Katharine O'Shea

About

Remembered for the scandal provoked by her lengthy affair with and subsequent marriage to Irish Parliamentary Party leader Charles Stewart Parnell, this aristocratic, Victorian era adulterer had two surviving daughters -- Claire and Katharine -- with the disgraced politician.

Before Fame

When she met Parnell, she was recently separated from her first husband, British Army Captain and politician William O'Shea.

Trivia

Her longtime lover and second husband, Charles Stewart Parnell, died just four months after marrying her.

Family Life

She was born in Essex, England, to a socially prominent family that included Whig politician Sir Matthew Wood (her grandfather) and Baron William Wood (her uncle).

Associated With

Conservative politician Robert Peel was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time of O'Shea's birth.