Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

The authors continue describing the life of Alva Vanderbilt in this chapter, telling the story of her divorce (briefly mentioned in the previous chapter) and her later years as an advocate for women’s suffrage and other rights. In 1895, Alva sued her husband Willie for divorce on the grounds of infidelity. The papers were full of scandalous news of Willie’s affair with a French women—he had bought an apartment in Paris for her and gave her an annual allowance of $200,000. However, another, more discreet affair, was the final straw for Alva—with her best friend, Consuelo Yznaga, for whom she named her daughter.

In divorcing Willie, Alva acted once again as a trailblazer, since at the time women in high society virtually never divorced. They may have suffered through many indignities, but they stayed married for obvious reasons: Men held power, wealth, and legal standing. Even Alva’s divorce lawyer tried to talk her out of it for fear that she risked losing everything, but she would not be deterred. She had her own affair during their marriage, with Willie’s best friend, Oliver Belmont. The divorce was completed with no mention of the respective best friends—only the French woman, for which Willie took the blame—and Alva came out of it with a healthy financial settlement.