(May 15, 1893 - 1910) (divorced)
In 1893 she married Henry Gauthier-Villars (1859–1931) or "Willy", his nom-de-plume, a well-known author and publisher, and her first four novels – the four Claudine stories, Claudine à l'école (1900), Claudine à Paris (1901), Claudine en ménage (1902), and Claudine s'en va (1903) – appeared under his name. They chart the coming of age of their heroine, Claudine, from an unconventional fifteen-year-old in a Burgundian village to the literary salons of turn-of-the-century Paris. (The four are published in English as Claudine at School, Claudine in Paris, Claudine Married, and Claudine and Annie). The story they tell is semi-autobiographical, but not entirely – most strikingly, Claudine, unlike Colette, is motherless.
Willy, fourteen years older than his wife and one of the most notorious libertines in Paris, introduced Colette into avant-garde intellectual and artistic circles while engaging in sexual affairs and encouraging her own lesbian alliances. It was he who chose the titillating subject-matter of the Claudine novels, "the secondary myth of Sappho... the girls' school or convent ruled by a seductive female teacher" (Ladimer, p. 53). Colette later said that she would never have become a writer if it had not been for Willy. Nevertheless, when Colette wished to have her name associated with her work as it became widely known, Willy resisted and "locked her in her room until she produced enough pages to suit him."
Colette and Willy separated in 1906, although it was not until 1910 that the divorce became final. She had no access to the sizable earnings of the Claudine books – the copyright belonged to Willy.