According to Esquire, Catherine gave extravagant parting gifts to her lovers, including lands, titles, palaces, and more. One of them received 1,000 indentured servants. History states that Catherine and her paramours always ended things on good terms. Unlike other royals, she would not dispose of them cruelly; Catherine ensured their financial well-being (via Vanity Fair). One of her earliest lovers and alleged father of one of her children was Stanislaw Poniatowski. Long after their romance had ended, Catherine gave her support for him to become king of Poland. According to author Kyra C. Kramer, Catherine provided both financial and military backing to Poniatowski.

It worked, and Poniatowski was crowned in 1764. As king, he began a series of reforms that were excessively liberal and strengthened Poland as an independent country. These policies felt like a betrayal to Catherine who later forced Poniatowski to abdicate the throne. Nonetheless, she gave him a pension and imprisoned him in a palace, where he lived comfortably until his death. Catherine herself died in her bed in 1796 at the age of 67 after suffering a stroke (via Live Science). For years, rumors persisted that she had died on the toilet or by engaging in a sexual act with a horse. Both, of course, were fabrications perpetrated by her enemies as an attack on her independence and power as a female leader.