Strangers, a Memoir of Marriage, by American Belle Burden, had just about everything. Published earlier this year, the bestselling account of the breakdown of a marriage between two wealthy people in New York has gripped readers worldwide.It told of the brutal suddenness with which her now ex-husband, a hedge fund manager (since widely identified in the media), ended a 20-year marriage. He walked out overnight without explanation, declaring he wanted nothing from their marriage, not even shared custody of their three young children. Burden, who comes from American aristocracy in the form of the Vanderbilt family, had lived a gilded life, the details of which made for fascinating reading. Who would not want to read of the inner workings of exclusive private clubs on Martha’s Vineyard, nor about lives surrounded with extreme wealth?That wasn’t the only thing that engrossed readers and led to a Netflix deal, in which Gwyneth Paltrow is apparently to play Burden in a film of the memoir. The story was also about identifying with the universal emotions of heartbreak, from which no sum of money can insulate anyone.Recently the New Yorker magazine published a story by Jessica Winter called “What’s missing from Belle Burden’s Strangers”. Winter wrote that court documents seen by Winter indicated that Burden had not disclosed the extent of her personal wealth – a subject which was central to the tension of the narrative in her story. At the time of the breakdown of their marriage, the family resided between a Manhattan apartment (which went on the market last year for almost $12 million), and a house on Martha’s Vineyard (recently valued at $7.7 million.) Both properties had been purchased by Burden.Before their marriage, Burden – a trained lawyer – had signed a prenuptial agreement with her husband, against the advice of her family. At base, it meant that any assets either of them brought separately to the marriage would be divided between them in the case of divorce. However, she would have no claim on any of his income earned during their marriage. It emerged that he had been earning multiples of millions, unknown to her.In her memoir, Burden refers frequently to her worry that her ex-husband would enforce their prenup by demanding half of the value of each of these properties. She says she would have to sell both in order to buy a single, more modest place for herself and their three children. At what’s described as the last minute, they reach an agreement, and she retains both properties. Did anyone who read her book really think she was ever going to be reduced to working the hatch in some drive-in fast food restaurant?However, Winter’s investigations show that Burden had access to far more assets than she disclosed. It was reported that, at the time of their 1999 marriage, her assets and interests in trusts amounted to $63 million. Part of this was a $45 million share in a trust created for her (living) stepmother for the duration of her lifetime, after which the residue goes to Burden and her brother. She apparently also had an $8 million share in a charitable trust, a $4 million share in a business, and various other sources of income. The divorce settlement provided for $50,000 monthly in child support until their youngest child turns 22. That sum did not include private school fees, medical expenses, summer camps or pretty much everything one would usually include under the umbrella of anything a privileged child might reasonably need. So it turns out that Burden was never actually in any peril of losing either of her two properties or having to adjust her lifestyle as a result of divorce. Honestly, did anyone who read her book really think she was ever going to be reduced to working the hatch in some drive-in fast food restaurant? It was clear she had wealth – or, at the very least, access to wealthy relatives. The New Yorker’s disclosures don’t seem to have harmed Burden. Readers do not seem to feel misled; if they do, so far it has not altered their affection for the book. In a statement, Burden said, “When I wrote Strangers, I shared my heartache, my mistakes and my shame. I owned my privilege as plainly as I could, and I respected the privacy of sealed court records. I stand by everything I wrote, including the fear I felt from my ex-husband’s threats, the contributions I made and could make to my family, and what happened to me financially and emotionally in my marriage and divorce.”