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Journey through the enchanting world of timeless love stories, where reality intersects with fiction.
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00:01Remember when you were little and you used to think fairy tales were real?
00:05I have some news that is about to make your inner child very happy.
00:09A little birdie told me that the couple that might have inspired The Beauty and the Beast was real.
00:14The only thing we need to find out is if the movie was really based on their story or not.
00:19How about you be our guest as we dive deeper into the origins of this beloved Disney movie?
00:28The year is 1537, and our story begins in the sunny center of Europe, the Canary Islands.
00:35The Canaries are home to outstanding natural attractions.
00:38And Canarios, the people who are born there, live their daily lives in the archipelago's pleasant climate.
00:44That year, a certain gentleman was born on the Canaries, and his destiny would be different from those of his
00:50fellow islanders.
00:52Meet Pedro Gonsalves.
00:53Pedro was born into a typical family, with a very rare congenital condition called hypertrichosis.
00:59If you've never heard of this before, hypertrichosis is a condition that can make someone look like a real-life
01:05werewolf.
01:06Minus the howling part.
01:07It allows for hair to sprout excessively in places where hair wouldn't normally sprout.
01:12If in 2023 we still aren't sure of the causes of this disease, imagine people all the way back in
01:18the 1500s.
01:20Dermatologist Sarah Taylor says that throughout history, there have only been 50 documented cases of this condition.
01:26This is how rare Pedro's case was.
01:28The thing is, the excess facial hair made people look at Pedro differently.
01:32Records say he was called a wild man and was highly mistreated when he was a youngster.
01:38Ten years later, Pedro was put on a ship and sent to France as a gift to King Henry II.
01:44The king was about to be crowned, and it was normal for people to shower him with all kinds of
01:49presents.
01:50Little Pedro disembarked in the French city of Fontainebleau, where he moved into the king's castle.
01:56The entire court took interest in the boy as soon as he arrived.
02:00The castle's academics and doctors asked to study him closely, hoping to figure out if he was really a wild
02:05man.
02:06Soon enough, they understood that Pedro was just a ten-year-old boy.
02:11The boy even told them his name, which the French then changed to Petrus Gonsalves.
02:16The court communicated the news to King Henry II, and the king immediately ordered that the boy be given a
02:22proper education.
02:25As you're probably already thinking, Petrus's life changed completely at that moment.
02:30Just like Belle's life changed once she got trapped in the beast's castle in the beloved Disney movie.
02:35But life in King Henry II's palace was very different for Petrus than it was for Belle.
02:42If the Disney princess got to befriend talking ceramics and wear beautiful silk dresses,
02:47Petrus needed to go to school on a daily basis.
02:49To the surprise of the court and his teachers, the boy excelled in Latin, which is no easy feat.
02:55During his life, he even became fluent in three languages.
02:58Now Belle and Petrus did have one thing in common.
03:01They both had to learn etiquette.
03:04Remember how Lumiere did his best to teach Belle the ways of the palace?
03:08Perhaps we can say that it was similar for Petrus.
03:11Except for the fact that it was probably a human that taught him what he needed to learn.
03:17The king became impressed and soon Petrus was a frequent presence in the court.
03:21For the first time in his life, he would dress like a nobleman and take part in the court's social
03:26activities.
03:27But still, records show Petrus was never considered fully human due to his congenital disease.
03:34In 1559, King Henry II passed away, and Catherine de' Medici, his wife, took over the palace.
03:41If in the Disney version of the tale there is an infamous evil witch that curses the prince to become
03:46a beast,
03:47in this story, there is a not-so-kind queen.
03:50As far as records show, Queen Catherine de' Medici decided to arrange a marriage between Petrus and another gal also
03:56named Catherine.
03:57Let's call her Cathy, so we don't get too confused.
04:00The thing is, the queen didn't tell Cathy of Petrus' congenital condition.
04:05Which doesn't sound too cool to me, huh?
04:08Cathy was the daughter of one of the court's royal servants.
04:11And as was the practice back then, when a queen told you to marry someone, you usually did.
04:17So Cathy didn't question the fact that she hadn't met Petrus, or knew nothing about him before the wedding.
04:23One can only imagine Cathy's surprise when, on her wedding day, she discovered who Petrus really was.
04:29There is no official record of her reaction, although rumor has it that Cathy wasn't too happy initially.
04:35But this story has a plot twist that Queen Catherine could never have imagined.
04:40And this plot twist is the cheesiest of them all.
04:42Love.
04:44Like in the Disney fairy tale, Beauty, aka Cathy, found that true love was hidden way deep beneath the surface.
04:51And that Petrus' exterior appearance was only a small aspect of who he was.
04:56Perhaps Queen Catherine could never have imagined that the real Beauty and the Beast would be married for nearly 40
05:02years.
05:02They would even have children.
05:05Nobody knew if the couple's children would be born with Petrus' condition.
05:08So it was a surprise when their first child was born without it.
05:12The couple had seven children in total, and four of them did inherit Petrus' hypertrichosis.
05:19The Gonsalves family became a huge attraction in France's court.
05:22They became known as the Wild family, and spent the rest of their lives touring through Europe.
05:27Natural scientists were interested in studying the Gonsalves children,
05:31trying to better understand the ones born with hypertrichosis.
05:35Many portraits were painted of the family during the years they toured the European continent.
05:40But many say that they were always seen as an attraction, rather than regular human beings.
05:45This makes one wonder, did Petrus and Cathy get their happy ending?
05:50We know that all Disney movie characters live happily ever after.
05:54But how true was that for the real-life Beauty and the Beast?
05:58Records were so fascinated with figuring out if Petrus was human or a wild man,
06:03that there is not much about his life beyond that fact.
06:07In the original tale that inspired the movie, Beauty and the Beast also find a happy ending.
06:12Written by Gabrielle Suzanne Villeneuve in 1740, the original tale is said to be inspired by Petrus and Cathy's story.
06:19But maybe, this tale is really as old as time, and was born even before Petrus.
06:24You see, historians have collected over 23 variations of the Beauty and the Beast story around the world,
06:30and over 162 versions of the animal bridegroom story archetype.
06:35If this word doesn't mean anything to you, let's take a step back for a second.
06:39Fairy tales usually follow some archetypal structure.
06:43This means that they tend to reflect the human psyche as a way for us to understand some of our
06:48behaviors and feelings.
06:50In fact, some fairy tales should be called just tales, as there is nothing fairy-like about them.
06:55If you've ever read The Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, you know what I mean.
07:00The animal bridegroom story trope usually shows a woman marrying an animal-like human that turns out to be a
07:06prince living under a curse.
07:08And some say this trope dates all the way back to the 1500s.
07:12The Disney movie never sets a historical date for the Beauty and the Beast story.
07:16From the outfits worn, some people say it's set around the 1700s,
07:20which would be the epic that Villeneuve's tale represents, rather than Petrus' time period.
07:25All we know is that, if this was inspired by the Gonsalves family life, Villeneuve twisted quite a few things.
07:34If, in the movie, Belle breaks the Beast's curse with the power of true love, in real life, that's not
07:40what happened to Petrus.
07:42There was no evil witch cursing him.
07:45He would never be able to get rid of his condition.
07:47The turning point of this story would be if society would have accepted him as it was,
07:51and perhaps never have called him a beast to begin with.
07:57Teenagers fall in love too easily, true that.
08:01And when they do, they fiercely believe that this will be the last time they will ever love,
08:06and that that person most certainly is the love of their entire lives.
08:10Does this sound familiar, like high school?
08:13This might as well have been the plot line for Romeo and Juliet.
08:16But, of course, things get worse.
08:19Since teenagers are rebellious by nature, why not make this one true love a forbidden one?
08:25We all know the ending of the original story.
08:28Hmm.
08:29But what if Romeo lost interest in Juliet after he won her heart?
08:34Or what would happen if Juliet fell in love with another guy months after they got together?
08:39Well, let's check this out.
08:41No one really knows what made the Capulets hate the Montagues.
08:45What we do know is that there was a party.
08:48And during this party, Romeo locked eyes with Juliet.
08:52Let's say, instead of a tragedy, the couple lived happily ever after.
08:56That is, until the day Romeo woke up depressed because he saw Juliet more as a friend than a lover.
09:03Uh-oh.
09:04What now, Romeo?
09:06Unfortunately, this happens often.
09:08Romeo might have suffered from something called disillusionment.
09:12Which is when the rose-colored glasses from which one views the relationship in its beginning are ripped off.
09:19And the person must deal with the truth, rather than the illusion they created in their minds.
09:25Sometimes, in the beginning of a relationship, we project onto the other person what we want them to be.
09:31We don't really see them for who they truly are.
09:34Psychologists say this is something that tends to happen with egocentric lovers.
09:38An egocentric lover pins all their hopes and dreams on the object of their romantic interest.
09:45In the heat of passion, usually at the beginning of a relationship, they might be willing to do anything for
09:50the other.
09:51But, according to experts, the whole project is self-centered.
09:55As the heat starts to slowly cool down, things start to get complicated.
10:01The egocentric lover starts to withdraw once they realize that their loved one is incapable of fulfilling all their needs.
10:08That's deep, huh?
10:10Truth is, if Shakespeare ever wrote an alternate version of Romeo and Juliet, he might as well have written about
10:16disillusionment.
10:17It's so common, it wouldn't be a surprise if it happened to our favorite characters.
10:22Now, let's say Romeo's Uber canceled a few times before he could leave for the party, and he got there
10:29late.
10:29As soon as he arrived, a friend he hadn't seen for a while kept talking to him for over an
10:35hour.
10:36When he finally escaped to go to the bathroom, he ran into a beautiful girl.
10:40He even thought to himself that he had never seen a girl that lovely before.
10:45But, as soon as he left the bathroom, he saw her kissing another guy.
10:50So, Romeo just shook his head and went straight back to the dance floor.
10:54He opened up the dating app on his phone and looked for another girl to match with.
10:59If Shakespeare's drama took place in our modern world, this might as well be the case.
11:04Maybe Juliet had a crush on Romeo too, but was afraid to show it, since he didn't show any real
11:11interest either.
11:12In the era of social media, love is a fragile thing, especially for teens.
11:18The online world shows us an abundance of options, so why commit to just one?
11:24Researchers have delved into this question quite a bit.
11:27Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has called it liquid love, where love and relationships are something non-permanent.
11:35It describes a fluid approach to relationships, as fluid as swiping left on your favorite dating app.
11:41Tinder has over 50 million users, and it's present in 190 countries.
11:46It receives over 1.6 billion swipes per day.
11:51It's a brutal marketplace, because there is the expectation to always find something better.
11:56The thing is, liquid love makes people live in a paradise.
12:01According to Jenny Kubels, a psychology professor, her students are searching for a lifelong love,
12:07but most of them admit to having short-term relationships with little commitment.
12:12Young people say they want things such as commitment and trust, which usually come in long-term relations.
12:19But they also say they get bored after the thrill of the beginning is over.
12:23It's not an easy equation.
12:26Version number 3 gets even better.
12:28Let's say that back at the party, Juliet tried to get Romeo's attention, but her love interest was hooked on
12:35another girl, Rosaline.
12:37Juliet stood in the corner while she saw the love of her life kissing her cousin, which only made things
12:43worse.
12:44Juliet spent weeks, even months, trying to separate Romeo from Rosaline, until she finally succeeded.
12:51A heartbroken Romeo found solace in Juliet, and during his neediest times, he fell in love with her.
12:59They started dating, moved in together, and even adopted a cat.
13:03The whole deal.
13:04One day, Romeo found out that Juliet had been cheating on him with her Italian tutor, Roberto.
13:11I mean, really?
13:12Yeah, really.
13:14Most of those that have been in a relationship know heartbreak.
13:17And they'll know that heartbreak is as physical as it is emotional.
13:22In this case, Romeo was still infatuated with Juliet.
13:25And when he found out she was cheating, he felt all sorts of things.
13:30Heartbreaks activate the insular cortex, which is a region of the brain that processes pain.
13:36But the insular cortex doesn't distinguish emotional pain from physical pain.
13:41So, heartbreak can hurt as much as spraining your ankle.
13:45You know what they say, though?
13:46That time can heal all wounds.
13:48As days passed, Romeo found himself daydreaming about contacting Juliet again.
13:54While cleaning up his house, he found some of the things Juliet forgot to take with it.
13:59Sometimes, the drive to reach out felt overwhelming, like an extreme hunger or thirst.
14:05This happened because the ventral tegmental area was being activated.
14:09The VTA is the motivation and reward center of the brain that drives feelings of longing.
14:15The same part of the brain that was activated in the beginning of their story together and made them obsessive
14:21over one another.
14:22This is one of the reasons why breakups are so confusing.
14:25And a lot of the time, people end up getting back together.
14:29Even if for a brief time.
14:31This is not the case for our beloved couple, though.
14:33Since Juliet ran away to Europe with Roberto.
14:37Now, let's rewind the tape to the original version of the story.
14:41Boy meets girl.
14:42They fall madly and deeply in love.
14:45But have you ever stopped to think?
14:46If there is any chance that these star-crossed lovers were only feeling the after effects of pheromones in their
14:53bodies?
14:53Yes, yes, and yes.
14:56Pheromones are natural chemical signals that convey important genetic or even physical information.
15:02What happened when Romeo and Juliet locked eyes was an instant recognition in their brains that their genetics matched well
15:10together.
15:10As soon as that happened, Juliet started producing a bunch of estrogen and Romeo started to produce a whole lot
15:17of testosterone.
15:18These hormones are responsible for creating this insatiable lust lovers feel for one another.
15:24Then again, this is not as romantic as the whole soulmate narrative.
15:29Which is why Shakespeare chose not to mention this at all.
15:32What this means is that Romeo and Juliet were doomed from the start.
15:36You see, in this lustful phase of love, we lose our ability to think critically.
15:42The part of the brain involved in falling in love talks louder than something called the prefrontal cortex.
15:48Which is where our ability to think critically lies.
15:51And when we are teenagers, the area of our brain responsible for our self-control is still maturing.
15:58Which means we truly have little self-control.
16:02It makes sense that Romeo and Juliet were teenagers, right?
16:06Because if they met while they were in their 30s, they would forget the whole thing after it got too
16:11complicated.
16:12Juliet would prefer to date some other guy whom her family approved of.
16:17And Romeo wouldn't even bother fighting for her because he was on the threshold of a big job promotion.
16:23And fighting for love would just take up too much of his energy.
16:26.
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