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6 Remarkable Men Whose Difficult Personalities Spoiled Their Family Lives
The famous fairytale character Bluebeard is not Charles Perrault’s fantasy. He was modeled after a medieval ruler of Brittany, Conomor the Cursed. He had multiple wives who went missing and he was famous for how violent and cruel he was. The people from our compilation are not as bad as Bluebeard, but their wives’ lives were pretty tough too. They had to put up with the peculiarities of their husbands, including cheating and other things they did.
We at Bright Side have reviewed the biographies of some of these outstanding people and realized that being married to a genius can be a challenge.
Albert Einstein
The relatives and friends of Albert Einstein described him as a kind, helpful, and modest person. This famous scientist was shy about his popularity and was very modest: in public, he always appeared in his favorite warm sweater. He spent 16 years living with his first wife Mileva Marić. Their relationship started to crumble when she found out about the secret correspondence between Albert and his cousin Elsa.
The scientist told his wife that in order to continue living together, she had to follow a series of rules:
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You will make sure that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order. I will receive my 3 meals regularly in my room. My bedroom and study should be kept neat, and especially my desk, which should be left for my use only.
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You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, you will forego my sitting at home with you and my going out or traveling with you.
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You will obey the following points in your relations with me: you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way. You will stop talking to me if I request it. You will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it. You will be mindful to not belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.
Soon afterward, Mila and Albert started living separately, and 5 years later they got divorced.
Carl Gustav Jung
The founder of analytic psychology was a supporter of the idea of polygamy and even prescribed it to his patients. He spent his entire life living with only one woman — Emma Marie Rauschenbach. The marriage helped Jung a lot in the financial department. Some people even said that he got married to her because of her money. Emma’s parents prohibited her from getting an education and prepared her to take on the role of mother and wife. But Carl supported her interests in knowledge and sent her books, discussed ideas with her, and shared his discoveries with her.
The scientist abused his role and never lost the chance to have an intimate relationship with his clients. A still married Jung lived together with his patient and intern Antonia. Together with her, he worked on his studies of the “collective unconscious” and the mysterious significance of sexuality. The scientist brought Antonia to his house and introduced her to his wife. His mistress lived in the house for several days while Emma stayed in her room and didn’t have dinner.
But despite all the bad things Carl did, he loved his wife and mourned her when she died.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe had a lot of peculiarities, but the biggest one of them was his marriage with his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. Poe himself was 27 years old at the moment. During that time, these marriages were considered to be normal and were not criticized by society. The wedding was a secret from their relatives. The people who knew them thought that Virginia and Edgar were a loving and harmonious couple. The writer was inspired by his wife and he wrote a lot of his books for her.
Some researchers claim that Poe had schizophrenia, which would explain all of the strange things he did. He admired the idea that his young wife was pure. And he satisfied his needs with other women.
Virginia accepted their constant lack of money — they didn’t even have enough money for food. She accepted his alcohol addiction and his unbearable temper. Because of poverty and hunger, she got tuberculosis and died soon afterward.
Herbert Wells
His contemporaries remembered Herbert Wells as a well-educated, charming, and witty person. His character charmed the hearts of many women, but the writer was waiting for “the one.” The first wife of this famous writer was his cousin, Isabel Mary Smith. But their marriage was more of a friendship. Soon, Wells wanted to get divorced and get married to his student, Amy Robbins (Jane). After they were married, he told his young wife that he wasn’t going to limit himself to just one woman and that monogamy would hinder him from creating new stories. Jane agreed, after Wells convinced her.
Wells was often away from home for a long time while his wife raised their 2 sons. He had several mistresses and children outside of wedlock: writer Amber Reeves gave birth to a daughter and journalist Rebecca West had a son with Wells.
After his wife died of cancer, Herbert Wells was feeling really guilty, but he still continued his affairs. His last partner was Maxim Gorky’s mistress, Moura Budberg. The writer spent a lot of time trying to convince her to marry him, but she never said yes.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was a very desired man, he was famous for his sharp mind, his speaking skills, and his good education.
He got married to Constance Lloyd 3 years after they met each other. Constance was the daughter of a rich lawyer and she was a great match for the young writer. But their relationship didn’t work out even though they had 2 sons. After 2 years of marriage, Wilde left his wife, lived in hotels, and visited his family very rarely.
When the writer was arrested for having inappropriate relationships with men, Constance visited her husband in jail twice. The first time, she came to tell him about his mother’s death, and the second time — to get full custody over their children.
After bailiffs started coming to the Wilde house to sell property, the woman changed her last name and left the country together with their children.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx and Jenny Von Westphalen knew each other since childhood. The poet, Heinrich Heine, philosopher, Ferdinand Lassalle admired her beauty, but she preferred Marx to anyone else. Westphalen shared the ideas of her husband and he admired her writing talent. The woman edited all of her husband’s works and published her stories in different magazines. The spouses seemed to be a perfect couple.
Jenny was used to living a wealthy lifestyle, but at one point she was forced to sell their furniture and pawn her jewelry just to feed her family. Karl didn’t earn almost any money and was a drinker. They didn’t even have enough money to bury their dead daughter. After Jenny got liver cancer and couldn’t work anymore, Friedrich Engels started to support the family financially.
Why do you think geniuses are such difficult people?
Preview photo credit The Times
