Editing Sarah Bernhardt (section)

===Lovers and friends===
Early in Bernhardt's career, she had an affair with a Belgian nobleman, Charles-Joseph Eugène Henri Georges Lamoral de Ligne (1837–1914), eldest son of [[Eugène, 8th Prince of Ligne]], with whom she bore her only child, Maurice Bernhardt (1864–1928). Maurice did not become an actor, but worked for most of his life as a manager and agent for various theatres and performers, frequently managing his mother's career in her later years, but rarely with great success. Maurice and his family were usually financially dependent, in full or in part, on his mother until her death. Maurice married a [[Polish people|Polish]] princess, Maria Jablonowska, of the [[Jablonowski|House of Jablonowski]], with whom he had two daughters: Simone, who married Edgar Gross, son of a wealthy Philadelphia soap manufacturer; and Lysiana, who married the playwright [[Louis Verneuil]].

From 1864 to 1866, after Bernhardt left the Comédie-Française, and after Maurice was born, she frequently had trouble finding roles. She often worked as a [[courtesan]], taking wealthy and influential lovers. The French police of the Second Empire kept files on high-level courtesans, including Bernhardt; her file recorded the wide variety of names and titles of her patrons; they included Alexandre Aguado, the son of Spanish banker and Marquis [[Alejandro María Aguado, 1st Marquis of the Guadalquivir Marshes|Alejandro María Aguado]]; the industrialist Robert de Brimont; the banker Jacques Stern; and the wealthy Louis-Roger de Cahuzac.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|page=57}} The list also included [[Khalil Bey]], the Ambassador of the Ottoman Empire to the Second Empire, best known today as the man who commissioned [[Gustave Courbet]] to paint ''[[L'Origine du monde]]'', a detailed painting of a woman's anatomy that was banned until 1995, but now on display at the [[Musée d'Orsay]]. Bernhardt received from him a diadem of pearls and diamonds. She also had affairs with many of her leading men, and with other men more directly useful to her career, including Arsène Houssaye, director of the Théâtre-Lyrique, and the editors of several major newspapers. Many of her early lovers continued to be her friends after the affairs ended.{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|pages=58–59}}

During her time at the Odéon, she continued to see her old lovers, as well as new ones including French marshals [[Francois Canrobert|François-Certain Canrobert]] and [[Achille Bazaine]], the latter a commander of the French army in the [[Crimean War]] and in Mexico; and Prince Napoleon, son of Joseph Bonaparte and cousin of French Emperor [[Louis-Napoleon]]. She also had a two-year-long affair with Charles Haas, son of a banker and one of the more celebrated Paris [[dandies]] in the Empire, the model for the character of Swann in the novels by [[Marcel Proust]].{{Sfn|Tierchant|2009|pages=71–73}} Indeed, Swann even references her by name in ''[[In Search of Lost Time|Remembrance of Things Past]]''. Sarah Bernhardt is probably one of the actresses after whom Proust modelled Berma, a character present in several volumes of ''Remembrance of Things Past''.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Bernhardt took as lovers many of the male leads of her plays, including Mounet-Sully and Lou Tellegen. She possibly had an affair with the Prince of Wales, the future [[Edward VII]], who frequently attended her London and Paris performances and once, as a prank, played the part of a [[cadaver]] in one of her plays.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.geocities.com/jesusib/EdwardVII.html| title=Edward VII biography| access-date=18 October 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060525070548/http://www.geocities.com/jesusib/EdwardVII.html | archive-date=25 May 2006}}</ref> When he was King, he travelled on the royal yacht to visit her at her summer home on Belle-Île.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=273}}

Her last serious love affair was with the Dutch-born actor [[Lou Tellegen]], 37 years her junior, who became her co-star during her second American farewell tour (and eighth American tour) in 1910. He was a very handsome actor who had served as a model for sculpture ''[[Eternal Springtime]]'' by [[Auguste Rodin]]. He had little acting experience, but Bernhardt signed him as a leading man just before she departed on the tour, assigned him a compartment in her private railway car, and took him as her escort to all events, functions, and parties. He was not a particularly good actor, and had a strong Dutch accent, but he was successful in roles, such as [[Hippolytus of Athens|Hippolyte]] in ''[[Phèdre|Phedre]]'', where he could take off his shirt. At the end of the American tour, they had a dispute, he remained in the United States, and she returned to France. At first, he had a successful career in the United States and married operatic soprano and film actress [[Geraldine Farrar]], but when they split up his career plummeted. He committed suicide in 1934.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|pages=310–313}}

Bernhardt's broad circle of friends included the writers [[Victor Hugo]], [[Alexandre Dumas]], his son [[Alexandre Dumas fils|Alexandre Dumas ''fils'']], [[Émile Zola]], and the artist [[Gustave Doré]]. Her close friends included the painters [[Georges Clairin]] and [[Louise Abbéma]], a French [[Impressionism|impressionist painter]], some nine years her junior. This relationship was so close, the two women were rumoured to be lovers. In 1990, a painting by Abbéma, depicting the two on a boat ride on the lake in the bois de Boulogne, was donated to the Comédie-Française. The accompanying letter stated that the painting was ''"Peint par Louise Abbéma, le jour anniversaire de leur liaison amoureuse"''<ref>Guibert et al. (2000) ''Portrait(s) de Sarah Bernhardt''. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. {{ISBN|2-7177-2113-4}}</ref> (loosely translated: "Painted by Louise Abbéma on the anniversary of their love affair") Clairin and Abbéma spent their holidays with Bernhardt and her family at her summer residence at Belle-Île, and remained close with Bernhardt until her death.{{Sfn|Skinner|1967|page=272-274}}