The Decades-Long Affair That Rocked Clint Eastwood's First Marriage

Six years into his marriage to Maggie Johnson, Clint Eastwood met Roxanne Tunis through a mutual friend. They hit it off and entered into a relationship that became as real as any relationship could be — despite his legal marital status. It's unclear what exactly Johnson knew about the affair her husband had with the stuntwoman and actor, but she reportedly accepted she was in an "open" marriage. "[She's] a woman who knows how much room I need," Eastwood once told Playboy, according to Richard Schickel's "Clint Eastwood: A Biography."

But that doesn't mean Johnson was happy about that arrangement. "I could tell that she was suffering dreadfully, particularly when Clint's primary girlfriend, Roxanne Tunis, a beautiful, statuesque stuntwoman, openly canoodled with him on the set," Barbara Eden, who guest starred in a 1963 "Rawhide" episode, wrote in her 2011 memoir, "Jeannie Out of the Bottle." Eastwood and Tunis reportedly maintained their relationship until 1973. During their 14-year affair, Tunis even had Eastwood's first acknowledged child, Kimber, in June 1964.

While Schickel contends that Tunis kept the pregnancy and the birth from Eastwood, biographer Patrick McGilligan claims in "Clint: The Life and Legend" that he actually knew and was excited to have a child with her. He was reportedly involved in Kimber's upbringing, though she has given conflicting accounts regarding the extent of their father-daughter relationship. Eastwood and Johnson separated a few years after the end of his relationship with Tunis, McGilligan wrote. 

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