#ludovika was in her fifties in the 1860s

[archduchessofnowhere]

Unfair to ask if the Duke Max in Bavaria did or didn't father any other children out-of-wedlock, but just wondering about the sourcing of those rumors beyond "it would fit" to his playboy actions? Read about them here and there where the author seems to take it as given , but they're never named or anything particularly specific about them. I guessing he never officially acknowledge any bastards if he did indeed have any?

Hello! That Duke Max had children out-of-wedlock seems to have been common knowledge among his family. For instance, in her biography of Elisabeth, Brigitte Hamann writes that "Noontime was invariably sacrosanct; he [Duke Max] was available to no one, especially not to his wife or his legitimate children. That was when he dined in his rooms with his two illegitimate daughters, whom he loved dearly." The source for this statement is "Sexau Papers, Conversation with Prince Thurn und Taxis, July 27, 1938". Richard Sexau was a historian and biographer of Max's son Karl Theodor, and he did extensive research of the Ducal Witteslbachs. I assume the Prince of Thurn und Taxis whom Sexau talked to was Albert, Helene's son. So at least one source for Max having illegitimate children was his own grandson, who probably learned this from his mother or his grandmother Ludovika, who was very open to his children and grandchildren about her unhappy marriage.

But as far as I know, no one has ever been able to identify any of the children by name, since he indeed didn't recognize them. The closest we may be to know one of these children is this photograph of Max with an unidentified young woman:

Based on the woman's dress, this picture is from the 1860s. Was she one of the illegitimate daughters that Max "loved dearly"? We can't know, but at least she must have been someone he was very fond of, since he never took a picture like this with any of his daughters with Ludovika.

If I'll find something more about the subject I'll let you know!