Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

I think he was terrible/selfish/personality disordered for not wanting custody but I do agree that it seems her life essentially revolved around her children and the upper class lifestyle she enjoyed, without accounting for the fact that the type of husband to provide that lifestyle would have to be away from home so much and that that was a risky situation. I think he probably wanted to be away and at work regardless of whether she wanted to pitch in and have a career of her own but she sure seems like the type that didn't want to work and believed women should be SAHMs.

She grew up extremely privileged and had an excellent education so she's not a terrible writer, but is she smart? No.

Generally people that are into being mothers don’t ship their kids off to boarding school and let them quarantine with another family during covid. This lady is dull and helpless. And her writing sucks — I don’t know what kind of crap y’all read that you think this was a good book.

Someone’s clearly clueless about wealthy families.

It’s true that it’s common for very wealthy families in New York to live like this and frankly, it’s terrible. The kids are all messed up and there is rampant substance abuse and infidelity. Just because it’s common doesn’t mean that it means she actually is a great mother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

Well, he did drag things out by initially saying he wanted the apartment t and house on the Vineyard.
Then at the last moment, dropped the demands. It just added to his overall sh!ttiness

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

Yes he did. He put Belle Burden through the wringer financially and backed off only at the last minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

I think he was terrible/selfish/personality disordered for not wanting custody but I do agree that it seems her life essentially revolved around her children and the upper class lifestyle she enjoyed, without accounting for the fact that the type of husband to provide that lifestyle would have to be away from home so much and that that was a risky situation. I think he probably wanted to be away and at work regardless of whether she wanted to pitch in and have a career of her own but she sure seems like the type that didn't want to work and believed women should be SAHMs.

She grew up extremely privileged and had an excellent education so she's not a terrible writer, but is she smart? No.

Generally people that are into being mothers don’t ship their kids off to boarding school and let them quarantine with another family during covid. This lady is dull and helpless. And her writing sucks — I don’t know what kind of crap y’all read that you think this was a good book.

Someone’s clearly clueless about wealthy families.

It’s true that it’s common for very wealthy families in New York to live like this and frankly, it’s terrible. The kids are all messed up and there is rampant substance abuse and infidelity. Just because it’s common doesn’t mean that it means she actually is a great mother.

There’s zero evidence that her kids are drug addicts. Her son just graduated and they all seem to have good relationships with their mother. You’re just making up stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

Yes he did. He put Belle Burden through the wringer financially and backed off only at the last minute.

Yes. He chose to litigate and only settled at the 11th hour before the trial began. I am betting he settled because he knew a trial would not be favorable to him but he dragged it out as long as possible because he is psycho. It’s text book actually.

[Anonymous]

I thought the book was great. But now I want to know if he is still with mistress?! Has she been outed?
Would be great for the kids to tell their version events. Their dad seems like a dick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the book was great. But now I want to know if he is still with mistress?! Has she been outed?
Would be great for the kids to tell their version events. Their dad seems like a dick.

Rumor has it that that particular mistress didn’t last long. Burden says he hasn’t remarried so he’s probably content playing the field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

I think he was terrible/selfish/personality disordered for not wanting custody but I do agree that it seems her life essentially revolved around her children and the upper class lifestyle she enjoyed, without accounting for the fact that the type of husband to provide that lifestyle would have to be away from home so much and that that was a risky situation. I think he probably wanted to be away and at work regardless of whether she wanted to pitch in and have a career of her own but she sure seems like the type that didn't want to work and believed women should be SAHMs.

She grew up extremely privileged and had an excellent education so she's not a terrible writer, but is she smart? No.

Generally people that are into being mothers don’t ship their kids off to boarding school and let them quarantine with another family during covid. This lady is dull and helpless. And her writing sucks — I don’t know what kind of crap y’all read that you think this was a good book.

Someone’s clearly clueless about wealthy families.

On the contrary, I’m aware of how wealthy families generally have bad parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The author wrote a NYT Modern Love column 5 years ago about the abrupt demise of her marriage and how her husband immediately walked out after his affair was discovered and told her to keep the kids and everything else. Now she’s written a book about her experience. It’s generating buzz because she’s from an elite old-money New York family. I can somewhat understand dumping a spouse cold turkey but who leaves their kids?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/books/review/belle-burden-strangers-divorce-memoir.html?smid=url-share

You lost me at "NYT"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

I think he was terrible/selfish/personality disordered for not wanting custody but I do agree that it seems her life essentially revolved around her children and the upper class lifestyle she enjoyed, without accounting for the fact that the type of husband to provide that lifestyle would have to be away from home so much and that that was a risky situation. I think he probably wanted to be away and at work regardless of whether she wanted to pitch in and have a career of her own but she sure seems like the type that didn't want to work and believed women should be SAHMs.

She grew up extremely privileged and had an excellent education so she's not a terrible writer, but is she smart? No.

Generally people that are into being mothers don’t ship their kids off to boarding school and let them quarantine with another family during covid. This lady is dull and helpless. And her writing sucks — I don’t know what kind of crap y’all read that you think this was a good book.

Someone’s clearly clueless about wealthy families.

On the contrary, I’m aware of how wealthy families generally have bad parents.

I actually do wonder about this. I’m not a fan of parenting and joke I was meant to be born an aristocrat. I’m not convinced the middle class helicopter parenting style is really any better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

Yes he did. He put Belle Burden through the wringer financially and backed off only at the last minute.

Yes. He chose to litigate and only settled at the 11th hour before the trial began. I am betting he settled because he knew a trial would not be favorable to him but he dragged it out as long as possible because he is psycho. It’s text book actually.

Either that or pethaps his new girlfriend wanted it to be over. I know of a situation like this. The husband dragged it out for years until he met someone, got serioud and she wanted him to settle. They then got married.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

Yes he did. He put Belle Burden through the wringer financially and backed off only at the last minute.

Yes. He chose to litigate and only settled at the 11th hour before the trial began. I am betting he settled because he knew a trial would not be favorable to him but he dragged it out as long as possible because he is psycho. It’s text book actually.

And he arranged the settlement by emailing Belle, not going through their lawyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see this differently than a lot of other commenters and don’t necessarily judge him leaving the kids.

I was married to someone with a personality disorder and one of his favorite threats was to threaten to take the kids from me. This was despite me being the primary caregiver.

Would it be better if she was forced to lose primary custody and not see her kids half the time? I believe a child needs both parents, but there is some nuance when one parent has been the primary parent all along.


While she comes from money, she was mostly illiquid, and he was working 24-7 to support that lifestyle. I am familiar with that NY finance lifestyle and you can’t have it both ways. If you want the country house, private school and nice apartment then your husband is mostly absent unless you have generational wealthy to use. It’s not surprising he was mostly absent. I highly doubt she ever offered to return to work so he could scale back and spend time with the kids. She instead probably wanted that Colony Club membership more. Then they get divorced and it makes sense she continued on as the primary and really only true parent.

IMHO the gentlemanly thing to do wasn’t for him to leave her AND take her kids half the time while he was at it. He probably thought he was choosing the lesser of two evils.

I’ve known plenty of these NY women and they are vapid, shallow and their main priority is the lifestyle and social life. I’d be shocked if she’s not similar.

this is the best comment in this thread and as a Native New yorker this is so true.

Your average person can easily fall for her story. If you have any experience with her world then you can poke many holes in her story.

Also everyone on the internet claims the guy is a narcissist with a personality disorder. No way. Any man with a personality disorder/narcissist would be speaking out to the media and relishing in the drama. Instead he’s been quiet with the exception of one statement that said very little. That’s not how a narcissist responds to conflict.

You’re very naive about narcissism and personality disorders.

Wouldn’t a narcissist go nuts in a divorce? It doesn’t seem common to to MIA and leave the ex-spouse alone. I thought they like conflict, no?

Yes.By making the legal process as awful as possible. It's not always about stalking and harassing.

Doesn’t sound like he did this.

Yes he did. He put Belle Burden through the wringer financially and backed off only at the last minute.

Yes. He chose to litigate and only settled at the 11th hour before the trial began. I am betting he settled because he knew a trial would not be favorable to him but he dragged it out as long as possible because he is psycho. It’s text book actually.

He did not make things easy on her financially during the divorce, but she was a fool who dismissed the prenup advice of her lawyers.