Unlike, say, Bridgerton,The Gilded Age is no fantastical retelling of history. The HBO series draws inspiration from real-life people and events, and it will continue to do so in Season 4.
The Russell family is no exception. The past three seasons of HBO’s period drama have seen railroad tycoon George (Morgan Spector) and his ambitious wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon), disrupt New York’s old money hierarchy just like William Kissam Vanderbilt and his wife, Alva, did in real life. Creator Julian Fellowes has confirmed that they are the Russells’ historical counterparts.
Like the Vanderbilts, the nouveau riche Russells have differing goals for their daughter. In Season 3, Bertha orchestrates Gladys’ (Taissa Farmiga) marriage to the Duke of Buckingham, Hector (Ben Lamb), while George had hoped his daughter would marry for love. Luckily, Gladys is happy to be pregnant with Hector’s baby by the end of Season 3, so things seem to be on the up and up for her after being trapped in a loveless marriage.
Again, this is all inspired by real-life events, so will that continue to be the case for Gladys in Season 4? Swooon is breaking down everything history says about the marriage of the historical figures Gladys and Hector are based on.
Karolina Wojtasik / HBO
Who is Gladys Russell based on in history?
Gladys is inspired by American socialite Consuelo Vanderbilt, the daughter of the aforementioned Vanderbilt couple.
Does Gladys marry the Duke in real life?
She does. Consuelo ended up adhering to her mother’s wishes and marrying a duke (in this case, the ninth Duke of Marlborough) in 1895. Unfortunately, there was no love between them. While the Vanderbilt matriarch was motivated by acquiring a title for her daughter, the Duke was driven by money. Consuelo’s dowry was over $2 million.
According to a 1940s issue of Vogue, “The bride’s unhappy father was obliged to sign a contract, the sealing of which the prudent Duke had, from the very first, insisted upon. The contract involved, among other sundries, the payment to His Grace of two and a half million dollars, a sum so tidy that the Most Noble Charles Richard John, etc., was able not only to renovate Blenheim, his historic palace near Oxford, but to build, as well, one of the most prideful residences in London — Sunderland House, at the end of Curzon Street, in Mayfair.”
Consuelo hated the snobbery and outdatedness of English society, and her marriage with the Duke was an equal source of unhappiness. “How I learned to dread and hate these dinners, how ominous and wearisome they loomed at the end of a long day,” she wrote about her dinners with the Duke, according to Vogue.
Do Gladys and the Duke have children in real life?
The couple had two children. In 1897, they welcomed a son, John. He was the 10th Duke of Marlborough. About a year later, the married couple had their second son, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill.
Do Gladys and the Duke stay together in real life?
By 1906, Consuelo and the Duke separated, unable to fully divorce without proper cause. “Desiring to be free, we contemplated divorce. But in England the divorce laws then existing required a man to prove unfaithfulness in his wife; a wife, however, had to prove physical cruelty as well,” she wrote.
Consuelo and the Duke lived separate lives for over a full decade. Then, a marital law was passed that allowed wives to file due to “desertion” — she had to prove that her husband cheated, then provide the judge written proof of her attempts to reconcile with her husband. Afterward, Consuelo and the Duke were able dissolved the marriage entirely in 1921.
Ironically, the Duke of Marlborough’s second marriage was to a woman named… Gladys Deacon. Consuelo found a love match in Jacques Balsan, a textile manufacturing heir and aviation pioneer. They married on July 4, 1921.
The Gilded Age, Season 4 Premiere, Sunday, November 1, HBO