This site looks at the long and eventful life of Hjördis Genberg, later known as Hjördis Tersmeden and Hjördis Niven, the much-maligned second wife of debonair English actor and lady magnet David Niven.

I say “site”, but it’s an online book that’s still being written. Pages are added and amended as new information arrives. You are welcome to leave your comments and contribute to this ongoing project.

Hjördis first met David in late 1947 while visiting the set of the infamous disaster (of a) movie ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’. She settled herself in his canvas chair and refused to budge when asked by the assistant director. David, a vision in tartan with a blonde wig, stormed over to evict her, took one look, and fell in love. Six weeks later, they were married, and she became a Hollywood wife.

Hjördis’ life before that encounter has never been thoroughly documented. It’s known that she was Sweden’s top fashion model and had one marriage already behind her to a wealthy Swedish businessman called Carl Gustaf Tersmeden. And that’s it.

In the received wisdom, her blindingly quick marriage to the recently widowed David Niven suggested that she saw him purely as a ticket to becoming a Hollywood actress. He stood in the way of her ambitions, and the consequences were thirty years of payback: heavy drinking, jealousy, adultery, and mental cruelty, right through to his death in 1983.

That’s inaccurate and unfair. For starters, Hjördis had been turning down Hollywood offers for two years before David set eyes on her. Even when they met, she was carrying a contract offer from ‘Gone With The Wind’ director David O. Selznick. David Niven stipulated before their marriage that he expected her to give up her career aspirations.

Much of the vitriol aimed at Hjördis stems from Graham Lord’s David Niven biography “Niv”, published six years after her death. It revealed an unhappy marriage, previously held up as a rare example of a lasting and loving Hollywood coupling. Ironically, Hjördis, who felt sidelined by David’s success, dominates Lord’s book as soon as she appears about halfway through.

Was she an interesting person? Well, she certainly had an interesting life, lived at an interesting time, met interesting people, and her story was and is interesting to piece together. She was no angel but behaved no worse than her social peers for most of her second marriage.

My initial aim was to piece together the first forty years of Hjördis’ life, hoping to find that she and David had more good times together than what is usually assumed. Happily, that’s exactly what I found. I then continued beyond the cut-off point – not sure that was the best idea I’ve ever had.

I’ve used Hjördis’ words where possible, and despite going off on the occasional tangent, it is, first and foremost, meant to be her story.

Hjördis site-map, 1919-1997