



Riotous, unconventional, reckless lives are entertaining between the pages of a novel but the emotional damage they wreak is undeniable.
Diana Melly, wife of the flamboyant jazz singer, journalist and libertine George Melly with whom she shared an open marriage that survived for “45 long years” has died aged 87.
She was born 26 July 1937 in Southampton (no birth time) with a philanderer father and farmed out to a convent aged 4, then a godmother, leaving school early and working as a hostess in a cabaret club. By the time she met George Melly in 1961 she was 24, married to her second husband and the mother of two children. Her eldest son Patrick was sent to a creche each day, often left at home alone and when he was two, was sent to live with her aunt in Essex and barely saw him again until he was six. He ultimately died of a heroin overdose aged 24.
George Melly, 17 August 1926 9.15am Liverpool, was bisexual, sexually voracious and an epic drinker with a drug habit. As he tired of monogamy after their marriage he encouraged her to have an affair with a handsome 18-year-old school dropout while on holiday in France. Later in her mid-thirties, she took up with a blond drug addict of 17, amongst many others.
She was a Sun Leo conjunct Pluto, a hint of a controlling and often absent father over whom she had no sway. Her Venus in frivolous Gemini was on the focal point of a strained yod inconjunct Mars in Scorpio sextile Jupiter in Capricorn. Her Saturn in forced-to-be-self-reliant Aries was trine her Sun. Her Pisces Moon may have been opposition Neptune.
There was a hint of passionate attraction in the synastry with George Melly, his Venus in late Cancer conjunct her Pluto and Sun. But her Uranus fell in his 8th house conjunct his subterranean Mars in Taurus which could stir up difficult feelings and erupt from time time to time in explosive arguments. Her Mars in Scorpio was also conjunct his Saturn which is an aggravating interface. Her Saturn in his 7th would produce loyalty and a sense of endurance with a joint interest in business – and she evidently looked after his administration. Her Chiron was exactly conjunct his midheaven so there would be a sense of coming together for each to heal wounds of the past.
George Melly, had a creative and entertaining Sun Neptune conjunction in Leo opposition Jupiter in his performing 5th house and square Saturn in Scorpio – the Neptune could explain his drug/drink habits and he would certainly have his down times with a Saturn square. His volatile 8th house Mars in Taurus was square Mercury and widely opposition his Saturn which would also be a drive of his turbulent behaviour. His Uranus in his 7th trine Venus points to a need for emotional freedom; whereas his 10th house Pluto in addition to give him influence made him controlling. A complicated man.
Their relationship chart had a boisterous composite Sun Mercury opposition Jupiter Mars; and a harder Saturn (Moon) opposition Pluto square Uranus making for periodic upheavals as well as a sense of being chained together and resenting it.
Bound together by their dysfunction.