Editing Mata Hari (section)

==Dutch East Indies==
At 18, Margaretha answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch colonial army captain Rudolf MacLeod (1856–1928), who was living in what was then the [[Dutch East Indies]] (now Indonesia) and was looking for a wife. Margaretha married MacLeod in Amsterdam on 11 July 1895. He was the son of Captain John Brienen MacLeod (a descendant of the Gesto branch of the [[Clan MacLeod|MacLeods of Skye]], hence his Scottish surname) and his wife Baroness Dina Louisa Sweerts de Landas. The marriage enabled Zelle to move into the Dutch upper class and placed her finances on a sound footing. She moved with her husband to Malang on the east side of the island of Java, travelling out on the {{SS|Prinses Amalia}} in May 1897. They had two children, Norman-John MacLeod (1897–1899) and Louise Jeanne MacLeod (1898–1919).{{cn|date=October 2022}}
{{multiple image
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| footer = Her children Louise Jeanne and Norman-John, with his father
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| image1 = Louise Jeanne Mac Leod.jpg <!-- deleted file removed Louise Jeanne MacLeod.jpg -->
| image2 = Rudolpf and Norman John.jpg
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The marriage was overall a disappointment.<ref>Waagenaar, 1965, p. 22</ref> Rudolf was an alcoholic, physically abused Margaretha, and blamed her for his lack of promotion. He openly kept a [[Njai|concubine]], a socially accepted practice in the Dutch East Indies at the time. When Rudolf was posted to [[Medan]], Margaretha and the children remained in Toempoeng with the family of Mr. van Rheede, the government comptroller.<ref>Waagenaar, 1965, p. 24</ref> Friends of Margaretha's in the Netherlands recall her writing to them around this time to say that she had taken the name ''Mata Hari,'' the word for "sun" in the local Indonesian language (literally, [[wikt:matahari#Indonesian|"eye of the day"]]).<ref>Waagenaar, 1965, p. 38</ref>

At Rudolf's urging, Margaretha returned to him, but his behavior did not change. In 1899, their children fell violently ill from complications relating to the treatment of syphilis contracted from their parents,<ref>"Why Mata Hari Wasn't a Cunning Spy After All". ''National Geographic''. 12 November 2017{{page needed|date=October 2021}}</ref> though the family claimed an irate servant poisoned them. Jeanne survived, but Norman died. Some sources<ref name="world"/>{{Unreliable source?|reason=World of Biography is just a web site; recent reliable sources don't seem to support this idea any more|date=September 2024}} maintain that one of Rudolf's enemies may have poisoned their supper to kill both of their children. After moving back to the Netherlands, the couple officially separated on 30 August 1902. The divorce became final in 1906, and Margaretha was awarded custody of Jeanne. Rudolf was legally required to pay child support but never did. Once when Jeanne visited Rudolf, he did not return her to her mother. Margaretha did not have the resources to fight the situation and accepted it, believing that while Rudolf had been an abusive husband, he had been a good father. Jeanne later died at the age of 21, possibly from complications related to syphilis.<ref name="Mata Hari"/><ref name="Shipman 2007 450">{{cite book |last=Shipman |first=Pat |year=2007 |title=Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari |place=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn= 978-0-06-081728-2 |page= [https://archive.org/details/femmefatalelovel00ship/page/450 450] |url= https://archive.org/details/femmefatalelovel00ship/page/450}}</ref>