Leigh and Olivier could not resist one another, and each left their respective spouses and married in 1940. “Vivien was the good ardour of his life and he was the love of hers,” Kendra Bean, creator of Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait, tells Nearer, “however their time collectively was tempestuous.”
Affected by infidelity and Vivien’s well being points, they divorced in 1960. Nonetheless, stated Bean, “They’re going to eternally be thought of one of many nice romances of the Golden Hollywood Age.”
Initially, the couple appeared completely suited. They each rose to display screen stardom in 1939, she as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind and he as Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff. “Vivien discovered him a dashing romantic and she or he appealed to his fantasy aspect,” Darwin Porter, creator of the biography Rattling You, Scarlett O’Hara, tells Nearer. “Plus, he actually formed her as an actress.”
Past bodily attraction, their connection by means of work held them collectively. “Each of them put their careers first,” stated Bean. “Vivien had a viewpoint that if a wedding is to endure, it is constructed on one thing extra stable [than sex],” stated Porter. “Of their case it is constructed on the movies.”