This article provides a little more context as to what was going on at the time: http://www.aip.org/history/curie/scandal1.htm http://www.aip.org/history/curie

This article provides a little more context as to what was going on at the time: http://www.aip.org/history/curie/scandal1.htm http://www.aip.org/history/curie/scandal1.htm Pierre Curie died in 1906 and she became romantically involved with Paul Langevin, a former student of Pierre, in 1910. At the time it was considered gauche for a widow of her age (she was 38 at the time of Pierre's death) to remarry. But what really ignited the ire of the press was mostly the fact that Langevin was already married, though estranged from his wife.