‘Monster’: Were Lizzie Borden & Bridget ‘Maggie’ Sullivan Together in Real Life?
Ryan Murphy‘s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story follows the axe murder of Lizzie Borden’s (Ella Beatty) father, Andrew (Charlie Hunnam), and her stepmother, Abby (Rebecca Hall). (Warning: Spoilers for Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story ahead.)
But before that, Lizzie has a romance with housekeeper Bridget (Vicky Krieps), aka Maggie. After Lizzie is acquitted of the murders, thanks in part to the testimonies of her sister, Emma (Billie Lourd), and Maggie, the series flashes forward to give Lizzie a happy ending, more or less, with Maggie.
Lizzie is living in a mansion with Emma and has become close friends with actress Nance O’Neil (Jessica Barden). After helping Lizzie get away with murder, Maggie moved to Ireland and entered an unhappy marriage, but she visits Lizzie from time to time. Years later, Maggie leaves her husband to be with Lizzie, and they live out the rest of their days together.
Did Lizzie and Bridget, who were the only two people on the Borden property during the murders, actually get that happy ending? Were they accomplices and lovers? Swooon has everything you need to know about the real-life story below.
Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget ‘Maggie’ Sullivan together in real life?
Lizzie and her new housekeeper kiss as soon as Episode 2 of the show, falling in love as they plot the Bordens’ murders. Murphy’s take is in line with Evan Hunter’s 1984 novel Lizzie and the 2018 film Lizzie, but these portrayals of Lizzie and Bridget’s relationship are only theories. Though Lizzie was 32 and unmarried when the murders occurred and never married, there’s no historical evidence backing up the theory that she was gay or had a relationship with a woman.
Netflix
Regardless, it is true that Bridget, as a witness in the trial, helped Lizzie receive a “not guilty” verdict. Bridget confirmed Lizzie was in the home at the time of the murders, but “the effect of it was weakened by the statement, reiterated with emphasis, that between the accused and her stepmother there had never been, to witness’s knowledge, an unkind word,” The New York Times reported at the time.
The New York Herald described Lizzie as “far from homely, though not particularly handsome, but she never had a lover, she has avoided the company of young men and has never gone into society.”
As for whether Lizzie and Bridget kept in touch after the trial, there’s no historical evidence for that, either. According to the Lizzie Borden House’s website, Bridget immediately left the town of Fall River to find employment. She traveled back to her home in Ireland. Not finding work there, she returned to the United States within a year. Anaconda, Montana, specifically, where she met and married a fellow Irish immigrant. They had no children, but remained married and spent four decades in Montana until her death.
What happened between Lizzie Borden and Nance O’Neil?
Meanwhile, after the trial, Lizzie stayed in her hometown, using the money she inherited from her father to buy a home with Emma. As the show suggests, she did form a friendship with actress Nance O’Neil, per Biography.com. Some have theorized that their friendship was tied to Lizzie’s falling out with Emma, but again, it’s based on rumors. Emma told a Boston newspaper, according to Biography, “The happenings at the French Street house that caused me to leave I must refuse to talk about. I did not go until conditions became absolutely unbearable.”
Lizzie and Nance were only ever confirmed to have a friendship, though there have been romance rumors surrounding them, too. Nance gave Lizzie a poetry book with the dedication, “For my dear Lizbeth with love from Daphne.” Per Vanity Fair, they grew apart after a few years. O’Neil married actor Alfred Hickman in 1917, while Lizzie died in 1927.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, Streaming Now, Netflix
