Morgan Eastwood

Clint Eastwood has had numerous casual and serious relationships of varying length and intensity over his life, many of which overlapped. Shortly after he met future wife Maggie Johnson on a blind date in 1953, Eastwood had an affair that resulted in a daughter, Laurie (born 1954), who was adopted by Clyde and Helen Warren of Seattle. Although the identity of Laurie's biological mother is not publicly known, biographer Patrick McGilligan said she belonged to a Seattle theatre group Eastwood participated in. Eastwood continued having affairs while married to Johnson, including a 1959 to 1973 liaison with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis that produced a daughter, Kimber (born 1964).

Johnson evidently tolerated the open marriage with Eastwood, and eventually they had two children, Kyle (born 1968) and Alison (born 1972). In 1975, married actress Sondra Locke began living with Eastwood. Locke claimed that Eastwood sang "She Made Me Monogamous" to her and confided he'd "never been in love before." Nine years into their cohabitation, Eastwood officially divorced Maggie Johnson, but Locke remained married to husband Gordon Anderson for the rest of her life.

In an unpublicized affair, Eastwood sired two legally fatherless children, Scott (born 1986) and Kathryn (born 1988) with Jacelyn Reeves, a flight attendant. When Locke and Eastwood separated in 1989, Locke filed a palimony lawsuit. In the early to mid-1990s, Eastwood had a relationship with actress Frances Fisher that produced a daughter, Francesca (born 1993). Eastwood was married for the second time to news anchor Dina Ruiz in 1996, who gave birth to their daughter Morgan that same year. Ruiz and Eastwood's marriage lasted until 2013. He has been seen with other women since then.

During an interview for the only authorized book ever written about himself, Eastwood told film historian Richard Schickel that he lost his virginity to a neighbor when he was 14 years old. At age 19, Eastwood dated a schoolteacher in her 20s who stalked him and threatened to commit suicide after he broke up with her. Reflecting upon this relationship, Eastwood told US Weekly in 1987, "There was just a little misinterpretation about how serious the whole thing was."

First extramarital affairs and daughter given up for adoption

In the spring of 1953, Eastwood met Margaret Neville "Maggie" Johnson (1931–), a secretary for auto parts suppliers Industria Americana, on a blind date in the San Francisco area. Johnson was scheduled to graduate from U.C. Berkeley that June. In the meantime, Eastwood left for Seattle, where "to please a girl he dug, he joined a Little Theatre group." According to Eastwood biographer Patrick McGilligan, the young woman became pregnant by Eastwood and gave their child, a girl, up for adoption. Daughter Laurie Murray (born February 11, 1954) was widely covered in the media at the December 2018 premiere of Eastwood's film The Mule, the first time she was publicly identified as his daughter. Laurie was adopted by Clyde and Helen Warren of Seattle. According to her son Lowell Thomas Murray IV, Laurie's biological mother—whose identity is not publicly known—"never told Eastwood she was pregnant or spoke to him again.” However, McGilligan insists that Eastwood always knew he had gotten a woman from Washington state pregnant and, according to McGilligan's "impeccable" sources, had told friends he suspected he might have a child there.

Meanwhile, Johnson announced her engagement to Eastwood in October 1953. They married on December 19 in Pasadena, less than eight weeks before his Seattle girlfriend gave birth to Laurie.

Their marriage had problems. Schickel wrote, "He thought they were too young, not well enough established." Actress Mamie Van Doren later reported she had an affair with Eastwood while working on the film Star in the Dust in 1955. She starred and he played an uncredited bit role.

Relationship with Roxanne Tunis

In 1959 during the second season of Rawhide, Eastwood began a long-lasting affair (reportedly 14 years) with dancer andstuntwoman Roxanne Tunis. She was also married yet separated. Their relationship resulted in Eastwood's earliest legal child, daughter Kimber Eastwood (born Kimber Tunis; June 17, 1964). Kimber's existence was kept secret from the public until July 1989, when the National Enquirer revealed her identity. Her birth certificate does list Eastwood as the father, however.

Biographer Marc Eliot wrote that Eastwood's wife Johnson may not have known about the baby at the time. "It is difficult to say for sure that she actually knew about the baby, although it would have been nearly impossible for her not to. Everyone on the set knew ... and it is simply too difficult to keep a secret like that when the mother and the illegitimate child live in the same small town, especially when that small town is Hollywood." The source for the 1989 Enquirer article that originally broke the story claimed Johnson was aware of Kimber's existence at all times and even met Roxanne Tunis in person when making an unannounced visit to the set of Breezy in 1972. Actress Barbara Eden, a onetime Rawhide guest star and witness to the affair with Tunis, said Eastwood and Johnson "...conducted a somewhat open marriage." Eastwood hinted as much in a 1971 interview, telling reporter Tim Chadwick, "We don't believe in togetherness."

In the 60-plus years she has known Eastwood, Tunis has never, ever, spoken to the media. The obvious inference of this is that she's fine with being left out of the official narrative. Tunis and Eastwood share a grandson and great-grandchildren whose existences have never been acknowledged by the mainstream press.

Johnson continues to make sporadic appearances at Eastwood-related events (she walked the red carpet of The Mule premiere as recently as 2018), but has never publicly said much of anything. In 1992 she granted a rare interview with biographer Douglas Thompson, talking generally about her ex-husband and his career, but had "no comment" when asked about Tunis.

Other affairs and reconciliation

Ria Brown, the biographer of competitive swimmer Anita Lhoest, claims Lhoest terminated a pregnancy by Eastwood without consulting him at one point during their late 1950s to early 1960s affair. Restaurant critic Gael Greene described an affair with Eastwood that started when she was assigned to interview him on the set of 1970's Two Mules for Sister Sara. A fling with French model Cathy Reghin around the same time was one of his few extramarital involvements to receive press coverage of any kind during the fact. According to McGilligan, Eastwood had many other affairs, including with co-stars Inger Stevens (Hang 'Em High), Jean Seberg (Paint Your Wagon) and Jo Ann Harris (The Beguiled), as well as actresses Jill Banner, Catherine Deneuve and Susan St. James, columnist Bridget Byrne and singer Keely Smith while married to Johnson, who, after a trial separation and a lingering bout of hepatitis during the mid-1960s, expressed desire to reconcile and start a family. They had two children together: Kyle Eastwood (born May 19, 1968) and Alison Eastwood (born May 22, 1972).

In 1972, Eastwood met married actress (later director) Sondra Locke at a meeting in his office on the Universal Studios Lot. The two began living together while filming The Outlaw Josey Wales in Page, Arizona in October 1975, by which time, according to Locke, "He had told me that there was no real relationship left between him and Maggie." Locke wrote in her autobiography, "Clint seemed astonished at his need for me, even admitting that he'd never been faithful to one woman — because he'd "never been in love before," he confided. He even made up a song about it: "She made me monogamous." That flattered and delighted me. I would never doubt his faithfulness and his love for me."

After Josey wrapped, Locke moved into the Sherman Oaks house Eastwood had once shared with Johnson (who by then lived full-time in Pebble Beach), but felt uncomfortable there because "psychologically, it would always be Maggie's." "Finally I told Clint that I couldn't live there any longer," writes Locke. The couple moved to Bel-Air in a fixer-upper that took three years to renovate. In the interim they shuttled between homes in Tiburon, California and Sun Valley, Idaho, as well as the Rising River Ranch which Eastwood bought from Bing Crosby's estate. Locke had two abortions and then a tubal ligation during the late 1970s. She was quite reluctant to have the second abortion. She later said, "I couldn't help but think that that baby, with both Clint's and my best qualities, would be extraordinary." Johnson made no secret of her dislike for Locke, even though the two women never met. "Maggie placed severe rules on my relationship with the kids. Apparently, she never forgave me ... After she learned that Clint had taken me onto her property to show me a baby deer that had just been born there, she laid down a rule that I was never to be allowed there again. I was not even allowed to phone the Pebble Beach house."

Divorce from Johnson

In late 1978, Johnson hired an attorney to file for legal separation from Eastwood. Earlier that year she had finally accepted the fact that Locke "was not like any of his affairs of their past." Divorce papers, however, would not be filed until May 18, 1984. The divorce was finalized on November 19, with Johnson receiving a straight cash payment reported to be between $25 and $30 million.

For her part, Locke never divorced Gordon Anderson, her lawful husband since 1967. Anderson, a sculptor and former stage actor, was gay and resided with his partner in a West Hollywood home purchased by Eastwood. The Locke/Anderson union had always been a marriage of convenience only and was never consummated. Locke said of the unorthodox arrangement, "I truly believed that Clint and I did not need papers to validate the commitments we had made to each other."

Eastwood and Locke reteamed onscreen for The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can and Sudden Impact. According to former longtime associate Fritz Manes, Eastwood was devoted to her between 1976 and 1980 at the least, but discreetly kept up several "maintenance relationships" (such as with Tunis) during that period. "I marveled at it. It was absolute total, blind love," Manes said. According to Schickel, the relationship began to disintegrate when Locke chose to remain married to Anderson after Eastwood had divorced Johnson. Locke said she would've been willing to divorce Anderson if Eastwood agreed to go to couples therapy with her, but he refused to do so.

Affairs with Jacelyn Reeves and others

McGilligan claims Eastwood returned to his "habitual womanizing" in the early 1980s, becoming involved with story analyst Megan Rose, actress Jamie Rose (who played a bit part in Tightrope), animal rights activist Jane Brolin (who had intermittent liaisons with Eastwood between the early 1960s and late 1980s), and Jacelyn Reeves, a Hawaii-based stewardess he met at the Hog's Breath Inn, among others.

Children with Reeves

Eastwood was still cohabiting with Locke when he conceived two children with Reeves: son Scott Eastwood (born Scott Reeves; March 21, 1986) and daughter Kathryn Eastwood (born Kathryn Reeves; February 2, 1988).The birth certificates for both children read, "Father declined." Eastwood's affair with Reeves was not reported anywhere until an exposé article was published in the Star tabloid in 1990. Reeves reportedly stated, "Some family members tell me to file a paternity suit against Clint, but I don't want to." The children's existence continued to be ignored by mainstream news sources through the mid-2000s.

Breakup with Locke

Eastwood's relationship with Locke (at the time, unaware of his infidelities) ended acrimoniously in April 1989, and the post-breakup litigation dragged on for a decade. Locke filed a palimony lawsuit against him after he changed the locks on their home and moved her possessions into storage when she was at work filming her second directorial feature, Impulse. In court, Eastwood downplayed the intensity of their relationship. He described Locke as a "roommate" before quickly redescribing her as a "part-time roommate." Locke's estranged brother told The Tennessean that Eastwood still truly loved her, but could no longer take her "addiction" to husband Gordon Anderson.

Anticipating that Eastwood was going to misrepresent her existing marriage, Locke asked Anderson to surrender all claims on any of her assets which as her legal spouse he was entitled to. "In an extraordinary gesture of love and faith in me, Gordon signed away everything without hesitation." During the trial, an investigative journalist contacted Locke and informed her of Eastwood's other family. "I spoke with the nurse in the delivery room, and she confirmed that they are Clint's children. I'll send copies of the birth certificates to you and a photo of Jacelyn, if you want them," Locke quotes the informant. "My mind was still searching to get all his actions lined up. For at least the last four years, Clint had been living this double life, going between me and this other woman, and having children with her. Two babies had been born during the last three years of our relationship, and they weren't mine."

As the case went on, Locke developed breast cancer and said the treatments sapped her will to fight. She dropped her suit in November 1990 in exchange for a settlement package that included a lump sum plus monthly payments from Eastwood and a $1.5 million directing deal at Warner Bros., but sued him again for fraud in 1995 when she became convinced the deal was a sham, finally settling out of court in September 1996.

Eastwood was listed as a material witness for Locke's separate pending action against Warner Bros., which alleged that the studio conspired with him to sabotage her directorial career, but in May 1999 that lawsuit too was settled, ending the legal saga. Over the following years, Locke made discrediting comments about Eastwood. She died in 2018, aged 74.

Immediately following his split from Locke, Eastwood dated Barbra Streisand. Other female companions during 1989 included White Hunter, Black Heart co-star Marisa Berenson, Carmel mayor Jean Grace, actress Dani Crayne and model Barbara Minty, widow of Steve McQueen.

In the autumn of 1990, actress Frances Fisher, whom Eastwood had met on the set of Pink Cadillac two years prior, moved in with him. Fisher said of dating Eastwood, "I simply felt that this was it, the big one. I had no idea that every woman he meets probably feels as I did." They co-starred in Unforgiven, and had a daughter, Francesca Eastwood (born Francesca Fisher-Eastwood; August 7, 1993). The birth of Francesca was the first time Eastwood was present for one of his children's birth. Also in 1993, according to McGilligan, Eastwood was confronted with the claims of a 39-year-old woman from Kent, Washington who had researched her adoption and ascertained that he was her biological father. Eastwood has never responded to the story.

Eastwood and Fisher ended their relationship in January 1995, after which Fisher said it took two years to complete what she called the grieving process for her shattered dreams.

Francesca gave birth to a son named Titan Wraith Eastwood in 2018, the first—and, to date, only—Eastwood grandchild whose birth has been publicly announced.

Before Fisher had moved out of Eastwood's home, he was reportedly already dating Dina Ruiz, a television news anchor 35 years his junior whom he had first met when she interviewed him in April 1993. They married on March 31, 1996, when Eastwood surprised her with a private ceremony at a home on the Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. The marriage was noted for the fact that it was only Eastwood's second legal union in spite of his many long-term romances over the decades. Eastwood said of his bride, "I'm proud to make this lady my wife. She's the one I've been waiting for."

Ruiz commented, "The fact that I'm only the second woman he has married really touches me." The couple has one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (born December 12, 1996). Ruiz made cameos in two of Eastwood's films, Blood Work and True Crime (in which Fisher even appeared). In the summer of 2012, Dina, Morgan and Francesca starred with the band Overtone in a reality show for the E! network titled Mrs. Eastwood & Company, on which Clint appeared only occasionally.

On August 28, 2013, Dina Eastwood announced that she and her husband had been living separately for an undisclosed length of time. In October, Dina filed for divorce after she withdrew her request for legal separation, citing irreconcilable differences. She asked for full custody of their 16-year-old daughter, Morgan, as well as spousal support. The divorce was finalized on December 22, 2014.

Since his split from Ruiz, Eastwood has been linked publicly with photographer Erica Tomlinson-Fisher (no relation to Frances), 41 years his junior, and restaurant hostess Christina Sandera, 33 years his junior. He and Sandera went public with their relationship at the 87th Academy Awards in February 2015.

Laurie Murray, Kimber Tunis, and Scott and Kathryn Reeves are omitted from Eastwood's episode of Biography, which first aired on October 5, 2003. According to Eastwood's unauthorized biographer Patrick McGilligan, "The people who know Clint best suspect there are other families in his closet." The UK edition of Clint: The Life and Legend (1999) was the first publication to report Laurie's existence, although her name was not revealed, and she was not acknowledged by a single media outlet until 2018.

Since at least 2005, there is a story of unknown origin that Eastwood is also the father of a son named Lesly (born February 13, 1959) by Rosina Mary Glen, who gave the boy up for adoption. Publicly, Eastwood has been silent on these claims. "We don't know how many children Clint has had with how many women," McGilligan stated on-camera in the 2012 French documentary L'album secret de Clint Eastwood. "I heard of other possibilities ... One was when he was still in high school." Playboy notes that "the number is unconfirmed and Eastwood is reticent about the issue."