The question of who Belle Burden’s husband is, and what he did, has captivated readers since her viral 2023 New York Times Modern Love essay and more so since her memoir Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list in January 2026. Her husband — referred to in the memoir by the pseudonym “James” but confirmed by media reports as Henry Patterson Davis — is a New York-based hedge fund executive whose actions during the COVID-19 pandemic upended his family and ignited a national conversation about marriage, financial vulnerability, and betrayal.
Belle Burden Husband Now
Belle Burden does not have a husband today — she and Henry Davis divorced in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Burden discovered that Davis was having an affair and that he was leaving her. The marriage, which had lasted over two decades, ended in 2020. In 2020, behind the scenes, her life fell apart when her husband of 21 years, hedge fund executive Henry Davis, told her he wanted a divorce after she learned he was having an affair.
As of 2026, Henry Davis is no longer in a public relationship, and no confirmed reporting indicates that he has remarried or is living with a new wife. Belle Burden, for her part, has rebuilt her life as a published author, immigration attorney, and public voice on marriage, divorce, and financial self-protection for women.
The story of where Belle Burden’s husband stands today is best understood through the chain of events that led to the collapse of their marriage — a collapse that is now heading to Netflix.
Belle Burden Past Husband
Belle Burden went to Harvard and then earned her law degree from NYU, after which she married fellow lawyer Henry Patterson Davis in June 1999. In her memoir, she chose to call him “James” — a pseudonym meant to protect their children’s privacy. She changed names and identifying details so she could write with abandon about the implosion of her marriage to “James” — in real life Henry Davis — two months after they purchased a very expensive Sleep Number mattress.
Davis reportedly turned roughly 60 around the time the memoir published, and his specific fund or firm name has not been publicly disclosed, though multiple outlets describe him consistently as a high-level hedge fund executive who accumulated significant personal wealth during the marriage.
The two first crossed paths long before their wedding. Henry Patterson Davis is a New York-based financier who built his career in hedge fund management. He and Burden first crossed paths in 1988 as young associates at Davis Polk & Wardwell, a top-tier Manhattan corporate law firm. They married in June 1999 at a private ceremony held at the Water Mill, Long Island, home of Burden’s stepmother Susan L. Burden.
How Belle Burden Met Her Husband and Who He Was
Belle was the daughter of Carter Burden, a descendant of the Vanderbilts who built his own broadcasting company, and Amanda Burden, an urban planner who was the daughter of socialite Babe Paley. Belle was independently wealthy when she met Henry Davis. Davis came from a more modest position. He was a lawyer at the time, as was Burden, and his family did have money when he was growing up, but at some point in the 1970s, his father had a breakdown, was laid off, and stopped working. His parents used savings to cover costs, and when he was in law school, they divorced, and he learned there was no money left.
Burden has spoken openly about why she was drawn to the idea of marriage and what her expectations were when she entered into it. Because of where she grew up on the Upper East Side and attending private schools, there was an expectation that she would meet her mate, have a nice wedding, and get married. She has said that because she had been through her parents’ divorce and then her mother’s divorce from her stepfather, she had a deep yearning to be married for eternity and to have an intact family — that it was the thing she wanted most in life.
Henry Davis and the Prenup
One of the most discussed revelations from Strangers concerns the prenuptial agreement that Burden and Davis signed before their 1999 wedding — specifically an amendment Davis pushed for against her own attorney’s advice.
Davis suggested a specific amendment to the draft her lawyer had sent ahead of the wedding: instead of splitting everything equally if they were to divorce, he wanted them each to keep what they had in their own names and split anything in both of their names. Burden’s lawyer pushed back. Her lawyer told her it was a bad idea; it was standard to share in what was earned during a marriage — it was fair. Burden made the counterargument, repeating the words Davis had given to her to explain why they should make the change.
The consequences of that amendment became clear only when the marriage ended. Burden quit working relatively early in her marriage to take care of the three children she had with Davis. She also used her trust funds to purchase their homes — a large apartment in New York City as well as a vacation home in Martha’s Vineyard. She put Davis’ name on the homes when she purchased them.
It wasn’t until January 2021, when, as part of the divorce proceedings, Burden received documents detailing Davis’ earnings over the years, that she realized just how much wealth her soon-to-be ex-husband had accrued over the years. She also realized how their altered prenup put her at a disadvantage. Davis could now claim his ownership stake in both properties.
Belle Burden Husband’s Affair and Mistress
The marriage did not simply drift apart — it ended in a single, shocking moment during the early weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.
When New York heiress Belle Burden and her then-husband Henry Davis decided to quarantine their family at their home in Martha’s Vineyard when the pandemic first started, she had no idea it would be the end of her marriage. On the evening of March 21, she got a phone call but let it go to voicemail since she didn’t recognize the number. When she listened to it, she heard a man who she described as sounding nervous, who said: he was trying to reach Belle, and that he was sorry to tell her, but her husband was having an affair with his wife.
Henry Davis’s affair was with a 35-year-old colleague. The mistress’s name has not been confirmed publicly. The revelation came through a call from the woman’s husband — and what followed was swift and brutal. Davis was initially “apologetic,” Burden recalled, but things changed. By the next morning, he was ice-cold. He told her he wanted a divorce, walked out of their house and left the island.
Burden has described the aftermath as particularly cruel. Davis allegedly taunted Burden in a vindictive phone call, saying in a singsong voice like a taunting child: “Boo-hoo. Poor Belle. Always the victim.” He asked what was so hard about her situation, noting she was in a nice house on Martha’s Vineyard with everything she needed and that he had paid his share of the bills.
What Did Henry Leave Her For?
The question of who Belle Burden’s husband left her for has been central to public discussion of the memoir. He left her for a woman identified only as a younger colleague — a 35-year-old at the time of the affair. Burden discovered Davis’s extramarital affair in March 2020 after receiving a voicemail from the husband of Davis’s mistress. Davis asked for a divorce the following day, packed a bag, and left the family’s Martha’s Vineyard home without saying goodbye to their children.
Burden has said that where her brain rests is what Davis said to her on the first day — that a switch went off for him and there was no going back. She has also reflected that the metaphor of playing a role feels accurate to her. The role of husband and father became unsustainable for him, and when he left the stage, he couldn’t take off the costume gracefully.
Belle Burden Husband Net Worth
Henry Davis’s exact net worth has never been publicly disclosed. However, the financial picture that emerged through the divorce proceedings was striking. Burden had handed over complete control of the couple’s finances to Davis early in their relationship, including amending their prenup to protect his assets. Despite her generational wealth and career as a former corporate lawyer, Burden trusted Davis with their finances and only realized after their divorce that he had amassed significant wealth.
It wasn’t until January 2021, when, as part of the divorce proceedings, Burden received documents detailing Davis’ earnings over the years, that she realized just how much wealth her soon-to-be ex-husband had accrued. His hedge fund fortune was accumulated entirely in his own name, leaving Burden financially vulnerable under the terms of the amended prenup.
Burden has said she believes Davis wanted to “win” the divorce, which to her meant leaving with the most money possible. She said she was in a position where, because he knew how much she cared about her homes, the threat of losing them made her willing to agree to less than she otherwise might have.
Belle Burden Kids and Custody
Burden wed Henry Davis in June 1999. They share three kids. Their children — referred to in the memoir by pseudonyms — were still minors at the time of the divorce. Their oldest was staying with friends, their middle child was in boarding school, and their youngest, a daughter, was 12 at the time of the separation.
Davis’s handling of custody became one of the most painful and discussed elements of the memoir. He told Burden: “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 maintained that he didn’t want any official custody of the children, believing they were old enough to decide when they wanted to see him.
Burden had her lawyer send Davis a custody agreement giving them each 50-50 custody, assuming he would have realized his mistake in not seeking more time with their children. Instead, he returned the document stripped of all his time, including vacations, holidays, and weeks during the summer. He included only dinner on Thursday nights.
Despite offering a 50-50 custody split in their divorce agreement, Belle Burden has sole custody of their three children, as Davis did not want them to go back and forth between parents.
The youngest child’s experience was especially raw. Their youngest really wanted a bedroom at her father’s new apartment, but Davis told Burden he was done with that stage of his life where he would parent a child in that way, with homework and dinners and all that kind of stuff. The daughter’s reaction — a child old enough to understand she was being rejected by a parent — became one of the rawest sections of the memoir and the detail most cited in subsequent media coverage.
Is Henry Davis Remarried?
No confirmed reports as of June 2026 indicate that Henry Davis has remarried or taken a new wife. Davis has maintained an extremely low public profile since the divorce and has not responded publicly to the memoir or its explosive reception. His specific fund or firm name has not been publicly disclosed. He has made no known public statements in response to Strangers, its bestseller status, or the Netflix deal that followed.
Recent News: Netflix, Gwyneth Paltrow, and What’s Next
The story of Belle Burden and her ex-husband Henry Davis is now moving from memoir to screen. Netflix won a heated six-way auction for the film rights to the memoir, with Gwyneth Paltrow attached to star and executive produce. The screenplay will be penned by Heidi Schreck, the Tony-nominated playwright and screenwriter known for What the Constitution Means to Me. Belle Burden herself is also on board as an executive producer alongside Paltrow.
Just three months after Burden’s memoir was released, it was confirmed that her story would be coming to life on Netflix, with Paltrow stepping in to play the author. Burden has described Paltrow as a natural fit. She noted that when they met in person and over Zoom, Paltrow really understood the book, connected with it emotionally, and that she would take great care of it.
Burden has said she can barely believe that Paltrow is playing her and described it as a great honor, while also reflecting that the journey from essay to book to film has been a whirlwind she never anticipated.
Meanwhile, Burden has continued to speak publicly about the financial lessons she drew from her marriage. During an appearance on the “Financial Tea with Mrs. Dow Jones” podcast, she described how she gave up her career in corporate law to raise their three children and let Davis focus on his growing career in finance — and in doing so, she let him control their bank accounts completely. She reflected that there was something romantic, almost, about handing this over to him, and that he had promised to take care of her, which felt wonderful at the time.
Conclusion
The story of Belle Burden’s husband is ultimately a story about what happens when trust is weaponized within the most intimate kind of legal and emotional contract. Henry Davis — hedge fund executive, former corporate lawyer, and the man Burden chose to build her life with — left a 21-year marriage by voicemail revelation, walked away from custody of three children, and leveraged a prenuptial amendment that his own wife’s lawyer had warned against.
Belle Burden detailed being blindsided by the sudden end of what she thought was her happy 20-year marriage in her memoir Strangers, using pseudonyms to identify her husband and their three children, who were minors when she and Henry split up in 2020. What followed — a number-one bestseller, a Netflix deal, a casting announcement featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, and a broader national conversation about financial dependency in marriage — has turned a deeply private trauma into one of the defining cultural stories of 2026.
Henry Davis has remained silent. Belle Burden has not.
