Hollywood affairs are a tale as old as Tinseltown. Back before every breath celebrities took was documented on social media, Old Hollywood stars got away with some pretty unbelievable infidelity!
Here are 14 wild celebrity affairs from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s:
1.
When Sidney Poitier and Diahann Carroll first met on the set of Porgy and Bess, he was married to Juanita Hardy, and she was married to Monte Kay. However, that didn’t stop the costars from falling for each other. Sidney told People, “We had not been on the set of Porgy and Bess in 1959 more than a few days when I realized that she was unique. She had fantastic cheekbones, perfect teeth, and dark, mysterious eyes. She was confident, inviting, sensuous — and she moved with a rhythm that absolutely tantalized me. I invited her to dinner, telling her that since we were both married, we would talk about our absent loved ones. And we did. I acted very, very gentlemanly for weeks, but halfway through the picture, we fell in love. As I got to know her, I realized she was one of the brightest women I had ever known.”
In her memoir, The Legs Are the Last To Go, Diahann alleged that Sidney convinced her to leave Monte, vowing to end his own marriage so that he and Diahann could be together in public. So, she ended her marriage (though they didn’t officially divorce until 1963), packed her bags, and moved to NYC, where Sidney had purchased an apartment for her and her daughter. However, while Diahann willingly uprooted her life for him, Sidney still had reservations. She wrote, “I was only home a few days when he called to say his wife was having second thoughts. Our wedding plans would have to be postponed. When the apartment was ready, and I was about to move my daughter in with me, Sidney told me he didn’t want her there.”
She continued, “He changed the locks so I couldn’t get in. Then he made me write him a check to offset his purchase and decorating costs. I did as I was told, submissive and desperate.”
Meanwhile, Sidney told Juanita about Diahann right away, but they didn’t divorce until 1965. He told People, “To a large degree, I felt trapped by my four daughters. They were young, and I loved them. And my father had thoroughly indoctrinated me when I was young that, as a law of life, a parent should take care of his children, even if it means not putting food in his own mouth… I think there was a time when [the kids] were as mad as hell at me because of the threat to their own security. Although I never severed links with them, I was a villain of sorts in their eyes. The relationship is now very healthy and free-flowing, but getting it there tested our strength and perseverance.”
Diahann and Sidney never made it down the aisle, and their relationship ultimately ended in 1968. He said, “She asked me to move out of my home, and I did. She asked me to get a divorce. I went to Mexico and got one. I made one request: to live together for six months while Diahann’s parents looked after her daughter, so I wouldn’t be jumping from one marriage straight into another. But she wouldn’t do it. It was then that our relationship started to unravel.”
2.
Marianne Faithfull was just 18 when she married artist John Dunbar, who was around 21 or 22, in 1965. The couple welcomed their son during their first (and only!) year of marriage, but not long after the birth, Marianne started dating Mick Jagger (who was the same age as John). She told CBS News, “I was a very undisciplined, temperamental little girl.”
Mick and Marianne became the new “It” couple. She divorced John in 1966 and went on to become the Rolling Stones’ early muse, reportedly inspiring hits like “Wild Horses” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The couple was at the center of another scandalous story — in 1967, they were partying at the home of Keith Richards, Mick’s bandmate, when the cops came knocking. Marianne was naked except for a fur rug. The officers found drugs with the men, though their charges were eventually dropped.
Marianne struggled with drug addiction during the relationship. She became pregnant with a daughter, but she miscarried at eight months. Then, she took 150 sleeping pills and ended up in a coma for six days. She lost custody of the son she shared with her ex-husband, and she and Mick broke up in 1970. She later told People, “He wasn’t the great love of my life. We were just two kids living on too many different levels.”
3.
While filming the 1947 movie Singapore, Ava Gardner reportedly had an affair with her costar Fred MacMurray, who was married to Lillian Lamont. She balked at the double standard that permitted men to have multiple partners, but not women, so she was open-minded toward extramarital affairs.
However, when Ava discovered Lillian was sick, she ended things with Fred. In the book Ava, a Life in Movies, Rene Jordan, Ava’s housekeeper, said, “She didn’t object to secret adultery, but when a guy was two-timing a sick wife, she objected to that — strongly.”
4.
Then, in 1949, Ava reportedly had an affair with someone even more famous — Frank Sinatra, who was still married to his first wife, Nancy Barbato. Frank and Ava met at a party in Palm Springs. Both drunk, they decided to leave and drive to Indio. They made out, then Frank pulled out a pair of guns. He shot out street lamps, and she shot a hardware store window. Police caught them and hauled them down to the station, but the studio paid them off.
In 1951, the couple reportedly tied the knot a mere 72 hours after his divorce from Nancy was finalized. However, Frank and Ava ultimately divorced in 1957, though they stayed friends until she died in 1990.
5.
In 1948, Prince Aly Khan, the son of Aga Khan III (the imam of Ismaili Muslims), was determined to meet Rita Hayworth after watching Gilda. So, gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell arranged for them to meet at one of her famous parties. At the time, Aly was married to Joan Yarde-Buller, and Rita was being courted by two other men — the Shah of Iran and business magnate Aristotle Onassis. Aly spent the entire party at Rita’s side, and she went back to his villa, Château de l’Horizon, with him afterward.
The next day, Aly had to leave for Ireland. While Rita awaited his return to France, a fortune-teller visited and told her she was “about to embark on the greatest romance of her life” with “someone she already knew,” and that she “must relent and give in to him totally” in order to “find happiness at long last.” Convinced, the actor stayed with Aly until she had to go back to California for work. On a trip to Spain, he proposed, but she said no and returned to Hollywood. However, he followed her and purchased the house across the street from hers, so their affair continued. Aly’s father pressured him to end the relationship, but after meeting Rita (who was pregnant at the time) in person, he gave his approval. So, Aly divorced Joan, and he and Rita tied the knot in 1949.
However, marriage didn’t stop Aly from cheating, gambling, and burning through so much money that his dad sent the couple on a three-month trip to visit the African Ismaili communities to give them a better understanding of their position. On the trip, Rita and Aly fought often, and he kept cheating. Eventually, she left, packed up her things in France, and took her children back to the US. Then, she sought a divorce, which was granted in 1953.
6.
Sophia Loren had an emotional affair with costar Cary Grant on the set of The Pride and the Passion in 1957. She was in a committed relationship with Carlo Ponti Sr., but he couldn’t marry her because Italian law prevented him from divorcing his first wife, Giuliana Fiastri. Cary was married to actor Betsy Drake at the time.
Cary frequently took Sophia out to dinner, and he even asked her to marry him. However, she ultimately chose Carlo. She told the Sydney Morning Herald, “They were very different men. It was difficult. I was doing my first American-language film, and my American language was so very terrible; I was upset. Many times I needed help with the language, and Cary would help me. Cary belonged to another world in America. I felt that I would never fit in there. I would never have a future there because of my nationality. I was scared to change completely in life without knowing if this relationship or quasi-relationship was going on. The picture finished. We exchanged numbers, and he said he would call.”
In 1958, Cary and Sophia costarred in Houseboat. After filming wrapped, he sent her yellow roses. As she and Carlo flew out, she bragged about the flowers because she was “young and thought if he got angry and jealous it meant he loved [her].” In jealous anger, Carlo hit her. She said, “Yes, he did. Very softly. Let’s not exaggerate it. But that’s what made me feel okay. That made me feel I’d made the right choice.”
Cary and Sophia remained in contact. She said, “In fact, [Cary] did come onto the set of [the 1960 Italian film] Two Women, and then when I was doing a picture in New York, he came to the house. I was together with Carlo and already had my son. One day, he called me in New York, where I was for another film. ‘How are you?’ ‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘Why are you calling?’ And he said, ‘Because I wanted to say ciao.’ That was it. He died. He must have known he was dying.”
7.
Paul Newman married his first wife, Jackie Witte, in 1949, but in 1953, he began a passionate affair with Joanne Woodward, his fellow understudy on a Broadway production of Picnic. In his posthumous memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, he wrote, “Joanne gave birth to a sexual creature. We left a trail of lust all over the place. Hotels and public parks and Hertz Rent-A-Cars… I went from being not much of a sexual threat to something else entirely.” He also described the affair as “brutal in [his] detachment from [his] family.”
In 1958, Paul officially divorced Jackie and married Joanne. One night, his new wife gave their bedroom a mini makeover with fresh paint and a “thriftshop double bed.” He wrote, “‘I call it the Fuck Hut,’ she said proudly. It had been done with such affection and delight. Even if my kids came over, we’d go into the Fuck Hut several nights a week and just be intimate and noisy and ribald.”
8.
Elizabeth Taylor and her third husband, Mike Todd, whom she married in 1957, went on frequent double dates with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. Elizabeth and Debbie had been friends since high school. Mike and Elizabeth had only been married for a year when a plane crash took his life. Shortly after, Elizabeth moved on with Eddie. Per Vogue, Debbie’s The Tender Trap costar Frank Sinatra advised her against exchanging vows with Eddie in the first place. She said, “He said, ‘Don’t marry Eddie.’ He said I shouldn’t get married to a singer. ‘We’re not faithful. It’s ridiculous for you to take this on.’ I said, ‘Why? I don’t think that I will listen to you — I really think he’s adorable.’ My mother thought he was adorable.”
Eddie divorced Debbie and married Elizabeth in 1959. He reportedly said, “I divorced Debbie and married Elizabeth the day I finished my run at the Tropicana… It was a typical two-rabbi Jewish ceremony. As usual, Elizabeth was late for her own wedding… We were married under the chuppah, a canopy, and as is traditional, at the end of the ceremony, I stomped on a wineglass.”
9.
However, Elizabeth and Eddie didn’t find happily-ever-after. She famously had an affair with costar Richard Burton (who was married to Sybil Williams at the time) on the set of 1963’s Cleopatra. She reportedly said, “The first day on the set, he was hungover and very vulnerable, and his hands were shaking. He asked me to hold a coffee cup up to his lips, and I was gone.”
In the BBC documentary Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, Elizabeth’s son, Christopher Wilding, said, “My mother was still married to Eddie Fisher. I think she was unhappy. It wasn’t a normal situation, and at that time, her attitude was, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to do it my way, and if you don’t like it, too bad.'”
The affair was reportedly “so obvious.” Richard and Sybil divorced in 1963, and Elizabeth and Eddie divorced the following year. The new couple were famously married twice — their first marriage lasted from 1964 to 1974, and their second lasted from 1975 to 1976.
But that’s not the end of the story! Debbie and Elizabeth actually managed to repair their friendship. Debbie reportedly said, “We got on the same boat to go to Europe — the Queen Elizabeth. I sent a note to her, and she sent a note to me in passing, and then we had dinner together. She was married to Richard Burton by then. I had been remarried at that point. And we just said, ‘Let’s call it a day.’ And we got smashed. And we had a great evening and stayed friends since then.”
10.
Spencer Tracy married Louise Treadwell in 1923, and the couple later separated but didn’t divorce because of his Catholic faith. However, he began a relationship with costar Katharine Hepburn, who “knew right away that [she] found him irresistible,” while filming 1942’s Woman of the Year. The couple went on to costar in eight more movies together during their nearly 30-year affair.
Katharine and Spencer went to great lengths to hide their relationship. They lived separately and rarely went out in public together. She described him as “tortured,” as he dealt with mental health issues and alcoholism. In the late ’60s, his health declined, so she stepped back from acting to be his caretaker. She reportedly said, “I liked to wait on him, listen to him, feed him, work for him. I tried not to disturb him… I was happy to do this.”
Spencer allegedly once drunkenly hit her but didn’t remember it the next day. Though Katharine was with Spencer when he died, she didn’t go to his funeral because she felt it would be disrespectful to Louise and their children, and she didn’t even talk about the relationship publicly until Louise’s death in 1983.
11.
Marlene Dietrich was married to Rudolf Sieber for 53 years, but at some point in her career, her affair with John Wayne was reportedly “the worst-kept secret in Hollywood.” The actors costarred in three movies — Seven Sinners (1940), The Spoilers (1942), and Pittsburgh (1942). During this time, John was married to his first wife, Josephine Sáenz (whom he divorced in 1945).
In the book John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth, director Henry Hathaway recalled, “They would appear in public together at Hollywood nightspots, and she even went with him to football games and prizefights. And she took a great interest in his career and later took much of the credit for making him the star he became.”
The way their affair came to light was actually pretty wild! The FBI was covertly monitoring Marlene because they suspected she might be a Nazi sympathizer (though the German-born actor actually refused to star in Nazi propaganda films, and she became an American citizen). While the FBI didn’t find what they were looking for, they uncovered her affair.
12.
Elia Kazan reportedly admitted to having an affair with Marilyn Monroe while he was married to his first wife, Molly Day Thacher. In a 1955 letter to Molly (published in The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan), he wrote, “The reason I can’t write you about what I’m ashamed of is because I’m ashamed of it. I’m ashamed I hurt you ever. On the other hand I resent being made to feel guilty and low and less… Her boy friend, or ‘keeper’ (if you want to be mean) had just died. His family had not allowed her to see the body, or allowed her into the house, where she had been living. She had sneaked in one night and been thrown out. I met her on Harmon Jones’ set. Harmon thought her a ridiculous person and was fashionably scornful of her. I found her, when I was introduced, in tears.”
He continued, “I took her to dinner because she seemed like such a touching pathetic waif. She sobbed all thru dinner. I wasn’t ‘interested in her;’ that came later. I got to know her in time and introduced her to Arthur Miller, who also was very taken by her. You couldn’t help being touched. She was talented, funny, vulnerable, helpless in awful pain, with no hope, and some worth and not a liar, not vicious, not catty, and with a history of orphanism that was killing to hear. She was like all Charlie Chaplin’s heroines in one.”
“I’m not ashamed at all, not a damn bit, of having been attracted to her. She is nothing like what she appears to be now, or even appears to have turned into now. She was a little stray cat when I knew her. I got a lot out of her just as you do from any human experience where anyone is revealed to you and you affect anyone in any way. I guess I gave her a lot of hope. She is not a big sex pot as advertised. At least not in my experience. I don’t know if there are such as ‘advertised’ big sex pots. She told me a lot about [Joe DiMaggio] and her, his Catholicism, and his viciousness (he struck her often, and beat her up several times). I was touched and fascinated. It was the type of experience that I do not understand and I enjoyed (not the right word) hearing about it,” he wrote.
He continued, “I’m not sorry about it. I love you and only want to help you. I’m awful sorry I hurt you. I am human though. It might happen again. I hope not, and I have resisted quite some other opportunities. No loss. I got a lot out of this one; can’t say I didn’t. I think I helped her.” Elia went on to write that he’d understand if Molly wanted a divorce, but he’d get remarried and have more kids. However, they stayed together until her death in 1963. Marilyn went on to marry Arthur Miller, whom Elia had introduced her to.
13.
In 1948, Ingrid Bergman, who was married to neurosurgeon Petter Lindström, began an affair with director Roberto Rossellini on the set of Stromboli. Ingrid became pregnant, and she gave birth to their son (also named Roberto) a few short days before her divorce was finalized.
The affair caused such a scandal that Congress got involved. Criticizing the studio for using the affair to promote the film, Senator Edwin C. Johnson called Ingrid “one of the most powerful women on earth — I regret to say a powerful influence for evil.” He also pushed for a licensing requirement for actors and filmmakers, with the caveat that licenses could be revoked for perceived “immoral” behavior. Of course, his proposal never made it out of the gate.
Ingrid had already moved out of the US, but the backlash she faced spurred her to stay away for nine years. She and Roberto were married from 1950 to 1957. In 1972, Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology to her into the Congressional Record, calling her “one of the world’s loveliest, most gracious, and most talented women [who was] the victim of bitter attack in this chamber 22 years ago.” She’d “never forgotten” Senator Johnson’s tirade, and the apology came as a “complete surprise.”
14.
And finally, Ingrid and Roberto’s affair contributed to another shocking moment in Old Hollywood history! The scandal tanked Ingrid’s 1948 movie Joan of Arc, driving the final nail into producer Walter Wanger’s financial coffin. Over the next few years, he declared bankruptcy, leaving his wife, actor Joan Bennett, as the main breadwinner. However, in 1951, he became suspicious that she was cheating on him with her agent, Jennings Lang.
Like many a scorned spouse, Walter hired a private investigator to tail Joan and Jennings. When the PI discovered the alleged couple was spending time together in Beverly Hills, New Orleans, and the Caribbean, Walter decided to take matters into his own hands. He found Joan’s green Cadillac parked outside Jennings’s agency then drove around, waiting and armed. In Walter Wanger: Hollywood Independent, author Matthew Bernstein wrote, “There was a violent argument between the two men, with Bennett yelling, ‘Get away from here and leave us alone.’ Wanger, she said, was ‘standing there like a man hypnotized.’ Though Lang held up his hands, Wanger was implacable; he fired two shots in Lang’s general direction. One went astray against the car; the other struck Lang in the groin, and he collapsed in agony to the ground.”
Thankfully, the shot didn’t kill Jennings. Walter was arrested on the spot, but he hired a powerful attorney, pleaded temporary insanity, and got off with only a four-month prison sentence. He went on to revitalize his career with films like Riot in Cell Block 11 and, most famously, Cleopatra. Unfortunately, the incident had greater consequences for Joan’s career, which never quite bounced back. What’s more, Joan claimed there was no affair to begin with, insisting they had been meeting for business reasons. She and Jennings had been meeting to talk about a new show. She told the LA Times, “But if Walter thinks the relationships between Mr. Lang and myself are romantic or anything but strictly business, he is wrong.”
