Getting to Know Einstein's Wives

“A. You will see to it (1) that my clothes and linen are kept in order, (2) that I am served three regular meals a day in my room. B. You will renounce all personal relations with me, except when these are required to keep up social appearances.” In addition, he wrote “You will expect no affection from me” and “You must leave my bedroom or study at once without protesting when I ask you to.”  Meanwhile, Albert started getting close to Elsa around 1912, while he was still married to Maria. Though the two had grown up spending time with each other (as cousins typically do), it was only around this time that they developed a romantic correspondence with one another.

While he was sick, Elsa proved her devotion to Albert by taking care of him and in 1919, he divorced Maria.Albert wed Elsa on June 2, 1919, shortly after his divorce was finalized. But a letter showed that he wasn’t in such a rush to do so. “The attempts to force me into marriage come from my cousin’s parents and is mainly attributable to vanity, though moral prejudice, which is still very much alive in the old generation,” he wrote.