Many in the Hispanic community see Rita Moreno as “La Pionera,” which translates straight to “The Pioneer.” But this was no lucky coincidence. As a Latina in the entertainment industry, she has set several records. She was also one of the first to publicly describe her 45-year marriage to her spouse as an “amazing and successful deception.”
Is Rita Moreno’s 45-Year Marriage a Racket?
Moreno married Dr. Leonard Isadore Gordon on June 18, 1965, and remained at his side till his death on June 30, 2010. During their time together, they brought a daughter, Fernanda Gordon, into the world. People didn’t realize her supposedly idyllic marriage was not what it seemed until she produced her new documentary, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, which aired at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2021. From the outside, the pair seemed to have discovered the secret formula for a happy marriage. After all, they’ve managed to remain together for nearly four decades in a business where relationships appear to live in dog years.
Rita Moreno Opened Up About Her Marriage
Everyone was taken aback when Moreno admitted in the video that her spouse disliked her “raucous” laughing and huge personality. Instead, she said that he was often a “controller.” [When he died], I thought, ‘It’s over.’ I no longer have to answer to anybody.’ The actress, one of the few to have received the coveted EGOT, told USA Today that she would not have talked publicly about her relationship with her husband if he still lived. Moreno maintained that she would never have talked publicly about her spouse without his consent. “I couldn’t do that,” she said flatly. And it’s very feasible and likely that he would have said, ‘What? Are you insane? You can’t do it.’ She added that the ability to come up about her marriage was “actually extremely significant” to her since the marriage was a farce from her perspective.
Rita Moreno was sure that her husband was a wonderful person.
Moreno also confessed that filming the interview with her spouse during the documentary’s production was particularly difficult. Gordon, she said, was a good guy. It was simply that their marriage didn’t work out, and Moreno never knew how urgently she wanted to be on her own until it was too late. She had been in a much more toxic relationship before marrying Gordon. She discussed her eight-year marriage to Marlon Brando. She said that as soon as he discovered she was pregnant, he arranged for her to get an abortion. However, the surgery did not proceed as anticipated. It was a near-fatal blunder that had her bleeding for days. She might have perished, to be sure.
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Rita Moreno Tried to take her own life.
She had difficulty healing from Brando’s emotional abuse and philandering shortly after filming West Side Story, one of her most renowned parts. So much so that she attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills. “It was embarrassing, and I let him walk all over me,” Moreno said. “I wanted to kill myself because I didn’t believe I deserved to live.” Fortunately, she survived and sought expert assistance. She thought she was one of the best 89-year-olds she knew at the interview.
