10 Trailblazers Overshadowed By Their Famous Spouses We typically use the expression “better half” as a simple term of endearment for our partners. However, there are cases when the expression is very apt—cases where one member of the couple was clearly the overachiever. This isn’t necessarily a slight against their partners, though. They were successful in their own right. Their only fault was falling in love with their true better halves. 10Constance Wilde Constance Mary Lloyd was born on January 2, 1859, in Dublin. In 1884, she married famed playwright Oscar Wilde, and the two of them became a celebrity couple, a 19th-century Irish Brangelina. “Mrs. Oscar,” as she was referred to in the papers, became an activist who argued for women’s rights to serve in parliament. This alone was enough to earn her the scorn of traditionalists, but Constance went even further when she involved herself in the Rational Dress Society. The group advocated that women wear comfortable, practical clothing instead of the corsets and other tight clothing customary for Victorian women.