She Was Hollywood’s Biggest Star… But Lived a Secret Double Life

She Was Hollywood’s Biggest Star… But Lived a Secret Double Life

Five years after Ingrid Bergman’s death, one of her secret lovers came forward, and his identity shocked Hollywood to its core. Ingrid Bergman was Hollywood’s saintly good girl, but nothing could be further from the truth. Her explosive affair with Roberto Rossellini turned an entire nation against her. Even after her death, sordid secrets from Bergman’s past kept surfacing and threatened to ruin her legacy forever. Born on August 29, 1915, in Stockholm, her mother died when she was just two years old, leaving her father, Justus, to raise her on his own. He was a talented painter and photographer, and from a very young age, Ingrid became used to posing in front of the camera. Justus Bergman had lofty dreams for his daughter; he wanted her to be a star, envisioning her as a future opera singer and putting her through three years of vocal lessons. When her father sent her to a girls’ school, Bergman struggled to fit in. She wasn’t popular and didn’t stand out academically. Soon, loneliness began to creep in, and it was only about to get worse when, at the age of 14, her father died from stomach cancer.

A year after her father’s passing, Bergman put her love for acting into action and got a job as an extra for a movie studio. She was astounded that she could actually make money and have fun at the same time. For her, it was a dream come true. Two years later, she won a scholarship to the Royal Dramatic Theater School, and, stifled by the thought of another five years in school, she made a decision that scandalized her teachers. All she could think about was her joyous time at the movie studio, and so when she finally landed a speaking role, she took it without a second thought, ignoring the advice of her teachers. She was anxious to start living, and, more than anything, her ambition ruled supreme. At the age of 21, Bergman made an interesting choice and married Petter Lindström, a dentist. It was easy to see why he fell so hard for Bergman; she was young, beautiful, and driven. He, however, provided her with a much-needed sense of stability. In 1938, Bergman welcomed her first child, Pia. But even with a stable film career in Sweden and a balanced family life, she longed for something more. She always had her eye on the horizon, forever lusting after the next great challenge. In her case, that was transitioning to American films.

In 1939, with only one suitcase clutched in her hand, 24-year-old Ingrid Bergman arrived in Los Angeles, excited to begin a new chapter. Hollywood producer David O. Selznick had seen her performance in the Swedish film Intermezzo and thought she’d be a perfect fit for the English remake. Bergman, although thrilled about this rare opportunity, fully expected to be shipped back to her husband and baby after filming wrapped. Instead, something very different came to pass. Her first American film was a roaring success, and the critics were enamored with this stunning newcomer. After that, there was no going back to Sweden. She had arrived not knowing a lick of English, and yet she’d managed to fly over every single hurdle. Bergman soon realized that Hollywood wanted to take control of her image and change it entirely. She refused to bend to the studio’s demands. So many of the other starlets were so perfectly manufactured, they were almost too perfect. In staying true to herself, Bergman was a breath of fresh air. She had a natural look, and in the beginning, that simplicity worked in her favor. She was always the good girl or the country girl, but with a fiery personality like Bergman’s, these roles became boring.

In 1941, Bergman was supposed to play another soft, feminine role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but begged the studio to give her a chance to play the naughty maid instead. They granted her wish, and Bergman was finally going to be a temptress. However, her seductive role went far beyond her onscreen performance. Behind the scenes, something scandalous was afoot. Ingrid Bergman wasn’t opposed to getting her kicks outside of her marriage, and throughout the 1940s, she entertained passionate affairs with quite a number of directors and actors. To begin with, on the set of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bergman and Spencer Tracy embarked on a brief fling. But this was only the beginning. While Bergman was off living her dream in Hollywood, she still had a family back at home. Her husband and Pia eventually followed her to America, first settling in New York and then San Francisco. When she could, Bergman would find time for them between jobs. However, as time passed, it became clear that she lived a scintillating double life, one that was destined to rip her family apart. Her husband had no affinity for the tinsel glamour of Hollywood and began to resent his wife’s profession for its superficiality. To him, as Bergman’s career soared, the more vain and self-obsessed she became. She was a free spirit, while Lindström was terribly rigid and frugal.

However, when he found out about her incessant cheating, he wasn’t about to go chasing after a divorce. His wife was making bank, and the money kept pouring in. As the stalwart head of the home, he helped steer her career and delegated her finances. With her husband’s indifference, Bergman was free to break some high-profile hearts, and her career was about to skyrocket. In 1942, Bergman landed her most infamous role yet, Ilsa in Casablanca, starring opposite Humphrey Bogart. However, despite it becoming one of the most lauded films ever made, it was never one of Bergman’s favorites. The next year, she starred in For Whom the Bell Tolls. When Ernest Hemingway’s novel was sold to Paramount Pictures, Hemingway himself gave one explicit directive. He said Miss Bergman and no one else should play the part. She snagged an Academy Award nomination for her performance and the heart of the leading man, Gary Cooper. It really seemed like Bergman kept her heart tucked away, and Gary Cooper certainly learned this the hard way. He fell head over heels for her during filming, but their brief affair was never made to go the distance. Later, Cooper said no one loved me more than Ingrid Bergman, but the day after filming concluded, I couldn’t even get her on the phone. She was elusive and enchanting, but the disappointed hopes she left in her wake were a mere preview of the scandal to come.

Of all the roles Bergman lusted after, Joan of Arc was at the top of the list. Something about that self-assured character truly resonated with her, and it became her ultimate dream part. However, there was just one problem: nobody was making a film about Joan of Arc in 1946. However, the hopeful actress hit a stroke of luck when she starred in Joan of Lorraine at New York’s Alvin Theater. The unprecedented success of the play was a stepping stone to fulfilling one of her greatest wishes. Her fantastic performance on Broadway did indeed win her the role in 1948’s Joan of Arc. She devoted everything to the production, even her own money, but sadly, it all ended in disappointment. Although the Academy nominated her for her performance, she found herself embroiled in a scandal. Ingrid Bergman’s descent into disgrace began innocently enough. Growing tired of her life in Hollywood and her lackluster marriage, Bergman was on the lookout for her next great adventure. That’s when she discovered Italian director Roberto Rossellini’s work and fell in love. In watching his film Open City, she witnessed true artistry. Raptured by Rossellini, she wrote him a letter that changed her life. Bergman reached out to Rossellini at the peak of her career, and her letter ended with a clear declaration: she wanted to make a film with him.

After leaving for Italy, Ingrid Bergman wouldn’t return to Hollywood or her family for years. When she arrived in Italy in 1949, her life changed forever. Roberto Rossellini’s process was different from that of Hollywood directors. With him, all the rules went out the window. For her first film with him, Stromboli, the leading man wasn’t even a trained actor; he was originally just part of the crew. When it came to Bergman herself, Rossellini didn’t care about what shot made her look the most beautiful. He chose whatever angle he desired. So much about working in Italy was a challenge for Bergman, but that was exactly why she loved it so much. Rossellini was vibrant and free, and before she knew it, Bergman had fallen in love. She was no stranger to affairs, but her love for Roberto Rossellini was a whole different story. Still married to Lindström, Bergman went ahead and had a child with her Italian director. When the press caught wind of the illegitimate child, they had a field day. Just like that, Bergman and Rossellini quickly became a Hollywood scandal. Bergman’s unabashed infidelity turned audiences against her. The public felt betrayed; everyone believed that Ingrid Bergman was the ultimate good girl, making her behavior all the more shocking. Even American politicians became involved, with Senator Edwin C. Johnson stating that under the law, no alien guilty of turpitude can set foot on American soil again. He even called her a powerful influence for evil. Because Bergman was a foreigner—and an immoral foreigner at that—her bad behavior only fueled America’s disdain for immigrants. She, however, was more than ready to cut ties with Hollywood.

It’s safe to say that Bergman’s daughter Pia endured the brunt of her mother’s absence. With an ocean between them, Pia could only read about her mother in the paper. And when Bergman finally secured a divorce from Lindström, she threw herself into putting down fresh roots and cultivating a new life that didn’t include her firstborn. The desertion was real, and to add insult to injury, it became clear that Bergman adored her new life. She devoted herself to Rossellini and her growing brood. First came a boy named Robertino, followed by twin girls in 1952, Isabella and Isotta Ingrid. She continued with her busy acting schedule until one desperate situation called for her to make a sacrifice. Her daughter Isabella suffered from scoliosis and required a serious operation. The recovery was long and arduous, and so, for her daughter’s sake, Bergman gave up acting for two full years in order to care for her. Meanwhile, her initial zeal for Rossellini’s avant-garde filmmaking began to waver. Used to the celebrity of Hollywood, she began to feel discouraged by the bad reviews. When Rossellini came up with a plan to tour Europe with the play Joan of Arc at the Stake, Bergman felt ready for a comeback, but her hopes never came to fruition. Like many of Rossellini’s avant-garde pursuits, the play wasn’t a money-maker. Before long, cracks began to form in their marriage. Rossellini was extremely possessive. Up until 1956, he’d kept the actress under lock and key; only he could direct her. Finally, however, he gave her an inch of freedom and allowed her to travel to France, where she starred in Paris Does Strange Things.

For Bergman, her marriage to Rossellini truly fell apart after he dealt her a betrayal: he cheated on her with the screenwriter Sonali Das Gupta. After that, there was no way to salvage their relationship. Rossellini didn’t waste any time; before the year was up, he’d already eloped with his new girlfriend. Around the same time that her marriage began to falter, Bergman got the chance for a second crack at Hollywood. She’d been gone for a whopping seven years, but executive producer Buddy Adler envisioned her for the lead role in the 20th Century Fox film Anastasia. It was the kind of role she’d become famous for, good and pious, and she managed to capture the hearts of the American people once again. It was a sensational comeback, and because of Anastasia, she even snagged her second Academy Award. For Bergman, this marked a new beginning. In 1958, Bergman’s agent introduced her to her next great love, Lars Schmidt. Schmidt was gloriously wealthy, his family flourishing in the shipping business, while he himself was a theatrical entrepreneur. When he met Bergman, they hit it off immediately, and in December of that year, they tied the knot. Bergman’s children ended up staying with their father in Italy while she jetted off to France to live with her new husband. Separated from her children, she managed to sustain her longest marriage yet. She and Schmidt stayed together for almost two decades before infidelity eventually destroyed them.

By that time, however, Bergman had an even greater battle to fight. In 1974, she made a horrifying discovery: a lump in her left breast. Doctors advised her to seek treatment immediately, but the stubborn actress had other plans. Never one for self-pity, she continued working through her cancer diagnosis. She endured a couple of operations and suffered through trying rounds of chemotherapy. However, the outlook was bleak. By 1981, cancer had ravaged her body; it had reached her spine, causing her 12th vertebrae to collapse. It was also in her lungs, and now only one of them barely functioned. On August 29, 1982, Ingrid Bergman died at the age of 67, with her ex-husband Lars Schmidt by her side. However, even in death, she managed to spark a scandal. Five years after her death, news of one of Bergman’s secret affairs came to light. In an interview, Gregory Peck made a shocking confession: on the set of 1945’s Spellbound, he and Bergman had an affair. But Peck wasn’t the only one to creep out of the woodwork. In her autobiography, Bergman spoke of all her ex-husbands with utter respect and even remained close friends with Rossellini and Schmidt to the day she died. However, there was one man with an axe to grind, one who still held a grudge for the wife who abandoned him: her first husband, Petter Lindström. He wanted the world to know the real Ingrid Bergman and didn’t care if it threw a shadow across her legacy.

In the biography As Time Goes By: The Life of Ingrid Bergman, Lindström went on the record and revealed some of the brutal things his wife had said. Allegedly, she told him, “I’m only interested in two kinds of people: those who can entertain me and those who can advance my career.” Lindström didn’t hold anything back and helped the biographer paint a very unappealing portrait of Ingrid Bergman. And then, to add insult to injury, there were her vices. According to the biography, she drank and smoked and slept around with scores of men. Bergman’s ex-husband certainly got his petty revenge, even if the actress never lived to feel his wrath. He condemned her for abandoning her children and for always prioritizing her career over her family. But in the end, no tell-all could erase the fact that Ingrid Bergman was a formidable acting talent, undoubtedly one of the all-time greats.