Warning! Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton!
Scandal is nothing new to Bridgerton with Lady Whistledown spilling gossip on every character routinely, but it could be Lady Danbury who is hiding the show’s biggest scandal. Bridgerton season 2 saw another Bridgerton sibling happily married, with Anthony joining Daphne in wedded bliss thanks to Lady Danbury sponsoring the Sharmas for the season. As the Netflix series is based on Julia Quinn’s best-selling book series with each season being a book, and each book another of the Bridgerton children’s love stories, that leaves six more Bridgertons to go, with one story due to expose Lady Danbury’s secret past.
The fearsome Dowager plays a large role in Bridgerton season 1 as Simon’s past is revealed to be intertwined with hers. The sole champion for young Simon after his mother’s death, Lady Danbury is shown in flashbacks taking on Simon’s father, Lord Hastings, to ensure Simon’s schooling and care throughout his childhood, and she is instrumental in the courting between Simon and Daphne. Bridgerton Season 2 again sees Lady Danbury as an essential part of the plot, as the Sharmas’ sponsor for the town’s “season,” allowing Anthony to meet and fall in love with the older Sharma sister, Kate.
Lady Danbury’s significant role in Netflix’s Bridgerton thus far, however, is in large part a deviation from Julia Quinn’s books, The Duke and I and The Viscount Who Loved Me, in which Lady Danbury makes only brief appearances in both. Furthermore, her description in the show as a childless widow may be more than a little misleading, as Lady Danbury does, in fact, have children in Quinn’s series. As it is Lady Danbury’s grandson, Gareth, that proves the love match for the youngest Bridgerton sibling, Hyacinth, in It’s In His Kiss, Lady Danbury’s secret past seems destined to be revealed in the forthcoming seasons of Bridgerton.
Gareth St. Clair’s story is the focal point of Quinn’s seventh book, It’s In His Kiss, when Hyacinth Bridgerton becomes enamored with him after he attends an event at Lady Danbury’s request. Over the course of the story, readers discover that Gareth is the illegitimate son of Lady Danbury’s daughter, with his real father’s identity a mystery. This may come as a shock to Bridgerton viewers, as the show’s description of her character (via Shondaland), reads: “a widow with no children of her own,” however, it is what the show’s description omits that is most revealing of Lady Danbury’s secret past.
In It’s In His Kiss, Hyacinth is drawn into the mystery of Gareth’s father’s true identity as Gareth’s mother died without revealing it. This means that the description of Lady Danbury’s character on Shondaland is not wrong, but a more accurate, revealing version of it might read that the Dowager is a widow with no living children of her own. However justified, Lady Danbury’s secret past in the Bridgerton series is sure to provide fodder for the all-knowing Lady Whistledown while also, eventually, making Lady Danbury an official member of the Bridgerton family.
