A Very Borgia Break Up | History's Worst Breakups

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Scandal, Sex, Education, History, Society

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If people are still talking about your divorce and rumoured penis related issues 500 years later, it's safe to say you've had a bad break up.

For the final episode in our Worst Breakups series, we’re heading back to Renaissance Rome to meet Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of history’s naughtiest pope, and her first husband, Giovanni Sforza, in a story that ended mired in controversy over incest and impotence.

For this episode, Kate is joined by Catherine Fletcher, author of ‘The Beauty and the Terror’, ‘The Black Prince of Florence’ and ‘Our Man in Rome: The Divorce of Henry VIII’.

This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. Welcome back to Betwinks the Sheeds, the place where all of your historical filth and smut can be found, where we're just being very rude, but we can all pretend that we're actually learning something at the same time. Hurrah, win, but before we can go any further, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast, spoken by adults to other adults, about adulty things, an adult you wake, I'm aware adult subjects and you'd be an adult too.
0:21.2	Right, proceed at your own caution. podcast, spoken by adults to other adults, about adulty things and an adult you wake, and remind adult subjects, and you'd be an adult too.
0:21.2	Right, proceed at your own caution.
0:26.5	Are the divorce courts of history, echoy ceilings, rustling paper and terse lawyers
0:32.1	talking to one another?
0:33.4	There's a real mix here from all throughout history.
0:36.1	Look, there's Charles and Diana, keeping very much to themselves.
0:39.3	Henry and Catherine of Aragon are on opposite sides of the room.
0:43.3	And Caesar and Pompeia are dead on their feet.
0:45.6	Well, they have been here a very, very long time.
0:48.4	All these former lovers are busy providing all the evidence and information
0:51.7	that they need to get the divorces or annulments that they want.
0:55.5	Proof of infidelity, proof of neglect, proof that they never slept with their brother's widow and so forth.
1:01.8	There's a crowd gathered round one couple, however.
1:05.1	There's a rumour going round that the man is about to try and prove his virility to the crowd gathered. Been anything but going into month, hasn't it? Hello and welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the History of Sex Scandal and Society with me, Kate Lister.
1:46.0	It's been a romantic month, hasn't it? And nothing puts me in the mood more than discussing history's worst breakups.
1:53.7	To top them all off, I'm joined once again by Catherine Fletcher.
1:57.5	Catherine has previously joined us to talk about the naughtiest Pope of all time,
2:01.3	and today we're heading back to the 15th century Vatican to meet his daughter, Lucrezia Borgia,
2:07.2	and her first husband, Giovanni Sforza. With rumors of impotence, incest, and a secret,
2:13.9	illegitimate Roman love child, could this take the cake as the worst breakup of all?
2:19.6	Cloaks on, everybody.
	...

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