Kenneth More opened up about infidelity in marriage | Celebrity News | Show Business & TV

Kenneth More, who rose to fame with the 1953 comedy Genevieve, died 40 years ago this month at the age of 67. A tribute to his life will be broadcast today at 2pm on BBC2 More’s hit 1956 BAFTA-winning film ‘Reach for the Sky’. More was successful on screen and on stage, but much like the film, his personal life was riddled with “drama.”

Although he wrote in his autobiography that marital fidelity “decreases,” the actor believed monogamy was fundamental to a successful marriage.

The fondly remembered actor has been married three times: first to actress Mary Johnstone, which ended in divorce.

More then left his second wife, Mabel Barkby – whom he married in 1952 – in 1968 after beginning an affair with another carry-on actress, Angela Douglas, more than 26 years his junior and who married the same year Douglas married.

The couple met six years before he left his wife on the set of the 1962 film Some People.

In his 1978 second autobiography, More or Less, he wrote: “Fidelity in marriage, to a man at least, is like a hand-made silk shirt; it can get thin.”

But his infidelity had wider repercussions than just the collapse of his second marriage.

The 39 Steps star was “ostracized” by some of his closest friends because of it.

More – who was in his fifties at the time – believed his friends’ wives were to blame.

READ MORE: Keeping movies going: Angela Douglas loved every minute of comedy classics

He thought his friends’ partners believed their husbands were heavily influenced by his decisions and were considering letting younger women do it as well, so his friends were forced to give up their friendship with him.

In an Afternoon Plus interview with Mavis Nicholson in 1978, More said, “I was quite ostracized when I left my wife for Angela … The last 20 years of my life have been pretty dramatic and I’ve learned to process those moments.”

“I really wasn’t that hurt, I was amazed. Old friends who I was literally so close to that just cutting me in the street wasn’t true. Well, I figured it out in the end – it’s always easier with hindsight, right?

“I think it was the women who were to blame because they were all middle-aged, all my friends were like me, and the women were afraid their husbands would do what I did (elope with a younger woman ). So I blame them.”

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In the same interview, Mrs. Nicholson asked him about his attitude to marital fidelity, which is detailed in his autobiography.

In response, More backed down and said, “I think I was a little smart about that because I don’t think infidelity really works in marriage.

“I was just a little smitten I suppose: a brave thing to say… Oh I’m a terrible flirt, I always have been my whole life. But I love women, I adore them. But marriage must really be based on fidelity.”

By this time More had been married to Ms Douglas for 10 years and although they separated for some time they reunited after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

More, known for his upbeat performances on screen, died just four years later, on July 12, 1982.