In his youth he had a mistress in Paris, Céline Cayot, an actress whom he supported financially and paid for an apartment. He then had a longer and more serious relationship with Valentine Delessert. Born in 1806, she was the daughter of Count Alexandre de Laborde, "aide-de-camp" to King Louis Philippe, and she was married to Gabriel Delessert, a prominent banker and real estate developer, who was twenty years older. Mérimée met Delessert in 1830, and she became his mistress in 1836, when he was visiting Chartres, where her husband had been named Prefect. he wrote to Stendhal that "She is my grand passion; I am deeply and seriously in love". Her husband, who had become prefect of police in Paris, apparently ignored the relationship. However, by 1846, the relationship had cooled, and while he was on one of his long tours, she became the mistress of another writer, Charles de Rémusat. His correspondence shows he was desolate when Delessert abandoned him for younger writers Rémusat and then, in 1854, for Maxime Du Camp. One consolation for Mérimée in his last years was a reconciliation with Delessert in 1866.