In October 1868 Cosima asked her husband for a divorce, to which he would not initially agree. To sceptical enquirers he explained her absence from the von Bülow family home by a supposed visit to her half-sister in Versailles. In June 1869, immediately after the birth of her and Wagner's third and final child, Siegfried, Cosima wrote to von Bülow in what she called a "final attempt at an understanding". His reply was conciliatory; he wrote: "You have preferred to consecrate the treasures of your heart and mind to a higher being: far from censuring you for this step, I approve of it". Legal processes extended the marriage until 18 July 1870, when the divorce was finally sanctioned by a Berlin court. After the divorce von Bülow distanced himself from both Wagner and Cosima; he never again spoke to Wagner, and 11 years passed before his next meeting with Cosima.