The Glamorous Real-Life Inspiration Behind Netflix's "Rebecca"

Now, while the title character may have been an amalgamation of both personal characteristics and those of the glamorous women Du Maurier knew, the plot of a woman being haunted by her husband's ex was also drawn from her own life. As legend has it, the author developed a fascination for the woman her husband, Sir Frederick Arthur Montague "Boy" Browning, had been previously engaged to - one  Jeannette "Jan" Ricardo. She found a stash of old love letters and became deeply insecure about his beautiful former flame. She apparently scoured newspapers and gossip columns for mentions of Ricardo, who, like Rebecca, signed her name with a flowery "R." Weirdly enough, Du Maurier's elder sister, Angela, was a guest at Ricardo's wedding - fueling rumors that she was aware of her influence on the novel. In a morbid turn of events mirroring the tragic end of Rebecca, Ricardo died by throwing herself in front of a train six years after the book's publication. Spooky.