{"id":99465,"date":"2026-01-14T00:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99465\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T00:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:18:12","slug":"nyc-heiress-reveals-cheating-ex-husband-downsized-to-apartment-with-no-room-for-their-3-children-after-relinquishing-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99465\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC heiress reveals cheating ex-husband downsized to apartment with no room for their 3 children after relinquishing custody"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York City heiress detailed the glaringly apparent sign that her ex-husband didn\u2019t want anything to do with their three children after he allegedly ditched their two decades of marriage <\/a>for a younger colleague.<\/p>\n

Flobelle \u201cBelle\u201d Fairbanks Burden, the granddaughter of legendary New York socialite Babe Paley, provided an intimate look inside the breakdown of her marriage to hedge fund executive Henry Davis in her book \u201cStrangers: A Memoir of Marriage,\u201d which was published by The Times of London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flobelle Fairbanks Burden and Henry Davis divorced after he allegedly cheated on her with a younger work acquaintance. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Burden, 56, claimed that Davis, 60, up and left their Martha\u2019s Vineyard home just one day after his mistress attempted to take her own life. He fled the $7.5 million property without saying goodbye to his three children and severed the final ties of his marriage to Burden over the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have the [Martha\u2019s Vineyard] house and the [New York] apartment. You can have custody of the kids. I don\u2019t want it. I don\u2019t want any of it,\u201d he reportedly said, according to the heiress\u2019s memoir. <\/p>\n

At the time, the family was locked down at their ritzy second home on the tiny Massachusetts island, seeking an escape during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Shortly after their divorce was finalized, Davis purchased a two-bedroom apartment in New York City \u2014 and converted the second room into a home office, leaving no guest space for prospective visitors, including his own children, Burden said in her book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still thought he would want to make a home for his children, that he wouldn\u2019t follow through on his decision to have no custody and no overnights,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

In her memoir, the scorned ex noted that Davis still sees his children \u2014 but only for the occasional tennis match or abridged family dinner. She alleged that there have been \u201cno handovers or holidays since the day he left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burden said that Davis downsized to an apartment that couldn\u2019t accommodate his three children after the divorce. Belle Burden\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Davis allegedly told Burden that he didn\u2019t want custody of their three children. Belle Burden\/Instagram<\/p>\n

She added that the apparent deadbeat dad never provided a real explanation for why he decided to terminate their marriage of 21 years seemingly overnight, and at one point stopped taking her calls entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll answer what I want, when I want. I\u2019ll speak when I want. I\u2019ll decide when I want,\u201d Davis reportedly texted Burden.<\/p>\n

Their marriage imploded after the mistress\u2019 jilted husband called Burden and spilled the beans. <\/p>\n

Burden\u2019s book, \u201cStrangers: A Memoir of Marriage,\u201d was released on Jan. 13. Belle Burden\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to reach Belle. I\u2019m sorry to tell you this, but your husband is having an affair with my wife,\u201d the man said in a voicemail left for Burden.<\/p>\n

Burden confronted Davis, who allegedly confessed to an affair with a much younger woman he met through work. He originally pleaded with his wife and claimed the ordeal was\u00a0\u201cover\u201d \u2014 but then rushed to his mistress\u2019s side the day after she tried to kill herself.<\/p>\n

The newly single mother was in contact with Davis\u2019 family for a brief interim before they abruptly cut her off, claiming they needed to support him instead, according to the bombshell memoir.<\/p>\n

Burden wrote that she doesn\u2019t know if Davis and his mistress are still together, or if he had any other affairs before the one that ended their marriage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City heiress detailed the glaringly apparent sign that her ex-husband didn\u2019t want anything to do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9829,7541,13298,17938,9,24,55,54,56,63,8092,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-99465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-affairs","9":"tag-celebrity-memoirs","10":"tag-divorce","11":"tag-hedge-funds","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-socialites","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}