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From what I understand, many of his early marriages were a result of affairs with young "starlets" which resulted in pregnancy and subsequent marriage to avoid
by soylentcola 11y ago
From what I understand, many of his early marriages were a result of affairs with young "starlets" which resulted in pregnancy and subsequent marriage to avoid legal issues or further career damage. Those early marriages didn't last since they were only based on necessity but when he married O'Neill, they actually made a stable couple.
It's interesting to read about as it's the sort of thing you see in so many other stories about "stars" sleeping with groupies or other admirers, often below the modern age of consent. I've wondered before how much of that has to do with the stereotypical entertainer's lifestyle or what it says about arrested development in performing artists.
- vessenes 11y agoIndeed. It seems to be historically common for people in power. I'd propose that what's different in the last two hundred or so years is that the middle class exists, is large enough and is literate enough to impose its values on 'upper class' citizens, or at least has a large enough media platform to shame them. In the west, Victorian middle class citizens really took up the idea that social improvement was tied to comportment. We see this kind of thinking all the time still, for instance, I just got an e-mail from Quora with the title "Why do billionaires dress so badly?" Top answer: because they don't have anyone to impress.