A New York City heiress revealed how her hedge funder husband taunted her in a vindictive phone call and text message after dumping her for a younger mistress at the height of the pandemic, according to claims in her new book.
Flobelle “Belle” Fairbanks Burden — a descendant of New York legends like industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt and supreme court justice John Jay — says that her ex, Henry Davis, cruelly mocked her over the phone when she burst into tears and demanded to know why he left her.
“He said in a singsong voice, like a taunting child, ‘Boo-hoo. Poor Belle. Always the victim,’” Burden, 56, wrote in her new book “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage.”
“You were in a nice house on Martha’s Vineyard. You had everything you needed. I paid my share of the bills. What was so hard about that?” Davis, 60, allegedly hissed in September 2020.
Burden — whose grandmother is socialite and former Vogue editor Babe Paley and whose great-great uncle is legendary silent-film-era actor Douglas Fairbanks — had just received a heartbreaking letter from Davis filing for divorce under cut-throat prenuptial terms, roughly six months after his affair with a 35-year-old colleague was exposed, she wrote, according to the Daily Mail.
The letter prompted Burden to angrily call Davis and asked why he’d dumped her and fled their $7.5 million Martha’s Vineyard estate.
“I didn’t leave you. I changed residences,” he allegedly snapped.
Burden — who details the explosive breakdown of her decades-long marriage in the book — said her former spouse also lashed out at her in a nasty text message shortly after his affair was exposed.
Davis flew into a rage over a text message he had received from Burden’s stepmother, Susan, 78, pleading with him to be “honorable,” Burden said.
“He was furious. He texted me that, because of what Susan had written, he was going to continue his affair. He texted me that because of what she had written, he would give me nothing at all,” she wrote in the book.
Burden said she got a voicemail in early 2020, while quarantining with her family on Martha’s Vineyard, from a man revealing that his wife had been having an affair with her husband.
Davis allegedly admitted to cheating and promised the affair was meaningless — but then changed his mind the next morning and ended the marriage, according to the book.
Burden is the daughter of former New York City Department of Planning director Amanda Burden and Shirley Carter Burden Jr., the great-great-great grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. As a Vanderbilt descendant, she also is a distant cousin to both CNN journalist Anderson Cooper and his mom, the late designer Gloria Vanderbilt.
Her new book, published by Penguin Random House has been released to rave reviews.
Earlier this week, she revealed other searing details of their split, including that Davis allegedly asked her to make him a sandwich moments after breaking news of the divorce to their kids.
The couple began dating in 1998 after meeting at a law firm where they worked as lawyers. Their divorce was finalized in summer 2021.
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