companion of the Spanish sculptor and diplomat Luis de Périnat, Marquis de Périnat from 1906 to 1919. He left her for Spanish Baroness Ana Maria Elío y Gaztelu, with whom he had a son. de Mérode was close friends with the musician Reynaldo Hahn, who she met when she was seventeen. She lived with her mother until her mother's death in 1899. She was a vegetarian. Suffering from dementia, de Mérode died on 17 October 1966 in her Paris apartment at 15 Rue de Téhéran, and was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Division 90. A statue of her by Luis de Périnat, mourning her mother, who is interred in the same plot, decorates the gravestone. In popular culture In 1896, de Mérode was featured in The American Tobacco Company's Sweet Caporal brand pinback series of celebrated actresses. More de Mérode-themed items followed, including a nightgown, artificial flowers, cigars, and underwear; the latter two sold for decades. The 1897 French operetta Les Fêtards parodied de Mérode and King Leopold II's rumored affair, with their names being changed to Théa and Ernest III. The musical comedy The Rounders, on Broadway and on tour nationwide from 1899 to 1900, was based on Les Fêtards, and the character of Théa was portrayed by Phyllis Rankin. In December 1897, Koster and Bial's traveling company presented "The Big Burlesque Extravaganza 'Gayest Manhattan'" at the Taylor Opera House in Trenton, New Jersey, which featured Gertie Reynolds as "The American Cléo de Mérode". In May 1900, the John P. Dousman Milling Co. of De Pere released a blotter calendar with de Mérode's photograph on it. The following year, Gimbels and Palais Royal released a line of Cléo de Mérode dolls, complete with clothing and accessories. Liane de Pougy's 1904 novel Les Sensations de Mlle de la Bringue places de Mérode and King Leopold II at a sabbath; she refers to de Mérode as "Méo de la Clef", who "personified love without making it" and calls King Leopold II "a grand old man with a white beard, her devoted eunuch". In 1918, she was played by Dorothy Newall in the musical revue Hitchy-Koo. The following year, a comic character named after de Mérode appeared in the operetta Sì. She is mentioned in Henry William Fischer's 1922 book Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field. The character "Cleo of Paris", played by Mae Murray in the 1922 American silent