Meet real-life heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt who inspired The Gilded Age’s heartbroken Gladys

The Gilded Age might be a period drama, but Gladys Russell’s story is actually based on the life of a real American socialite, and the similarities between her and Consuelo Vanderbilt are pretty striking.

In the show, Gladys, played by Taissa Farmiga, is the daughter of wealthy businessman George Russell and his ambitious wife Bertha. At the end of season 3, she marries Hector Vere, the Duke of Buckingham, and becomes a duchess.

But her marriage wasn’t exactly a love match. Bertha had other plans for her daughter, and Gladys was pushed towards an aristocratic title rather than the man she actually wanted to marry.

So, who was the real woman behind Gladys’s story?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Meet Consuelo Vanderbilt. Consuelo was born in New York City in 1877. She was the daughter of railroad tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt and society figure Alva Vanderbilt.

Like Gladys, she grew up in a seriously wealthy family. But her mother’s ambitions went beyond money. Alva wanted her daughter to marry into British aristocracy, securing a prestigious title for the family. Consuelo, however, wanted to marry for love. As per Vogue, in her memoir The Glitter and the Gold, published in 1953, she recalled trying to stand up to her mother over the man she wanted to marry, Winthrop Rutherford.

She wrote, “I considered I had a right to choose my own husband. These words, the bravest I have ever uttered, brought down a frightful storm of protest.”

She also described the reaction to her relationship, saying, “I suffered every searing reproach, heard every possible invective hurled at the man I love.”

It might sound familiar because Gladys also wanted to choose her own husband, but Bertha had already decided that her daughter should marry someone with a title.

Both mothers arranged marriages with dukes

In The Gilded Age, Bertha stops Gladys from marrying Billy Carlton and pushes her towards Hector Vere, the Duke of Buckingham.

In real life, Alva arranged for Consuelo to marry Charles Spencer-Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough. She had met him during a visit to his family’s estate, and the match gave Consuelo the chance to become a duchess. Consuelo was just 19 when she married him in November 1895. She became the first American woman to hold the title of duchess.

And, just like in the show, money was a big part of the arrangement. Consuelo’s father agreed to provide her husband with an annual payment of $100,000, as well as $2.5 million in railroad stock.

In The Gilded Age, George pays his new son-in-law handsomely and gives Gladys an allowance.

Their wedding days were also very similar

In the show, Gladys is devastated on her wedding day. She arrives late at St. Thomas Church in June 1884 and spends time upstairs crying under her veil while deciding whether she can go through with the marriage.

Consuelo’s wedding day was just as upsetting. In her memoir, she recalled, “I spent the morning of my wedding day in tears and alone; no one came near me. A footman had been posted at the door of my apartment and not even my governess was admitted.”

She also arrived late to her wedding at St. Thomas Church in November 1895. According to Amanda Mackenzie Stuart’s 2005 book Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age, her face was swollen from crying.

Consuelo also struggled with married life

Getting the title didn’t mean Consuelo suddenly became happy. She and the Duke of Marlborough had two sons together: John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, and Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill. But Consuelo struggled with her marriage and the expectations of aristocratic life. Even the endless social events became something she dreaded.

Writing about the dinners she had to attend, she said, “How I learned to dread and hate these dinners, how ominous and wearisome they loomed at the end of a long day.”

Her marriage eventually broke down. The couple separated in 1906 and divorced in 1921. Consuelo married Jacques Balsan later that same year, while her marriage to the Duke was annulled by the Vatican in 1926.

In the season 4 premiere, Gladys and Hector have their first child, but we don’t know what their future together will look like. Since there are so many similarities, Gladys’s marriage might end up following the real-life story that inspired it.

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