Sara Delano Roosevelt and Jennie Jerome Churchill were the powerhouse American mothers who shaped FDR and Winston Churchill.

Before they became the defining leaders of the twentieth century, they were sons—forged by two extraordinary American-born women.

Sara Delano Roosevelt was discipline, inheritance, and command: the formidable matriarch who shaped Franklin Roosevelt’s life, home, and public destiny.

Jennie Jerome Churchill was beauty, scandal, and nerve: the dazzling American heiress who gave Winston Churchill his bloodline and his hunger for greatness.

In this Mother’s Day special, Mythic Women tells the story of two women from wealth and power whose sons would one day face the terrible burden of command against Hitler and global collapse.

This is not just the story of the men history remembers. It is the story of the mothers who made them possible.

If you enjoy deep cinematic biographies of extraordinary women, subscribe to Mythic Women for more stories of forgotten, scandalous, and powerful women from history.


Part I: Sarah Delano Roosevelt
0:00 - The Mothers of Churchill & FDR

1:18 - The Gilded Age: Porcelain Rituals and Stitched Wounds

6:57 - The Voyage to Hong Kong (1862)

11:13 - The 400: Marriage to James Roosevelt

15:08 - The Birth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

18:12 - A Meeting with President Cleveland

19:02 - Typhoid Fever & The Watchful Vigil

23:34 - Groton: "To Serve is to Rule"

27:58 - The Scandal of Tatty Roosevelt

34:52 - A Secret Engagement: The Arrival of Eleanor Roosevelt

42:43 - The Wedding & President Teddy Roosevelt

50:52 - The Double House: 65th Street

52:07 - FDR’s Political Start: The Albany Years

1:01:05 - Discovery: The Lucy Mercer Affair

1:06:01 - Polio: The 1921 Crisis

1:10:59 - The Refuge of Val-Kill

1:15:35 - The 1932 Presidential Nomination

1:17:24 - Subsidizing the White House: The Duchess

1:19:02 - The Visit of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth

1:22:41 - The Final Visit: The Halo of Hyde Park

Part II: Jennie Jerome Churchill
1:28:07 - Jennie Jerome Churchill: Fire, Beauty, and Nerve

1:32:30 - The Fall of Napoleon III & Paris Exile

1:34:39 - Meeting Lord Randolph Churchill (Cowes 1873)

1:39:00 - Blenheim Palace: A Gilded Cage of Steel

1:41:46 - The Birth of Winston Churchill

1:42:53 - The Prince of Wales: Scandal & Exile to Ireland

1:45:14 - Randolph’s Secret Illness: The Syphilis Mystery

1:48:50 - The Primrose League & Political Strategy

1:51:50 - Winston’s Brutal School Years

1:54:01 - The Count Charles Kinsky Affair

2:01:02 - The Downfall of Lord Randolph Churchill

2:05:14 - Jennie Jerome & King Edward VII

2:13:28 - Winston Churchill’s Mentor: Burke Cochran

2:18:07 - Empress Theodora: The Diamond Jubilee

2:21:45 - The Scandalous Second Marriage

2:23:45 - The Hospital Ship Maine: Boer War

2:33:34 - World War I & The Fall of Gallipoli

2:35:59 - The Third Marriage: Montagu Porch

2:36:57 - The Final Defiance: Amputation & Legacy

2:39:52 - The Savior of Britain

2:40:36 - Dedication to Yan

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