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- How Gladys Russell's Marriage on "The Gilded Age" Mirrors the Real-Life Story of Consuelo Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Carson BlackwelderJuly 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM</p>
<p>Karolina Wojtasik/HBO; Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty</p>
<p>Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Russell on 'The Gilded Age' season 3 (L); Consuelo Vanderbilt (R)</p>
<p>Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) married the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) on the latest episode of The Gilded Age</p>
<p>Their relationship and wedding appears to be mirroring that of Consuelo Vanderbilt, who married the Duke of Marlborough in 1895</p>
<p>Only time will tell if Consuelo's real life hints at what's to come for Gladys</p>
<p>The latest episode of The Gilded Age saw the wedding of the century — and many fans are pointing out its real-life inspiration.</p>
<p>Despite the efforts of her father George's (Morgan Spector), Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) was unable to thwart her mother Bertha's (Carrie Coon) plan to marry her off to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). The two said "I do" in a stunning-yet-somber ceremony and immediately set sail for England.</p>
<p>Three seasons in, creator Julian Fellowes has an impressive track record for including historical inspiration within the storyline of his fictional characters.</p>
<p>Fans are convinced that Gladys is a stand-in for Consuelo Vanderbilt, and everything we've seen up to now seems to indicate they are correct.</p>
<p>Karolina Wojtasik/HBO</p>
<p>Taissa Farmiga as Gladys Russell and Ben Lamb as the Duke of Birmingham on 'The Gilded Age' season 3Like Gladys, Consuelo was the daughter of a railroad tycoon and a Manhattan socialite.</p>
<p>Consuelo was born in New York City in 1877 to William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Both Gladys and Consuelo sought to marry for love, but their mothers had different ideas and set about arranging their daughters' nuptials. They wanted their daughters to secure as much status as possible through their marriage, and that meant gaining an enviable title — in both cases, Duchess.</p>
<p>In her memoir, The Glitter and the Gold, Consuelo writes in detail about the efforts her mother Alva took to ensure she married into aristocracy, per Vogue.</p>
<p>"I considered I had a right to choose my own husband. These words, the bravest I have ever uttered, brought down a frightful storm of protest," Consuelo wrote of her mother, who rejected the idea she could marry her true love, Winthrop Rutherford, the son of a notable New York society family. "I suffered every searing reproach, heard every possible invective hurled at the man I love."</p>
<p>Bettmann Archive/Getty</p>
<p>Portrait of the Duchess of Marlborough, Consuelo Vanderbilt, on November 17, 1926</p>
<p>Similarly, Gladys was forbidden to marry her true love, Billy Carlton (Matt Walker), a young man from a prominent New York family.</p>
<p>While Gladys was married off to the Duke of Buckingham on The Gilded Age, in real life Consuelo was married off to Charles Spencer Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough at 19 years old, whom her mother Alva met during a trip abroad to the Marlborough estate. She was the first American woman to ever become a Duchess.</p>
<p>Both marriages were carefully arranged by their mothers, and their fathers came into play with a dowery that sweetened the deal for both sides.</p>
<p>Marlborough received $100,000 yearly plus $2.5 million in railroad stock, which would be around $3.2 million and $81 million today, respectively. George Russell pays Gladys' husband handsomely on the show, and gives Gladys an allowance. The same can be said for Consuelo.</p>
<p>There's also a commonality between how Gladys and Consuelo both felt on their respective wedding days.</p>
<p>On The Gilded Age, to say Gladys is devastated about marrying the Duke of Buckingham would be an understatement. She is clearly upset at her parents and feels trapped, but, ultimately agrees.</p>
<p>In her memoir, Consuelo writes, "I spent the morning of my wedding day in tears and alone; no one came near me. A footman had been posted at the door of my apartment and not even my governess was admitted."</p>
<p>Getty Images</p>
<p>A portrait of Consuelo Vanderbilt, the 9th Duchess of Marlborough in 1902</p>
<p>The show depicts Gladys being late for her wedding at St. Thomas Church in June 1884 because she was upstairs in her bed deciding if she would go through with it or not — a direct parallel to what happened with Consuelo.</p>
<p>"On a November day in 1895, crowds of curious sightseers gathered outside St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, intent on spotting a small dapper bridegroom whom they knew to be a great English aristocrat awaiting his bride-to-be," reads the book jacket of Amanda Mackenzie Stuart's 2005 book Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age.</p>
<p>The snippet continues, "When she arrived, twenty minutes late, anyone who caught a glimpse beneath Consuelo Vanderbilt's veil would have seen that her face was swollen from crying."</p>
<p>In a heartbreaking turn, Gladys was weeping under her veil during her wedding to the Duke of Birmingham.</p>
<p>While we don't know how Gladys' marriage to the Duke of Buckingham will go, we do know how Consuelo's marriage to the Duke of Marlborough went.</p>
<p>Consuelo and the Duke of Marlborough had two sons, John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, and Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill. Though, she never took a liking to living in England nor to her husband.</p>
<p>"How I learned to dread and hate these dinners, how ominous and wearisome they loomed at the end of a long day," she wrote in her memoir about dining with the Duke of Marlborough.</p>
<p>Having their relationship built on shaky ground, they separated in 1906 and divorced in 1921. Their marriage was later annulled by the Vatican in 1926.</p>
<p>Consuelo went on to marry Jacques Balsan in 1921.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Duke of Marlborough's second wife was named Gladys Deacon.</p>
<p>Will Gladys' trajectory on The Gilded Age continue to mirror that of Consuelo's from history? Only time will tell.</p>
<p>The Gilded Age season 3 airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max.</p>
<p>on People</p>
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