Sid Bass—Anne Bass

Sid Bass—Anne Bass is presented in the diary through the public fallout from Sid Bass’s relationship with Mercedes Kellogg. In 1986, reports that Sid was leaving Anne for Mercedes turned their marriage crisis into a society story: the affair was discussed, chronicled in the press, and felt in the places Anne chose not to go.

The affair becomes public

By September 1986, people were talking about Sid Bass leaving Anne for Mercedes Kellogg. At a Calvin Klein event, columnist Billy Norwich described how he had tried unsuccessfully to reach Mercedes in Paris for comment. When he left a message pretending to be Mick Jagger, she called back within seconds; once he identified himself, she protested the deception. The anecdote captured how the story drew attention and how the press pursued it.

In October, Steve Aronson’s article in New York magazine supplied a fuller account. The diary describes it as riveting and notes that it traced the romance day by day, including Mercedes’s mistaken return call. The affair was no longer just a circulating report: it had become a published narrative with a visible chronology.

Anne’s social avoidance

The crisis shaped Anne’s movements as well as the news. After an AIDS-related gathering, Anne did not want to go to Indochine because Sid and Mercedes went there; the group went instead to Nell’s. The detail makes the marital conflict concrete without describing a confrontation between the couple: a shared social scene had become somewhere Anne wished to avoid.

Uncertain prospects

The diary’s account does not resolve what happened to the marriage or the affair. Reflecting on Aronson’s report, the diarist doubted Mercedes would reach the altar with Sid, reasoning that a divorce could take two years. That prediction frames the relationship as publicly scrutinized and its future as uncertain, rather than recording a confirmed outcome.