FAQ

There's no evidence that the real Mary Anning was straight. But her relationships with women were incredibly intense, per her letters, so it's not much of a stretch to make the dramatic choice that the director Francis Lee did. As he said on Twitter, "After seeing queer history be routinely 'straightened' throughout culture, and given a historical figure where there is no evidence whatsoever of a heterosexual relationship, is it not permissible to view that person within another context?"

Yes, Murchison and her husband were close friends of Anning towards the end of her life. It was that friendship that Francis Lee thinks gave him permission to turn them into lesbians. There is no proof that they had such a relationship, but it works in the movie. Mary Anning did marry at some point in her life.

Yes.