Top 10 Famous Classic Hollywood Affairs

With her second marriage to famed director Orson Welles in the rearview mirror, the “Gilda” star bounced back quickly. Bombshell is a term that doesn’t even begin to cover how moviegoers thought of Rita Hayworth in the late 1940s. Aly Khan, the son of the Aga Khan, was not even divorced from his own wife yet when he set his sights on the “Love Goddess” herself. The two engaged in a passionate affair that culminated in a lavish wedding in Cannes, France in 1949. Their fairytale romance and nuptials drew heaps of publicity, especially when Hayworth announced she would be ending her film career to devote herself to her marriage. The two would, however, divorce just 4 years later in 1953.

For years, he was one of Hollywood’s most prolific lovers. His list of partners was as star-studded as one of his movies. Then, Clark Gable fell in love with the fast-talking, quick-witted Carole Lombard. The two appeared in 1932’s “No Man of Her Own,” but wouldn’t become an item until 1936. Gable was still legally married to his wife, Maria, at the time. However, his affair with Lombard was a known secret. Eventually, Gable was able to secure a divorce, and the two married in 1939. People who knew Gable said his years with Lombard were among his happiest. That happiness was short-lived, however, as Lombard was tragically killed in an airplane crash in 1942.

It seems only fitting that the two biggest stars of the silent era should get together. The only problem was they were both married to other people when they met. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks met in 1915, and were soon in a full-blown affair. They began meeting in secret, as the scandal of infidelity would have damaged Pickford’s good-girl screen persona. One thing they shared above all else was their desire to protect their hard-won careers as movie stars. Once they were divorced from their spouses, the two married in 1920 to great fanfare. Until their own separation in 1933, they held court over the industry town from Pickfair, their opulent estate that became the site of elegant dinners and galas.

The gruff, no-nonsense star of “The Maltese Falcon” and “Casablanca” met his match for cool on the set of 1944’s “To Have and Have Not.” He was 44 and married, and she was 19 debuting her film career, but they fell in love pretty quickly. They didn’t make it too hard to figure it out either. Audiences got to see their romance blossom through their on-screen counterparts. This was a new development for Bogart. Unlike some of his contemporaries, he had never made a habit of getting involved with his leading ladies. The two married once he divorced his wife, and remained together until his death in 1957.

The crooner known as “Ol’ Blue Eyes” has a romantic history about as long as his career, but it was his torrid love affair with Ava Gardner that grabbed headlines and captured our imagination. The two began seeing each other in 1950 while Sinatra was married to his first wife, Nancy Barbato. His already stalling career was hit even harder by the ensuing moral scandal. Thanks to Gardner’s influence, however, Sinatra was able to score his major comeback in “From Here to Eternity.” Still, their tempestuous relationship was the talk of the town. They divorced only a few years later.

They were two of the most enigmatic figures of 20th-century America. And Marilyn Monroe’s provocative performance at then-President Kennedy’s birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden was enough to get the gossip mill running. What exactly happened between them is still a mystery. There’s been suggestions that Monroe was seeing both the president and his brother, Robert Kennedy. The fact that so few details of this alleged affair even exist just makes it all the more alluring. Due to the threat of a potential scandal and the tragic fates that befell both Monroe and Kennedy, their rumored relationship has taken on mythic proportions ever since.

Like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers before them, Tracy and Hepburn became one of classic Hollywood’s indelible screen pairs. But unlike Fred and Ginger, Tracy and Hepburn carried their on-screen romance off-screen. The two had a 26-year-long affair, and Tracy and his estranged wife never divorced. Reportedly, Hepburn respected Tracy’s marital status, and their relationship remained discreet. Tracy passed away mere months after he and Hepburn completed their Oscar-winning work on “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Interestingly, Hepburn never publicly confirmed the relationship until the 1980s, once Tracy’s widow passed away.

Even though they wed twice, the lovers and frequent co-stars were so volatile and passionate that their romance often seemed more like an epic affair than a marriage. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor fell for each other on the big budget historical drama, “Cleopatra,” while both were still married; Taylor to her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, and Burton to his first wife, Sybil Williams. Moviegoers got to vicariously experience their love through a series of dramatic films that saw the two acting out the tension and histrionics that seemingly dogged their real-life marriage. Fittingly, news of their affair was broken by the paparazzi. This began a long fascination with the couple that continued until even after their first divorce, remarriage, and second divorce.

When she left America to go make a film with the maestro of Italian neorealism, “Casablanca” star Ingrid Bergman was as close to an angel as Hollywood had ever seen. But all that changed when news broke that she and director Roberto Rossellini were having an affair on the set of “Stromboli.” Both were married at the time, and the public backlash was swift and harsh, with Bergman bearing the brunt of the criticism. She was essentially exiled from Hollywood and her home country of Sweden for several years. The two divorced in 1957, and Bergman was finally able to resume her Hollywood career. Their daughter, Isabella, would later become a renowned actress as well.

Hollywood was a tight-knit community back in the studio days. Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds had taken classes together and been put through the ringer at MGM. They became friends. Their relationship changed forever, however, when the news broke that Reynolds’ husband, singer and actor Eddie Fisher, was seeing the recently-widowed Elizabeth Taylor. The two married not long after, and the news shattered the illusion behind one of the era’s most squeaky-clean marriages, tarnishing Taylor’s reputation in the process. Reynolds and Fisher’s daughter, Carrie Fisher, even likened the ensuing media blitz as a precursor to Brangelina. Within a few years of marriage, Taylor and Fisher had split and, in a happy turn of events, the two ex-friends managed to put their animosity behind them.



Which classic Hollywood affair did we leave out? Tell us in the comments.