Zelda Fitzgerald spent years in and out of psychiatric hospitals. After nearly a decade of
failed treatments, her doctors thought that electroshock therapy would help her. Sadly,
it would be the reason for her gruesome end.
Zelda Fitzgerald was a young Southern belle before she became a rebellious flapper who
became an icon of the roaring twenties. From her toxic marriage to her years struggling with
her mental health all the way to her terrible end, Zelda's life was both fascinating and
tragic. Born to a prominent and wealthy Southern family, Zelda Sayre wanted for nothing
in her youth except for the love and attention of her father. A state Supreme Court justice
who was largely absent, this family dynamic had a very negative effect on the young girl.
As a teen, Zelda was bored at school and found excitement in increasingly more scandalous
places. Though Southern women were expected to be demure and well behaved, Zelda had a wild
side. She smoked, drank, and spent all her spare time flirting with boys. She got away
with it thanks to her family's sterling reputation. Zelda definitely had a flair for
the dramatic, and it began when she was still quite young. Alongside her childhood friend and
future Hollywood megastar Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda was a magnet for local gossip. When
neighbors began to whisper that she was seen swimming naked, she made a skin-colored bathing
suit to play into the scandalous rumors. While Zelda was still just 18, she met
an aspiring writer named F. Scott Fitzgerald. At the time, he was volunteering in the
military and stationed near her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. Upon meeting her, Scott
showered her with attention, calling her daily and visiting whenever he could. But this was no
casual crush. Scott Fitzgerald immediately began to rewrite his characters to reflect
Zelda's looks and personality. He also copied from her letters and diary and inserted
passages of her writing into his own. At one point, he even showed Zelda's diary to his
friends, and they contemplated publishing it. From the beginning, Zelda had her own
ideas. She had suitors lining up to take her out, and she would sometimes use them to make
Scott jealous. But then everything changed. The army was sending Scott to France, and
he fully expected to die in combat.
While waiting to go to France, World War 1 suddenly ended. Scott was able to return to
Zelda, who was in Montgomery, where they spent the next 4 months together. He decided that
he'd go to New York City to make his name. There was just one problem. Zelda had no
interest in marrying a man with no job and no money. She stayed back at home and waited for
him to prove himself. Within months of arriving in New York, Scott finished his first
novel, This Side of Paradise. It included passages taken directly from Zelda's letters to
him. The novel came out and Zelda traveled to New York City. Days later, they were married.
Just like in Montgomery, Zelda quickly became famous for her wild behavior in New York. She
could be found dancing in fountains or on top of cars, but she sometimes went too far.
Drinking was a problem for both her and Scott. Behind closed doors, they fought
terribly. They were kicked out of multiple hotels for their disorderly behavior. In
1921, the Fitzgeralds' hard parting lifestyle was briefly put on hold when Zelda became
pregnant. She gave birth to their first child, Francis Scotty Fitzgerald, but she didn't
exactly take to motherhood and the domestic lifestyle. Another pregnancy followed, but they
didn't end up having the child. More and more people were becoming enchanted with Zelda, and
she began to write short stories and essays as well, but the good times couldn't last forever.
After a failed play written by Fitzgerald, the couple was broke and getting desperate, so they
came up with a plan. Zelda and Scott packed up their things and moved to France. Scott began
working on his next novel, which left Zelda with a lot of time on her hands, and she spent
that time in a very scandalous way. She started seeing a young French pilot named
Edouard S. Jozin, who was stationed on the air base near their home on the French Riviera.
After weeks of afternoons on the beach and nights spent dancing with Josanne, Zelda told
Scott she wanted a divorce. At first he asked to meet with Josanne, but ultimately
he decided on a different course of action. He locked Zelda in their house in Nantib until she
agreed to stay with him. Zelda was ready to leave her family for Edouard, but Edouard left
the Riviera, not knowing about Zelda's plan. She never saw him again. Zelda did
her best to keep up a brave face, but beneath the surface she was struggling. Late one night,
Scott appeared at a friend's door, desperate and afraid. Zelda had taken too many sleeping
pills, and he was at a loss for what to do. The friends, Gerald and Sarah Murphy, hurried
back to the Fitzgeralds' home. Where they were confronted with a troubling scene.
Sarah did everything she could to help Zelda. Somehow they made it through this terrible
ordeal. The Murphys had no idea why Zelda had chosen to do something so drastic, but one
thing was clear things weren't as they appeared between Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
After that night, the Fitzgeralds traveled for a time and eventually settled down in Paris,
where they met Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. The two couples became very close. The
truth was that Ernest and Zelda just didn't get along. She thought he was full of
it, and he thought she was too much, but there was another reason for all of the tension.
Zelda accused her husband of having an affair with Ernest Hemingway. Scott's response was
deeply misguided. In an attempt to defend himself, he deliberately staged evidence of a
relationship with another woman for Zelda to find. Unsurprisingly, this only escalated their
conflict, leading to arguments that grew longer and more bitter than ever. At
the beginning of their relationship, Zelda and Scott's dramatic antics always had an
undercurrent of fun and mischief. Now the fun was gone, especially for Zelda.
The drinking, flirting, and dancing on tables seemed more like a joyless performance. During
the Fitzgeralds' years in Europe. Scott had written and published The Great Gatsby, his
most celebrated novel, but the couple's time in Paris had done serious damage to their
relationship as well. They needed a change, and that's when they received an offer from
Hollywood. Naturally, the Fitzgeralds jumped right into the Hollywood party scene. At one of
these parties, Scott met an up and coming starlet named Lois Moran. She was just 17 years
old. He was 31. Soon they began a passionate affair right under Zelda's nose.
Zelda had always been her husband's muse, but now he was basing his new characters on Moran.
Zelda lashed out one night while Scott was out at dinner with Lois. Zelda took her expensive
clothes out of the closet and burned them in the bathtub. After this incident, the couple
decided to move to Delaware, where Scott could write and their daughter Scottie could be with
her parents. Zelda took up painting and ballet , but it wasn't enough to occupy
her troubled mind. After two relatively unproductive years in Delaware, the Fitzgeralds
returned to Europe this time with little Scottie. While there, Zelda wrote a series of
short stories, but when it came time to publish them, she experienced a terrible
betrayal. The magazine she had been writing for wanted to publish Zelda's stories under her
husband's name. They offered a payday so large that the Fitzgeralds couldn't say no. Once
again she had to put her own needs aside so Scott could shine. Between writing and her
daily dance lessons, Zelda was exhausted both mentally and physically. She was struggling,
but no one knew exactly what was around the corner.
One day while the family was driving in France , Zelda grabbed a hold of the car's steering
wheel and attempted to drive it off a cliff. Luckily they survived, but it was
clear that Zelda had reached a breaking point. In 1930, Zelda Fitzgerald finally sought
treatment at a hospital on the outskirts of Paris. Three days later she left abruptly
against her doctor's wishes. It was a horrible mistake. She threw herself into ballet once
again, but what she really needed was professional help.
For the next month Zelda slowly became more and more incoherent, and her bad dreams began
to creep into reality. She desperately needed help.
Eventually, Scott was able to persuade her to go to a psychiatric facility in Switzerland.
There, doctors diagnosed Zelda Fitzgerald with schizophrenia, and she spent months recovering
on the shores of Lake Geneva. While there, Scott wrote to her. Shockingly. Instead
of letting her rest, he asked the doctor when she would be able to help him edit something he
was working on. Zelda Fitzgerald had plenty of ups and downs during her time in Switzerland.
Visits from Scott and Scotty were especially difficult for her. Eventually, Zelda left the
facility after 1 year and 3 months. She sailed back to the US with Fitzgerald and Scotty.
They went to Alabama so Zelda could be with her family. This may not have been the best
decision. Zelda's father was extremely ill. Ever the thoughtful husband, Scott went off to
Hollywood to work on another screenplay. He was gone when Zelda's father died, leaving her
to deal with the logistics and grief alone. Sadly, only
5 months later, Zelda was hospitalized once again. This time, Zelda sought treatment
stateside at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was able to focus on her
recovery, and the results were jaw-dropping. She wrote an entire novel, Save Me
the Waltz, in her 1st 6 weeks there, which she submitted to Scott's publisher.
Unfortunately, the publisher sent it to Scott, who was absolutely furious with
Zelda. The novel was largely based on the ups and downs of their
relationship. That didn't bother him too much. He was furious because he had been working on a
novel for years, a novel based on their complicated marriage.
Scott confronted Zelda about her novel and gave her an ultimatum. He wanted her to remove
the parts that he found objectionable, the parts he wanted to use in his novel.
He said she was a third-rate writer and that she had plagiarized his work. Maybe
he simply forgot that he plagiarized her letters and diaries all the time. Worse still,
the publisher only agreed to a small run of the book, just a few 1000 copies. Once
published, it did not sell out, and critics didn't seem to care for it either. Now Zelda
had to contend with her husband's criticism and the book's failure. It was absolutely
devastating. In
1934, a gallery exhibited a number of paintings that Zelda had made throughout the
years, including some that she painted during her stay at the hospital. As with the novel,
the reception for her art wasn't what she wanted it to be. After feeling so much
rejection for her work, Zelda was never quite the same again. Her struggles with mental
illness continued and became even worse. Scott felt that he had no choice but to hospitalize
her, this time in Asheville, North Carolina. Then he left to take on a job in Hollywood,
where he found a distraction. While Scott was in Hollywood, he had an affair with gossip
columnist Sheila Graham. By this time, the Great Depression had hit, and people were less
charmed by Fitzgerald's characters and their lavish lifestyles, and his royalties slowed
down to a trickle. He still had Zelda's massive medical bills to cover, not to mention
his own. Scott's many years of heavy drinking had finally caught up with him, and he had his
own share of medical problems. And who did he blame for his troubles?
Zelda, of course. Scott continued feeling angry towards Zelda from afar while she
recovered in Asheville. This anger eventually started to affect his new relationship. He had
a violent fight with Graham and fled Los Angeles to see Zelda. He stepped off the plane
still drunk, and whisked Zelda off to Cuba. It was a truly terrible trip. Scott confronted
a group of strangers, and they assaulted him. He spent the rest of the trip drinking heavily.
When they returned to New York, Zelda had to check him into a hospital. After contacting her
in-laws to take care of Scott while he was in the hospital, she said farewell to him and
returned to Asheville. Despite the circumstances, the trip had rekindled their
feelings towards each other somewhat, and the letters they wrote during this time showed a
certain fondness. Zelda petitioned her doctors to allow her release from the
hospital in 1940. After four years, she finally got her way. She went to live with her
mother, but Scott barely had the money to send to support her. Then a few months later, the
unthinkable happened.
Zelda ultimately survived her husband, who died suddenly in 1940 while at home with Sheila
Graham. Zelda was heartbroken. She wasn't able to
attend his funeral, but she did get her hands on the manuscript of his final novel which she
cherished and which helped her to get through the loss of her husband.
After Scott's death, Zelda began working on another novel, and she continued to struggle
with her mental health. Eventually she returned to the hospital and her doctors in
Asheville where she was in and out for the next few years. However, this time the
experience was very different. Zelda had written Save Me the Waltz in a frantic six-week
period during her first time at the hospital in Asheville. She had no such luck this time
around. Not only could Zelda not complete the novel, but her mental state deteriorated.
Finally, doctors decided on an experimental treatment that seemed promising. But
which would sadly not end well. Zelda Fitzgerald began receiving
electroshock therapy, and one evening in 1948, nurses prepared her for a course of
treatment. They gave her sedatives and locked the door to her room. It was then that disaster
struck. A fire began in the kitchen of the hospital, and it quickly spread throughout the
facility. While Zelda sat waiting. Smoke began to fill the room, and eventually flames.
Zelda died inside the hospital along with 8 other women. She was only 47 years old.
Just days before her tragic death, Zelda wrote a letter to her daughter Scottie, and it was
heartbreaking. In it, Zelda shared how much she wanted to meet Scottie's newborn daughter,
her 2nd grandchild. Sadly, that meeting never happened.
When Scott and Zelda died, there was little fanfare. She was buried next to him after a
sparsely attended service. His career had floundered long before he passed. She had been
out of the public eye for decades, but then in the years that followed, something strange
happened. People began to revisit not only their writing but their life story and found it
fascinating. A landmark biography of Zelda followed. And it exposed all of the
secrets the Fitzgeralds had long kept hidden. For many years, Scott's friends had painted
Zelda as a burden on him, the thing that brought him down both personally and
professionally. The book Zelda, a biography, revealed the extent to which Scott had
plagiarized from his wife, how controlling he was, and how he'd done his best to stomp out
her creative flame. It also exposed the jealousy and affairs that had defined their
tumultuous relationship and another secret that Zelda had kept over the years.
When the Fitzgeralds moved to the French Riviera, Zelda had famously fallen for a man
named Edouard S. Jozin. And demanded a divorce . Years later, Jazan
revealed the surprising truth about his time with Zelda. Though they spent time together as
friends, he claimed that they never actually had an affair and that the couple had
embellished the story to feed their need for drama. Thanks for watching History
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