A wealthy lawyer has admitted she was stunned when her financier husband of 20 years left her for another woman a week into lockdown and allegedly didn't want custody of the kids.
Flobelle 'Belle' Fairbanks Burden, 54, a well-heeled socialite from New York, US, claims Henry Davis wanted to end their well-moneyed marriage during Covid lockdown at their $4.7million Martha's Vineyard home in spring 2020.
The rich mum, a descendant of railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, had sheltered from Covid with her husband and their two young kids, then 15 and 12, before suddenly having to adapt to single parent life, according to a piece she penned for the New York Times.
The lawyer arrived on the island on March 15, 2020 and said relocating the family during lockdown had initially been "delightful".
However, that all changed when Ms Burden claims she discovered her husband had been having a secret relationship, after a voicemail was left to her from the husband of the other woman.
She revealed the news in a devastating article in the NYT, writing: "A week later, on March 22, at 6am, my husband told me he wanted a divorce. He packed a bag, got in his Jeep and boarded a ferry. We had been married for nearly 21 years.
"When he reached New York City, he laid out his narrative: He thought he had wanted our life but didn’t. He thought he was happy but wasn’t. A switch had flipped. He didn’t want our house or our apartment. He didn’t want any custody of our children."
In the article, she claims he "bought a sleek new Manhattan apartment, hired a well-known divorce lawyer," and treated her with a "consistent lack of empathy or sentiment."
And just a few weeks later, Henry stopped contacting her and she claims his two siblings, who she had been close to, had ghosted her and said they could no longer speak to her as they needed to support their sibling.
Ms Burden has not shared any further details of her husband's alleged affair, and has admitted she's unsure if that relationship is still continuing. He is not known to have commented publicly since her article.
She said Henry's "steadiness" made her fall in love with him and she likened him to her dad Carter Burden, a former New York City Councilman who served from 1969 to 1978.
"He was tall, blonde and lean, a similar silhouette to my father. He wore suits and rolled up his shirt sleeves as he worked. He was a grown-up"' she wrote.
"When he walked into my office, shut the door and kissed me, I was done for."
According to Ms Burden, Henry had been "intent on marrying" her within weeks of the kiss.
"Pledging to take care of me, to step into my dead father's role as my protector. And we did marry, within the year, both of us (I still believe) very much in love."
She admits she struggled to understand her husband's decision to end the decades long marriage but still sees him from afar in the neighbourhood.
"I sometimes see him from afar in our shared city neighbourhood ," she said.
"He looks familiar, his posture and gait, his sandy blonde hair and orange sneakers, and my heart leaps a little at the sight of him. But then I remember he is a stranger, and I walk on."
