Divorce Among the Very Wealthy
(NOTE: I am an affiliate marketer on Amazon. If you click one of my Amazon links and make ANY purchase there, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Isn’t that cool? Thank you for supporting my writing in this manner. More details here.)
*****
I’m thinking many a woman has had a romantic relationship end abruptly leaving her to scratch her head – and cry her eyes out – all the while proclaiming, I could have sworn we were happy!
If you fall into this camp, you will be interested in this memoir. It is a New York Times bestseller chronicling the shockingly unexpected end of Belle Burden’s almost twenty-one-year marriage to “James.” By the way, while she protects his identity, a Google search does not. The man’s name is Henry Davis.
It was at the start of the pandemic that Belle and James and their two younger children, ages 12 and 15, quarantined at their house on Martha’s Vineyard. (Their oldest child stayed with friends in New York City.) Within a week of their arrival, Belle got a call from a man saying his wife was having an affair with James. James confessed and then professed that the affair meant nothing! But he quickly changed his mind, packed a bag, and left the family the next day.
Burden tells us: “The rest of the story is filled with more clichés. He left the year I turned 50, the year he reached a pinnacle of professional success at work. He bought a sleek new Manhattan apartment, hired a well-known divorce lawyer, and treated me with a consistent lack of empathy or sentiment.”
Clearly, many people can identify with elements of this tale – and I am one of them.
However, Belle Burden has her detractors, people who fail to sympathize with her due to her privileged background and great wealth.
In the book, Belle Burden lets us know that her father is a descendent of the Vanderbilts and her mother is the daughter of Babe Paley. And of course, we know about the two homes she and James shared. One was in New York City and one on Martha’s Vineyard.
People being people and the internet being the internet, lots of further information is available. For instance, in a story for the New Yorker Jessica Winter finds public records that show:
- The couple purchased their Tribeca apartment for just under four million dollars in 2002 and that it is worth twelve million now.
- The house on Martha’s Vineyard was purchased for 5.4 million dollars and is now valued at eight million.
- A host of divorce settlement payments are itemized in the article too including fifty thousand dollars per month in baseline child support until their youngest child reaches age twenty-two.
- A Google search fills in a few more details as we learn that the grandma, Babe Paley, was married twice. Her first husband – who is Belle Burden’s grandfather – was Stanley Mortimer, grandson of the founder of Standard Oil. The second husband, William S. Paley, was the founder of CBS.
So, a privileged background and great wealth are indeed a part of this tale but at the same time it is very easy to sympathize with the specifics of her story. As examples:
- Wait until you read about Belle and James’ very romantic first kiss! It seemed to come out of the blue! But perhaps it was the result of research he did about her?
- Can you believe that in divorce James wanted no part of the kids? Not shared custody. Not once a week visits. Not a vacation week in the summer.
- And of course, many will identify with her: She trusted James to handle their finances – such a big mistake for women, but ever so common. Because of this she feared losing too much in divorce even if her too much is much higher than the too much of us common folk.
I’ll close with a few things about the book that prove its popularity as I recommend it to you for your next read.
- Strangers had a precursor in a story Belle Burden wrote for a New York Times “Modern Love” piece in 2023. That story was called “Was I Married to a Stranger?”
- The “Modern Love” piece helped the book to debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List.
- After a bidding war, Netflix purchased the rights for a screen adaptation of the book. It will star Gwyneth Paltrow.
I always like to read stories of how smart women get themselves in trouble with men and in that regard, this book did not disappoint.
*****
Click here to learn more about Strangers on Amazon.
*****
Click here to join the Book Lovers Club. I post about three dozen book reviews a year. If you would like to receive them as I write them, please join the Club.
*****
If you like my writing, I hope you will check out my new book, Chai on Life. It contains 36 slice-of-life stories ranging in topics from belly fat to Billy Joel. It is available wherever books are sold and on Amazon. There is even a companion journal for you to write the stories of your life.
Chai on Life is available in 3 formats: Hard Back, Kindle, and AudioBook.
*****
And one last thing! Amazon has named me an Influencer (!!!!) and invited me to open a Storefront. You will find lots of my favorite things there including fun gifts for people who love to read. Check it out!
Leave a Reply