Mata Hari spent much of her career claiming that she was raised as an Indian temple dancer. In reality, however, she was born Margaretha Zelle on August 7, 1876, and grew up the daughter of a haberdasher in the Dutch town of Leeuwarden. Desperate for adventure, at age 18 she answered a newspaper ad and wed a much older army captain named Rudolf MacLeod. His military career later took the couple to Indonesia, where they had two children, but their marriage was plagued by infidelity and domestic violence. Following the death of their young son, they moved back to Europe and divorced. The 27-year-old Margaretha was left impoverished. In 1903, after losing custody of her daughter, she moved to Paris and looked to start over. “I wanted to live like a colorful butterfly in the sun,” she later said.
It was in the City of Lights that Margaretha Zelle reinvented herself as an artist. Drawing on her experiences in the Dutch East Indies, she developed a “Hindu” dance act and began performing under the name “Lady Gresha MacLeod.” As part of each routine, she would cast off a series of colorful robes and veils until she was left nearly nude. “I never could dance well,” she later admitted. “People came to see me because I was the first who dared to show myself naked to the public.” To add to her mystique, Margaretha adopted the stage name “Mata Hari,” a Malay phrase meaning “eye of the day.”
Audiences were entranced by Mata Hari’s claims that her rhythmic, undulating movements were part of an ancient temple rite from the Orient, and her shows quickly became a sensation. “Mata Hari personifies all the poetry of India,” one reviewer wrote, “its mysticism, its voluptuousness, its languor, its hypnotizing charm.” Declared a “Star of Dance” in 1908, the olive-skinned beauty spent the next several years traveling Europe and performing before sold out crowds. She also began affairs with a series of military officers and wealthy aristocrats, many of whom showered her gifts and cash. “Tonight I dine with Count A and tomorrow with Duke B,” she once quipped. “If I don’t have to dance, I make a trip with Marquis C. I avoid serious liaisons.”