During the golden age of Hollywood, love affairs were usually kept in the dark, due the control that big studios had on reporters, and the media.
It was a different time then, not like today with the paparazzi and social media, nothing is a secret anymore.
With that being said, there were scandalous affairs in the old Hollywood between A-list stars, that turned into a world phenomene.
From Eddie Fisher And Elizabeth Taylor to Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kenned, these are the 5 most scandalous affairs that shook the entertainment industrie during the golde age of Hollywood.
1/ EDDIE FISHER AND ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher’s affair in the 1950s was one of biggest scandals in Hollywood history.
Their relationship started when Fisher was still married to Taylor’s best friend, Debbie Reynolds, and had two children.
It all started when Taylor’s third husband and Fisher best friend, Mike Todd died in a plane crash in 1958. To support her through this sad time, Fisher moved in with Taylor.
One month later, however, Fisher left his wife and kids for Taylor. And a year later in 1959, they got married.
Neither to say, The world was stunned. Both Taylor and Fisher’s image was destroyed by the public. Fisher was labeled as an opportunistic loser, and Elizabeth as a home-wrecking sl*t.
Debbie Reynolds on the other hand, was labelled as the sweet, innocent, trusting victim. And was globally embraced with love and sympathy.
However, just five years later Taylor divorced Fisher for her Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton. They were married in 1964.
2/ INGRID BERGMAN AND ROBERTO ROSSELLINI
Their love affair began in the 40s with a letter that Ingrid Bergman, who was married at the time to Petter Lindstrom and have one child with him, send to the director.
The letter read; “I saw your films Open City and Paisan, and enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who has not forgotten her German, who is not very understandable in French, and who in Italian knows only “ti amo,” I am ready to come and make a film with you.”
And because of this letter, he decided to work with her in the film, Stromboli. Their relationship started growing when they were trying to secure funds for the film.
They even went as far as travelling together throughout Italy prior to the shooting against Bergman husband’s wishes.
While shooting the film, their affair started to become public. Rossellini didn’t really care if the two of them were seen together in public or not. He not only didn’t attempt to hide the affair, he was happy to be photographed with her being intimate.
He was photographed holding her hand, sitting on his lab, even giving statements to the press regarding Bergman’s broken marriage.
After the affair became public, Bergman begged Lindström for a divorce and contact with their daughter Pia, but he refused.
Towards the end of shooting the film, Bergman became pregnant with Rossellini’s child. In the same month Stromboli was released, she gave birth to a boy, Renato Roberto Ranaldo Giusto Giuseppe (“Robin”) Rossellini.
A week after her son was born she divorced Lindström, and married Rossellini in 1950. the pair had another two children together-a twin- before divorcing in 1957.
The affair became front-page news, and it was all over the American airwaves. In consequences, Bergman was cast off by the American film Industry after she was denounced in the media as “evil.”
She couldn’t find a job in the industry for more than seven years. After winning her second Academy Award in 1957 for Anastasia, she famously said, “I’ve gone from saint to whore and back to saint again, all in one lifetime.”
3/ FRANK SINATRA AND AVA GARDNER
Frank Sinatra was known for his affairs, he even got arrested once in 1938 on charges of adultery.
Sinatra married Nancy Barbato in 1939 and they had three children together. But in 1948, he began publicly dating Ava Gardner while he was still married. In the 50s, The scandal became a legendary affair when the entire world found out about them.
The scandal came with a price, Gardner’s image and career suffered, she was labeled everywhere as a home-wrecker and gold digger.
Sinatra’s career on the other hand suffered the most, his shows got effected, he lost his recording contract, and even his voice was failing.
He eventually divorced his wife, Nancy, and married Ava in 1951. Their marriage, however, was short lived. The singer was unfaithful to Gardner throughout their marriage.
Eventually, After a few public arguments, jealousy outburst, and two abortions later, their union ended in 1953. The divorce was finally finalized in 1957.
4/ HUMPHREY BOGART AND LAUREN BACALL
You might know these couple as One of Hollywood’s greatest love stories, but their union began as a marital affair.
Humphrey Bogart met Lauren Bacall while filming To Have and Have Not in 1944. He was 44 and married to actress Mayo Methot at the time, and she was only 19.
Bogart was smiting with the young actress right away, but it wasn’t the same for Bacall. it was his patience with her as a new actor that caught her attention. Their off-screen chemistry was so strong, that writers made changes in the script, so it will show on-screen.
When their director Howard Hawks found out about their relationship, he reportedly tried to end it by threatening to destroy Bacall’s career.
Despite his strong feelings for Bacall, Bogart didn’t want to give up on his struggling marriage and wanted to wtry to work it out. His wife, Methot, however, was battling alcoholism, and after a failed trip to rehab, the couple split for good.
The divorce was finally divorced in 1945. And Bogart and Bacall married despite their 25-year age gap. the couple stayed married Bogart died in 1957.
5/ Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy
There are several conflicting suggestions as to when they first entered each other’s life. But the majority of the biographers believe that the actual affair began in March 1962, at Bing Crosby’s Palm Springs house.
Rumors about Monroe’s alleged affair with JFK really started to spread after her sultry “Happy Birthday” performance for the commander-in-chief at his 45th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962.
That famous performance was just months before the film star’s death.
It was also rumoured that Monroe had an affair with JFK’s brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
“What happened to Marilyn Monroe is one of the great mysteries of the 20th century,” her biographer James Spada told PEOPLE in 2012.
Although Spada knew that there is no proof that the Kennedys were responsible for Monroe’s death, he said, “It was pretty clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with both Bobby and Jack.”
According to him, actor Peter Lawford introduced Monroe to JFK in 1954. But when Kennedy got tired of her around the spring of 1962, he passed her off to his brother.
There were witnesses who claim to have heard a disturbing tape from the bugged Monroe home the night of her death, where they’ve heard voices of Lawford, an angry Bobby and a screaming Monroe are audible.
White photographer took this rare picture of Monroe and the Kennedies after the birthday performance during a party at the home of movie executive Arthur Krim. Stoughton kept it a secret for decades before releasing it in 2010.
In J. Randy Taraborrelli new biography “Jackie: Public, Private, Secret,” he noted that in April 1962, Jackie Kennedy received a phone call to her bedroom from Monroe while at the family’s Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, residence.
Jackie recongnized her voice instintly, The actress, asked her “Is this Jackie?” , before asking her to pass a message to her husband that she has called.
That phone call wich happened just four months before Monroe’s death left Jackie with a lot of quaestions.
While talking to family memebers about the phone call, Jackie decribed Monroe’s voice as “sad” and “ethereal, little-girl-lost quality.”
According to to “Jackie: Public, Private, Secret,” it remains a mystery how Monroe even obtained the number, because the bedroom’s phone line was the only one in the house not intercepted by the Secret Service.
It was just one month after the phone call that Monroe performed her famous “Happy Birthday” to JFK.
