Chaplin made ‘revolting sexual demands’
CHARLIE Chaplin’s divorce papers reveal his ‘ revolting’ and ‘inhumane’ treatment of his teenage wife.
The star, then 35, seduced his second wife while she was just 15, made her pregnant and then cheated on her.
An original copy of the 1927 divorce papers, which ended starlet Lita Grey’s three-year marriage to the English actor, have come to light. Chaplin made ‘revolting, degrading and offensive’ sexual demands of his wife, according to the 50-page document.
He forced her to perform sexual acts that were illegal in California during the 1920s and the papers highlight his desire for Miss Grey to take part in a threesome with another woman.
Miss Grey’s refusal to give in to Chaplin’s sexual urges caused ‘friction, unhappiness and unpleasantness’ between them, according to the papers. On one occa- sion, Chaplin was said to have raged at his wife: ‘All married people do those kind of things. You are my wife and you have to do what I want you to do.’
The papers state: ‘The demands were so revolting, degrading and offensive to the plaintiff [Lita Grey] and were such infamous personal indignities and showed such a lack of respect, that they were a shock to her refined sensibilities and repulsive to her moral decency.’
Miss Grey was granted what was then the world’s largest divorce settlement of $825,000 for her and her two sons.
The divorce papers are being sold by Parade Antiques in Plymouth for £15,000. Parade owner John Cabello said: ‘We got them from a person in America – he was told to clear out some supplies and old documents at the bank and he found them. He was told they would be thrown away and he kept them instead.’
Chaplin had known Miss Grey since she was a child when she appeared in his movie The Kid. She became pregnant at 16 and her mother allegedly threatened to report Chaplin to the police for illegal relations with a minor unless he married her.
On their wedding night, Chaplin was said to have told friends that the marriage was a better option than prison. He said to Miss Grey: ‘This marriage won’t last long, I will make you so damn sick of me that you won’t want to live with me.’
Chaplin, who died in 1977 aged 88, boasted frequently about his conquests, and said he had had sexual relations with more than 2,000 women.
‘Repulsive to her moral decency’