
His case, the first major criminal trial to be televised in the US, attracted huge interest. Prosecutors claimed he stood to gain £14 million from his wife's will, and her death would have left him free to marry his mistress at the time, actress Alexandra Isles. The defence said the coma was self-induced by a binge of drugs, sweets and alcohol.
At the 1982 trial, Sunny's maid Maria Schrallhammer said she found a bag belonging to Claus containing a hypodermic needle encrusted with insulin and a bottle marked “insulin”. Von Bülow was found guilty and jailed for 30 years. But the conviction was overturned on appeal on the grounds that key pieces of evidence, including the bag, were inadmissible.
At a retrial in 1985, experts testified that Sunny had not been injected with insulin and her coma was caused by factors including alcohol, barbiturates, beta-blockers, hypothermia and aspirin. Claus was acquitted. The marriage was dissolved and he abandoned all claims to her fortune.
