“Lust of my life,” Rita Moreno described Marlon Brando , even though their on-and-off
relationship nearly cost the legendary actress her life. Did you know Moreno almost
died because of him? Today, we’ll dive deeper into the scandalous and incredibly dangerous
romance that roared in Hollywood in the 50s. Rita Moreno is a living legend. The Puerto Rican
actor acted in major blockbusters and on-stage productions throughout her more than 60-year
career. Her romantic affairs with Hollywood actors made for a very storied past. But it was Moreno’s
turbulent, on-and-off relationship with Marlon Brando that marked the glory of her career.
That story was all about passion and tragedy. During the Golden Age of Hollywood,
both Moreno and Brando were two of the biggest movie stars in the industry.
They crossed paths and started working together on the film set, where Brando played Napoleon.
Moreno, who was only 22-years-old at the time, was immediately taken with the icon-to-be.
Soon afterwards, the pair became involved in a romantic relationship that lasted eight years.
“Just meeting him that first day sent my body temperature skyrocketing as though I had been
dropped into a very hot bath, and I went into a full-body blush,” Moreno wrote in her 2013 memoir.
She believed it was a raw, pure feeling. She couldn’t believe that love came
into her life so unexpectedly. After they madly fell in love,
Moreno couldn’t imagine herself with anyone except for Brando. She thought he was the
best man she had ever met. “To say that he was a great lover — sensual, generous, delightfully
inventive — would be gravely understating what he did not only to my body, but for my soul.”
Moreno’s obsession with Brando lasted for years - until their romance got
extremely dangerous. It turned out that Moreno played with fire all these years.
She was obsessed with Brando from the moment they met, but he cheated on her repeatedly,
even marrying twice and fathering children with his wives during their love affair. Years after
their relationship ended, Moreno admitted she couldn’t stay away from the charismatic actor,
despite Brando breaking her heart all the time. “I was becoming addicted to
the challenge of winning him over and over again,” the legendary actress revealed.
Moreno later reflected on their tumultuous relationship,
“He broke my heart and came close to crushing my very spirit with his physical infidelities and,
worse, with his emotional betrayals.” Though Brando was a great lover and made her feel things
she hadn’t with anyone else, she saw that the actor would become a different person at times.
His actions hurt her over and over again. What's more, in her attempt to make the
actor jealous after his infidelities, Moreno started dating Elvis Presley. So how did it
happen that the veteran actress pursued a vendetta against Brando with the King of Rock and Roll?
After finding lingerie in Brando’s house, the agonized actress received a phone call
from Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ manager. He said the legendary performer would be
extremely pleased to meet her. So, She agreed to go out on a date with Elvis.
Moreno later shared the details of that moment, “And I thought of those panties, and I said, ‘Yes,
I would!” She also wrote in her book that no one could possibly make Marlon Brando more jealous.
And the glorious revenge plan worked out. Rita and Elvis got caught in the spotlight. It made Brando
furious about his girlfriend's infidelity. She shared the details, "He started to throw chairs.
He was so angry. It was wonderful. And I just sat there as he threw chairs and carried on."
Wait, but what about the relationship with Elvis? The passion wasn’t even remotely on the same level
as with Brando. Although they went out several times, Moreno got quickly bored with Elvis,
“He was sweet but boring. He was sweet, but he was a country boy.”
When Brando found out about her affair, she was pleased with his intense reaction.
That plan was all about getting him back. Guess what happened next?
Yes, Moreno found herself back in Brando’s arms shortly after her romance with Elvis.
Sadly, the pain of the relationship began to catch up with the actress.
Brando, the notorious womanizer, returned to her life and brought her lots of misery.
A tipping point came when Moreno learned she was pregnant with his child. Her dreams that
Brando would suggest getting married didn't turn out to be true. Instead, he got furious.
To Moreno’s shock and horror, Marlon immediately arranged for an abortion.
He knew that it was an illegal procedure, but still risked her life. He wasn’t there for her
after the surgery and arranged for somebody else to pick her up after the abortion.
But things didn’t go as smoothly as the couple had thought.
Moreno soon started bleeding and had to be rushed to the hospital to have another surgery. It turned
out that the fetus wasn’t properly removed from her body. Luckily, she survived the tragedy.
Shortly after her abortion, Brando filmed Mutiny on the Bounty fell in love with his
co-star Tarita Teriipia. They later married, leaving Moreno absolutely devastated from
another display of Brando's infidelity. It felt like an unbreakable betrayal.
Brando's constant infidelity took its toll on Moreno's mental health. No wonder she was so
anxious. Her suffering reached its peak when she thought suicide was the only way to cope with
all the pain. Moreno had recently wrapped what would become her star-making role in West Side
Story, but behind closed doors, seeing him with yet another woman was all too much.
She recalled in her book, "I was alone in his house, waiting for him to arrive,
when my pain became intolerable. 'How can you keep taking him back?' I asked myself.
'He hasn't just had one woman. He's had legions! It will never stop!'"
She attempted to overdose on pills after Brando returned from filming. "I went to bed to die.
This wasn't a revenge suicide, but a consolation, an escape-from-pain death," the actress recalled.
She swallowed a bunch of his sleeping pills in one gulp, trying to escape the pain.
If it weren't for Brando's assistant, the actress might have never opened her eyes again.
Moreno was at the point of no return. So what did she do?
The EGOT winner learned how to distance herself from Brando, rigidly setting her boundaries. As
he jeopardized her life with neglect, Moreno could no longer stand that man.
Much to Moreno's dismay, seven years later, she was cast alongside Brando in The Night
of the Following Day. "We do this scene, and we do the dialogue, and I haul off and smack
him in the face, and he hauls off and smacks me back," she remembered. That moment opened
an old wound. It reminded Moreno of the time when Brando took advantage of her.
"Pond scum came to the surface and I started screaming at him, and they never stopped filming."
That situation also gave the actress much-needed closure, relieving the pain from the past.
Although she admits it was childish to deal with trauma in the way like this,
Moreno was satisfied she got even with Brando. How did she manage to come out of that dark
and hopeless obsession with him? The answer is simple - she owes it to therapy. She struggled a
lot before she started liking herself. Maybe, her low self-esteem was the reason why the actress's
relationship with Brando lasted so long? She opened up about personal vulnerabilities, saying
"I went into therapy wanting to get better, knowing that in some way I had a sickness.
And the sickness was Rita hates Rita." Moreno went on to have a great love with
her husband of 45 years, Leonard Gordon. But her fascination with forming a serious relationship
faded away after her husband's death. She has not remarried. The iconic actress considers
herself too independent and self-reliant to tie the knot again. "I didn't realize
how desperately I needed to be on my own. I was punishing myself by not being on my own. It was
brutal," she said later in the interview. Today, she can accept how special she is
and how much she has meant to so many people. Unexpectedly, the bond between her and Brando grew
stronger as they matured, up until Brando died. Every now and then, he'd call Moreno and would
say to her, "'You were the only woman in my life who was able to make that right turn." What did
he mean by that? That she wasn't addicted to him anymore, that she finally got rid of his control.
The actress simply didn't need him anymore. She learned how to find dignity within herself.
The New York Post reported that the only piece of movie memorabilia found in Brando's home
after his death was a picture of him in the 1969 film The Night of the Following Day,
where he's locked in a passionate embrace with a naked Moreno.
It's been a decade since Moreno started living as a widow. It amazes her how many
people assume she is lonely. "I love being by myself," the 90-year-old actress shared.
"It's not hard to be alone. In fact, it's great, if you like the person you live with."