Top 10 Controversial Old Hollywood Couples
#10: Sophia Loren & Cary Grant
This couple certainly knew how to rock the boat. First hooking up on the set of 1957’s “The Pride and the Passion,” Sophia Loren and Cary Grant’s relationship blossomed behind the scenes. In addition to their three-decade age difference, Grant was already married to his third wife, Betsy Drake at the time. The pair went on to star in another film, the following year’s “Houseboat,” for which Drake wrote the script and was set to appear in alongside her husband. Unfortunately, Grant pulled some strings and was able to get Drake replaced with Loren -- as well as the movie’s script rewritten. But after all that trouble, the spark was short-lived and Loren moved on with the true love of her life, Carlo Ponti.
#9: Marilyn Monroe & Joe DiMaggio
Top 10 Dark Truths About Marilyn Monroe
When you both get a mention in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” things are bound to be explosive. During their brief marriage in the mid 1950s, Joe DiMaggio became increasingly uncomfortable with Marilyn Monroe’s sex symbol image. The final straw for the baseball player was when Monroe helped promote her film “The Seven Year Itch” with some now-iconic photos — of the wind blowing up her white dress. But while it went down in pop culture history, DiMaggio was less than impressed. He reportedly often got violent with the actress, including after the famous photoshoot, and she filed for divorce a month later. After their marriage, Monroe courted further controversy with her birthday serenade to President John F. Kennedy. To this day, she’s never stopped being the talk of Tinseltown.
#8: Rita Hayworth & Orson Welles
Top 10 Moments That Made Us Love Rita Moreno
These days, surprise celebrity weddings are just another Hollywood headline. But when Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles got hitched in 1943, little did they know they were starting a tradition. While working on the stage production “The Mercury Wonder Show,” the pair shocked even their closest colleagues by not announcing their union until the day before the ceremony. Archival audio footage from the big day shows just how swept away they were, with excitement practically radiating from their voices. That said, the passion was short-lived, with Hayworth filing for divorce in 1947 and marrying Prince Aly Khan two years later. Although Hayworth and Welles wouldn’t go the distance, their unexpected nuptials created quite the media circus at the time.
#7: Ingrid Bergman & Roberto Rossellini
Lots of relationships begin as affairs, but how many have to flee the country? After starting a relationship with director Roberto Rossellini on the set of his film “Stromboli,” Ingrid Bergman became one of the most hated women in America overnight. Their collaboration spawned from a letter written by Bergman, and both were married at the time — making things look rather premeditated. Once news got out, the Swedish actress returned to her native Europe to ride out the backlash…where she gave birth to Rossellini’s son amid the release of “Stromboli.” Bergman and Rossellini continued working together in Italy, and she was later able to stage a comeback. Their daughter Isabella became a successful actress in her own right, and by all accounts seems surprisingly well-adjusted.
#6: Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall
Even film’s greatest legends aren’t immune to getting starstruck. During the early days of their affair, which started on the set of 1944’s “To Have and Have Not,” Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall communicated via love letters — some of which were so gushing they could have passed as fan mail. Although the production was Bacall’s film debut, it marked the beginning of a long career and collaboration with her passionate pen pal. Despite the pair’s almost 25-year age difference, their chemistry was palpable onscreen and off. After Bogart left his then-wife Mayo Methot in 1945, he and Bacall remained together until his 1957 death. Apart from its messy beginnings, their actual marriage was mostly uneventful — showing even controversial couples can get a happy ending.
#5: Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner
On a list of scandalous Hollywood romances, the Chairman of the Board could never go ignored. All of Frank Sinatra’s relationships made headlines, but his dynamic with second wife, actress Ava Gardner, was especially tempestuous. The couple first began their affair during Sinatra’s previous marriage to Nancy Barbato, and there was never a dull moment. Sinatra and Gardner’s union was marked by constant fighting, drinking, breakups, and makeups, often in public. By the time they separated in 1953, Sinatra was so changed by their relationship that it reflected in his music and ushered in a career renaissance. While Gardner had moved on with Spanish matador Luis Miguel Dominguín, the New Jersey crooner never fully got over their fiery highs and lows.
#4: Clark Gable & Loretta Young
This pair’s controversy took time to see the light, but each wave has proven more shocking than the last. After acting in 1935’s “Call of the Wild,” actress Loretta Young went away to England before returning to the States. When she returned, she spoke of an illness and adopted a baby girl named Judy. In reality, Judy Lewis was Young’s biological daughter with co-star Clark Gable, who was married and helped her cover up the child’s true parentage. But that’s not all: following Young’s death, her daughter-in-law Linda later claimed that Young previously confessed that Gable had forced himself on her, and that Judy’s conception was non-consensual. This information was only made public in 2015, following both the deaths of Young and Lewis.
#3: Charlie Chaplin & His Wives
Top 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Charlie Puth
When it comes to the famous comic actor, his love life is no laughing matter. Charlie Chaplin had four wives in total, and all of them shared one thing in common: they were much, much younger. Both his first and second wives, actresses Mildred Harris and Lita Grey, were both teenagers at the start, and each became pregnant soon after Chaplin’s relationships with them had begun. And after an affair during his third marriage to Paulette Goddard, the actor was embroiled in a paternity suit with a woman named Joan Barry — which he lost. Chaplin would eventually find stability with his fourth wife, Oona O’Neill, in 1943, but she was only 18 compared to his 54 years of age.
#2: Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton
Top 10 Iconic Queen Elizabeth Fashion Moments
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had a partnership for the ages. The violet-eyed actress and her fifth husband got their start on the set of 1963’s “Cleopatra” when they were both married — mirroring the Queen’s onscreen affair with Mark Antony. They continued working together throughout the decade, most notably in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The V.I.P.s,” which appeared to address some of the chatter about their coupling. While they’d divorce after a decade in 1974, they reconciled the following year for a short time — making Burton the sole of seven suitors to get a second chance.
#1: Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn
From their very first onscreen meeting, something just felt different about these Hollywood titans. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn became one of cinema’s most dynamic duos after appearing together in 1942’s “Woman of the Year,”. They started a long-term affair behind the scenes, and collaborated again on eight more films. Meanwhile, Tracy was still legally married to his estranged wife, Louise Treadwell, throughout their relationship. This wasn’t an obstacle for Hepburn, who didn’t mind and was happy to keep seeing Tracy. She stuck by the actor's side as he struggled with alcohol use disorder and other health issues in middle age, working together one more time in 1967’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” — arguably the peak of their movie magic. Tracy died the following year, marking a premature end to their legendary legacy.
