The Messiest Celebrity Affairs Of The 1970s

In this age of social media, the most dedicated fans seemingly know everything about celebrities' personal lives. But in the 1970s, things were much different, and many notable affairs occurred between actors, musicians, and other public figures. Even though it was easier to keep controversies under wraps in the '70s, the press has always kept a close eye on the world's most popular celebrities. Furthermore, celebrity affairs rarely end well, which means at least one person involved is usually unafraid to speak out about these flings in interviews.

Because of this, we know plenty of juicy details about the messiest celebrity affairs of the '70s. This was a time when rock n' roll was at its peak and Hollywood was going through a renaissance, which meant that established and brand-new celebrities were embracing their lavish lives and the temptations that came with them. The '70s were full of controversy and drama, so let's explore the most discussed celebrity affairs of the decade.

Mick Jagger met Bianca after a Rolling Stones concert in Paris in 1970. Reportedly, the two instantly hit it off, which led to pregnancy and marriage within a year. Even though they had an amazing connection, it seems Bianca was never confident that her marriage to the Rolling Stones frontman would work out. She later stated in an interview with the New York Daily News (via 9Honey): "My marriage was over on my wedding day."

Mick and Bianca were definitely the it couple of the rock n' roll world in the 1970s, but it was no secret that they weren't faithful to each other. Speaking with PEOPLE in 1977, Bianca admitted that "Mick screws many but has few affairs." Based on this comment, it appears Bianca was never bothered by her husband hooking up with groupies while on tour, but she had a different opinion of his affair with model and actress Jerry Hall. In 1978, after she discovered that Mick had started seeing Hall, she filed for divorce, putting an end to their whirlwind romance.

It's also worth noting that Bianca cheated on Mick during their tumultuous marriage. According to PEOPLE (via Daily Mail), in a 1973 letter, screenwriter Terry Southern revealed that he saw actor Ryan O'Neal and Bianca "going at it like a pair of maddened wart-hogs." Responding to these affair claims, Bianca said to PEOPLE (via iorr.org), "I have had very few affairs. I could never have one without telling Mick."

Interestingly, Carly Simon was one of the women Jagger cheated on Bianca with during their marriage. However, before her fling with Jagger, she was pursued by actor Warren Beatty. Simon has actually revealed that the second verse of her 1972 hit song "You're So Vain" is about Beatty, though the actor would probably argue that the whole song is about him.

Simon raved about her attraction to Beatty in her 2015 memoir "Boys in the Trees." As reported by the New York Post, she wrote, "Warren seemed to have created a brand new manual on how to make love ... What a glorious specimen of man. He put them all to shame, if looks and charm were what you were after. He homed in like a tracking dog." Beatty reportedly tried to convince Simon not to marry James Taylor, which didn't work. After her affair with the actor, Simon and Taylor were married for over 10 years, from 1972 to 1983.

When Ali MacGraw signed on to star in the 1972 film "The Getaway" with Steve McQueen, she was married to film producer Robert Evans, who had produced acclaimed movies like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Godfather." Evans was actually the one who convinced MacGraw to star in the film. Though MacGraw and Evans were a Hollywood power couple in the early '70s, she was hesitant to star in "The Getaway," mostly because she knew she would end up having an affair with McQueen. As reported by Best Life, in her 1991 memoir "Moving Pictures: An Autobiography," the actress wrote, "I was obsessed with Steve from the moment he stepped into my world. There was never enough air for me to breathe to change that feeling."

MacGraw's prediction was correct, as her affair with McQueen began right when they arrived on location in Texas to shoot the film. Their public affair was a major talking point during the lead-up to the movie's release. MacGraw and Evans got divorced near the end of 1972, and she married McQueen in July 1973. However, despite their passionate love affair, their marriage was not a success.

MacGraw basically stopped acting while she was married to McQueen because he didn't want her to work. In 2022, the actress told Closer Weekly that she "played cook, cleaning lady, 'simple' woman to the hilt." By comporting, MacGraw admitted they had been a happy couple for a while, but by 1977, she decided to return to acting. Upon telling her husband this, he responded by initiating a divorce. Therefore, MacGraw and McQueen officially parted ways in 1978, just two years before he passed away from lung cancer.

Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke were both married when they starred in the 1975 Western "The Outlaw Josey Wales." However, since Locke was married to her gay best friend, who she had known since she was a teenager, she was open to pursuing a romance with Eastwood. Throughout the '70s and '80s, Locke co-starred with Eastwood in several films, which impacted her ability to get roles in Hollywood. In a 1997 interview (via The Independent), the actress stated, "If you were in Clint Eastwood movies, you were in the Clint Eastwood movie business. You weren't part of Hollywood. This became clear early on. People stopped calling. They automatically assumed I was working exclusively with Clint."

This was fine and dandy while Locke and Eastwood were on good terms, but it practically ruined her career when they fell out. While she was directing the 1990 movie "Impulse," Eastwood had kicked her out of the Bel-Air home he had bought for her. This led to a dramatic legal battle, in which Locke fought for palimony. The actress won their initial court case, which saw her rewarded with one of his houses, $450,000 in unpaid work, and a production and directing deal with Warner Bros., which included a $1.5 million paycheck and an office on the studio lot.

However, years later, in 1996, Locke took Eastwood to court once again for fraud when she learned the $1.5 million came directly from him, which is why more than 30 projects she proposed to the studio were turned down. They eventually settled their dispute out of court, but Locke's career in Hollywood never recovered. This proves that her affair with Eastwood, which began in the '70s, had a lifelong impact on her.

Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston started seeing each other not long after she moved to Hollywood in 1973. Despite their 14-year age gap, they reportedly had an instant connection. After their meeting, the young actress quickly moved into Nicholson's Los Angeles home. Even though they were together for 17 years, they never got married, and it was an open secret that the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" actor cheated on Huston with various women. In an interview with PEOPLE in 1980, Nicholson stated, "Most of the credit for our wonderfully successful relationship has to do with her flexibility."

In a 2025 interview with The Guardian, Huston reflected on her relationship with Nicholson and wasn't shy to share her thoughts about his cheating habits. "I loved him. I think in the world that I was living in, it wasn't disrespectful. It was how he was, and it wasn't so personal," she said. "I think as soon as I clocked that, it was all right, I knew how to protect myself. It didn't make me happy, but I knew what I was doing." Ultimately, Huston, who has been open about her fertility problems, ended her relationship with Nicholson in 1989 when she learned he had impregnated actress Rebecca Broussard, with whom he starred in the 1990 film "The Two Jakes."

Everyone else on this list went behind their partners' backs to cheat on them, but the same can't be said for John Lennon's affair with his secretary, May Pang. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, yearned to set them up while her marriage to the Beatles singer was on the rocks. In an interview with Variety ahead of the premiere of the 2022 documentary "The Lost Weekend: A Love Story," Pang said, "Yes, Yoko did approach me, and I thought it was insane. I told her I wasn't interested at all. They were having problems in their marriage; they actually weren't talking to each other. But John spontaneously decided to go to L.A. on his own and asked me to go with him. Yoko wasn't even aware we had gone until after we left."

This trip to Los Angeles was the beginning of Lennon's "Lost Weekend," an 18-month period that saw him work as a solo artist and get involved in various controversies, mostly due to his drinking habits, during his affair with Pang. This period, from 1973 to 1975, is often revisited and discussed by fans of the band. As a result, Pang has always been an important part of the Beatles' history.

John Lennon wasn't the only member of The Beatles who faced criticism in the '70s for having an affair. In late 1973, it was discovered that George Harrison engaged in an intimate relationship with Maureen Starkey, the wife of his bandmate, drummer Ringo Starr. Starkey and Starr got married in 1965, but didn't have the best relationship heading into the '70s. In a 1995 interview with The Independent, Starr openly admitted that he mistreated Starkey, calling himself "a drunk, a wife-beater, and an absent father."

After seemingly being mistreated by Starr for many years, Starkey sought comfort in the arms of Harrison. Reportedly, Starkey would visit Harrison late at night on many occasions, which led his wife at the time, Pattie Boyd, to become suspicious. One time, Harrison and Starkey went upstairs in the couple's Berkshire mansion, while several musicians waited around to work in the recording studio. As reported by the Daily Mail, Boyd thought, "This is being deliberately rubbed in my face. He and Maureen want me to know this is happening."

Boyd followed them upstairs and banged on the bedroom door. Even though she spotted Starkey on a mattress on the floor upon her husband opening the door, Harrison still tried to deny that anything was going on between them. Eventually, though, Harrison admitted to Starr that he was in love with Starkey while the two couples were at dinner. Starr's response, according to the Daily Mail: "Better you than someone we don't know." Starr and Starkey eventually got divorced in 1975. Meanwhile, Harrison and Boyd experienced even more drama in the '70s.

George Harrison and Eric Clapton had been best friends and frequent collaborators since the 1960s. However, their friendship faced some tests, especially since Clapton eventually fell in love with Harrison's wife. Throughout the early '70s, Clapton would consistently send love letters to Pattie Boyd, and his feelings for her even inspired his famous 1973 song "Layla." Reflecting on Clapton's love letters in a 2022 interview with PEOPLE, Boyd said, "I ignored them at first. But things were going wrong with George and me. We were going in different directions. So it was difficult to try and maintain this loving, harmonious relationship with George while Eric was also writing to me."

In 1974, not long after Boyd learned about Harrison's aforementioned affair with Starkey, she left him. The couple eventually got divorced in 1977, which meant that Clapton finally had the chance to get the girl he had been obsessing over for years. Just weeks after her divorce from Harrison, Boyd started dating Clapton, and they got married in 1979. However, Clapton cheated on Boyd with various women during the '80s, which led to their divorce in 1989. Later, while reflecting on the love triangle, Boyd admitted that she believes Clapton's obsession with her had more to do with the competitive nature of his friendship with Harrison. As reported by Gold Radio, she once said, "Eric just wanted what George had."

Donald Sutherland was married to his second wife, Shirley Douglas, when he signed on to star in the 1971 movie "Klute." The film also featured Jane Fonda, who reportedly seduced Sutherland before they began shooting the movie. As reported by The Mirror, "The Hunger Games" actor has always been adamant that Fonda initiated the affair. He once said, "We'd already been cast but had not started shooting, and one day, she made it very clear, via a somewhat provocative suggestion, that I should come home with her. And I just said... 'Ok.'"

Sutherland and Fonda's affair seems like it was full of lust. He once described her as having "the most beautiful breasts in the world" and reportedly provided a detailed description that wasn't appropriate to print. This passionate fling ended Sutherland's marriage to Douglas, but it didn't last long, which left the actor heartbroken. However, in 1972, just a year after "Klute" was released, Sutherland tied the knot with French-Canadian actress Francine Racette, with whom he remained married until his death in 2028.

The world couldn't get enough of Elvis Presley in the late '50s and early '60s. Because of his level of fame, fans and the media closely examined his relationship with his wife, Priscilla. Because of their 10-year age gap and the fact that Elvis pursued her when she was just 14 years old, there were always red flags in their relationship, which is why it wasn't surprising when things started crumbling in the late '60s and early '70s.

During this time, Elvis reportedly never wanted Priscilla with him when he was on tour or working in Los Angeles or Las Vegas. This is because he was having affairs with multiple women. Speaking with Sunday Night (via Yahoo News) in 2018, Priscilla said, "He wasn't faithful, not that he had someone special, but when you're in the entertainment business there is always that and I tried to turn my back to that, but I just didn't want to share him." Eventually, Priscilla also cheated on Elvis with her karate teacher, which led to her leaving the famous musician in 1972.

Farrah Fawcett's affair with Ryan O'Neil started in 1979 when her husband at the time, fellow actor Lee Majors, asked the "Paper Moon" star to check on his wife while he was away filming. Instead of simply checking to see if Fawcett was okay, O'Neil decided to take her on a date. Fawcett later told the Los Angeles Times that they "kissed and kissed until our lips were bloody." In an interview with LIFE Magazine (via PEOPLE), she added, "I was so overwhelmed by this mental and physical attraction for him that I didn't think about anything except what was happening right there."

O'Neil felt the same way as Fawcett. In an interview with the New York Daily News (via PEOPLE), he said, "I lost interest in nearly everything but this woman. For the first time in my life, something took precedence over myself." By all accounts, their romance was electric and passionate. Their affair led to them dating for 17 years, until they broke up in 1997. However, in 2001, four years after their breakup, they reconnected when Fawcett was diagnosed with leukemia.

Fawcett battled cancer until she died in 2009, and O'Neil remained by her side the whole time. Reportedly, O'Neil asked Fawcett to marry him just days before she passed away, which proves that they truly were the loves of each other's lives. In a 2019 interview with PEOPLE, Fawcett's close friend Alana Stewart said, "The two of them had a deep bond and deep love. No matter what they went through, the ups and downs, he was the one she wanted by her side."