John's marriages

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  • I am new here so not sure where I should ask this question. Does anyone know why John Wayne's first two marriages ended? Just curious because I cannot imagine a woman ever walking away from such a man. He has been my hero and favorite actor my entire life. In my eyes, he could do no wrong.

  • I am new here so not sure where I should ask this question. Does anyone know why John Wayne's first two marriages ended? Just curious because I cannot imagine a woman ever walking away from such a man. He has been my hero and favorite actor my entire life. In my eyes, he could do no wrong.



    His first, to Josie, ended because their likes and dislikes were completely the opposite. She was an upright Catholic girl from the best of families, who moved in the upper crust of LA society. The Duke didn't fit into her crowd as he liked to party and drink with his buddies too much. They just sort of drifted apart.

    The second, to Chata, ended because she was an abusive drunk who insisted on having her mother (who was also a drunk) around all the time. Three's a crowd.

    De gustibus non est disputandum

  • Thank you for the information, Jim. As long as I have been a fan of John Waynes', there's so much I don't know about him. Seems like I have struck pay dirt in finding this site. What a wonderful thing to find a place where people share their love and adoration for this great man called, "The Duke."


    Thanks again,


    Cindy

  • You ask it Cindy and you will more then likely get a answer. We have a great group of people who really know there Duke info or westerns for that matter. There are even a couple people who have knowledge of the military as well.

    Life is hard, its even harder when your stupid!!
    -John Wayne

  • Anchor's Away... if we don't know it, then no one does. But if we don't, we can definitely find out.


    12 days to Winterset and dinner with the family...

  • Regarding his first marriage, is it not also true that he was having several affairs and Josie was upset with him about this? I thought I'd read somewhere that when he divorced Josie that John Ford was very upset with him for a long time. Not that Ford was any paragon of marital virtue himself...

    Tbone



    "I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please."

  • Regarding his first marriage, is it not also true that he was having several affairs and Josie was upset with him about this? I thought I'd read somewhere that when he divorced Josie that John Ford was very upset with him for a long time. Not that Ford was any paragon of marital virtue himself...



    He may have been having some affairs (can't remember) but I think their main source of trouble was the Duke just didn't fit into the Saenz social circle. I've read he didn't care for all the Catholic priests Josie's family had around all the time. The Duke preferred his drinking buddies like Ford, Bond and a few others and those activities didn't endear him to the Saenz family, which was very straitlaced. Josie's father was extremely reluctant to approve the marriage in the first place (because he felt JW was in a lower class, which was true when JW began courting Josie) but eventually consented to let them get married.

    De gustibus non est disputandum

  • I've been doing some readng lately and if you want to find out a lot of the dirty secrets about The Duke, a book called: John Wayne: The Man Behind The Myth.


    It brings out all the dirty secrets about the marriages. How Wayne kept bugging his first wife for a divorce and she finally gave in after he bugged her one more time after he finished The Fighting Seabees. Unfortunately he went from one bad marriage to another.


    Chata ended up being a spoiled brat and a drunk. After Angel and the Badman he took Chata on a belated honeymoon to Hawaii. But they called it the honeymoon from hell. She wouldn't get off his back about a suggested affair between Wayne and Gail Russell. And Chata was a loud drunk. The straw that broke the camels back is when they returned home to find Chata's mother waiting to move in. And she was as bad a drunk as Chata was. The house was too small so she Chata says buy me a new one. Things went downhill from there.


    She did her worse when Duke was giving a dinner party for an important Mexican businessman and Chata was drunk worse than ever, insulting everyone. In Wayne fashion he picked her up and took her to the car and dumped in the front seat. When he got in the car she violently scratched his face and drew blood. People saw it the next day and told Wayne it had to end, John Ford even made the statement: "Did you have to marry that wh**e?" You fill in the blanks. She finally filed for divorce when Wayne was filming Big Jim McLain. There's a story in the book about that movie and J. Edgar Hoover but that's for another day.


    Get the book, it's good.

  • His divorce from Chata was even worse than the marriage. She tried her damndest to not only take every cent he had (which wasn't all that much at that point in his career) but to besmirch his growing reputation as well.

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  • I know it mentioned in the book she was way overspending and one day he had a fit after the drunk duo's came home from a day of spending his money. He wasn't raking in the big bucks yet so money was tight. I used to be married to a Mexican-American... I can definitely understand his pain. I think mine thought she was spending pesos. I threw her butt out after I came home 3 days early from a mission deployment and walked in the door to a big surprise... Sent her packing back to Texas and he spent 6 months in the brig for adultry and a Big Chicken Dinner.

  • I used to be married to a Mexican-American..



    I never could understand why some people are so attracted to Latinas, especially the Duke. Hell, he could have had any woman he wanted.

    However, my youngest son is the same - except for one gal, all his girl friends, and now his wife, were (and are) Hispanics. My daughter-in-law isn't the most physically beautiful woman I've ever seen but she has a wonderful personality. And that counts a lot.

    Now me, I liked those Japanese gals. Not only were they very petite, (usually) sexy and beautiful, but also trained from birth to please their man. Or at least that's the way they were when I was there in '56 and '58. I suppose by now, the feminists have spoiled Japanese womanhood too. :wink_smile:

    De gustibus non est disputandum

  • Wow, this is a lot more information than I had hoped for...Poor John. He had so many women at his feet but obviously never knew what real love was. Unless he found it with his third wife. Guess it's as hard to find a strong, sensitive, unselfish and patient woman, as it is to find that in a man. In my mind the worst thing one can do is marry a person before you really know them. The second worst thing is claiming to love someone, then, trying to change them. That's a contradiction. I believe marrying one's best friend gives the best chance of having a lasting love affair that will carry you into the rocking chair years. Once beauty fades, if it's only skin deep, and you cannot enjoy just talking for hours, or sitting together not talking, you have nothing. That's my sermon for the day....lol.


    And thanks for the info on the book...That's next on my shopping list.


    Now for another question. Are there any photo's of JW and his wives? Just curious what they looked like.

  • I don't know how any woman could have pleased the Duke in the long run - I think women were a bit like aliens to him - he admired feminine women and put them on a pedestal, where they stayed while he was having manly fun with the boys - or working without breaks

    I don't believe in surrenders.

  • I believe marrying one's best friend gives the best chance of having a lasting love affair that will carry you into the rocking chair years. Once beauty fades, if it's only skin deep, and you cannot enjoy just talking for hours, or sitting together not talking, you have nothing.



    I see you're a very wise woman, Cindy. My (German-born) wife and I have been married 47 years and I love her more today than the day we got married. Back then, it was mostly lust but now it's all love (with lust a definite afterthought :wink_smile: )

    She's not only physically attractive but has the most wonderful personality of anyone I've ever known except my grandma. They say opposites attract - that's certainly true in our case. I'm an extreme introvert while my wife is Will Rogers reincarnated, i.e., she never met a person she didn't like. And she's for sure my best (almost my only :teeth_smile: ) friend.


    Now for another question. Are there any photo's of JW and his wives? Just curious what they looked like.



    If I remember correctly, the Duke bio "John Wayne - American" has some pictures of his wives.

    De gustibus non est disputandum


  • Now for another question. Are there any photo's of JW and his wives? Just curious what they looked like.


    I have a few photos of him and his wives and his family. I'd have to do some scanning. Just give me some time to find them.

  • The problem John Wayne had with women was he expected them to follow him around film location to location. He loved working on films and couldnt understand why everyone else didnt.

    In regards to the wives Josephine and him had separate lifestyles that eventually lead to a split, Chata for all intensive purposes was a drunk who he was lucky to outlive as she shot at him one time and Pilar after a long marriage eventually grew apart.

    He had a relationship with Pat Stacy who was his secretary from I think around the time Mc Q was made and they seem to have both found happiness in their time together until his death.

    Pat's book on John Wayne is excellent and gives insight into his life in his last years.


    Mike

  • The problem John Wayne had with women was he expected them to follow him around film location to location. He loved working on films and couldnt understand why everyone else didnt.



    Amen, Mike.

    He was "married" to his career and his wives came second. Naturally, the wives resented that.

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  • Stumpy, you are Correct Duke was Married to His Work, and His Three Wifes after The New Wore Off, They Wanted No Part Of It !
    :fear:



    On the Flying Trips that I took Him on in the Late 1600s and Early 1970s to the Hearst Wyntoon Ranch and His Ranches in Arizona, Duke would often Say "Women Scare The Hell Out Of Me, But Pat Likes to Do what I Do, and wants to Go Every Where I Go for My Work !"
    :hyper:



    Duke was talking about "Pat Stacy Duke's Secretary and Sweetheart for the Last 7 Years of His Life," and She took Very Good Care of Duke's Every Need and Showed Her Love For Him, that Duke Wanted and Needed.
    :angel1:



    Chilibill
    :cowboy:

  • Stumpy, you are Correct Duke was Married to His Work



    I must admit,Bill, that there have been periods in my life when I was extremely dedicated to my work, especially during my early and middle military career. My wife used to complain when I sometimes stayed at work until 1 or 2 in the morning. But like Duke, I was ambitious and wanted to get ahead in my chosen profession so I could better support my family.

    From what I've read, he was a lot like that, especially during his early career when his father-in-law (Josie's father) doubted he'd ever be able to support her in the style to which she had become accustomed. Even after he divorced Josie and married Chata, he felt a big obligation to support the kids he'd had with Josie, and Josie herself. That was just his nature, and you have to admire him for that.

    De gustibus non est disputandum