Bess Myerson, a New York favorite daughter who basked in the public eye for decades — as Miss America in 1945, as a television personality, as a force in public affairs and finally as a player in a shattering municipal scandal — died on Dec. 14 2014 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 90. She led two New York City agencies, Consumer and Cultural Affairs; advised three presidents; championed social causes; and supported powerful political careers. She also sought one for herself, entering a much-watched primary race for the United States Senate. Mayor John V. Lindsay named her as the city’s first commissioner of consumer affairs. She seized on the job, succeeding in gaining passage of some of the nation’s toughest consumer-protection laws. In 1977, she campaigned for Representative Edward I. Koch in his successful race for mayor. Bess grew up in the Sholem Aleichem Cooperative Houses in the northwest Bronx, surrounded by artists, poets and novelists. She went on to major in music at Hunter College and graduated with honors in 1945. In 1946, she married Allan Wayne, a Navy captain whose family was in the toy business. Barbara, her only child, was born the next year. (She later changed her name to Barra.) Ms. Myerson began studying for a master’s degree in music at Columbia University but dropped out when she began working in television. The couple separated in 1956, reconciled for a time, then parted. Ms. Myerson said she was forced to surrender a good part of her savings in return for a divorce and custody of her child. She soon began her nine-year run on “I’ve Got a Secret.” At the same time, she was raising money for Jewish charities. It was at a dinner for the Anti-Defamation League that she met Arnold M. Grant, an entertainment lawyer with connections to the Democratic Party. He was known for hosting dazzling parties for celebrity friends in his nine-room triplex on Sutton Place. They married in 1962. The next day, Mr. Wayne, her first husband, died, and Mr. Grant adopted her daughter. Theirs was a tempestuous marriage: They separated, then reconciled; parted again when Mr. Grant got a divorce in Mexico, then remarried in 1968 — only to divorce again, with finality, in 1971. Mr. Grant had a mental breakdown and died in 1980. Ms. Myerson’s tenure as consumer affairs chief under Mayor Lindsay lasted four years, beginning in 1969. Lyndon B. Johnson named her to a White House conference on crime and violence, Gerald R. Ford to a board dealing with workplace issues, and Jimmy Carter to commissions on mental health and world hunger. She was also a consumer consultant to Bristol-Myers and Citibank and made frequent appearances on radio and television, hosting Miss America contests and the Tournament of Roses and the Thanksgiving Day parades. In 1980, she entered the Democratic Senate primary in a field that included Mr. Lindsay and Representative Elizabeth Holtzman. She lost to Ms. Holtzman, who was then defeated in the general election by Alfonse M. D’Amato, a Long Island official who had upset the incumbent senator, Jacob K. Javits, in the Republican primary. Myerson’s downfall was set in motion during her 1980 campaign, when she met Carl A. Capasso, who was known as Andy, a wealthy, married sewer contractor 21 years her junior. He had volunteered to help her raise funds and clear her debts. By the time she was named cultural commissioner, they were having an affair. That spring, Mr. Capasso’s wife, Nancy, took him to Family Court and made public the affair, saying he had beaten her when she confronted him about it. The news coverage of their divorce proceedings blemished Ms. Myerson’s reputation. The “Bess Mess,” as the tabloids called it, grew messier when it was found that the presiding justice in the divorce trial, Hortense W. Gabel of State Supreme Court, and her daughter, Sukhreet Gabel, had begun seeing Ms. Myerson socially. Sukhreet Gabel had had difficulty finding work despite her many academic credentials and had undergone shock therapy for clinical depression. in 1987, Mr. Capasso pleaded guilty to federal income tax evasion and went to prison for two years. Meanwhile, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the United States attorney in Manhattan at the time, was investigating a $53.6 million sewage contract that Mr. Capasso had obtained in 1983, not long after Ms. Myerson became cultural affairs commissioner. His companies received $150 million in city contracts from 1978 to 1987. Ms. Myerson was called before a grand jury and, without advising city officials in advance, invoked the Fifth Amendment. Mayor Koch ordered an investigation, which assailed her for “serious misconduct.” She was forced to resign in April 1987. Mr. Giuliani’s office soon indicted Ms. Myerson, Justice Gabel (who had been forced off the bench) and Mr. Capasso in connection with the divorce case. Ms. Myerson was accused of conspiracy, mail fraud, obstruction of justice and using interstate facilities to violate state bribery laws. The trial, in 1988, was a font of vivid stories of family strife and political intrigue. But when it was over, the jury acquitted all three defendants of all charges. The jurors said they had difficulty believing Ms. Gabel. Justice Gabel died in 1990. Mr. Capasso was returned to prison and released in 1989, his relationship with Ms. Myerson having ended. He died of pancreatic cancer in 2001 at 55. The Capasso revelations opened the door to further scrutiny of Ms. Myerson’s personal life. It was revealed that while she was running for the Senate, she was romantically involved with a financial investor. A New York City police report said she had displayed obsessive behavior, making numerous anonymous telephone calls and sending abusive letters to the man, the woman he married and their friends and relatives. There were shoplifting charges in Pennsylvania and London. She is survived by her daughter. Complete information on her survivors was not available.