Well no matter how much I complain about my ex and his affair partner, now his wife, at least she wasn’t my best friend I don’t have to live with the two of them. In the 1770s in England that’s what the Dutchess of Devonshire was stuck with when her husband had an affair with her best friend and moved her into their home with her three kids. And she had to put up with it–she literally had no choice.
She had fallen in love with a handsome young man herself, had an affair with him, but the Duke told her that if she didn’t break it off he’d take her children away from her and she’d never see them again. Men could do that in those days–especially if they were royalty. Plus, she was pregnant by her lover and had to give up the baby.
She was trapped. Women had no options. So she gave up the lover, lived with the Duke and his lover, her former best friend, and made believe everything was ok. The movie had a reasonably happy ending, but in real life the Dutchess went downhill, became a compulsive gambler, hounded the Duke to pay her debts, and died young. The Duke married his lover of course.
Sure made me glad I wasn’t around back then. And those dresses. Omigod! 6 layers including corsets, bustles, wigs, stockings etc. I would have died.