poor little rich girl

Unhappy heiress. In contrast to Job's turkey, the subject of this phrase wants for nothing—except emotional support. The original “poor little rich girl” was socialite Barbara Hutton, heiress to the Woolworth (“Five and Dime” stores) and E. F. Hutton investment banking fortunes. She had a lonely childhood, seven failed— and in many cases, exploitive—marriages, and died a broken (and nearly broke) woman at age sixty-six. The phrase has been applied to other women whose lives were sad in spite (or perhaps because of inherited wealth).