A glamorous New York City heiress revealed her estranged husband had abandoned their family to a tiny apartment as he left her for a younger woman.
Flobelle ‘Belle’ Fairbanks Burden, 56, is the granddaughter of New York socialite Babe Paley.
The NYC lawyer penned a memoir detailing the moment her glamorous life came to a crashing halt after she got a call revealing her hedge-funder husband’s affair in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Henry Davis, 60, allegedly admitted to cheating on his wife of more than 20 years with a 35-year-old woman whom he met through work.
Davis’s mistress attempted suicide after the month-long illicit relationship was unmasked, the heiress recalled in her book.
The next morning, he told his wife he was unhappy, did not want their Massachusetts house or NYC apartment, and said she could have sole custody of their three children, she claimed.
‘You can have the house and the apartment. You can have custody of the kids. I don’t want it. I don’t want any of it,’ he allegedly told her per The Sunday Times.
He traded in their $4.7 million Martha’s Vineyard home and for a ‘sleek’ two-bedroom apartment shortly after their divorce was finalized.
‘I still thought he would want to make a home for his children, that he wouldn’t follow through on his decision to have no custody and no overnights,’ she said in her book Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage.
Burden claimed Davis converted his second bedroom into an office, ensuring there would be no space for their three daughters and son.
Burden noted that six years later, Davis does occasionally see the kids for dinners and tennis matches, but has not been involved in co-parenting.
She remains their sole guardian and alleges there have been ‘no handovers or holidays since the day he left.’
Burden, who is a descendant of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, was completely blindsided by the total collapse of her family.
It began on March 15, 2020, when the couple and their two youngest children fled the pandemic to quarantine at Martha’s Vineyard.
In her book, Burden described the stability and routine the family had while escaping lockdown as ‘delightful’ in the early days.
Just six days into lockdown, Burden received a call – which she declined – from an unknown number claiming that Davis was having an affair, she revealed in an excerpt published in The Times.
‘I’m trying to reach Belle,’ a man said in the haunting voicemail. ‘I’m sorry to tell you this, but your husband is having an affair with my wife.’
Burden confronted Davis about his infidelity, alleging that he admitted to having a relationship with a mother of two whom he met through work.
At first, her ex-husband was apologetic, Burden claimed. He said their entanglement was ‘over’ and ‘meant nothing’.
But on the morning of March 21, Davis told her he wanted a divorce, packed a bag, and left for New York City without even saying goodbye to their daughters.
‘I thought I was happy but I’m not. I thought I wanted our life but I don’t. I feel like a switch has flipped. I’m done,’ he allegedly told her in a phone call when he got back to the city.
He reportedly admitted that he wanted to check on his mistress and make sure she was okay.
Burden, who was 50 when they separated, claimed that one of the last things Davis told her before he left there was: ‘You’ll be fine. You’re still young.’
She noted that Davis has just reached the ‘pinnacle’ of his career in hedge funds.
To this day, she is unsure of whether her age or the pandemic played a role in the dissolution of their marriage.
‘I don’t know why he left. I don’t think I ever will,’ she penned in the memoir.
Burden and Davis in June 1999 at her stepmother Susan’s home in Water Mill, NY, after the pair met at a corporate law firm.
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage was released on January 13.
