[1] An addicted gambler, Leinster enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle, including motor racing.[2] He had already signed away his possible reversionary rights to the family's ancestral seat, Carton House, near Maynooth in County Kildare, not expecting that he would inherit the property and the title.He chose to live in England and his estates remained in the possession of the beneficiary, Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley, 1st Baronet, during the Duke's lifetime.[3] In 1936, Leinster testified at a bankruptcy hearing that he had travelled to the United States in 1928 in order to find an heiress to marry and that during his trip he "entertained lavishly on borrowed money in efforts to find an American wife who would pay off his debts".[4] Unable to repay his debts, the duke spent the final years of his life living in a small bedsit in Pimlico.