Rafia Zakaria
provides some insight as to Osama bin Laden's life in Abbottabad during the five months preceding his death, locked away with three wives and over a dozen children:
Hiding in Abbottabad, the retired Osama retreated to the most private and intimate realm available in Pakistani culture: the women’s world. In placing him deep within a feminine world, one whose sanctity has strong historical, cultural, and religious precedent, his Al-Qaeda handlers calculated the successful concealment of their leader. But in doing so, they also enabled another transformation: his emasculation and deposition from a position of leadership in both of his family and the organization he helped found.
If you read nothing else, make sure you catch the last paragraph.