Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette Goudeket, born in the Burgundian village of Saint-Sauveur en Puisaye, her early life seemd a paradise presided over by her mother Sido. Her family was forced to leave the village when Colette was seventeen for financial reasons. At 20 she married the fampus Paris critic Henri Gauthier-Villars, a journalist known as "Willy", and under this name her four Claudine novels, based on her own early life, were published.

Willy made Colete acknowledge and entertain his mistresses in lesbian experimentation for his own titillation. Towards the end of the marriage to Willy, Colette was introduced to Natalie Clifford Barney's circle and there met Missy. After her divorce in 1906, she was a striptease and mime artist for a while, but continued to write.

Together with Missy, Colette at one point acted out a love scene at the Moulin Rouge that involved a passionate kiss between her and Missy, which caused a storm among the audience. The Prefect of Police instructed Missy to refrain from taking part in any further performances.

She was the first woman to head the Goncourt Academy and the second to become a grand officer of the French Legion of Honor; her 1945 novel Gigi became the basis for the 1958 musical starring Maurice Chevalier.

After Sido's death in 1912, Colette married Henri de Jouvenel, with whom she had her only child, a daughter. She divorced him in 1924, and eleven years later married Maurie Goudeker, who was sixteen years younger than her. The marriage lasted until her death.

Her novel "La Vagabonde" describes her real-life passion for "Missy," the daughter of the Duc de Morny. On Colette's wrist was a bracelet engraved "I belong to Missy." Colette also loved Natalie Barney, once sending her the message "Natalie, my husband kisses your hands and I the rest." Actress Marguerite Moreno was another of Colette's lovers.

Colette may have been a bisexual woman. Her work explores life on the margins, and has been considered by many to be "feminine". On her death she was given a state funeral, the Church having refused her a religious burial.