I really think that the lady in the painting is Mary, and I don't doubt that she was Jesus' wife. I've read The Da Vinci Code, and it makes perfect sense to me. First of all, when people say that that could not possibly be a woman next to Jesus, what I want to know is, why can't it be? There is written proof that Da Vinci was part of a religion where the belief was that Mary was Jesus' wife, so why wouldn't he put that belief into his painting? And I agree that the church wouldn't have allowed such a radical belief to be stated publicly so if it was a woman painted, they would have had Da Vinci locked up. But think about it... did you notice that it was a woman next to Jesus until someone told you??? The woman next to him probably wasn't noticed until the painting was studied later.