Humphrey Bogart Marries Wife Number Three, Mayo Methot – 1938
Few Hollywood duos are eternally associated with one another like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
Bogie and Bacall. Bogie and Betty. Bogie’s baby. All phrases indicating the inexorable linking of the couple.
But Lauren Bacall was not Humphrey Bogart’s first wife.
Humphrey Bogart was married three times before meeting and falling in love with Lauren Bacall during the 1943 filming of To Have and Have Not. Bogart was 43, Bacall just 19.
Bogart’s first wife from 1926 – 1927 was Broadway star Helen Menken. Bogart was next married to stage and film star Mary Phillips from 1928 – 1937.
Bogart’s third wife was actress Mayo Methot.
Humphrey Bogart, Mayo Methot Wed
Hollywood, Calif. – Above, film players Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot are pictured following their at the home of film writer Melville Baker. The popular couple first met ten years ago – – and then they fell in love! photo: International News Photos 8/21/1938
Unlike Bogart and Bacall, the couple had a contentious marriage and were called the Battling Bogarts. Methot’s nickname was Sluggy. Though it never got into the press Methot stabbed Bogart in the shoulder during one of their rows. According to actress Gloria Stuart, Methot also once pulled a gun and threatened to shoot Bogart at a dinner party.
After seven turbulent years Bogart and Methot called the marriage quits and were divorced May 10, 1945. Less than two weeks later on May 21, 1945 Bogart and Bacall married. They remained together until Bogart’s death from cancer on January 14, 1957.
