If I take a look at the Bonaparte family tree, I notice something rather peculiar. Jérôme's kids by his second wife were all born after the Empire fell. I know the marriage between he and Katharina of Württemberg was pretty one-sided, the guy spent his wedding night socializing with Stéphanie de Beauharnais. Katharina was in tears the next morning and complained to Napoléon who then admonished his brother. But when the king of Württemberg tried to persuade his daughter to leave Jérôme after the Empire fell, she refused.
Kat was already "older" by the time of the marriage (24yo), but her first kid only came along (like sister-in-law Elisa) after there was nothing left to inherit. Was it simply Jérôme's indifference? Or was there a problem? His first recognized bastard child came along in 1811 - presumably after trying, and they continue in a steady stream until 1813, when they dry up once Katharina's preggers (the next bastards are only in the 1840s, after Kat's death) with their first kid. I'm not saying Jérôme stopped philandering once he knocked his wife up (the king of Württemberg regarded him as a wastrel and refused to put his daughter Marie through a marriage to the Prince Royal for fear of repeating the same folly), but why did it take so long for him to get her pregnant in the first place?
Kat was already "older" by the time of the marriage (24yo), but her first kid only came along (like sister-in-law Elisa) after there was nothing left to inherit. Was it simply Jérôme's indifference? Or was there a problem? His first recognized bastard child came along in 1811 - presumably after trying, and they continue in a steady stream until 1813, when they dry up once Katharina's preggers (the next bastards are only in the 1840s, after Kat's death) with their first kid. I'm not saying Jérôme stopped philandering once he knocked his wife up (the king of Württemberg regarded him as a wastrel and refused to put his daughter Marie through a marriage to the Prince Royal for fear of repeating the same folly), but why did it take so long for him to get her pregnant in the first place?