A Rivalry of Cousins: Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt

[no_hypocrisy]

I've wondered why there was a rivalry between these women, especially as they were about the same age, raised together during Eleanor's visits to Sagamore Hill during her summers as a child. It seems Alice was terribly aggressive and critical of Eleanor as adults.

Now that I'm watching Ken Burns' "The Roosevelts", I think I have a theory. Both girls were vying for the love and attention of Theodore Roosevelt, Alice's father and Eleanor's uncle. And it appears that he was more demonstrable in his affections toward Eleanor while Alice was treated like the proverbial bastard at the family reunion. While it could be argued that TR was constrained from outwardly loving his first child by his second wife, Alice had to have noticed time and time again how she was ignored or pushed aside while Eleanor garnered unbridled love from her father. And Alice worshipped her father. To have such a dichotomy had to have been hell for her.

So she took out her hostilities on Eleanor by mocking her, criticizing her, assisting FDR carry on an affair with Eleanor's social secretary, and more.

I don't know if Eleanor ignored Alice's antics or addressed them in private or public.