Charlie Chaplin's Wife Will Seek Divorce

1920

FILM STAR AND BRIDE REPORTED AT OUTS.

Desertion Is Principal Charge Filed Against the Screen's Most Famous Fun-maker

LOS ANGELES, Cal. -- Mildred Harris Chaplin, youthful secret bride of Charlie Chaplin, has found marriage with her film comedian husband a failure. Mrs. Chaplin admitted her intention to file suit for divorce.

And with her confession, made at her home, that Chaplin and she had separated several months ago, came a story of heartaches, alleged cruelty, neglect and charges of persecution. It is on one of these grounds that Mrs. Chaplin will seek her freedom.

Desertion Is Charged

Without cause and so frequently that it has made life unbearable, Mrs. Chaplin asserts her husband has left her alone and neglected, while she waited for him in vain at her home, finally deserting her altogether and making his residence at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Several times since, she says, he has appeared at her Oxford street home with declarations that unless she accepts $25,000 and file suit for divorce in Nevada on "nominal grounds" he would institute a divorce action against her.

After these threats, she said, detectives followed her constantly from home to studio, from studio to the homes of friends, making inquiries and making life unpleasant.

Weeps as She Tells Story

Pleas, she said, were in vain. Finally, unable to stand the strain of persistent worry and the pity of her friends, Mrs. Chaplin asserts she placed her case in the hands of a lawyer, with instructions to bring action for divorce.

When informed that her plans had become known, Mrs. Chaplin, showing the effects of the strain of trying to keep her marital troubles a secret, broke down and wept. She said she had hesitated at divorce because of the publicity certain to follow and because of a dislike of exposing her family secrets.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 3.