Is Da Vinci’s Demons Based on a Real Person?

By Paulette Cohn on March 15, 2014

Is the character of Lucrezia on TV’s Da Vinci’s Demons based on a real person?
—Adelaide Gray, Manchester, New Hampshire

According to Laura Haddock, 28, her character of Lucrezia Donati did exist, but there isn’t a lot of written record about her. What is known, according to the British actress, is that she was Lorenzo de’ Medici’s mistress, but “she was also married to a textile merchant living in Florence, Italy, and as one of the celebrated beauties of Florence, she was a bit of a walking clotheshorse. Her husband would design a new dress, put it on her, and she would parade it around, and other women would see it and think, ‘Oh, I would like a bit of that.’”