Ingrid Bergman seemed to be 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, and it quickly became THE Hollywood scandal.
Bergman’s first husband, Petter Lindström, nursed a dangerous animosity toward her—but he had good reason to. At the age of 24, she went to Hollywood and left him and their daughter Pia behind in Sweden. She was only supposed to stay for one film, but when she became an instant star stateside, she couldn’t leave.
Before long, she was also embarking on secret affairs with co-stars. But even after he found out about Bergman’s infidelity, he refused to leave her—instead preferring to live off of her financial success. Still, he often expressed his disgust at both her flings and her poor parenting. Of course, it didn’t help when she had an illegitimate child with director Roberto Rossellini, causing a huge controversy that resulted in a senator attempting to exile her from the US.
But that was only the beginning. Even after her death, sordid secrets from Bergman’s naughty past kept surfacing—and they threatened to ruin her legacy forever.
