THE United States ambassador to France, Ms Pamela Harriman, a doyenne of the Democratic Party and a friend of President Clinton, was seriously ill in a Paris hospital yesterday after a stroke.
The 76-year-old, a former daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill, was rushed to the American Hospital after becoming ill while swimming in the Ritz Hotel's pool.
"The initial diagnosis is that the ambassador suffered a cerebral haemorrhage," the US embassy said in a statement.
In Washington President Clinton and his wife Hillary were said to be "very concerned" about Ms Harriman, and were being constantly updated. "She is in their thoughts and prayers," said the President's spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry.
The stylish Ms Harriman, who had been expected to leave the Paris post in coming months, is as well known for her star role amid the world's "rich and famous" as for her skills in smoothing the choppy diplomatic waters of US- French relations.
Born in Farnborough, England, in 1920, the then Pamela Digby married Randolph Churchill, son of Winston, in 1939. They had one child, Winston, now a Tory MP.
She remarried twice afterwards, first to the film mogul Leyland Hayward in 1960 and then in 1971 to the veteran US politician and diplomat, Averell Harriman. She emigrated to the US in 1959 and became a citizen in 1971.
She was active for many years in Democratic Party affairs setting as national co-chair during Mr Clinton's successful first presidential campaign in 1992. Mrs Clinton named her ambassador to France in May 1993.
Newsweek reported rumours this week that Ms Harriman was due to leave Paris in the near future to be replaced by Mr Frank Wisner, currently ambassador to India.
Her son, the Conservative MP Mr Winston Churchill, was at her bedside yesterday with other family members.
The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, who was informed of Ms Harriman's condition on Monday night, ordered France's top specialists be made available to the US embassy to treat her.
On the death of Averell Harriman, the heir to a US railway fortune and a businessman in his own right, Ms Harriman reportedly inherited most of his $100 million estate. But she was later to be locked in legal battles with lawyers whom she blamed for the reputed loss of millions of dollars from the inheritance.
In September 1994, heirs to the Harriman fortune including his, children, filed suit in New York against the ambassador and her financial advisers for having lost $30 million in risky investments.