As a Hollywood leading man who made women swoon, it appeared that Clint Eastwood “wasn’t cut out for marriage.”
The claim was made by author Shawn Levy, who has written a new book about the film icon, “Clint: The Man and The Movies.” Featuring reflections and quotes from the star over the years, it aims to shed light on his decades-long career, marriages, and partnerships from the past.
Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Eastwood, 95, for comment.
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“In many ways, I think Clint had a modern idea of marriage, even progressive for his day,” Levy told Fox News Digital. “There are non-traditional marriages all around us where monogamy is not necessarily the law, but it’s open. It’s consensual. There are discussions, a lot of talks and struggles with it, but they exist. . . . But in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was unusual.”
“There’s a part of him that respects the institution of marriage,” Levy shared. “But his personal liberty, I think, eventually has equal weight, if not more weight for him. He always tried to treat his partners with respect, but he also always followed his passions and instincts.”
“I think, in retrospect, it’s an appetite,” Levy continued. “It’s something that he found pleasure in, something he could do. He did it before he was famous. He did it after he became famous. There were periods, long periods, of his life, when he was faithful to a partner. And there were periods when he was in between partners or when he was unfaithful to his principal partner.”
On the surface, Eastwood and his first wife, Maggie Johnson, “looked like an all-American couple,” the book shared. They met in 1953 when she was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and he had recently been discharged from the military. She worked as an office clerk and occasionally as a swimsuit model.
Eastwood, Levy pointed out, “had no career or real prospects” before Hollywood came calling. They went on to marry that year.
The book claimed that Eastwood’s friends were “aware that he considered marriage to be a form of confinement, and he gave himself free rein when it came to other women.”
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“He was not faithful in the traditional sense,” said Levy. “He and his wife, Maggie, seemed to have some sort of understanding about his liberties. There was a lot of complexity there. And Clint has always cut his path as an actor, as a director, as a political entity, and as a man among women. He found monogamy to be confining, just the way he found being a studio contract actor confining.”
“He’s a man of complexity and contradiction,” Levy added.
In a 1963 interview with Photoplay, the “Rawhide” star said, “One thing Mag had to learn about me was that I was going to do as I pleased. She had to accept that, because if she didn’t, we wouldn’t be married.”
He later told his authorized biographer Richard Schickel, for the 1997 book “Clint Eastwood: A Biography,” that his affairs “just became … I don’t know … addictive … like you have to have another cigarette.”
Eastwood’s classmate at Universal Talent School (UTS), actress Mamie Van Doren, later told People magazine in an interview cited by Levy’s book that Eastwood “always knew the most straight and direct path to my dressing room.”
“When Clint talks about the times, he was chasing women or having multiple affairs … he talks about the challenge of seducing a woman and achieving a sexual relationship with a woman,” Levy explained.
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“Years later, he talks about wanting to counsel young actors about this and how this is not a great habit. This is not a way to be in the world. But he also said, ‘No one could tell me that when I was a young actor. And even though I try, I can’t convince these young men that this isn’t really a noble pursuit.’”
Eastwood and Johnson married just a few months before his daughter, Laurie Murray, was born to another woman and placed for adoption, unbeknownst to Eastwood, People magazine reported. According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, Eastwood and his eldest child reconnected years later.
It’s unclear whether Johnson was aware of her husband’s alleged trysts. Still, the marriage endured until they called it quits in 1984.
“His relationship with Maggie was meaningful to him,” Levy explained. “They were nobodies when they met. He wasn’t Clint Eastwood. He was just a guy, a lifeguard from the Bay Area. They worked multiple jobs when they lived in a little apartment. . . . She was always by his side. And when he rose, she was his best counsel.
“They had a family together, two children. They built together a home from scratch. Clint always said that Maggie loved him before he was successful. He had a sense of honor, obligation, duty and love for her that, I think, persists. . . . Even when Clint began directing and producing his films, he trusted her judgment.”
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“They knew each other as kids,” Levy reflected. “Even though they divorced and split up their assets and time with the children, they stayed close. They owned businesses and properties together. Maggie was always around. And I think that speaks to the real depth of their bond.”
But there was one woman who nearly made Eastwood monogamous, the book claimed.
In 1972, Eastwood met actress Sondra Locke when she was auditioning for his film “Breezy,” People magazine reported. At the time, Locke was married to her childhood best friend, Gordon Anderson. Eastwood and Locke reportedly began an affair.
People magazine pointed out that in her autobiography, “The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey,” Locke alleged that Eastwood had told her “there was no real relationship left” between him and Johnson. According to the outlet, Locke said she had even moved into one of his homes. But in public, the pair insisted they were just friends.
“He used to … sing this little ditty around the house, ‘She made me monogamous,’” Levy claimed. “I was impressed that Clint and Sondra were so open about their romantic relationship while Clint was married to Maggie. . . . There was still a lot of studio control over the publicity that was put over what the stars did and didn’t do in public. Clint defied that as he would because he’s Clint Eastwood, he cuts his path.”
The relationship fell apart in 1989. Locke claimed that Eastwood had broke up with her and that the locks had been changed outside a home she had thought had been a gift, the Associated Press reported. According to the outlet, she sued Eastwood for palimony, then later sued him for fraud. They settled for an undisclosed amount in 1996.
Locke died in 2018 at 74. According to her death certificate, she was still legally married to Anderson, the Associated Press shared.
“It was painful for both parties,” said Levy. “I think she felt deeply betrayed, used and horribly treated. [Eastwood] said that he was with someone who didn’t respect his boundaries and went public with things about him that he always denied. What started as a fairytale ended as a horror story.”
Eastwood married Dina Eastwood in 1996. The marriage ended in 2014.
Today the actor has remained a devoted father, grandfather and great-grandfather – all while thinking about his next big project, said Levy.
“He directed and produced a film that came out last year,” said Levy. “He’s still very fit. He’s a lifelong gym rat. . . . I found articles from the 1950s where they were saying he eats yogurt and wheat bread and has to drive long distances to a health food store in some sort of hippie neighborhood in Venice, California, to get these ‘strange foods.’
“I think he still golfs a little bit. . . . He’s still enjoying nature, which he’s always done. He has a 1,000-plus-acre ranch in Northern California that he’s kept very rustic because he loves the wilderness.”
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“That’s his life,” said Levy. “But I think he’s probably also reading scripts and thinking, ‘I’ve got another picture in me.’ And you would not bet against him.”
