The Most Expensive Divorces of the Gilded Age

In 1908, Elsie French Vanderbilt won a divorce from the principal Vanderbilt heir that the whole country valued at close to $10 million, and the decree recorded no figure at all. She was not the only one. A frontier actress won $36,000 a year for life, the largest alimony a court had ever ordered, and was tried in the newspapers as a drunk to get it. A girl married off at 19 walked away with a reported $2 million, called the largest settlement of its day, and spent it into morphine and bankruptcy. A barber's daughter turned six marriages into a fortune in jewels. And the wife of the president of U.S. Steel took $3 million to disappear, while her husband handed a Broadway showgirl a French château, a chest of jewels, and $1 million as a wedding gift. Five of the largest cheques the Gilded Age ever wrote to end a marriage, and not one of them was the victory it looked like from across the ballroom. Subscribe to the channel: @velvetsociety-s7l In this video, we talk about the most expensive divorces of the Gilded Age and what each fortune actually bought the woman who won it, including Katherine Clemmons Gould's record alimony and the Long Island castle that ended its days as a stable, Rita de Acosta's $2 million escape and the 300 pairs of velvet shoes that outlived her in a museum, Peggy Hopkins Joyce's professional marriages and the diamond that now sits in the Smithsonian, Laura Corey's exile to a Reno boarding house to win $3 million and keep her son, and the sealed $10 million settlement behind Elsie French Vanderbilt and the sinking of the Lusitania. 🔔 Subscribe so the next of these buried Gilded Age stories finds its way to you. 💬 Comment where you're watching from and tell me which of these five women you think actually won. 📢 Share this with anyone who loves the truth behind the mansions, on Facebook, Reddit, or a group chat, because you are the reason this channel keeps telling these stories. DISCLAIMER: This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional. #VelvetSociety #GildedAge #GildedAgeHistory #Divorce #Vanderbilt #ElsieFrenchVanderbilt #PeggyHopkinsJoyce #RitaDeAcosta #KatherineGould #LauraCorey #Lusitania #Heiress #HighSociety #OldMoney #AmericanHistory #Scandal #NewYorkHistory #WomensHistory #History