{{Short description|American journalist, novelist and broadcaster (1925–2003)}} {{Infobox person | name = Lady Ayer | image = Dee Wells at a party for After Dark.jpg | caption = At a party (left) following her appearance on television programme ''After Dark'' in 1989 | birth_name = Alberta Constance Chapman | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|03|19|df=y}} | birth_place = Providence, Rhode Island | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|06|24|1925|03|19|df=y}} | death_place = | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = TV commentator and writer | education = | employer = | occupation = | spouse = Wells<br />A. J. Ayer | children = two | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = | nationality = }}
'''Alberta Constance Wells''', also known as '''Alberta Chapman''', '''Dee Wells''', '''Alberta Constance Ayer, Lady Ayer''' (19 March 1925 – 24 June 2003), was an American journalist, novelist, and broadcaster.<ref name=odnb />
== Life == Alberta Constance Chapman was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1925.<ref name=odnb>[https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/92278 Alberta Wells], ODNB, Retrieved 25 June 2016</ref> She served in the Canadian Army before marrying a diplomat named Al Wells. They married in Paris where she had been working at the US embassy. They spent two years in Burma before the marriage ended amicably.<ref name=obit1>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1435873/Dee-Wells.html Dee Wells], 12 June 2003, Daily Telegraph, Retrieved 25 June 2016</ref> The daughter from this marriage was Gully Wells, who became a writer.<ref>[http://www.womanaroundtown.com/sections/woman-around-town/woman-around-town-gully%E2%80%99-s-travels Gully's travels]{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, womanaroundtown.com, Retrieved 25 June 2016</ref>
She met the academic A. J. Ayer (Freddie Ayer) in 1956, and despite his infidelity she married him in 1960.<ref name="GatesAkyeampong2012">{{cite book|author1=Henry Louis Gates|author2=Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong|author3=Mr. Steven J. Niven|title=Dictionary of African Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|date=2 February 2012|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-19-538207-5|pages=301–}}</ref> At this time she had been the books editor of the ''Daily Express'' for two years. During the 1960s she was frequently on TV including as a regular on ''Three After Six''. The three in question were Benny Green, Alan Brien and herself. The programme would discuss the news and current affairs.<ref>[http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/14th-january-1966/14/television Amazing Depths], 14 January 1966, The Spectator, Retrieved 25 June 2016</ref> In 1965, the head of ITV had to apologise to the police after her suggestion that they might let an art thief "fall down some stairs". She wrote her forthright opinions for ''The Sun'' newspaper during the 1960s.
In 1973, her own novel ''Jane'' was published. It sold two million copies as it described the affairs of the eponymous heroine. She and her husband took up different interests and this included different partners. She moved to New York with a designer named Hylan Booker, whilst her former husband married Vanessa Lawson.
In 1989, she remarried Ayer; he died shortly afterwards. She died in 2003. She was survived by two children, a daughter by Al Wells and a son by A. J. Ayer.<ref name=obit1 />
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Alberta}} Category:1925 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Writers from Providence, Rhode Island Category:20th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American novelists Category:Journalists from Rhode Island Category:American women non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American women