adversity makes strange bedfellows

bedfellows In times of hardship or misfortune people often befriend or form alliances with those whose company they would normally avoid: The merger of the two companies surprised every- body, but these are hard times for the industry and adversity makes strange bedfellows. The proverb was first recorded in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (2:2) in the form “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
Variants of this proverb: misery makes strange bedfellows; poverty makes strange bedfellows.