13. Anne Hathaway took William Shakespeare for her husband, even though he was younger than her and a struggling writer
She may have been married to the man many consider to be the greatest writer in the history of the English language, but very little is actually known of Anne Hathaway. But that hasn’t stopped scholars trying to get a fuller picture of Mrs Shakespeare. What is certainly known is that she was older than the Bard. Indeed, when the married in 1582, he was still a youth of 18, while she was a 26-year-old woman. Since Hathaway was pregnant when they married, it’s often argued that Shakespeare was pressured into taking her as a wife by her family.
Other historians of the Bard, however, argue that, far from being forced into a ‘shotgun’ wedding, it’s more likely that Shakespeare would have been the one pursuing the older woman. After all, at that time, the Shakespeare family were struggling financially, while the Hathaways were doing well for themselves. Whatever the reason for their getting married, they stayed wed until Shakespeare’s death in 1616. They had three children together, though for much of their marriage, the playwright lived in London while his older wife stayed in Stratford. Despite the age difference, Hathaway outlived her husband by seven years.