Anna Gould was living proof that in the Gilded Age, being spectacularly ugly didn't matter if you were spectacularly rich—and she was both in equal measure.
Her marriage to a charming French count would cost her $10 million and eleven years of systematic humiliation, proving that some romantic mistakes come with devastating price tags.
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The Gilded Age Divorce That Built America: Alva Erskine Vanderbilt vs. William K. Vanderbilt -- • The Gilded Age Divorce That Built America:...
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:14 Chapter 1: America's Richest Ugly Duckling
5:37 Chapter 2: Pink Palace, Bleeding Fortune
9:48 Chapter 3: Scandals, Bills, and Breaking Points
14:05 Chapter 4: Revenge Marriage and Marble Rubble
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Born on June 5, 1875, Anna was the daughter of Jay Gould, one of America's most notorious "robber barons" widely considered "the most hated man in late-nineteenth-century America."
When Jay Gould died in 1892, Anna inherited a staggering $15 million trust fund providing her with an annual income of $500,000—making her one of America's richest women.
Contemporary observers were brutally honest about Anna's appearance, describing her as "short, sallow, self-obsessed" with "a simian face and a sullen disposition."
The French press famously quipped that Anna was "especially beautiful when seen through her dowry"—perfectly capturing how everyone viewed this walking dollar sign.
Enter Paul Ernest Boniface de Castellane, known as "Boni," a penniless but gorgeous French nobleman who could trace his lineage back to the eleventh century and his debts back to last week.
Born in 1867, Boni was everything Anna wasn't: breathtakingly handsome, effortlessly charming, and possessed of impeccable taste that could make spending other people's money look like high art.
Boni arrived in New York in 1894 with a singular mission to "bag himself an heiress" through what he conducted like a military campaign disguised as romantic courtship.
Anna and Boni met in 1894 at a Paris social event, where nineteen-year-old Anna was immediately captivated by Boni's charm and noble title, abandoning her practical engagement to financier Oliver Harriman.
The 1895 wedding on March 14 was a media sensation, with newspapers proclaiming "It Will Cost Her One Hundred Sixty Thousand Dollars to Wed the Imported French Count."
In 1896, just one year after their wedding, Boni purchased two and a half acres in Paris and announced his intention to build a palace surpassing Versailles itself.
The Palais Rose, as it became known, was Boni's pink marble monument to his ego that would take seven years to complete and cost Anna most of her inheritance.
Boni commissioned architect Ernest Sanson to create a deliberate homage to Versailles' Grand Trianon, including his recreation of the lost Escalier des Ambassadeurs—the legendary Ambassador's Staircase.
The palace included an immense ballroom, a private theater with 500 seats, and maintenance costs that would have bankrupted most European monarchs.
Boni also maintained two châteaux in the countryside, a villa at Deauville, and a 1,600-ton yacht named Walhalla requiring a crew of 100.
Despite having access to $500,000 annually from Anna's trust fund, Boni constantly complained about being "hard up" and pressured lawyers to access more principal.
Boni's sexuality was an open secret in Parisian society, where his relationships with both men and women provided endless entertainment for sophisticated circles.
Marcel Proust immortalized him as the character Robert de Saint-Loup in "In Search of Lost Time"—a bisexual aristocrat embodying Belle Époque decadence.
Over their marriage, Boni spent approximately $10 million of Anna's inheritance—equivalent to roughly $300 million today, representing two-thirds of her total inheritance.
The final straw came in 1906 when Anna returned home to find the electricity cut off—Boni had failed to pay bills despite their enormous wealth.
On January 20, 1906, after eleven years of marriage, Anna filed for divorce citing Boni's infidelity and financial recklessness, immediately cutting off his access to her funds.
Anna's revenge was diabolically perfect: in 1926, she married Boni's own cousin, Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Sagan, elevating herself from countess to duchess within his own family circle.
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