This might seem a smidge on the side of random, but apparently it actually happened. When Napoléon was negotiating for the marriage of his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais to the Bavarian princess, Auguste Amalie, it was suggested to him (by some of his ministers, as well as some at the court in Münich), that he should put aside Josèphine and marry Auguste instead. His response was righteous indignation that anyone dare suggest such an idea (I’m not sure if this is where his (apocryphal?) comment comes from about “deserting a good woman” and that if Italy/Egypt had been a disaster, Josèphine would’ve stuck by him and all that, originated). So, while no one was certain that Josèphine was the reason he had no children (he had said of his ‘Clioupatre’, Pauline Foures ‘the little fool doesn’t know how to have one [a child]’), and Josèphine pointed to Eugène and Hortense as proof that she wasn’t the problem, Napoléon was charmed by the portrait of Auguste on a cup presented to him, and sent it on to Eugène. So, what if he takes the decision to put Josèphine aside (besides all his family having a month long party), and marry Auguste instead? I can’t think – given his personality, and affection for Josèphine, Eugène and Hortense – that he would throw them to the wolves. Hortense is after all married to his brother, Eugène is a competent and loyal soldier, and Napoléon’s busy negotiating a marriage for their cousin, Stéphanie to the heir to Baden (despite Jérôme Bonaparte preferring Stéphanie’s company to his wife’s OTL). Josèphine is the only outlier here. AFAIK, she and Auguste got along well OTL, but here, Auguste’s coming to Paris to poach her husband, so maybe not such an amicable relationship?