Until she was 19, American heiress Patty Hearst lived a life so charmed, you could only conclude that she was born under a lucky star.
Her grandfather, William Randolph Hearst, was a millionaire newspaper magnate whose wealth, power and appetite for luxury inspired the movie Citizen Kane.
When he died, he put his immense fortune into a trust so his descendants would never have to worry about money again.
He also left behind a sprawling castle on 6,360 square metres of California coastline.
Hearst wrote in her memoir Every Secret Thing that she enjoyed a childhood of “rambling open spaces, long green lawns, large comfortable houses, country clubs with swimming pools and tennis courts and riding horses”.
Her boyfriend Steven Weed had recently proposed, and while her wealthy parents initially disapproved, they consented to the match and ran a splashy engagement announcement in her father’s newspaper.
