Sarah Bernhardt and the Belgian connection

The name Sarah Bernhardt conjures up not only one of the greatest actresses of her time, but also one of the greatest courtesans. Her list of lovers is amazing. She even had a liaison with a man nearly forty years her junior!

Her life was long and truly eventful. However, let us turn to an aspect of her life story that is significant but little known. She was a friend of the author Alexander Dumas who gave her letters of introduction when she moved to Brussels in 1862, aged 18, after a dispute with the Comédie Française. These letters allowed her to be admitted to the highest levels of society. She attended a masked ball in Brussels where she met Henri, Prince de Ligne, who found her quite irresistible. However, the affair was cut short when she returned to Paris after her mother fell ill. Mother recovered but Sarah discovered she was pregnant with the Prince’s child. On 22 December 1864 the actress, now aged 20, gave birth to her only child, Maurice Bernhardt.

Even though she did not tell the Prince, Henri found out anyway. He told his family that he wanted to marry her. The Prince’s family threatened to disinherit him if he went ahead with his marriage plans. Sarah later termed the affair “her abiding wound”. She never revealed the name of her son’s father. Many years later, the Prince allegedly came to Paris and offered to formally recognise Maurice as his son but Maurice declined saying that he was entirely satisfied to simply be the son of Sarah Bernhardt.

Ann Englander