Léopoldine Clémence Adèle Lucie Jeanne Hugo (29 September 1869 – 30 November 1941) was a Belgian-born French heiress and socialite during La Belle Époque. She was a granddaughter of French novelist, poet, and politician Victor Hugo. As an adult, Hugo was often written about in the press due to her status in Parisian high society and her connections to other members of the French elite.
In 1871 Hugo's father died from a stroke. Her mother later remarried the actor Édouard Lockroy.[1] Hugo's grandfather did not approve of the new marriage, and took custody of Hugo and her brother, Georges. In 1877 she and her brother were the focus of her grandfather's book of poetry titled L'Art d'être grand-père.[2][3] When she was eleven years old, she was gifted a walrus-tusk paper cutter by the Finno-Swedish explorer Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld from his voyage in the Arctic Ocean aboard the SS Vega. Her grandfather died in 1885,[4] leaving her with a vast inheritance.[5]
In 1891 Hugo married the journalist Léon Daudet, the son of writers Alphonse Daudet and Julia Daudet.[6][7] The marriage was performed in a civil ceremony and not a Catholicmass, out of respect for Hugo's grandfather, who had staunch anti-clerical views. The wedding was a major event in Parisian society, attracting crowds of onlookers.[8][9] They divorced in 1895 and Hugo was awarded custody of their children, preventing Daudet from seeing them for thirteen years.[5]