Marlon Brando’s Ex-Lovers Speak Out About His Divorce, Suicide Attempts and Infidelity

In the new issue of Closer Weekly, Marlon Brando’s ex-lovers open up, revealing all about their relationships with the iconic star including heartbreak, infidelity and even suicide attempts.

One of his former loves, actress Rita Moreno, tells Closer, “Our sensual life was unbelievable.” The pair began a torrid romance when they met on the set of 1954’s Désirée. “We were obsessed with each other, but I couldn’t take the humiliation of him being with other women. I tried to kill myself,” she admits to Closer.

Anna Kashfi, Marlon’s first wife, recalled to Closer in what’s believed to be her final interview before her recent death, “He looked at me with an intensity that made me feel weak.”

Marlon and Rita in 1954.

Anna was soon married to Marlon and pregnant with his first child, a son named Christian. But Marlon’s infidelities drove them apart. “In a little less than a year, he was cheating on me,” a still-heartbroken Anna said. “He was a man of vast sexual appetites that couldn’t be contained.”

That sexual appetite masked a hunger for what he spent his life unsuccessfully pursuing: an intimacy that could fully connect him to another person the way his acting prowess often connected him to perfection. But fame simply wasn’t enough for the actor, who left a trail of wreckage in his personal life.

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“He was an incomparable artist and an incomparably miserable man,” Peter Manso, author of Brando: The Biography, tells Closer. Adds biographer Susan L. Mizruchi (Brando’s Smile), “He knew suffering and unhappiness, and his understanding of human beings is part of what made him a great actor.”

With fame came an unending supply of willing lovers. “He was a romantic and always said he was looking for love, but he was addicted to sex,” Mizruchi says.

Marlon and Anna in 1957.

Marlon didn’t just have a physical type; he also had a psychological one. “He wasn’t drawn to stable people,” says Manso. “I came up with 22 women he had relationships with that either attempted or committed suicide.”

One of those women was Rita. “I tried to kill myself out of self-hatred, because I was like, ‘How could you allow yourself to let somebody treat you so badly,’” she says. “I took pills he had in his house, and I almost succeeded.”

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Marlon’s genius as an actor left the world with performances that are unmatched, a legacy of greatness that stands in contrast to his tortured personal life. Yet both on-screen and offscreen, Marlon sought the same thing.

Rebecca, his daughter from his second marriage — to Mexican-American actress Movita Castaneda — tells Closer, “I learned what a force my father was in search for the rawness of truth. He was always in search of the truth in others, and most importantly, himself.”

For more on this, including Marlon’s family strife with his children, pick up the latest issue of Closer Weekly, on newsstands now!