Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Bridesmaid’s Daughter
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 11/22/1959
WEBSITE:
CITY: Westchester
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
https://www.thebridesmaidsdaughter.com/; Daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold, a model best known as one of Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2018037410
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2018037410
HEADING: Giles, Nyna
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670 __ |a The bridesmaid’s daughter, 2018: |b ECIP title page (Nyna Giles) data view (Nyna Giles is the youngest daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold’s, a model best known as one of Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids)
PERSONAL
Born November 22, 1959; daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold; married; husband’s name Peter.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Advertising, marketing, sales representative. Giles Communications, Katonah, NY, chief operating officer. Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester, Inc., vice president on the board.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Nyna Giles is an advertising, digital marketing, and sales executive who is chief operating officer for public relations firm Giles Communications. She is also the daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold, one of the Eileen Ford models in the 1940s and 1950s, who had been a good friend of actress Grace Kelly and was a bridesmaid at her wedding. At age twenty-nine, Giles saw her mother’s picture in supermarket tabloids declaring “Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.” In her memoir, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter: From Grace Kelly’s Wedding to a Women’s Shelter—Searching for the Truth about My Mother, Giles, with cowriter Eve Claxton, tells the story learning more about her mother’s mental illness. Giles is also vice president on the board of The Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester, Inc.
Giles researched more about her mother’s life. Carolyn left home in Ohio in 1947 at age nineteen and went to New York. She worked as a model, lived in the famous Barbizon Hotel for women, and became friends with aspiring actress Grace Kelly who married Prince Rainier of Monaco. Carolyn was a bridesmaid. In 1949 Carolyn married an older man who became increasingly controlling of her. With their third child, Carolyn had a disastrous C-section that left her with untreated postpartum psychosis. Doctors had misdiagnosed her with schizophrenia. Carolyn had once been a free-spirit but her controlling husband had left her a socially isolated housewife on Long Island. During Giles’ childhood Carolyn had claimed that Giles was consistently sickly, pulled her out of school, and brought her to numerous doctors. In reality, her mother had made up the illnesses. When older, Giles moved out of the house to live with a sister. It was later that Giles learned of her mother’s mental illness and eventual homelessness.
“Illustrated throughout with photos, the narrative celebrates a lifelong female friendship while shedding light on a powerful, if at times painful and complex, mother-daughter bond,” noted a Kirkus Reviews writer. Candace Smith in Booklist commented that Giles presents “a fascinating story of the toll of mental illness and a daughter’s search for understanding and forgiveness.” Giles remarked in an article online at Inside Press: “Telling my mother’s story… has been a highly emotional journey—laying bare the heartbreak and devastation mental illness can cause a family…This project was extremely painful at times, but ultimately was one of the most fulfilling events in my life. It illustrates the importance of early intervention and treatment, and has enabled me to find a tangible way to give my mother’s life meaning by helping others.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 15, 2018, Candace Smith, review of The Bridesmaid’s Daughter: From Grace Kelly’s Wedding to a Women’s Shelter—Searching for the Truth about My Mother, p. 12.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2018, review of The Bridesmaid’s Daughter.
ONLINE
Inside Press, https://www.theinsidepress.com/ (April 4, 2018), “Book Reading: Westchester Resident’s Poignant Memoir, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter.”
A powerful memoir of friendship and marriage, childhood and motherhood.
Nyna Giles, twenty-nine, was in line at the supermarket when she looked down and saw the headline: ‘Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter’. Nyna was stunned; her family’s private ordeal was front page news.
The woman on that cover was her mother. The truth was, she barely knew who her mother had been before marriage. She knew Carolyn had been a model – arriving in New York in 1947, where she’d met the young Grace Kelly, and that the two had become fast friends. Nyna had seen the photos of her mother at Grace’s wedding, wearing the bridesmaid gown that had hung in her closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up – the mother who told her she was too ill to go to school and kept her isolated at home?
In her journey to uncover her mother’s past Nyna relives a story as classic, familiar, dark and dangerous as any fairy tale.
Nyna on the Beach, Long Island 1964
Nyna Giles has worked in advertising sales with leading media organizations such as Westchester Magazine, 914INC, Westchester Home, The Daily Voice, Record-Review and Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals. Today she is COO of Giles Communications. She is also an advocate for the mentally ill, having served as a vice president on the board of The Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester for ten years. In the spring of 2015, Nyna and her husband, Peter, co-chaired The Mental Health Association of Westchester County’s “Mental Health of Westchester 5KRun/Walk - MHA on the Move” event. Nyna lives in Westchester with her husband, and has three grown children and three stepchildren.
We were honored to host authors Nyna Giles and Eve Claxton as they discussed their new release, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter on Wednesday, April 11. The evening was a powerful example of the vital roles storytelling, advocacy and human connection play in normalizing mental health issues and erasing stigma. Special thanks to Harvey Rosenthal, Executive Director of NYAPRS, for moderating a poignant conversation bringing to light the importance of early intervention, peer support and working together. Click here to view photos from the event.
Photograph by Lynda Shenkman
Photograph by Lynda Shenkman
At 29 years old, Westchester native Nyna was in line at the supermarket when she looked down and saw the headline: ‘Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter’. Nyna was stunned; her family’s private ordeal was front page news.
The woman on that cover was her mother. The truth was, she barely knew who her mother had been before marriage. She knew Carolyn had been a model – arriving in New York in 1947, where she’d met the young Grace Kelly, and that the two had become fast friends. Nyna had seen the photos of her mother at Grace’s wedding, wearing the bridesmaid gown that had hung in her closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up – the mother who told her she was too ill to go to school and kept her isolated at home?
In this deeply personal memoir about friendship, marriage, motherhood and mental health, Nyna unearths lost pieces of her mother's remarkable life story.
“Straight from the heart, and told with great bravery, The Bridesmaid's Daughter is a fascinating and powerful story of a daughter’s love for a flawed parent and the struggle to understand a tumultuous childhood.”
About the Authors
Nyna GilesNYNA GILES is the youngest daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold, a Ford model best known as one of Grace Kelly's bridesmaids. Nyna has worked in advertising sales with leading media organizations such as Westchester Magazine, 914INC, Westchester Home, The Daily Voice, Record-Review and Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals. Today she is COO of Giles Communications. She is also an advocate for the mentally ill, having served as a vice president on the board of The Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester for ten years. In the spring of 2015, Nyna and her husband, Peter, co-chaired The Mental Health Association of Westchester's MHA On The Move 5K Run/Walk. Nyna lives in Westchester with her husband, and has three grown children and three stepchildren.
Eve ClaxtonEVE CLAXTON is a writer, editor, and Peabody award-winning radio producer. Since 2006, she’s worked as an editor or co-writer on popular non-fiction books for major publishers including the memoir "He Wanted the Moon," co-written with Mimi Baird, described by The New York Times as “utterly impossible to put down” and currently being adapted for Brad Pitt's Plan B with a screenplay by Tony Kushner. Eve is also the editor of The Book of Life an anthology of the best memoir writing throughout the ages.
4/11 Book Reading: Westchester Resident’s Poignant Memoir, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter
APRIL 4, 2018 BY THE INSIDE PRESS
The Mental Health Association of Westchester (MHA) is thrilled to host Pound Ridge’s Nyna Giles and co-author Eve Claxton for the exclusive Westchester reading of their poignant and unflinching portrait of Nyna’s mother Carolyn, whose glamorous life was sidelined by mental health issues. THE BRIDESMAID’S DAUGHTER: FROM GRACE KELLY’S WEDDING TO A WOMEN’S SHELTER—SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT MY MOTHER (St. Martin’s Press; on sale March 27, 2018) is a riveting investigation to unearth the lost pieces of Carolyn’s remarkable life story, as well as tell the tale of the daughter who reclaimed her mother’s memory.
To be held on Wednesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. at the Walker Center for the Arts at the Harvey School in Katonah, the book launch reading includes a Q&A, book signing and refreshments; tickets can be purchased at www.mhawestchester.org for $25. This special event – a rare occurrence to hear from both authors in person – raises awareness for mental health issues and benefits MHA, a community-based nonprofit that provides innovative, person-centered treatment.
“We are thrilled that Nyna has chosen to shine a light on the importance of mental health and getting the right help at the right time. MHA is honored to partner with both authors for this exciting reading of their new release,” said MHA CEO Charlotte Östman, LCSW-R.
“Telling my mother’s story in ‘The Bridesmaid’s Daughter’ has been a highly emotional journey – laying bare the heartbreak and devastation mental illness can cause a family,” said Nyna Giles. “This project was extremely painful at times, but ultimately was one of the most fulfilling events in my life. It illustrates the importance of early intervention and treatment, and has enabled me to find a tangible way to give my mother’s life meaning by helping others. I hope that by sharing her story, I can start many important conversations about mental health advocacy. This is why I feel The Mental Health Association of Westchester is vital to our community, ensuring that mental health services are readily available to those who need it the most.”
At 29 years old, Westchester native Nyna was in line at the supermarket when she looked down and saw the headline: “Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.” Nyna was stunned: her family’s private ordeal was front page news. The woman on that cover was her mother. The truth was, she barely knew who her mother had been before marriage. She knew Carolyn had been a model – arriving in New York in 1947 and rooming at the legendary Barbizon Hotel for Women, where she’d met the young Grace Kelly. The two had become fast friends, and Nyna had seen the photos of her mother at Grace’s wedding, wearing the bridesmaid gown that had hung in her mother’s closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up – the mother who told her Nyna she was too ill to go to school and kept her isolated at home?
4/11 Book Reading: Westchester Resident’s Poignant Memoir, The Bridesmaid’s Daughter
APRIL 4, 2018 BY THE INSIDE PRESS
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The Mental Health Association of Westchester (MHA) is thrilled to host Pound Ridge’s Nyna Giles and co-author Eve Claxton for the exclusive Westchester reading of their poignant and unflinching portrait of Nyna’s mother Carolyn, whose glamorous life was sidelined by mental health issues. THE BRIDESMAID’S DAUGHTER: FROM GRACE KELLY’S WEDDING TO A WOMEN’S SHELTER—SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT MY MOTHER (St. Martin’s Press; on sale March 27, 2018) is a riveting investigation to unearth the lost pieces of Carolyn’s remarkable life story, as well as tell the tale of the daughter who reclaimed her mother’s memory.
To be held on Wednesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. at the Walker Center for the Arts at the Harvey School in Katonah, the book launch reading includes a Q&A, book signing and refreshments; tickets can be purchased at www.mhawestchester.org for $25. This special event – a rare occurrence to hear from both authors in person – raises awareness for mental health issues and benefits MHA, a community-based nonprofit that provides innovative, person-centered treatment.
“We are thrilled that Nyna has chosen to shine a light on the importance of mental health and getting the right help at the right time. MHA is honored to partner with both authors for this exciting reading of their new release,” said MHA CEO Charlotte Östman, LCSW-R.
“Telling my mother’s story in ‘The Bridesmaid’s Daughter’ has been a highly emotional journey – laying bare the heartbreak and devastation mental illness can cause a family,” said Nyna Giles. “This project was extremely painful at times, but ultimately was one of the most fulfilling events in my life. It illustrates the importance of early intervention and treatment, and has enabled me to find a tangible way to give my mother’s life meaning by helping others. I hope that by sharing her story, I can start many important conversations about mental health advocacy. This is why I feel The Mental Health Association of Westchester is vital to our community, ensuring that mental health services are readily available to those who need it the most.”
At 29 years old, Westchester native Nyna was in line at the supermarket when she looked down and saw the headline: “Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.” Nyna was stunned: her family’s private ordeal was front page news. The woman on that cover was her mother. The truth was, she barely knew who her mother had been before marriage. She knew Carolyn had been a model – arriving in New York in 1947 and rooming at the legendary Barbizon Hotel for Women, where she’d met the young Grace Kelly. The two had become fast friends, and Nyna had seen the photos of her mother at Grace’s wedding, wearing the bridesmaid gown that had hung in her mother’s closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up – the mother who told her Nyna she was too ill to go to school and kept her isolated at home?
Nyna Giles and Eve Claxton
THE BRIDESMAID’S DAUGHTER is a deeply personal memoir about friendship and motherhood, and a clarion call for improving mental healthcare. In telling her own and her mother’s story, Nyna aims to raise awareness for mental health advocacy so that no one else has to experience the issues Carolyn and her family did.
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Print Marked Items
Good Reads: Cue up your book group!
Good Housekeeping.
266.3 (Mar. 2018): p34A.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Hearst Communications. Reprinted with permission of Hearst.
http://www.hearst.com
Full Text:
MOTHER MYSTERY
THE BRIDESMAID'S DAUGHTER
by Nyna Giles and Eve Claxton
Giles writes of her mother's early life as a model and bridesmaid to Grace Kelly and her later homelessness.
A fascinating true story.
FAMILY TIES
THE RECIPE BOX
by Viola Shipman
A big-city chef goes home to her family's orchard and learns what's important in life. An easy, delightful
novel--with the author's family recipes included!
SOCIETY DRAMA
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MRS. by Caitlin Macy
Secrets threaten the cushy lives of a fictional group of wealthy NYC moms in this insightful look at the
manners of the moneyed class.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Good Reads: Cue up your book group!" Good Housekeeping, Mar. 2018, p. 34A. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528730918/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=52758115.
Accessed 23 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528730918
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Giles, Nyna: THE BRIDESMAID'S
DAUGHTER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Giles, Nyna THE BRIDESMAID'S DAUGHTER St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) $26.99 3, 27 ISBN: 978-
1-250-11549-2
A public relations executive tells the story of her once-glamorous mother's decline into mental illness.
Giles knew her mother, Carolyn Scott, as a free-spirited but socially isolated Long Island homemaker who
was close to Grace Kelly. She also knew her as the woman who insisted to doctors that her youngest
daughter was too sickly to attend school. Many years later, when the author saw a newspaper story about
how her now homeless and mentally ill mother had been a bridesmaid at Kelly's wedding, she realized that
Carolyn's early life was a mystery to her. Desperate for insight, Giles began to research her mother's past.
Carolyn left her "hardscrabble hometown" in Ohio for New York City when she was 19. She took up
residence at the famous Barbizon Hotel for women, where she met and befriended aspiring actress Kelly in
1947. Carolyn started modeling, eventually signing on with the then-fledgling Ford Modeling Agency.
Though she married in 1949, she continued to model while Grace began a brief but spectacularly successful
career as a film actress, which ended with her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. As she drew nearer to
30, Carolyn devoted herself to motherhood full-time. But after the traumatic C-section birth of her third and
final child, she gradually withdrew into the distant, fragile figure of Giles' memories. Only after consulting
with doctors about the circumstances around that birth was the author able to ascertain the truth: though
diagnosed with schizophrenia, Carolyn had in fact suffered from postpartum psychosis that had deteriorated
over time. Giles suggests that because the condition was not well understood at that time, Carolyn would
not have received proper care. But had treatment existed, recovery--and a normal life for her and family--
would have been possible. Illustrated throughout with photos, the narrative celebrates a lifelong female
friendship while shedding light on a powerful, if at times painful and complex, mother-daughter bond.
A poignantly compelling memoir about family, mental health, and revisiting the past.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Giles, Nyna: THE BRIDESMAID'S DAUGHTER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461414/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5c3a8ce2.
Accessed 23 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461414
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The Bridesmaid's Daughter: From Grace
Kelly's Wedding to a Women's ShelterSearching
for the Truth about My Mother
Candace Smith
Booklist.
114.12 (Feb. 15, 2018): p12.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
The Bridesmaid's Daughter: From Grace Kelly's Wedding to a Women's Shelter-Searching for the Truth
about My Mother.
By Nyna Giles and Eve Claxton.
Mar. 2018.272p. St. Martin's, $26.99 (9781250115492). 791.43028092.
Giles' mother, Carolyn, was an Eileen Ford model in the 1940s and 1950s and a bridesmaid at Grace Kelly's
fairy-tale wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. But her final years were spent alone, refusing help, on
the streets of New York City. In this fascinating memoir, Giles uses alternating chapters to interweave her
childhood memories and accounts she pieced together of her mother's life. Fate made Carolyn and Grace
Kelly neighbors and friends at the Barbizon Hotel in New York City in the 1940s. While Grace's star was
rising in Hollywood, Carolyn married an older man who became increasingly controlling. After Grace's
wedding and exit from her film career, the women's lives diverged. Eventually, Carolyn became so obsessed
with her daughter's health that she kept her out of school and dragged her from doctor to doctor. It's not
until Giles left home and moved in with an older sister that she realized her mother had imagined her
illnesses. This is a fascinating story of the toll of mental illness and a daughter's search for understanding
and forgiveness.--Candace Smith
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Smith, Candace. "The Bridesmaid's Daughter: From Grace Kelly's Wedding to a Women's ShelterSearching
for the Truth about My Mother." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2018, p. 12. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A531171487/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=748ff335.
Accessed 23 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A531171487