The sisters remained close through the 1892 murders of their father and stepmother, Lizzie’s trial and years of public scrutiny, before a bitter split in 1905 ended their relationship. As Netflix revisits one of America’s most notorious unsolved murder cases, attention is also turning to the woman who stood beside Lizzie Borden for years, her older sister, Emma Borden.
Netflix’s fourth season of the Monster anthology, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, premieres September 17. Ella Beatty plays Lizzie, while Billie Lourd portrays Emma, Lizzie’s older sister . Netflix describes the series as a dramatized account of the events surrounding Lizzie Borden and the murders that made her infamous. Emma also defended the memory of her father, Andrew Borden. Their lives eventually began to diverge. Lizzie developed a friendship with actress Nance O’Neil and reportedly began hosting members of the theatre world at Maplecroft. The precise reason for the split has never been established. Neither sister publicly provided a detailed explanation for the falling-out. The sisters’ complicated relationship is now being revisited as Netflix brings the Borden case to a new audience.
In a 1913 interview with the Boston Sunday Post, she rejected claims that he was a miser, calling the rumours a “wicked lie,” according to the report. As per the report, Emma later said in her 1913 interview that she left only after conditions had become “absolutely unbearable”, suggesting that the disagreement had developed over time.
