Charles Dickens’s Wife Found Out About His Affair in Dramatic Fashion
Catherine Dickens found about her husband’s affair with Ellen Ternan because of a mistake worthy of a romance novel. In 1858, he ordered a bracelet as a present for his teenaged lover, but it was accidentally delivered to his house instead. When Catherine called him out, he claimed that it was his custom to buy gifts for everybody who acted in his plays. She didn’t buy it, and the couple legally separated a few weeks later. In an unusual move, Dickens published a notice in newspapers, in which he claimed that it was an amicable split.
Dickens was motivated by the need to squelch rumors not only about his relationship with an actress, but about a seedy affair with yet another sister in law. In 1842, Catherine’s other younger sister, Georgina Hogarth, then fifteen-years-old, moved into the Dickens household. It was widely rumored at the time that the author had an affair with her. When her older sister’s marriage fell apart, Georgina sided with Dickens against her own sister, and continued to live in his house until his death in 1870. In his will, Dickens left Georgina far more than he did Catherine, as well as all his private papers.
