Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s marriage

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Frida Kahlo is a world renewed artist, you might better know her as the Mexican artist with the unibrow. She married another famous artist in Diego Rivera. Their marriage is the topic of discussion today.

Frida first met Diego when she was an art student. She was hoping to get advice on her career from the famous Mexican muralist. Rivera was married at the time (red flag 1!) but still courted Frida. Frida found out that Diego was quite the ladies man  (despite the above picture) during their courtship women found him very funny and charming. Diego was married 2 times before meeting Frida (red flag number 2!), but he still asked Frida to marry him, and she agreed. Frida’s parents disapproved of the marriage (red flag 3!) and referred to the couple as the “elephant and the dove” due to the height and weight difference between the two. The couple wed in 1929, he was 42, and she was 22.

The Honeymoon period wasn’t even over before the affairs started. Diego started it off first by sleeping with numerous models that he painted. Frida wasn’t far behind though she had an affair with Heinz Berggruen (famous art dealer and collector) who was ironically introduced to Frida by Diego! Frida and Heinz ran off to New York together for a full month-long affair. Frida Eventually returned to her husband and never spoke to Heinz again. Frida also had affairs with poets Andre Bretton and Isamu Nagouchi. Frida was an equal opportunity lover however because she just didn’t have affairs with other man but women as well. Frida had trysts with painter Georgia O’Keefe, actress Paulette Goddard, actress Dolores del Rio and last but not least Josephine Baker who also played for both teams.  It was rumored that Frida and Diego even shared the same lover! Diego had her first then Frieda batted clean up. Diego then upped the ante by sleeping with Frida’s younger sister Cristina Kahlo (that’s right her sister). Frida trumped Diego’s move by having an affair with an idol of Diego, Leon Trotsky. Diego was actually hiding Trotsky in their house from Russian assassins and petitioned the Mexican Government to give him asylum (another future lover Diego introduced to his wife, Doh!) . The numerous infidelities on both sides, caused the couple to divorce in 1939 (finally) . The Divorce didn’t last long however as Frida and Diego remarried in 1940. (smh) Both continued having extramarital affairs until Frida’s death in 1954. Out of all the affairs they both had Diego’s with Frida’s sister and Frida with Leon Trotsky stung the other the hardest.

Mistakes Were Made:

The biggest mistake was Frida and Diego getting married in the first place. Diego was a well-known womanizer, twice divorced who couldn’t keep it in his pants. Frida was bisexual and gave her love freely to whoever she was feeling at the time. These two never should have been married.

Though Diego and Frida, didn’t have the most conventional marriage, it worked for them. Given the times Frida lived in she was truly ahead of her times. She was independent and did what she wanted with whoever she wanted. Frida would fit in well in 2020, so for her to live her life like that in the 1930s and 40s was.. pioneer and that’s why she’s an icon today.

I don’t understand the getting divorced to only get remarried and cheat on each other again, but it worked for them. If Frida and Diego were alive today, they would have an open marriage and be plastered all over TMZ with their various dalliance’s. People would be gossiping about their relationship 24/7, but as long as the relationship works for them, that’s all that matters, no matter how zany it was.